Page:The Ancient Geography of India.djvu/263
NORTHERN INDIA. 219
and stones, was immediately turned into sugar, whence
his name of Shakar-ganj, or “Sugar-store." This mi-
raculous power is recorded in a well-known Persian
couplet :-
"Sang dar dast o guhar gardad, Zahar dar kám o shakar gardad: "
which may be freely rendered:
"Stones in his hand are changed to money (jewels), And poison in his mouth to honey (sugar).”
From another memorial couplet we learn that he died in A.H. 664, or A.D. 1265-66, when he was 95 lunar years of age. But as the old name of Ajudhan is the only one noted by Ibn Batuta in A.D. 1334, and by Timur's historian in a.d. 1397, it seems probable that the present name of Pák-pattan is of comparatively recent date. It is, perhaps, not older than the reign of Akbar, when the saint's descendant, Núr-ud-din, revived the former reputation of the family by the success of his prayers for an heir to the throne.
4. MULTAN PROVINCE.
The southern province of the Panjâb is Multân. According to Hwen Thsang it was 4000 li, or 667 miles, in circuit, which is so much greater than the tract actually included between the rivers, that it is almost certain the frontier must have extended beyond them. In the time of Akbar no less than seventeen districts, or separate parganahs, were attached to the province of Multân, of which all those that I can identify, namely, Uch, Diráwal, Moj, and Marot, are to the east of the Satlej. These names are sufficient to show that the eastern frontier of Multân formerly extended beyond the old bed of the Ghagar river, to