Henry George Raverty

"‘Sursuti [Sarsuti] is the name of a river, the ancient Saraswatī . . . Sutlaj [Sutlej] was a tributary of the Hakrā or Wahindāh’... (The Hakra’s drying up, which according to Raverty took place in the fourteenth century CE,) ‘reduced a vast extent of once fruitful country to a howling wilderness, and thus several flourishing cities and towns became ruined or deserted by their inhabitants’."

"...through the loss of most of its tributaries, and the failure of others, ceased to flow—although even now, in time of great floods above, its waters have occasionally reached the ocean."

"I will not go back to “ Alexander" and “ Hweng Thsaug "—for there is no doubt that the Rawi, even more than some of the other rivers constituting the Panch Nad or Panj Ab, has changed more or less from one side to the other and back again time after time; and thus to attempt to “identify " places along its present banks with others supposed to have existed more than twenty-two centuries ago, is so absurd as to require no further comment. Towards the lower part of its course, from the proofs still existing, it has flowed, at different times, over a tract of country from twenty to twenty-five miles in breadth. ... The Rawi in its last change before forsaking the Bíáh altogether, appears to have met with some considerable obstruction in its course westwards near Bakrá and Lal Káthiyah, as its winding struggles and turnings show, but more particularly north of Tulanbah, upon which, and in order to reach the depressed tracts towards the Ohin-áb, it betook itself, naturally, to the first depressed outlet in its way. This happened to be a canal which a former administrator, or farmer of the revenue, had cut to facilitate the irrigation of a part not within the influence of the annual inundations. This was carried towards the Sará'e of Sidhü, to near a point called Ram Chontarah, where the Hindus have а place of devotion, about two miles and a half east of Sidhü's Sará'e, and a little west of which it reached the Qhin-áb again, which ran south-westwards towards the Biah, but a little nearer to Multán on the east side than it had previously done."

"The Chináb has changed its course very considerably, and its valley, or rather, the tract over which it has flowed at different periods, is thirty miles broad. In by-gone days, at about the point where the Shaikhán Patan now is, some fourteen miles north-east of Chaudani-ot or Chandan-ot, instead of turning more to the westwards as at present, it kept a course more towards the south-south-west, and passed five miles east of Chandan-ot; while now it passes it two miles and a half on the west. Its old bed is very distinct, and runs within a mile of Rajá-á."