Sambus

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Sambus was a king of Sindimana against whom Alexander fought war. Sindimana is identified with present Sehwan, a city located in Jamshoro District in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Earlier Alexander had appointed Sambus viceroy of the mountaineer Indians.

Variants

• Sambus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 342.)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Samba Clan = Sambus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 342.)
• Samopa = Sambus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 342.). Samopa are reported to be as descendants of Maharaja Samba (साम्ब).

Sindomana, or Sehwan.

Alexander Cunningham writes.... [p. 263]: From the city of Oxykanus, Alexander " led his forces against Sambus, whom he had before declared governor of the Indian mountaineers." The Raja abandoned his capital, named Sindomana, which, according to Arrian, ¹ was delivered up to Alexander by the friends and domestics of Sambus, who came forth to meet him with presents of money and elephants. Curtius ² calls the raja Sabus, but does not name his capital. He simply states that Alexander, having received the " submission of several towns, captured the strongest by mining." The narrative of Diodorus.³

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1 'Anabasis,' vi. 16.

2 Vita Alex., is. 8.

3 Hist. Univers., xvii. 50.

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[p. 264]:also omits the name of the capital, but states that Sambus retired to a great distance with thirty elephants. Strabo¹ merely mentions Raja Sabus, and Sindomana his capital, without adding any particulars. Curtius² alone notes that Alexander returned to his fleet after the capture of the raja's strongest city, which must therefore have been at some distance from the Indus.

I agree with all previous writers on the ancient geography of this part of India in identifying Sindomana with Sehwan ; partly from its similarity of name, and partly from its vicinity to the Lakki mountains. Of its antiquity there can be no doubt, as the great mound, which was once the citadel, is formed chiefly of ruined buildings, the accumulation of ages, on a scarped rock, at the end of the Lakki range of hills. De La Hoste³ describes it as an oval, 1200 feet long, 750 feet broad, and 80 feet high ; but when I saw it in 1855, it appeared to me to be almost square in shape, and I judged it to be somewhat larger and and rather more lofty above the river bed than Burnes's estimate. ⁴ It was then on the main stream of the Indus; but the river is constantly changing its channel, and in all the old maps it is placed on a western branch of the Indus. In ancient times, however, when the river flowed down the eastern channel of the Nara, Sehwan was not less than 65 miles distant from its nearest

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1 Geogr., xv. 1, 32.

2 Vita Alex., ix. 8 : " Rursus amnem, in quo classem expectare se jusserat, repetit."

3 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1840, p. 913.

4 Westmacott, in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal for 1840, p. 1209, says about 100 feet above the Arrul river, or Aral, which, in his time was a branch of the Indus.

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[p. 265]:point at Jakrao, where it leaves the sand-hills. At present its water supply is entirely derived from the Indus, which not only flows under the eastern front of the town, but also along its northern front, by a channel called the Aral river, from the great Manchur lake, which is supplied by the other Nara, or great western branch of the Indus. But as the site could not have been occupied unless well supplied with water, it is certain that the Manchur lake must have existed long previous to the change in the course of the Indus. Judging by its great depth in the middle, ¹ it must be a natural depression ; and as it is still fed by two small streams, which take their rise in the Hala Lakki mountains, to the south, it seems probable that the lake may have extended even up to the walls of Sehwan, before the floods of the western Nara cut a channel into the Indus, and thus permanently lowered the level of its waters. The lake abounds in fish, from which it would appear to derive its name, as Manchur is but a slight alteration of the Sanskrit Matsya, and the Hindi machh, or machhi, " fish." I think, therefore, that Manchar may be only a familiar contraction of machhi-wala Tal, or Fish Lake.

The favourable position of Sehwan, on a lofty isolated rock, near a large lake, with food and water in abundance, would certainly have attracted the notice of the first inhabitants of Sindh. We find, accordingly, that its early occupation is admitted by all inquirers. Thus, M'Murdo² says, " Sehwan is undoubtedly a place of vast antiquity ; perhaps more so than either Alor or Bahmana." The present name is

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1 Westmacott, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1810, p. 1207.

