BIBI NANI, Bolan 1 (Cave of)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An approximately 5 m long rift cave passage in nummulitic limestone (note 1) is used as a temple cave sacred to the goddess Bibi Nani (note 2). In 1990 British cave adventurers were told (Brooks 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database) that Bibi Nani is a -place where the river disappears- (see –>Ab-i- Gum) but actually it is the place where the Bolan river re-appears. SITUATION: On the right (western) bank of Bolan river (note 4), at the level of the river bed and adjacent to the bridge at Bibi Nani, where the tributary Dardan River from the west confluences with the Bolan River. GRIFFITH (1847: 332) noticed here that the … hills have increased in height, in many places they were extremely picturesque, split and divided in every direction.HYDROLOGY: The Bolan river … percolates through the pebbles at Ab-i- Gum (lost water), flows underground for 14 miles [23 km], and comes out again at Bibi- Nani (MARKHAM, C E 1879a: 59). CULTURAL HISTORY - human use: NOT SEEN: AZARPAY, G (1976): Nana, the umero-Akkadian goddess of Transoxiana.- JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 96: 536-542 [HOLT, F L in TARN, W W 1997: xx]. MASSON (1842, 1: 334-335) passed by without noticing the caves: Bibi Nanai … a shrine of some repute, and has some curious legends connected with it. The hills here yield fuller's earth, or some analogous substance … WILFORD (circa 1810 published 1851: 259, 482-484) says Bibi Nani signifies -the womean our mother- literally but implies our (blessed) lady, and (grand / great) mother. She is taken by Muslims to be Eve, and translated from Ai-Mata, the Sanskrit Ainh-Mata. Gaius PLINIUS SECUNDUS (-Pliny-, 23/24-79 AD: Historia naturalis) mentions the tribe of the Amatœ so called, because they lived in the country of Aimata, the mother of mankind, who ruled in the range of mountains west of the Indus, which, in the Sanskrit Puranas, is called Strí-rájyam, or the country of the women.An approximately 5 m long rift cave passage in nummulitic limestone (note 1) is used as a temple cave sacred to the goddess Bibi Nani (note 2). In 1990 British cave adventurers were told (Brooks 1997 Mss: Pakistan Cave Database) that Bibi Nani is a -place where the river disappears- (see –>Ab-i- Gum) but actually it is the place where the Bolan river re-appears. SITUATION: On the right (western) bank of Bolan river (note 4), at the level of the river bed and adjacent to the bridge at Bibi Nani, where the tributary Dardan River from the west confluences with the Bolan River. GRIFFITH (1847: 332) noticed here that the … hills have increased in height, in many places they were extremely picturesque, split and divided in every direction.HYDROLOGY: The Bolan river … percolates through the pebbles at Ab-i- Gum (lost water), flows underground for 14 miles [23 km], and comes out again at Bibi- Nani (MARKHAM, C E 1879a: 59). CULTURAL HISTORY - human use: NOT SEEN: AZARPAY, G (1976): Nana, the umero-Akkadian goddess of Transoxiana.- JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 96: 536-542 [HOLT, F L in TARN, W W 1997: xx]. MASSON (1842, 1: 334-335) passed by without noticing the caves: Bibi Nanai … a shrine of some repute, and has some curious legends connected with it. The hills here yield fuller's earth, or some analogous substance … WILFORD (circa 1810 published 1851: 259, 482-484) says Bibi Nani signifies -the womean our mother- literally but implies our (blessed) lady, and (grand / great) mother. She is taken by Muslims to be Eve, and translated from Ai-Mata, the Sanskrit Ainh-Mata. Gaius PLINIUS SECUNDUS (-Pliny-, 23/24-79 AD: Historia naturalis) mentions the tribe of the Amatœ so called, because they lived in the country of Aimata, the mother of mankind, who ruled in the range of mountains west of the Indus, which, in the Sanskrit Puranas, is called Strí-rájyam, or the country of the women.