66 A FOUNDATION FOR HISTORY
(Iskalanda). In the city was one of Chach's confidants, to whom Chach
has promised the position of mayor of the city should he manage to kill
the governor. A man named Brave (Shuja) does so, and Chach is able to
take over the fort without bloodshed. The nobles and elite of Uch wel-
come Chach as their lord and shower him with gifts. After Uch, Chach
proceeds to Sika, then to Multan, and finally toward Kashmir. When he
reaches the edges of his kingdom, he asks for two plants:
One "misr," meaning sapidar, and the second "deodar," meaning
sanobar. He planted them at the border (sarhad) of Kashmir at the
banks of the river Punj Mahiat, at the base of the mountains from
which this river flows. He stayed there until the branches of the two
trees were intertwined. Then he made a mark (dagh) on the trees and
said, "This is the limit (hadd) of my kingship. Ahead of this is the
kingship of the raja of Kashmir, and I will not cross it.^1140The limit to conquest, or a political regime that is not interested
in constant expansion, is not a notion present in conquest literature.
Chachnama's radical presentation of it here is certainly new in the
Muslim historiography. Chach connects the limit to native poplar and
pine trees and demonstrates the patience required for the trees to grow
up and merge with one another. Chachnama is creating for its public
an idea of a limited kingship that insists on cooperation and negotia-
tion with rival powers.
I will add one more significant aspect: Chach does not enter into
any direct negotiations with the raja of Kashmir in this narration. In
effect, Chach is recognizing the lim_it of his kingdom without testing
it, and he is affirming the rule of the other. over the adjacent space.
However, the intertwined trees-one representing Sind and one
Kashmir-also gestures,toward 'the possibility of mutual comprehen-
sion of this limit to power. In other words, by declaring the limits of
his kingdom, Chach asserts that the Kashmiri polity will also under-
stand it. After satisfying the northern limit, Chach heads to the west.
After subduing the governor there, he plants date-palm trees (dara-
khtan-e khurma) to mark the limit between Makran and Kirman. By
the edge of the groves of palm trees, he installs a marker (dagh) that
states, "This is the limit of the polity of land of Sind, during the reign
of Chach bin Sila'ij, and to this day, that limit remains.^1141