Kotera

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Kotera (कोटड़ा) is a site of ancient ruined fort. The village of Kotera is situated at the end of a long wooded spur, which juts out upon the Jhelum river just one mile below Dilawar. Situated near Jalalpur Sharif town located in Jhelum, in Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil in Jhelum District, Punjab province, Pakistan.

Alexander Cunningham has identified the ruined fort of Kotera with the capital of Singhapura. Malot was the capital of the Janjuhas at a very early period ; Kotera is situated on a steep hill to the west, about 200 feet in height, that overhangs the town and holy pools of Ketas. This is called the ancient town.

History

Alexander Cunningham writes while describing Bukephala or Dilawar ...Another minor particular is the presence of a rock in the channel by the river Jhelam, on which, according to Curtius, one of the boats was dashed by the stream. Now, rocks are still to be found in the river only at Kotera, Meriala, Malikpur, and Shah Kubir, all of which places are between Dilawar and Jalalpur.

The village of Kotera is situated at the end of a long wooded spur, which juts out upon the river just one mile below Dilawar. This wooded jutting spur, with its adjacent rock, I would identify with the akρa, or promontory of Arrian, and the petra of Curtius.¹ Beyond the rock there was a large wooded island which screened the foot of the promontory from the observation of the opposite bank. There are many islands in this part of the Jhelam, but when a single year is sufficient to destroy any one of these rapidly formed sandbanks, we can not, after the lapse of more than 2000 years, reasonably expect to find the island of Alexander. But in 1849, opposite Kotera, there was such an island,

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1 Arrian, 'Anabasis,' v. ii., <greek> Curtius, Vita Alex., viii. 11, " Una ergo navi, quam petrae fluctus illi-serat, hserente Cceterse evadunt."

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[p.172]: 2½ miles in length and half a mile in breadth, which still exists as a large sandbank. As the passage was made in the height of the rainy season, the island, or large sandbank, would naturally have been covered with tamarisk bushes, which would have been sufficiently high to screen the movements of infantry and dismounted cavalry.

The position of the two camps I believe to have been as follows :¹ — Alexander, with about 50,000 men, including 5000 Indian auxiliaries under Mophis of Taxila, had his head-quarters at Jalalpur, and his camp probably extended for about 6 miles along the bank of the river, from Shah Kabir, 2 miles to the north-east of Jalalpur, down to Syadpur, 4 miles to the west-south-west. The head- quarters of Porus must have been about Muhabatpur, 4 miles to the west-south-west of Mong, and 3 miles to the south- east of Jalalpur. His army of nearly 50,000 men, including elephant-riders, archers, and charioteers, must have occupied about the same extent as the Macedonian army, and would, therefore, have extended about 2 miles above, and 4 miles below Muhabatpur. In these positions, the left flank of Alexander's camp would have been only 6 miles from the wooded promontory of Kotera, where he intended to steal his passage across the river, and the right flank of the Indian camp would have been 2 miles from Mong, and 6 miles from the point opposite Kotera.

Visit by Xuanzang in 631 AD

Alexander Cunningham writes about 4. Singhapura or Ketas:

[p.124]: According to Hwen Thsang, the capital of the kingdom of Seng-ho-pu-lo, or Singhapura, was situated at 700 li, or 117 miles, to the south-east of Taxila. The bearing points to Jhelam, near which is the town of Sangohi, which has been noted by M. Vivien de St. Martin as the possible representative of Singhapura. But Sangohi stands on an open plain, instead of on a high mountain of difficult access, as described by the pilgrim. The vicinity of ten pools of limpid water, with surrounding temples and sculptures, points to the holy tanks of Ketaksh, or Khetas, which are still visited by crowds of pilgrims from all parts of India. I think also that the name of Ketas is only a slightly altered form of the Sanskrit Swetavasa, or the " White

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[p.125]: Robes," which Hwen Thsang mentions as the title of the chief religious sect then resident near Singhapura. In the western countries, where the compound sw is changed to kh, the name would have been pronounced Khetavasa, or by a slight contraction, Khetas¹ The Brahmans of course refer the name to their own religion, and say that the place was called Kataksha, or the " Raining Eyes," because the tears literally rained from Siva's eyes when he heard of the death of his wife Sati. But as their own spelling of the name Ketaksh, which I received from themselves, is at variance with the meaning which they give to it, I am inclined to adopt the etymology that I have already suggested as Sweta-vasa, or the "White Robes," This sect would appear to have belonged to the Swetambara, or " "White-robed" division of the Jains, while another sect at the same place, who are described by Hwen Thsang as going naked, must be the Digambara, or "unclothed" (literally "sky-clad") division of the Jains. Their books also are stated to have been chiefly copied from the Buddhist literature, while the statue of their god resembled that of Buddha himself. From these curious details it seems almost certain that this heretical sect must have been Jains, whose religion has much in common with Buddhism, while their statues are frequently mistaken for those of Buddha.

