Chronological Dictionary of Sindh: From Pre-History to 1539 AD
By M.H. Panhwar
Endowment Fund Trust
ISBN: 1000000004610
578pp.

When it was first published in 1983, Muhammad Hussain Panhwar’s Chronological Dictionary of Sindh was a treat for students of Sindhi history. Reading it was the only way of becoming frightfully well-read on the subject through just one book.

Covering the period from the earliest prehistory to 1539 CE, it was a comprehensive tour de force across Sindh and surely many a dilettante, having comprehensively studied the work, would have wowed audiences at soirees. Published by the Institute of Sindhology at Sindh University, Jamshoro, it was a rather drab, unattractive presentation, however.

Republished recently by the Endowment Fund Trust of Karachi, the Dictionary is far more presentable. From the drab monochrome photographs and prints it has moved on to attractive colour and an eye-catching cover. Comparing, for example, the drawing of the interior of a Mohenjo Daro house in both volumes shows how much attention has gone into the present work. Indeed, colourised images of ancient coins, pottery and statuary make the new volume a work to cherish. There are new entries, tables and notes adding value to the publication.

All that having been said, the early period, dealing with the prime of the Indus Civilisation, might be a little misleading for new readers. While Panhwar relies on archaeologists predating his writing, new research, especially by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, corrects earlier work.

A republishing of the most comprehensive study of Sindh’s history is a visual treat as well as a book to cherish

Most interestingly, it was thought that the Sindhu Valley lagged behind Mesopotamia in technical advancement. Kenoyer (Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, 1998) definitively shows that it was Indus craftspersons in Mesopotamia producing carnelian beads “drilled with the unique technique of the Indus Valley.” In Kenoyer’s view, people from Mohenjo Daro and Harappa lived in Mesopotamian cities, producing and marketing their wares. He also shows that Indus Valley craftsmanship was a few centuries ahead of Mesopotamian.

Relying on the Chachnama, written as a war diary by a nameless fighter in the army of Muhammed bin Qasim (enlarged later by Ali bin Hamid, a native of Kufa), and on Ahmed Bilazuri’s Futuh ul Buladan, the Dictionary enlightens the reader on the reality of the Arab attack on Sindh: that it was not just a shriek of despair of a Muslim woman or, as believed alternately, a letter written by her, that brought bin Qasim charging into this region.

His was the sixth attack that finally succeeded. All earlier attacks had been repulsed by Raja Dahir’s armies, with immense loss to the Arabs. In all failed attacks, besides the loss in rank and file, the generals too paid the price with their lives. Nowadays, it’s only the rank and file that die; generals do not even fade away.

Another issue that can be picked with Panhwar is that he relies on the anonymous work The Acts of St Thomas to place the Parthian king Gondophares in Sindh. Discovered in the 1820s in Syria, Acts, a sugary nonsense, is now known to be a fictitious work, written purely for the greater glory of Christianity.

In this work, Gondophares is said to be ruling over landlocked Taxila in the 1st century CE (true) where St Thomas arrived by ship (really?) to convert all heathens, including Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Zoroastrians to the ‘one and only true faith.’ Thankfully, the writer of Acts spared Muslims from this conversion. In the deal, the saint also built a palace in heaven for Gondophares, the fire-worshipper.

For more than a hundred years, Gondophares was placed in Sindh because it was only here that the good saint could have arrived by ship. However, the discovery of Taxila in the early years of the last century and the artefacts found there conclusively show that the Parthian king was ruling in Taxila in the first half of the 1st century CE.

From the 6th century CE, however, the Dictionary truly comes into its own. The reader can race through the Arab invasion to their petty quarrels, leading to murders of later Arab governors in Debal and Multan, on to Arab decline, through the rule of local dynasties and the coming of the Turks under Mahmud of Ghazni. We also learn of the destruction of Bhambore (1221 CE) at the hands of Jalaluddin Khwarazm who is, sadly, painted in colours of Islamic heroism by pseudo-historians such as Nasim Hijazi.

Among his other qualifications, Panhwar trained as an agriculture engineer and worked for many years as a groundwater development expert in Sindh and Balochistan. Understandably, the book is thus interspersed with indications of shifts in the course of the Indus and of the drying up of the Sarasvati, together with details about its course.

However, that is not the only geographical information to be had. We also learn of changes in the delta region, as well as the drying up of the arm of the sea reaching up to Pari Nagar (Tharparkar) that made this once-fabulous city a busy seaport. Such was its renown in the 1st century CE that the anonymously written guide book in Greek for seafarers Circumnavigation of the Eastern Sea clearly noted it under the then-prevalent physical conditions.

One confusion remains, however. Panhwar variously puts the establishment of Pari Nagar first in the 5th century BCE and again in the 1st century CE. Given the renown this rich and opulent city enjoyed in the latter year, one tends to favour the earlier year as its time of founding.

Chronological Dictionary of Sindh is a very useful work for researchers looking for pointers to detailed and original sources that are mentioned against each entry. Much to their loss, it had long been unavailable, except in some few libraries that stocked it. And that was mainly in Sindh.

The entry for each year, in the Gregorian calendar and, where valid, in the Hijri one, is highlighted in pink, making the book more reader-friendly. The index and bibliography remain unchanged, except in better presentation, from the original publication. The production leaves nothing to wish for, being the only ready reference on the history of Sindh.

It is a book to own, read, reread and cherish. And in the bargain, become frightfully well-read on Sindhi history. The Endowment Fund Trust has once again done very well.

The reviewer is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of several books on travel.
X: @odysseuslahori

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, December 1st, 2024