Featured Pakistan: The Archaeological Marvel

[ghazi52]

An old garden at Qila Mian Singh, Gujranwala.


About ten kilometers from Gujranwala, there is a village known as Qila Mian Singh. Now word Qila in Arabic / Urdu / Punjabi means fort. So I thought there could be a fort or remnants of an old fort. A search on the internet indeed showed some old structures in the village. To further probe into the matter I marked this place and finally reached there on 24th of July, 2018.

I found no signs of any fort but a boundary wall of probably a garden still exists. It is a huge compound in a square shape, with each side measuring 150 meters, encompassing an area of over 5 acres. The walls are deteriorating and some portions have fallen. The land inside the boundary walls is now cultivated and there are no signs of any garden. It is at located at 32° 6' 0.09" N; 74° 4' 42.62" E.

However, two buildings or rather one and half a buildings still exist inside. One is probably a smadhi and the other is a portion of now mostly collapsed baradari.







The above two pictures are of a Samadhi in the garden. (24.07.2018.)








The boundary wall, with buttresses. (24.07.2018.)











The above three pictures of paintings depicting different scenes of a story.








Paintings of Kokila or Koyal, a bird representing singers.










It was intriguing to see a graffiti in Hindi inside the samadhi, The word Ram is repeatedly written here. On the left side of the human figure, Dwarka Nath Dham is written.
It is obvious that it was written much later. Most probably much after the partition and maybe not a very long time ago. But it is difficult to guest that who could have written it. It was more probable to find something in Gurmukhi, the script Sikhs use to write Punjabi. Anyway, Dwarka is a famous temple in Indian state of Gujarat and one of the four dhams or holy places of Hindus, the other three being Badrinath, Puri and Rameswaram.




Word Ram is repeatedly written here.






Frescoes inside the samadhi depicting scenes from mythology. (24.07.2018.)









A few more sections of the boundary wall. (24.07.2018.)

 

[ghazi52]

The above few pictures are of a baradari style building, major portion of which already has collapsed. (24.07.2018.)





A buttress at one of the corners of the boundary wall. (24.07.2018.)

I do not have much information about the garden or Mian Singh himself (some sources suggest the name as Mihan Singh, that makes more sense). I found the following words about him in an article in Dawn newspaper:
Mian Singh di Haveli inside Yakki Gate was taken over by the British in 1849. This modest ‘haveli’ belonged to the Sikh chieftain of the Sukherchakia Misl of Gujranwala, and Mian Singh had a stronghold there which is still named Qila Mian Singh, just near Qila Didar Singh.

The above mentioned article, titled "Amazing speed of the British after taking Lahore", was written by Mr Majid Sheikh and published on 24 May, 2015. The link is given below:


So it can be safely assumed that Mian Singh, a chieftain of Sukerchakia Misl, lived during the last half of the eighteenth century and due to his services was granted a jagir in this area. The power of Sikhs rose in this region in the 1760s. And perhaps he himself or his descendants built this huge garden, of which only a few traces survive today. But perhaps will not survive for long, because apparently it is not on the radar of any government department and there is no protection or maintenance.






The above two pictures were taken by Mr Ijaz Ahmad Mughal, most probably just a few years ago and uploaded on Panoramio. These clearly show the baradari in its complete shape. Now two thirds of it have collapsed. This show how bad is the condition and definitely, all traces will disappear very soon.

At the end, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr Sameer Kashinath, who helped me in reading the graffiti in Hindi and understanding the paintings inside the Samadhi. Though this structure looks like a Samadhi, but in his opinion, it may not be a Samadhi because decorations were hardly allowed in a Samadhi.

I hope some reader will add to our knowledge about this place.

Tariq Amir

 

[Kambojaric]

@Joe Shearer

A lot going on in life at the moment so not had much time. Initially i had another archaeology thread running, but it apparently got merged into this one without any notification. Only discovered this recently. Will start updating again soon hopefully. Cheers for the mention

 

[Joe Shearer]

@Joe Shearer

A lot going on in life at the moment so not had much time. Initially i had another archaeology thread running, but it apparently got merged into this one without any notification. Only discovered this recently. Will start updating again soon hopefully. Cheers for the mention

I read the first three pages with a sinking heart: it is difficult for other members to keep up with this standard, and personally, after that, on the heritage theme, I'm going to be happy reading your posts and leaving it at that.

All the best to @ghazi52 for picking up the baton, but some topics were repeated; this must be due to the two threads being merged. Between the two of you, there is so much rich detail, it is enough for very pleasant days poring through these and absorbing everything with the greatest of pleasure. There are still another 12 pages to go.

