The Peshawar Rhapsody

Banjara jee

I was wondering if the ancient name of Peshawar was ``Purushpur`` instead of ``Pushpapura`` mentioned in your article. Purushpur was the capital of Kushan kings who adopted Hinduism. One of the later kings, Kanishka was converted to Mahayana form of Buddhism after a great debate with Ashwaghosh, one of the finest Buddhist philosophers of ancient India. The Kushan rule saw the flourishing of Gandhara school of art. You may want to visit the following site

http://www.med.unc.edu/~nupam/kushan1.html

anybody interested in reading more about Peshawar should go to the web site
http://www.peshawar1.com

Sir

You are a quintessential Banjara !!!

Regards

Well written. Thank you Banjara.

Paksitan picture gallery with description of places - the reason why we love it so much:

http://www.pakistanpage.net/gallery/main/gallery.htm

Good old Peshawar, my home town. Only complaint about this article is , it is a bit romanticised, Peshawar does have a normal side as well and the writer has apprently not visited a few other historical places.

To eat out I`d recommend Khans Klub and North west Heritage or good old Chief Burger.

Some other historical places to visit in the city itself are Ghor Gathri and the Sethi Mohallah, but deserve to be in better shape but are well worth a look.

If you are staying a bit longer and want to watch a movie do drop by V Den in Fawad Plaza. Good old Rafique`s shop is the hang out for the average movie buff in Peshawar!

Those of you who don`t know much about the ``Frontier`` will be surprised to find that Peshawar till very recently was NOT a pashtun city. Till the late 1980`s it was dominated by hindko speaking Peshawaris.

Banjaara
Thanks for an interesting write-up on a part of the world few of us will get to visit. Was the train you took the same train Paul Theroux has also written about?
A minor quibble, if Peshawar is about 2000 years old, how come the invading Aryans and Greeks attacked it?
Regards.

Banjaara,
thank you for this detailed and enjoyable description of your `romantic escapade`. I`ve never been to Peshawar, haven`t been much of anywhere north of Islamabad, so this was a treat. And I`m looking forward to hearing about the train journey, with all those hairpin bends, tunnels and bridges, it sounds exciting!
regards,
ana :-)

after quite a while, an article of real merit. the challange is to retain soul of the place while integrating it into the global economy. on a related manner, below is a list of top ten historic sites in pak according to salman rashid of the news

The best of the ruins

Here are top ten historic spots for you to visit

By Salman Rashid
The News
28-07-2002


1. Rannikot Fort that lies 32 km west of Sann in Sindh is the most remarkable ancient monument in all of Pakistan. For one, with its area of almost fifty square kilomteres, it is the largest fortress in Pakistan if not in the entire world. Secondly, and this is the far greater point of interest, it is mentioned only once in history when we learn that one Talpur ruler took refuge here in April 1843 after the defeat on the battlefield of Dubbo.

Approaching it one cannot but be impressed by the similarity of its crenellated walls with the Great Wall of China. But while the Wall is a linear defense bulwark, Rannikot is a regular fort that encloses an area. Within its walls are two smaller fortresses: Miri that was very likely meant to be the headquarters and behind it and high above on a hill Shergarh -- the citadel of the last stand.
There can be no doubt that Rannikot is ancient, a fact attested by a number of features. Though theories abound, there is no definite finding as to the date of building of this remarkable edifice, nor regarding who its builders were.


Taking advantage of its mystery, the Talpur rulers of Sindh appropriated it to themselves claiming that they had built it in the early 19th century. All they had done, in fact, was renovate it.

Temple of the Sun in Taxila

2. The Temple of the Sun in the Sirkap ruins of Taxila is my all time favourite because it is from here we learn of one aspect of Raja Paurava (Porus to the Greeks). Although this temple was built during the reign of the Parthian king Gondophares in the first half of the 1st century AD, it preserved those brass plaques that were installed in Taxila on the orders of Raja Paurava.

We learn from the Greek philosopher Apollonius who visited Taxila in 44 AD that these plaques were commissioned by the Raja when he received news of the death of Alexander in Babylon. In order to acknowledge his friendship with Alexander, the Raja ordered that the battle scenes shown on these plaques should be noteworthy for their detail. And detail it was that showed Paurava in defeat in the face of the invading Europeans.

Now, Alexander was dead, his Greek garrison of Taxila had murdered its officers and fled. The Raja could have re-written history as he pleased. But that he chose to tell the truth is a measure of his greatness. The brass plates are lost; they have been lost for centuries and we would never have learned this bit of history if Apollonius of Tayana had not journeyed to Taxila and paused to admire the Temple of the Sun in the main street of town.

