Mathebo City History

At Nagar Mathebo, or Mathila, some six or seven miles south-east of Ghotki railway station, are the ruins of an ancient fort. Its history is told in a verse still repeated by the people of the area:

The fort first appears in the historical record in AH 440 (AD 1047), when it was captured by Abul Hassan, the general of Sultan Muiddin. It was one of the six mud-built strongholds of Rai Sahasi II. Repairs were made in AH 495 by Rai Gharano. It subsequently changed hands several times; Raja Nind held it in the early fifteenth century, and on his death it passed into the hands of the Mahars as part of a marriage settlement between a Mahar and a Dhareja woman; the Mahars, however, never lived there. It continued to be a place of importance for some consider•able time (tradition says 900 years)—it had its owfl governor under the Emperor Akbar.

The bricks, beads and other ornaments, and fragments of stone carving found here are similar to those found at Vinjrot (see below). In addition, pottery balls the size of a man’s head have been found here, as at Brahmanabad. These were the missiles discharged by the ancient war engines known as manjaniks, or balistas, such as were used by the Arabs under Muhammad Bin Qasim during his conquest of Sindh.

All that remains today of the fort is a deserted mound and a commemorative stone set up by the author.