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to Encyclopedia Britannica, “the Phoenicians claimed that their oldest cities had<br />
been founded by the gods themselves and that their race could boast an antiquity<br />
of 30,000 years.” Here are clear echoes of ancient India with her yuga upon yuga<br />
of civilization. And here, too, are the ancient trading traditions of Sindh.<br />
What was this great little Sindh like?<br />
All early civilizations were born in river valleys; the mountain and the sea were<br />
too inhospitable for the early man. And obviously the Indus civilization is about<br />
as old as the Indus, which itself belongs to geology, not history.<br />
The early man not only needed river water for sustenance, he needed protection<br />
from the elements as well. It is therefore believed that in the Sindh area the first<br />
habitations began in the Khirthar range in the west, not far from the river. The<br />
mountain caves in this range provided a good natural shelter close to the river. It<br />
is therefore no coincidence that Mohen-jo-daro, the crown of Indus civilization, is<br />
situated between the Indus and the Khirthar range. The ancient Laki Tirath is<br />
found in the same hilly area.<br />
Geographically, historically, and culturally, Sindh has always been part of India.<br />
The vast rocky Baluchistan desert has effectively cut it off from Iran in the west.<br />
But the small Kutch and Rajasthan deserts have also historically partially isolated<br />
it from the east. And that left the Indus as the main artery connecting Sindh to<br />
Multan in the north. This gave Sindh a certain identity and personality of its own.<br />
And so ancient Sindh was semi-isolated. It included not only Baluchistan and<br />
Kutch but also Multan. Till 1947, when the Sindhis flooded Bombay, they were<br />
known to the Maharashtrians as “Multanis”!<br />
The Indus then followed an easterly course and the eastern- most channel<br />
emptied itself in Kutch, which then was under the sea. No wonder Harappa<br />
(vedic Hariyupiya) above Sindh and Lothal below Sindh (Gujerat) have the same<br />
civilization as Mohen-jo-daro. And the ruins of Mohen-jo-daro are a more<br />
eloquent testimony of the glory of ancient Sindh than all the other records put<br />
together.<br />
Today when the Sindhi nationalists in Pakistan refer to their province as “Sindhu<br />
Mata”, they are only re-stating an ancient fact. Sindh is not only mother for<br />
Sindhis; it is the mother of ancient Greece and ancient Egypt, too.<br />
The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com<br />
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