The widow of Raja Dahir resolved to adopt the measure abandoned by her son; and with a truly masculine spirit, placing herself at the head of fifteen thousand Rajpoots, prepared to meet the Mahomedans. Mahomed Kasim, however, giving orders to his troops not to attack, they merely stood on the defensive; and the Rajpoots quietly withdrew with their female chief into the fort of Ajdur, which was now closely invested. The siege being protracted to a great length of time, the garrison were nearly starved out, when they came to the final alternative of performing the Jowhur, a ceremony which requires the Hindoos to sacrifice their women and children on a burning pile; and the men, after bathing, rush on the point of the enemy's lances sword in hand. This dreadful step being taken, the gates of the fortress were thrown open, and a body of Rajpoots, headed by the widow of Dahir, attacked the Mahomedans in their camp, and all lost their lives.

The heroes of Assyria having repulsed this attack forced their way into the fort, where they slew six thousand Rajpoots, and took prisoners three thousand more. Among the latter were the two daughters of Raja Dahir. These princesses were sent by Mahomed Kasim to Hijaj, to be re­ceived into the seraglio of Wuleed; and after having placed all the towns of Sind under Arab governors, Mahomed Kasim proceeded to reduce Mooltan, which was also subject to the authority of Dahir. On reaching Mooltan, Mahomed Kasim also sub­dued that province; and himself occupying the city, he erected mosques on the site of the Hindoo temples.

When the two daughters of the King of Sind arrived at the court of Hijaj at Bussora, he for­warded them to the seraglio of the Caliph Wuleed at Damascus, where they remained until the year

A. H. 96.
A. D. 714.

96, when having sent for them into his presence, he enquired their names. The elder replied that she was called Surpa Devy, and the younger Burreel Devy. The Caliph becoming enamoured of the elder, wished her to submit to his embraces, when she burst into tears, and told him that she was unworthy of him, since she had been disgraced on three successive nights by Mahomed Kasim. The enraged Caliph, whose will was the law, wrote with his own hand an order to Mahomed Kasim, requiring him to clothe himself in a raw hide, and embrace that death which he so richly merited. The faithful Kasim submitted to this unjust decree; and caused himself to be sown up in a raw skin, which pro­duced his death. After which his body was sent to the Caliph. Upon the arrival of the corpse, the Caliph, sending for Surpa Devy, said, “Behold “Mahomed Kasim in his shroud: it is thus I “punish the sins of those servants who insult the “deputy of the prophet of God.” Surpa Devy replied, with a smile full of triumph and of sarcasm, “Know, oh Caliph, that Mahomed Kasim re-“spected my person as that of his own sister, and “would no more have polluted my bed than that “of his mother. He, however, put to death my “father, my mother, my brother, and my country-“men, and in his death, indifferent to my own “fate, I have gratified that revenge which has “so long been consuming me.” * The Caliph became much disconcerted; and having dismissed the damsel, he lamented over the body of his faithful and innocent servant.

On the death of Mahomed Kasim, a tribe who trace their origin from the Ansaries established a government in Sind; after which the zemindars, denominated in their country Soomura, usurped the power, and held independent rule over the kingdom of Sind for the space of five hundred years; but neither the names nor the history of these princes are, I believe, at present extant, since I have failed in my endeavour to procure them. In the course of years (although we have no account of the precise period), the dynasty of Soomura subverted the country of another dy­nasty called Soomuna, whose chief assumed the title of Jam. During the reigns of these dynasties in Sind the Mahomedan kings of India Proper, such as those of Ghizny, Ghoor, and Dehly, invaded Sind, and seizing many of the towns, ap­pointed Mahomedan governors over them. Among these rulers, Nasir-ood-Deen Kubbacha asserted his independence, and caused the public prayers to be read in his name as King of Sind. I shall therefore introduce my reader to him as the first Mahomedan king of Sind of which we have any authentic account. With respect to the first invasions of the Ghizny, Ghoory, and Dehly troops into Sind, accounts of them have been already given in their proper place. I shall record, therefore, this history of Sind from such scanty materials as I have been enabled to collect of the Soomura and Soomuna dynasties, though they be imperfect and unsatis­factory.