Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/13

 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF SIND.

EFORE entering- upon descriptions or illustrations of the various classes of its inhabitants, it may not be uninteresting to the general reader to give a brief sketch of the history of Sind, now a portion of the British possessions in India; a province which retained its independent character under many successive dynastic revolutions, from the period of the Greek invasion of India by Alexander the Great, until its final conquest by British troops.

Although there appear to have been previous Persian or Sassanian invasions of Sind, yet the earliest information of an authentic historical character, on which reliance can be placed, is derived from the Greek accounts of the memorable voyage of their fleet down the Indus. Alexander found the country of "Sindomana" well peopled, in a high state of cultivation, and ruled over by separate chiefs, who were evidently Hindoos. But though the Grecian names of towns and provinces can, even now, be identified with some localities on the Indus, Buklair, Sehwan, and the like, no distinct idea of the political divisions of the country can be formed, or, to any satisfactory extent, of the condition of the people. It is probable, however, that they were not inferior in civilization to the Hindoos of Northern India, and resembled them in general characteristics; and the comparatively recent discoveries of ancient cities like Brahminabad, and the masses of ruins everywhere found, of which all traditions have been lost, prove the existence of a former race, who must have possessed the arts which accompany an advanced social existence. Alexander passed down to the sea, and the Greeks finally quitted Sind, some by sea, others by the memorable land route through Persia. If Sind proper was then prosperous and well-peopled, it may be presumed that the hilly and mountainous tracts lying west of the province were not deserts, and were inhabited by the rude progenitors of the present inhabitants; but