DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0133
98
MOOLTAN.
CHAP. T.
walls of the fort in many places, but they have
since been thoroughly renewed or repaired; they
are about six feet thick, and could be easily breached
from the mounds that have been left in baking the
bricks, which are within cannon range of the walls.
Mooltan is one of the most ancient cities in India.
We read of its capture by Mahommed-bin-Cassim,
in the first century of the Hejira, and its wealth
afterwards attracted the Ghiznian, Ghorian, and
Moghul emperors of Hindoostan. But we have
little reason to doubt its being the capital of the
Malli of Alexander. Major Rennell has supposed
that metropolis to have been higher up, and nearer
the banks of the Ravee, because Arrian states, that
the inhabitants fled across that river. This is high
authority, but Mooltan is styled " Malli than," or
" Mali tharun," the place of the Malli, to this day,
and we have no ruins near Tolumba, the site
pointed at by Rennell, to fix on as the supposed
capital. It is expressly stated that Alexander
crossed the Ravee, and after capturing two towns,
led his forces to the capital city of the Malli.
As the distance from the river is but thirty miles,
and Mooltan is considered a place of high an-
tiquity, I do not see why we should forsake the
modern capital when in search of the ancient: had
we not the earliest assurances of the age of Mooltan,
its appearance would alone indicate it. The houses
are piled upon ruins, and the town stands on a mound
of clay, the materials of former habitations which
have gradually crumbled, an infallible proof of an-
tiquity, as I have remarked of Tatta and Ooch.
MOOLTAN.
CHAP. T.
walls of the fort in many places, but they have
since been thoroughly renewed or repaired; they
are about six feet thick, and could be easily breached
from the mounds that have been left in baking the
bricks, which are within cannon range of the walls.
Mooltan is one of the most ancient cities in India.
We read of its capture by Mahommed-bin-Cassim,
in the first century of the Hejira, and its wealth
afterwards attracted the Ghiznian, Ghorian, and
Moghul emperors of Hindoostan. But we have
little reason to doubt its being the capital of the
Malli of Alexander. Major Rennell has supposed
that metropolis to have been higher up, and nearer
the banks of the Ravee, because Arrian states, that
the inhabitants fled across that river. This is high
authority, but Mooltan is styled " Malli than," or
" Mali tharun," the place of the Malli, to this day,
and we have no ruins near Tolumba, the site
pointed at by Rennell, to fix on as the supposed
capital. It is expressly stated that Alexander
crossed the Ravee, and after capturing two towns,
led his forces to the capital city of the Malli.
As the distance from the river is but thirty miles,
and Mooltan is considered a place of high an-
tiquity, I do not see why we should forsake the
modern capital when in search of the ancient: had
we not the earliest assurances of the age of Mooltan,
its appearance would alone indicate it. The houses
are piled upon ruins, and the town stands on a mound
of clay, the materials of former habitations which
have gradually crumbled, an infallible proof of an-
tiquity, as I have remarked of Tatta and Ooch.