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Lahore and its hoary past:
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza
THE Jashn-i-Baharan is being celebrated in the city in which the most exclusive programme will be on Basant, the festival of kite flying. The British army was moved to the Mian Mir Cantonment about which our well-known architect, Pervez Vandal, has written an analytical article for the quarterly, Tareekh, (published by Fiction House, Lahore). The latest issue of the magazine includes articles on Lahore some of which were presented in a seminar on the city.
In his latest column, an Urdu columnist from Lahore, has praised Karachi for its love of democracy and its attitude towards an exiled prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif. He may be right because he was closer to the former PM and the crowd around him. But his views on some other commonalities between the two cities are amazing.
He says that while we have a Food Street in Gowalmandi (of which we are proud because it has produced two prime ministers — Mairaj Khalid, a caretaker PM, and Nawaz Sharif, who held office twice. Incidentally, before they became prime ministers they had shifted to Hall Road and Model Town. But compared to Karachi, its food is no more a speciality.
The columnist is also all praise for the cultural activities in Karachi which in his assessment have surpassed those in Lahore, which was once considered the cultural capital of northern India. The reason given by the columnist is that the mushairas in Karachi are now much better organized and better attended than these in Lahore. Another reason cited in the column is that the affluent people in Karachi offer more patronage to literary and cultural activities. He may be right because the Karachi-based business houses finance advertisements to the print media while those in Lahore have been somewhat less generous.
The columnist is a proprietor and editor of a literary magazine which needs advertisements and other financial help.
All said and done, the fact is that Karachi has no such columnist as Lahore has in the person of the gentleman concerned who says that Karachi has much better kebabs to offer.
The question is: when was this city founded? According to the common myth, it was founded by Loh, and Loh, according to Dr Anjum Rahmani, is the place where now stands a temple in the Lahore Fort.
The article about Lahore talks of a later period and fails to mention its past about which even the Lahore Gazette of 1932 says:
“It is not probable that Lahore was founded before the first century AD, as we neither find it mentioned in connection with Alexander, nor is it described by Strabo or Pliny. On the other hand, it may possibly be the Labokla of Ptolemy as Amarkatis, which is mentioned by that author as near Labokla, has been identified by Cunningham with the ruins of Amba Kapi, about 25 miles from Lahore. The first certain historical record of Lahore is, however, that of Hiuen Tsiang, who mentions it as a large Brahmanical city visited by him in AD 630 — the period of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him ) — on his way to Jullunder. About this time it is probable that the capital was transferred to Sialkot, as Al-Beruni speaks of Lahore as a province whose capital was Mandhukur, and it is noticeable that Al Masudi makes no mention of Lahore.”
The Gazetteer goes to the first century AD but points out that it might have existed when Alexander invaded the subcontinent. It might be the city mentioned as Labokla. If it had a string Brahmanical establishment or concentration in the 7th century, then it must have a long history spread over many centuries. The question about the remains of that period may confuse us. If it was founded by Loh or much later by some other people, where are the remains of that period? But this precedes another question: what about the remains of the Mughal mosques, mazars, shops and markets which existed at the place where the Lahore Railway Station was raised? Thornton quotes a British visitor to Lahore in his book, Lahore. He (the visitor) came “to this city in 1809. He had already visited the city many years before. He says:
“Now the city gives a deserted look and many tall and beautiful buildings are falling apart.” Among these ruins, spread in a vast area, he finds no human soul passing through the once prosperous parts of the city.
That means that if there are no remains of the period before Christ, it cannot be denied that there was no city of Lahore. Another historian, Col Dr Khwaja Abdur Rasheed, in his article in the Lahore Number of Nuqoosh claims that the city was a contemporary to Harrappa and Moejodaro which were punished by Allah and buried under a thick layer of dust. Lahore did not meet this fate. Therefore, it is one of the ancient cities of the world which have a very long history.
One may not agree with Khwaja Rasheed but serious attention must be paid to the ruins and mounds around Lahore and the Ravi.
Here one may point out that the river Ravi never changed course except for some minor deviations, particularly in the Nankana and Sharaqpur areas where there are many old mounds yet to be investigated by the Archaeology Department. Even the Lahore Fort must be viewed from an archeological point of view. — STM dawn june February 12, 2002
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