A GUDDRA.
(309)
THE Gucldras, strictly speaking, do not belong to Sind, though an occasional member of the clan or tribe may reside there. They belong to Lus Beyla, a small province lying west of Sind, the ruler of which, who has the title of Jam, is now entirely independent, though he used to acknowledge dependence on the Ameers of Sind. Lus, according to the late Commander Carless, I.N., who visited the Jam in 1838, is about 100 miles long by eighty miles broad, bounded to the south by the sea, on the north by the Jahlawan mountains, and to the east and west by high ranges which separate it from Sind and Mekran. The seaport is Sonmeanee, a place of very considerable trade with Bombay and Persia, and the capital town Beyla, where the Jam or chief resides, who received Connnander Carless very hospitably according to his means, which are not very abundant. In winter the climate is delightful, cold, fresh, and bracing, but in the summer the heat is excessive. The Jam cultivates friendly relations with his neighbours the English of Sind, but there is no political connection with this small state except a commercial treaty which defines the tariffs on exports and imports, and is otherwise of a friendly character. The province is well irrigated from the Poorally and its tributaries, and is for the most part fertile land, the hills, however, being bare and rocky. Hinglaj, a place of pilgrimage for Hindoos from all parts of India, is situated in the lower portion of the province, a long day's journey from the coast, and is the place where Kalee, or Bhowanee, the terrible goddess wife of Siva, made one of her miraculous manifestations. The temple is a small building erected on one of the mountain peaks, and is believed to be of great antiquity. There is a circular tank or well near it, supposed to be unfathomable, into which the pilgrims leap from a rock, and make their way to a subterranean passage in the mountain, the traversing of which is supposed to cleanse them from their sins. Commander Carless's Journal and Report, printed in the Records of the Bombay Government, is a very interesting record of his visit to this before almost unknown principality.
