GEDROSIA

1.  

Antiquity;

The history of the country of Baluchistan, before the march of Alexander the Great through its two provinces, Las and Makuran, was involved in the greatest obscurity. It was presumed that Baluchistan may very probably had been among the one hundred and twenty seven provinces over which the King Ahsuerus, as mentioned in the sacred writings, ruled, from India even unto Ethiopia.

Arrian’s account of the Macedonian monarch’s march from India, through the country of the Oritae and the Gedrosia, clearly shows the former to had comprised the present district of Kolwah, with the tract adjacent to it on the west in the Makuran province, has contributed in some degree to invest these poor and wretched places with no small interest and renown.

Alexander, said to had left Pattala, in Sindh (presumed to be Tatta, on the Indus), some time either in the months of march or April, and to had proceeded in the direction of Bela, crossing in his route the lower ranges of the Brahuik mountains. From there he marched in the direction of Jau, in Makuran, facing a very difficult pass some distance south coast of the ancient town of Gwajak, and here it was that the natives of the county had assembled in considerable numbers to oppose his progress.
He was then supposed to have kept somewhat nearer the coast, crossing the present Kolwah district, where mentioned of the difficulty experienced in procuring water.

The great conqueror’s Admiral, Nearchus, about the same time, under the direction of Alexander and for proposes principally of discovery, coasted along the shores of Baluchistan, and his account of the natives he met with, and the difficulty he found in obtaining supplies, is as credible as if the voyage had been carried on under similar circumstances at the present day.

The severest privations of fatigue, hunger, and thirst had to be endured by all, from the highest to the lowest, and both the fleet and army suffered extreme hardship, until the latter reached the fertile and cultivated valley on the western border of Gedrosia, the present Bumpur; from there it passed into Karmania, now know as the Persia province of Kerman.

It would appear that another detachment of the Greek army marched from India to Persia by a higher route, through Arachosia and Drangiana, the modern Kandahr and Sistan districts. This was the forces under Kraterus, which did not seem to have met with so many difficulties and obstruction as that immediately under Alexander’s command in the country of Gedrosia.

The territory occupied by the Oritae, as mentioned by Arrian’s, would no doubt include the present district of Kolwa and the tract adjacent to it on west. Sixty days after leaving the country of the Oritae, Alexander was reported to have reached Pura, the capital city of Gedrosia. This name, unchanged even at the present day (1809) belongs to a town near Bumpur, between Aibi and Kalagan, and about 500 miles west from the town of Bela in Las.

From this expedition of Alexander’s down to the commencement of the eight-century of the Christian era, nothing certain seems to be known of the history of any portion of Baluchistan. It is surmised that it was at times intimately connected with the Persian empire, as a dependent province or provinces, though at other periods exercising it presumed, an independence of its own, divided possibly among a number of chiefs of greater or less power and influence. 

By M. Sarjov from history files,