2 Journ. Royal Asiat. Soc, i. 30.

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[p. 266]:said to be a contraction of Sewistan, which was so called after its inhabitants, the Sewis, or Sabis. But in all the early Arab geographers the name is somewhat differently written, as Sadustan, or Sadusan, or Sarusan, of which the first two syllables agree with the Greek Sindomana. I therefore reject the reading of Sewistan as a modern innovation of the Hindus, to connect the place with the name of their god Siva. The Sindo of the Greek, and the Sadu of the early Muhammadans, point to the Sanskrit name of the country, Sindhu, or to that of its inhabitants, Saindhava, or Saindhu, as it is usually pronounced. Their stronghold, or capital, would therefore have been called Saindhava-sthana, or Saindhu-sthan, which, by the elision of the nasal, becomes the Sadustan of the Arab geographers. In a similar manner Wilson derives the Greek Sindomana from " a very allowable Sanskrit compound, Sindu-man, the "possessor of Sindh." I am inclined, however to refer the Greek name to Saindhava-vanam , or Saindhuwan, as the " abode of the Saindhavas."

It seems strange that a notable place like Sehwan should not be mentioned by Ptolemy under any recognizable name. If we take Haidarabad as the most probable head of the Delta in ancient times, then Ptolemy's Sydros, which is on the eastern bank of the Indus, may perhaps be identified with the old site of Mattali, 12 miles above Haidarabad, and his Pasipeda with Sehwan. The identification of Ptolemy's Oskana with the Oxykanus, or Portikanus, of Alexander, and with the great mound of Mahorta of the present day, is, I think, almost certain. If so, either Piska or Pasipeda must be Sehwan.

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[p. 267]: Hwen Thsang takes no notice of Sehwan, but it is mentioned in the native histories of Sindh as one of the towns captured by Muhammad bin Kasim in A.D. 711. It was again captured by Mahmud of Ghazni in the beginning of the eleventh century ; and under the Muhammadan rule it would appear to have become one of the most flourishing places in Sindh. It is now very much decayed, but its position is so favourable that it is not likely ever to be deserted.

Chapter xvi. Campaign against Oxycanus and Sambus. (p.342-343)

Arrian writes....THEN he (Alexander the Great) took the archers, Agrianians, and cavalry sailing with him, and marched against the governor of that country, whose name was Oxycanus, because he neither came himself nor did envoys come from him, to offer the surrender of himself and his land. At the very first assault he took by storm the two largest cities under the rule of Oxycanus; in the second of which that prince himself was captured. The booty he gave to his army, but the elephants he led with himself. The other cities in the same land surrendered to him as he advanced, nor did any one turn to resist him; so cowed in spirit~ had all the Indians now become at the thought of Alexander and his fortune. He then marched back against Sambus, whom he had appointed viceroy of the mountaineer Indians and who was reported to have fled, because he learned that Musicanus had been pardoned by Alexander and was ruling over his own land. For he was at war with Musicanus, But when Alexander approached the city which the country of Samb held as its metropolis, the name of which was Sindimana, the gates were thrown open to him at his approach, and the relations of Sambus reckoned up his money and went out to meet him, taking with them the elephants also. They assured him that Sambus had fled, not from any hostile feeling towards Alexander, but fearing on account of the pardon of Musicanus. He also captured another city which had revolted at this time, and slew as many of the Brahmans as had been instigators of this revolt. These men are the philosophers of the Indians, of whose philosophy, if such it may be called, I shall give an account in my book descriptive of India.

सिंदिमान

सिंदिमान (AS, p.957): अलेक्षेंद्र के भारत पर आक्रमण के समय (327 ई.पू.) सिंध नदी के निकट बसा एक नगर जिसका अभिज्ञान विद्वानों ने वर्तमान सिहवान से किया है, किंतु यह अभिज्ञान संदिग्ध है (दे. स्मिथ, अर्ली हिस्ट्री ऑफ इंडिया, पृ.106). यहां के राजा का नाम ग्रीक लेखकों द्वारा सांबोस (Sambus) बताया है. यह अलेक्षेंद्र के आक्रमण के समय नगर छोड़कर चला गया था.