The village of Mong

3. There are no monuments in Mong (near Mandi Bahuddin). There are only open fields where, depending on the season, the corn or sugar cane stand tall. Here, one day in late May of the year 326 BC, a great and sanguinary battle took place. This was the epic struggle between Raja Paurava fighting for the land of his forefathers and Alexander fighting for glory and riches.

It had rained the night before. The ground was still soggy when the onset began just as the sun rose that morning. By mid-day Alexander`s brilliance as a tactician had outdone the Punjabis of whom twenty three thousand lay dead on the battlefield. In complete disarray the army withdrew. Only one tall and majestic figure on a war elephant held his ground. This was Raja Paurava who fought on despite the wound in his right shoulder.

When he eventually met with Alexander, the famous exchange between the two took place. Alexander, immensely pleased with the majesty of the Raja`s demeanour, made him a friend and returned him his kingdom. Though the histories tell of the impression that the almost eight foot tall Paurava made on Alexander, there are a few things they don`t tell.

For example, I imagine, that after the Raja`s response Alexander would have reached forward to clasp his blood stained hand. Perhaps the five foot seven inch Alexander had raised himself on tip-toes to embrace the giant Punjabi warrior. If such things happened, they were not recorded. Only I saw them in my mind`s eye when I was on the battlefield of Mong.

Tilla Jogian

4. Accessible from Jhelum city by way of Sanghoi, Tilla Jogian is arguably the most scenic historic monument in all Pakistan. Situated on a 1000 metre high hill, it towers way above the broken country on the west bank of the Jhelum River and is nicely covered with broad-leaf and pine trees.

But the point of interest is the ruined monastery that still adorns its flat, tree-shaded crest. Here are temples, smadhs, residential quarters and water tanks -- one of which is a splendid example of Moghul architecture. And here, high above the bustle and noise of the Punjabi country-side is a peace and quiet that makes it easier to attain one`s nirvana. Here one only hears the ringing calls of Indian Tree-Pies and Golden Orioles and the song of the wind as it sweeps through the thick vegetation.

Established in the 1st century BC by Guru Goraknath, the founder of the sect of Kanphatta (pierced ears) jogis, the monastery thrived for two thousand years. For two thousand years followers of different persuasions resorted here to become jogis. Most names are lost, but we know that Guru Nanak spent the prescribed forty days worshipping his Lord in the quiet seclusion of Tilla Jogian. And we know that the heart-broken Ranjha came here after Hir was forcibly wedded into the Khehras.

Pharwala Fort

5. Most Pakistanis have not even heard the name Pharwala. Few, other than the locals, have seen it. The latter because it lies not very far from Kahuta and therefore out of bounds for all of us `spies`. But for those who can visit it, it`s a wonderful place -- a sort of a Rohtas on a smaller scale. Within the crenellated fortification that snakes over the verdant hills, there is a small village and just below the walls a small tributary of the Soan.

Pharwala was the headquarter of the turbulent Gakkhars of the Potohar Plateau. Babur, who fought against them here in 1519 noted, that the fort was difficult to attack and win over. He noted that its walls though without `breast-work or battlement` rose no less than ten metres above the ground. The present crenellations on the walls, I deduce therefore, are a more recent addition.

The first attack of the Moghuls was beaten back, but the second succeeded. The defeated Gakkhars melted away into the wild gorges to the north. However, peace was subsequently made and the Gakkhars proved to be the most resolute and steadfast of allies. Much as Sher Shah Suri wanted to win them over, he failed for they remained loyal to Humayun -- whose father they had professed friendship. Pharwala is a symbol of their trustworthiness.

Rohtas

6. Rohtas is remarkable. It is remarkable for all the effort and finance that went into its making and that in the end not a battle was fought around its walls. The structure is extravagant and impressive. High, loop-holed walls, massive towers, enormous timber gates in lofty gate-houses topped with crenellations, rounded merlons below which run sets of machicolations with beaky hoods from which boiling oil or water could be poured on attackers below. Here are all the trappings of a fort made to defy the strongest army. Here was a fort that would have resisted the strongest escalade.

Sher Shah Suri ordered its building to hold the Gakkhars at bay. But when work began here the Gakkhars mounted attack after attack, harrying the builders and carrying away Pathan soldiers and their families to sell them into slavery. Things came to such a pass that Toder Mal Khatri, the superintendent of works, was hard put to procure stone masons and offered up to one gold ashrafi for each stone that was to be laid! It was an exorbitant undertaking for the Pathan king of Delhi, yet he did not withhold finances.

And when the end came after the death of Sher Shah and Humayun`s return, not a shot was fired. The Pathan garrison fled upon seeing the Mughals and Rohtas became just another monument of the Punjab landscape.

