Indus River Darya-e-Sindh

The Hakra is great flood channel or ancient riverbed which is independent of the Indus, although it has frequently received spill-water from the Indus. Half of its course passes through Sindh, where different sections of the channel are known as the Ghaggar, the Raini, the Wahinda, the Nara, and the Hakra. It has long been a vital relief-channel for floods from other rivers. In the nineteenth century a feeder from the Indus above Rohri was canalized, using about 200 miles of the Hakra. This section is known as the Nara and seems like a natural river. The Hakra bed can be traced from here through Bahwalpur and Bikaner states. It probably ultimately derives from the union of several petty rivers, notably the Ghaggar, the Markanda, thearsuti, and the Chitang, rising in the Swalik hills between the outfall f the Sutlej to the west and the Jumna to the east. The great width of the Hakra bed in Bikaner and Bahawalpur territory-not less than two miles wide for a distance of more than 150 miles must be due to flooding from one or another of the great snow-fed rivers of the Himalayas. The various river beds and channels which make up the ‘ Lost River’ are described in Appendix 1 to H.T. Lambrick’s Sindh, a General Introduction. There are several Harappan sites along its course. This writer has traced a section of the Hakra sone two mile east of Alore, the ancient capital of Sindh, and set up a commemorative stone there.

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