Thank you for the very nice time reading these invaluable posts.

I hope you get to meet up with @Arsalan. It might get us more contributors if you can infect him with whatever blessed bug has got you going.

 

[Arsalan]

I read the first three pages with a sinking heart: it is difficult for other members to keep up with this standard, and personally, after that, on the heritage theme, I'm going to be happy reading your posts and leaving it at that.

All the best to @ghazi52 for picking up the baton, but some topics were repeated; this must be due to the two threads being merged. Between the two of you, there is so much rich detail, it is enough for very pleasant days poring through these and absorbing everything with the greatest of pleasure. There are still another 12 pages to go.

Thank you for the very nice time reading these invaluable posts.

I hope you get to meet up with @Arsalan. It might get us more contributors if you can infect him with whatever blessed bug has got you going.

lolz!
Infected already. As mentioned earlier, i was born and raised in Taxila so being at these archeological sites and learning about them was sort of a regular activity. Will just pick up our bikes, the group of friends and we would be cycling to Sirkap, Julian etc almost daily. IN college days, those places were good to go to and smoke Good times.

Moved to Faisalabad 4 years or so ago and now i rarely go back to Taxila, miss the place real bad but life!!

All this and my usual laziness. I visited Makli graveyard, Thatta district area in December 2017. Have it on my list to share the pictures and details of the place here since then but here i am, still saying it not doing it!!

Anyway, will try to ad whatever little i can to this thread.

 

[Joe Shearer]

lolz!
Infected already. As mentioned earlier, i was born and raised in Taxila so being at these archeological sites and learning about them was sort of a regular activity. Will just pick up our bikes, the group of friends and we would be cycling to Sirkap, Julian etc almost daily. IN college days, those places were good to go to and smoke Good times.

Moved to Faisalabad 4 years or so ago and now i rarely go back to Taxila, miss the place real bad but life!!

All this and my usual laziness. I visited Makli graveyard, Thatta district area in December 2017. Have it on my list to share the pictures and details of the place here since then but here i am, still saying it not doing it!!

Anyway, will try to ad whatever little i can to this thread.

Just do it......

 

[Kambojaric]

@Joe Shearer appreciate the kind words

All this and my usual laziness. I visited Makli graveyard, Thatta district area in December 2017. Have it on my list to share the pictures and details of the place here since then but here i am, still saying it not doing it!!

Please post them! Looking forward to it!

 

[ghazi52]

Hindu Temple built by Mughal Emperor Akbar for his wife Joda bai. Lahore Fort

 

[ghazi52]

Prince Pervez's Tomb

This massive tomb stands in the locality of Kot Khawaja Saeed and is generally attributed to Prince Pervez, son of Emperor Jahangir. According to Kanhaiya Lal, Prince Pervez was buried in this tomb after he was slaughtered by the order of Asaf Khan, when he returned from Kashmir. However, this view is incorrect as Prince Pervez died at Burhanpur in his 37th year on October 28, 1625, from where his body was brought to Agra and buried in his garden there. Some accounts also attribute this tomb to Dara Shaikoh but Dara Shaikoh is reported to have been assassinated at Delhi and buried there in the complex of Humayun's tomb. According to Abdullah Chughtai, the area of the tomb was originally a garden owned by Prince Pervez and the surrounding area was known as Mandi Pervezabad. After the death of Prince Pervez, the garden was transferred to his daughter, Nadira Begum, wife of Prince Dara Shaikoh. According to Chughtai, Meher Shaikoh, son of Dara Shaikoh lies buried in this tomb; however, this statement has not been historically proven.

According to Latif, it was the burial place of Pervez's two sons who were murdered at Lahore along with other princes of royal blood, by the order of their uncle Shah Jahan, on his accession to the throne. Latif also does not provide any contemporary source for his information. Whosoever is buried there, it is apparent that he was a royal personality as the tomb has been built befitting to a royal status.

Details of the construction of the tomb are not known. However, some writers of the 19thcentury had made some reference to its history and architecture. Chishti wrote in 1864 that "originally, the tomb was wholly in white marble and its eight openings were furnished with marble door frames, but Maharaja Ranjit Singh removed all the marble to use it in the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar." Kanhaiya Lal, writing in 1884, records that "the tomb originally was in marble, including its floor. All its four sides had magnificent gates. Maharaja Ranjit Singh removed its marble and got it repaired in brick. The brick repairs done by Ranjit Singh had also decayed by his time, and the tomb was in a very bad condition of preservation and was then repaired by the British Government."

