312 SAR General in 1857, and republished in 1862, will show how variable was the course of these rivers. It must be borne in mind that the Chauka was as is described by Thornton up to 1810, and that since it has been the paost frequent channel of the waters of the Sárda. The Chauka proper, indeed, is a mere plain stream; its highest flood discharge is 1,161 feet, its lowest about 50, which now falls into what is called the Sárda near Mothia Ghát near the north-western extremity of pargana Palia, and from that point the joint streams are called the Chauka, It would be more correct to say perhaps that the Sárda falls into the Chauka, but it is usual to term the smaller stream the tributary, and the larger the main river. Nor will historical accuracy be wholly violated; a river in ordinary parlance consists both of its waters and of the channel in which they run; the former remain the same even if they cut a new channel or resume that of some other stream. Here, therefore, may be indicated one cause of the double or treble nomenclature which renders the chartography of this river system ambiguous, and its historical aspects uncertain. When a great river has changed its course and entered another channel formerly known by a name of its own, the greater part of the world, notably the navigators on its waters, will continue to give the new channel the name of the river whose waters now fill it. On the other hand, the old residents in the neighbourhood of the new channel, who were familiar with the ancient land marks, see no reason to abandon the familiar name, the banks, the groves, the villages, which they recog- nise are still there, and the mere increase in the volume of the water seems po sufficient reason for a new name. Thus the Sárda which flowed past Newalkhár and Khairigarh forced a new course south and joined the Chauka at Mothia Ghát. The channel of the latter has been in the main the same from immemorial time; it was only amplified by an addition to its waters, yet in course of time it has become the Sárda, although the people of the adjoining parganas still call it the Chauka, and with greater unanimity as they live on the banks further down from the point of union. That the Chauka has not changed its course materially at any rate since 1767, is evident from the valuable itinerary of Tieffenthaler. That traveller in 1767 described a number of villages and towns as upon or near the banks of this river. Aliapur and Mahrajnagar in Dhaurahra,* Srinagar in the pargana of that name, Tambaur in Sitapur, Ratanpur near Bahramghat, Bhitauli at the confluence with the Kauriála, towns still existing are all described as situated at the same distance and direc- tion from the river as they now are. Its channel then is unchanged, but its waters and its names have altered greatly. Briefly then the present Chauka on being joined by the Sárda, about fifty miles from its source, takes the name of that river with the majority of people. It flows on and eighty-five miles further on it bifurcates. The eastern channel, which retains the name of Chauka, was the only one till 1862; the western one called indiscriminately the Chauka and Sárda, and carrying five-sixths of the waters, joins the Dah-aura, and occupying its channel after a course of
- Tieffenthaler, Description de l'Inde, Volume I., pp. 285-288,