Ketas is situated on the north side of the Salt Range, at 16 miles from Pind Dadan Khan, and 18 miles from Chakowal, but not more than 85 miles from Shah-dheri, or Taxila. Now the distance of Singhapura from Taxila is given at 700 li, or 117 miles, which is

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1 Thus the Sanskrit Saraswati became the Zend Harakhaiti, and the Greek Arakhotos.

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[p.126]: certainly too great, as it would place the capital about 30 miles beyond the most distant point of the hills in any direction between the south and east. Singha-pura is described as situated on the top of a high hill of difficult access ; and as the climate is said to be very cold, it is certain that the place must have occupied one of the isolated peaks either of the Salt Range on the south-south-east, or of the Balnath Range on the east-south-east.¹ But as there are no clear pools swarming with fish in the Balnath Range, I have little hesitation in identifying the place described by Hwen Thsang with the beautiful limpid pool of Ketas, which has been esteemed holy from time immemorial.

The capital of Singhapura was situated at from 40 to 50 li, or 7 to 8 miles, to the north-west of the sacred tanks ; but I know of no place that corresponds with this bearing and distance. Malot was the capital of the Janjuhas at a very early period ; but its bearing is south-east, and its distance 12 miles. If we might read 4 to 5 li, instead of 40 to 50, the capital might at once be identified with the ruined fort of Kotera, which is situated on a steep hill to the west, about 200 feet in height, that overhangs the town and holy pools of Ketas. This is called the ancient town. It consists of an upper fort, 1200 feet long, by 300 broad, and of a lower fort. 800 feet long, by 450 broad, the circuit of the two being about 3600 feet, or less than three-quarters of a mile. But the whole circuit of Ketas, including the modern town on both banks of the stream, both above and below the fort, is about 2 miles. This is rather smaller than the capital described by Hwen Thsang, which was 14

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1 See Maps Nos. V. and VI.

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[p.127]: or 15 li, or 2¼ to 2½ miles, in circuit. But as it corresponds in all other material particulars, I think that Ketas has a very good claim to be identified with the capital of Singhapura.

According to Hwen Thsang,¹ the district was 3600 li, or 600 miles, in circuit. On the west it was bounded by the Indus, on the north by the southern frontier of Taxila, 120 miles in length, and on the south by the Jhelam and the northern frontier of Taki, or the plains of the Panjab. It cannot therefore have extended much beyond the foot of the Salt Range.

This limit would make the Indus frontier about 60 miles in length, the Jhelam frontier about 50 miles, and the northern and southern frontiers each 120 miles, or altogether 350 miles. The only explanation that occurs to me of the difference between this number and that of Hwen Thsang, is the probability that the ancient kos of the Panjab was the same as the modern one, that is, a short kos of 1-9/32 mile, or 1 mile and 2¼ furlongs, and that the Chinese pilgrim, ignorant of the difference, made his calculations in the common Indian kos of about two miles. This would reduce his numbers by very nearly one-third, and at the same time bring them into close accordance with the actual measurements of our maps. Thus, Hwen Thsang's 3600 li, or 600 miles, for the circuit of Singhapura, would become 400 miles, which is within 50 miles of the actual measurement already given. Great accuracy cannot be expected in these estimates of frontier distances, as the pilgrim had no means of checking the numbers of his informants. With the road distances which he had himself travelled it was different, as

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1 Julien's ' Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 162.

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[p.128]: he could test them by his own knowledge of the time occupied, as well as by the number of journeys between any two points. In the present instance of Singhapura it is quite certain that the frontier distance is exaggerated, as the boundary of Tsekia, or Taki, is also said to have extended to the Indus, which could not have been the case if the frontier of Singhapura had stretched further to the south than I have placed it.

References

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