Latif described the tomb in 1892 as standing eminently in the midst of cultivated fields on a circular platform resting on another platform of octagonal base, of the height of a man. The dome rose gracefully from an octagonal platform duly supported by arches.

Muhammad-ud-Din Fauq visited the tomb in 1923 and according to him, "the tomb was octagonal in shape and the grave was set inside. The white marble Taweez (sarcophagus) was missing. To approach the grave, on the east, north, and south of the platform, there were two sets of stairs flight to the platforms, seven and five in numbers respectively. The platform was five feet high from the ground level. In front of the stairs, on the north, the floor of the terrace was badly in wreck. The ground around the platform was in depression. The traces of a canal were visible which led to the garden of Sardar Teja Singh."

Octagonal on plan with the inner diameter of 22 feet 2 inches and outer diameter of 31 feet 4 inches (wall thickness of 4 feet 7 inches), the tomb stands on double platform. The lower platform measures 95 feet 6 inches in length and the upper 66 feet 6 inches. Around the lower tier of the platform there are remains of kankar lime terrace about 3 to 4 inches thick. Modern houses have encroached over the whole area and on the west they even touch the structure of the lower platform. Kanhaiya Lal had mentioned that there were magnificent gates on all four sides of the tomb. Perhaps these gates were at the extremity of the terrace which might have been the base of the geometrical pattern brick pavement in hexagonal and octagonal forms, whose sufficient remains still exist on the lower and upper tiers of the platform. The structure of the tomb is built in small Lahori bricks of the size of 8 inches by 5¼ inches by 1 inch – a size of Shah Jahan’s period. The interior of the tomb was once decorated with the usual fresco work whose traces are still extant here and there. At the top of the platform, a terracotta frieze in two tiers in the form of a leaf design has been applied by the way of decoration. Such a terracotta decoration on a Mughal monument at Lahore is seldom met and is, therefore, rare. The dome appears to be single storey, but the measurement of height of the soffit in the interior and at the outer apex there is a difference of some 14 feet. From this, it can be inferred that actually it is a double dome, but the usual small opening which is provided between the two domes has not been kept for some reason or maybe it was blocked some time later. The tomb has a high neck like that of Ali Mardan Khan's tomb with which it has some similarity in expression. The possible date of its construction falls in the fourth decade of the 17th century – from 1630 to 1640.

The tomb is in a lamentable state of neglect. Its arches which take the load of the heavy dome are broken, and the structure is in danger of a sudden collapse. Most of the pavement on the interior and of the platforms has disappeared. The stairs to the platforms are mostly dilapidated and there is wild growth all over the dome itself which allows leakage of rain water to the core. Currently, the tomb is almost hemmed in by modern houses.

 

[Arsalan]

@Joe Shearer appreciate the kind words



Please post them! Looking forward to it!

Just realized that i didnt took them in 2017 but 2015

Will have to see if they are still sitting in some folder. If i find them will surely share some.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

St Andrews Church Karachi in 1870's:

St Andrew's Church is located in Saddar, Karachi, Pakistan. It is known as the Scottish church. It was built in 1868 by the architect T G Newnham for the Scottish presbyterian mission in British India. The church is built in gothic style with arches.

The land was acquired from the British government in joint venture with the local congregation. According to the property document the land can not be sold even by congregation or government; it is totally and finally for Christian prayer services. The plot, measuring 13,723 square yards, is located opposite Jehangir Park (Regal Chowk).

 

[ghazi52]

Kacha Qila , hyderabad

The lost Jewish history of Rawalpindi

Pakistan alarming intolerant tendencies could be contained or even reversed if more and more people become aware of its tolerant past.

 

[ghazi52]

Tomb of Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal and Grave of Lord Berkley

When the storm of the mutiny of British Indian Army broke out in 1857 over northern India, for a few months, the fate of British Empire in India hanged in balance. Different parties chose the sides according to their own history, geography, social issues and also the personal interests.

Punjab remained mostly peaceful. Though a few regiments based at Lahore, Sialkot, Jhelum and Mardan mutinied. But due to lack of coordination, distance from the main centres of rebellion and above all the total lack of sympathy, even hostility towards soldiers of Indo-Gangetic plains, ensured that they were suppressed most brutally by the British. People of Punjab chose to side with British, whether Muslims or Sikhs, albeit because of different reasons. Muslims were happy with the British, who freed them from the oppressive rule of Sikhs in 1849. While the Sikhs were treated generously by the British and their states in eastern Punjab were most loyal to the British Raj. Moreover, they were most happy to fight against the hated Mughal emperor of Delhi. Needless to say that both of these parties were also eager to exploit the opportunities to plunder the great cities like Delhi and Lucknow. Similarly the pashtuns of the frontier regions also sensed the direction of wind and enthusiastically embraced the cause of the British. Keep in mind that, it all was happening in 1857 and the concepts of Indian nationalism had not taken roots among the ordinary people as yet. For example, Rani of Jhansi, was not in the field to liberate India, she had more personal issues of her own state and personal scores to settle with the British.