Dhonra Hingora

7. The ruins of Dhonra Hingora lie just outside the village of Tando Fazal (25 km southeast of Hyderabad). Here are two splendid mosques, now partly ruinous, in Central Asian style and a domed mausoleum. Here are the ruined walls of a large mansion, the foundations of hundreds if not thousands of residential and business houses. And here too are the broken arches of a bridge that once spanned a small rivulet running through the city.

Yet history does not have anything to tell of the rise and glory of this lost city. Only the district gazetteer of Hyderabad briefly notes that Hingorani (as it was once known) was ruled over by a family of powerful Syeds and that it met its end in about 1775 at the hands of the savage Madad Khan.

Though Syeds have traditionally been powerful in Sindh, we do not know when they would have ruled over Hingorani or Dhonra Hingora, but going by the surviving architecture, it is clear that this city thrived in the latter Middle Ages. What we know definitely is that it was the inept and jealous nature of the last Kalhora ruler, Ghulam Nabi, which brought down on Sindh that accursed Madad Khan from Afghanistan. He laid waste the country, looting and sacking dozens of her cities. Dhonra Hingora was one.

Nandna

8. The ruins of Nandna lie by the old, the real, Grand Trunk Road, known as the Rajapatha -- Royal Road in classical times. They are accessible by an uphill walk from the town of Baghanwala (Jhelum district), or by the easy walk from the rest house of Ara that one reaches by way of Choa Saidan Shah and Basharat (Chakwal district).

The ruined two-sided hulk of the temple recalls the relative peace between the 6th century AD and the 11th when the Kashmirian kings, who then held this country, built a series of temples along the Rajapatha -- the Royal Road. Nandna was once such. But its strategic location at the entrance to the Salt Range also called for a strong fortress to guard it. The remains of that fort are now completely smothered by the rank vegetation of the hill.

Abu Rehan Al Beruni spent some time here in the year 1017. It was here that he carried out his experiments with the astrolabe and gave us the circumference of the earth. Though similar computations had been done before, their inaccuracy ran into hundreds of kilometres. Al Beruni came to within seventy nine and a half miles of the actual measurement.

Interestingly, locals in their ignorance believe Al Beruni determined Nandna to be the centre of either the earth or the Universe.

Stitch in the crack

( Surely the most heroic and dramatic achievement of Victorian railway engineering in what is now Pakistan is the stitch of railway line that spans the great crack in the Chappar Rift. This elongated hill shaped like a Swiss Roll lies north of Sibi in Balochistan. Though the line from Sibi through the Bolan Gorge had been functional since 1886, this spectacular line opened in 1887 formed the alternate route to Quetta.
Unfortunately, the geology of the area made the line`s maintenance a difficult and trying proposition from the very start. Constant landslips were one irritant. The other was the way the clayey earth in one section of the line turned into morass every time it rained. Consequently, railway authorities had gang men stationed in the wild and desolate Rift to patrol the area before the once-a-week train was due.


On the night of July 10, 1942 a great storm of rain came down in the Rift. The next morning the gang men found a section of line festooned across a gap in the hillside. The main line through the Bolan, recently upgraded, being the shorter of the two connections, was working fine without any trouble. Railway authorities decided they had had too much of the Chappar Rift line. The line was uprooted, the bridges dismantled and the section forgotten by all but railway history buffs.

Kan Mehtarzai railway station

10. The longest narrow gauge railway in the subcontinent was the one that stretched northeast from Bolan to Zhob, over three hundred kilometres away. When they laid it they called it, one of the highest narrow gauge railway lines in the world, the Zhob Valley Railway (ZVR). Railway history is silent on why the line was laid and one would say it was a public service utility. But in the 1920s (when it was laid) there were other considerations as well -- mostly military.

Things, however, remained in a state of rapid flux and with the birth of Pakistan the notion of military use for a slow moving narrow gauge line died. But the line continued to run until 1985 as a passenger service and for a year longer to haul chrome from the mines at Muslimbagh.

The most remarkable and picturesque feature on this line is the architecture: the mud-plastered station buildings with their tower-like structures and sun rooms. My favourite is the Kan Mehtarzai railway station. At 2224 metres (7295 feet) above the sea, it was once the highest railway station in Pakistan. It was certainly the highest narrow gauge station in the entire subcontinent -- if also not in the world. Today it sits forlorn and lonely in its bleak, wind-swept setting.

Banjaara:

welcome to chowk...

...the small gauge train ride...yes i have done that one too...reminded me of a national geographic article...the author and photographers went from landikotal...peshawar, lahore, over wagah and attari into india and i think they ended in mughulpura...

...zoar-e-qal`m aur zyada!

...t

This brings back a lot of fond memories of Peshawer. Thank you for sharing this excellent travelogue.