Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/361

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Khan. Another conspicuous object is the tomb of Rukn ud dm 'Alam, grandson of Bahawal Hakk. An obelisk in the fort commemorates the deaths of the two British officers who were murdered on the outbreak of the revolt. A simpler epitaph would have befitted men who died in the execution of their duty.

Trade and Manufactures. — Though heat and dust make the climate of Multan trying, it is a very healthy place. The population rose steadily from 68,674 in 188 1 to 99,243 in 191 1. The chief local industries are silk and cotton weaving and the making of shoes. Multan has also some reputation for carpets, glazed pottery and enamel, and of late for tin boxes. A special feature of its commerce is the exchange of piece goods, shoes, and sugar for the raw silk, fruits, spices, and drugs brought in by Afghan traders. The Civil Lines lie to the south of the city and connect it with the Cantonment, which is an important military station.

Peshawar (34.1 N., 71.35 E.) is 276 miles from Lahore and 190 from Kabul. There is little doubt that the old name was Purushapura, the town of Purusha, though Abu Rihan (Albiruni), a famous Arab geographer, who lived in the early part of the eleventh century, calls it Parshawar, which Akbar corrupted into Peshawar, or the frontier fort. As the capital of King Kanishka it was in the second century of the Christian era a great centre of Buddhism (page 164). Its possession of Buddha's alms bowl and of yet more precious relics of the Master deposited by Kanishka in a great stupa (page 203) made it the first place to be visited by the Chinese pilgrims who came to India between 400 and 630 a.d. Hiuen Tsang tells us the town covered 40 li or 6f miles. Its position on the road to Kabul made it a place of importance under the Moghal Empire. On its decline Peshawar became part of the dominions of the Durani rulers of