So everyone in Punjab, with some standing, was eager to make new rulers happy and in consequence extract some favours. However, there was one exception and that was of Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal. The trouble probably started when the British administration of Gogera, the district headquarter at that time, tried to convince Kharals to join their war efforts to suppress the mutiny in Delhi and beyond. Ahmad Khan Kharal refused to cooperate with the British and this led to a clash between the two sides.

First clash came on the night of 26 July, 1857, when Kharals attacked Gogera jail and freed all the prisoners. The British in retaliation started arresting people and burning the villages along the both banks of river Ravi, in the present day districts of Okara and Faisalabad, the homeland of Kharals. Ahmad Khan Kharal himself was active in vast area but it was not easy for a local chief to continue an armed struggle against the power of a powerful state. As usual there was no dearth of traitors, who were providing valuable information to the British. It was no other than a Kharal itself, the Sarfraz Khan Kharal of Kamalia, who divulged all the plans to the assistant commissioner of Gogera Lord Berkley. He assembled a force and attacked Ahmad Khan Kharal, based in woods at Gishkori. Ahmad Kharal fought valiantly and repulsed the first attack of the Berkeley. But Berkley was lurking in the nearby woods and finding an opportunity and killed Ahmad Khan Kharal, while he was offering Zuhr prayer. This incident happened on 10th of Muharram of that year, that corresponds to approximately 30 August, 1857. (I cannot confirm it.)

Tomb of Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal is located at 31° 04' 28.50" N, 73° 20' 01.70" E, in district Faisalabad. It is not easy to reach this place as the network of roads mostly consists of local roads, leading from a chak to another. So roughly speaking, travel to Tandlianwala, a town 50 kilometers south of Faisalabad. From here ask the directions for Jhamra, the town of Ahmad Khan Khran Kharal, his tomb is 5 kilometers away from Jhamra.





Tomb of Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal. (22.03.2014.)




A general view of the graveyard of Kharals. (22.03.2014.)


A few days after the martyrdom of Rai Ahmad Kharal, his close friend Murad Fatiana avenged his death by killing Lord Berkley, while he was crossing the river Ravi on his horseback. He is buried in a small cemetery, just outside the town of Gogera, in the north eastern direction. The condition of this cemetery is very bad and even the walls are crumbling. There are no headstone, so his grave cannot be precisely pointed out. Though there are traces of a few important graves. Most of the compound is flat and wild grass is grown inside, partially burned. The cemetery is located at 30° 57' 51.50" N, 73° 19' 55.00" E. Gogera is located on the main Okara - Faisalabad road, about 20 kilometers away from Okara.




Entrance and boundary wall of the cemetery. (22.03.2014.)





An old grave. (22.03.2014.)



View of the cemetery, where Lord Berkeley is buried. (22.03.2014.)





A new grave of a local Christian. (22.03.2014.)

Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal is a unique figure in our history, being the only chief to rise against the British in Punjab in 1857. Otherwise, all others wholeheartedly supported the cause of the British and in return of their "meritorious services" received many "honours" and vast jagirs. But Ahmad Kharal had got his head cut off, but did not bow it before the oppressor. Long Live Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal Shaheed. So both the main characters of this great story laid down their lives to do their duties. They both lie today about 12 kilometers apart on the opposite banks of the river Ravi. May they rest in peace.

 

[ghazi52]

Korea offers equipment for conserving Buddhist heritage

Korean Ambassador Kwak Sung-Kyu said Pakistan has great potential for Buddhist religious tourism.

“The current government is working towards the safety of religious sites as well as promotion of tourism,” he said, adding that Pakistan was home to the largest number of Buddhist sites and that promotion of religious tourism can greatly stabilise the economy of Pakistan.

Talking to Daily Express, he termed Pakistan as a friendly nation for Korea and said that the ancient cultural and religious artifacts in Pakistan were very unique. He said that Pakistan was home to the most ancient heritage of Buddhism. We request the Pakistani government to take special care of our religious sites and preserve them for our future generations. As per its contract with the Pakistani government, he said, Korea will provide modern equipment for the discovery of precious artifacts and cultural sites in Pakistan.