Pursuit of Humayin

As ealy as A.D. 1519

at Bhera and Khushab; and it may be inferred that these were Dodais, for when
Sher Shah arrived at Khushab in A.D. 1546, in pursuit of Humayin, he was met
by the three Sons of Sohrab Khan—viz., Ismail Khan, Fath Khan and Ghazi
Khan—and he confirmed to them the ‘country of Sindh,’ by which must be
understood Sindh in the local use of the word—that is, the lands lying along the
Indus, the Derajat, where these brothers had formed settlements.

The three

towns of Dora Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Dera Fatl Khan still bear their

Shah Beg Arghun

It is not very clear how the Baloches came to be in complete possession of the

Multan country. Shah Beg Arghun, after overthrowing the Sammas of Sindh,
turned his arms against the Langahs of Maltan, and was opposed at Uchh by an
army of Baloches and Langahs. He was victorious, and advanced on Multan in
A.H. 931 (A.D. 1524) where Shah Mahmud Langah was reigning. The army
which opposed him is said to have been composed of Baloch, Jat, Bind, Dodai
and other tribes.

 The Shah was poisoned by Sheikh Shuja’, his son-in-law, and

the historian says: ‘The army, which consisted chiefly of Baloches, being thus
deprived of its head, the greatest confusion reigned.’ The son of the deceased
king was placed on the throne, but the place fell into the hands of the Arghuns.

3

The conquest of Dehli by Babar followed almost immediately, and Shah Beg
admitted his supremacy.
It is evident that the Baloches were in great force in the South Panjab at this
period, and they were in complete possession of the country, as has been seen, in
Sher Shah’s time. The Rinds seem to have spread up the valleys of the Chenab,
the Ravi, and the Satlaj, and the Dodais and Hots up the Indus and the Jehlam.
Babar found the Baloches, as he states in his autobiography

Mir Chakur arrived at Multan

It has been shown above how Mir Chakur arrived at Multan, and how the rivalry

arose between the Rinds and the Dodais. The legendary lore deals with this

subject also, and it is stated that Chakur joined Humayun after wards on his

march to Dehli, and at last settled down at Satgarha (in the Montgomery District
of the Panjab). His tomb still exists there, and there is a considerable Rind
settlement in the neighbourhood. In the Tarikh-i-Sher Shah of ‘Abbas Khan, a
valuable authority, we find Chakur Rind established at Satgarha in Sher Shah’s
time,

1 and the Baloches in possession of the whole Multan country, from which

Sher Shah expelled them. It is evident that they would have been on this account
disposed to join Humayun in his expedition to recover his kingdom from the
Afghans, and although there is no historical evidence of the fact, the legend
makes it very probable that they did so.