THE TOY VILLAGE

Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka - The Toy Village - is the name of the village in Punjab, about which a lot has been written, about its unique and special concept, Thatta Kedona is the name under which the handicraft products of the village and institutions connected to it within and outside the country are marketed.


“Thatta Kedona” is quite different in nature as compared to other NGO's or similar institutions: Help and support is provided to the people within the countryside, because “if the villagers earn some money, they are not forced to move to the cities, which are already overburdened with many problems”.


The agricultural activity in the village is not sufficient and therefore it is necessary to provide opportunities for additional income in the villages. This can be done by promoting the traditional culture and its conversion into handicrafts. The approach must always be understood in its totality and implemented properly.


The income generated through agriculture may be minimal, it may infact be just sufficient to meets the needs of basic food and simple shelter, but the cost of living in the village is definitely cheaper than the city; the push into the cities enables only the least of the migrants the promised benefits. The steadily increasing productivity of the urban industrial work place ruins not only the rural work place, but specially the life in the city; industrial production and global economics require increase in consumer base and destruction of resources, - in totality therefore not a great concept for the future.


“Thatta Kedona” propagates instead of a a mild effort rather Help Towards Self-Help, “Thatta Kedona” is not an instrument for development and financing of individual family interests nor is it an attempt at religious, political or educational infiltration !

“Thatta Kedona” does not exist with the help of donations or charity of the city dwellers, who may derive satisfaction from a good deed, -this is not compatible with the concept of Help Towards Self-Help: Donations and Alms help only superficially and encourage dependence, -a danger, which was already recognized by the founder of Pakistan and who warned against it.


In the so often propagated Global World, it is of much importance within a state to support Self-Help efforts on one hand to direct the population according to the available resources. If this does not happen, the increasing consumer behaviour kills the initiatives, which becomes known not in the beginning but at a much later stage, when reforms become impossible to implement.

The city culture is international and the problems in the cities worldwide similar, the traditional culture of diverse regions is something special and needs to be protected and supported, - Thatta Kedona is a metaphore for a change in the way of thinking: The future lies in the countryside !

Surviving Gates of Multan

One of the oldest living cities in the world, Multan is a significant example of old Islamic urbanization. While many historic Islamic cities have lost much of their original character during the twentieth century, Multan has survived remarkably intact, retaining the classic form of the medieval city encircled by its rampart and gateways. It is the entire urban fabric of the place that is historic.
Inside the walled portion -- archetypal form of old town -- one can still see beautiful bay windows with intricately moulded 'jharokas' in narrow streets or delicate brick work with geometric patterns and tile friezes on the facades of havelis. Meanwhile, modern Multan has expanded in all directions covering over 28 square kilometres of area. And with modernism have come related difficulties. "Problems like overflowing sewerage and a broken down water supply system, encroachments and pollution are taken as hazards of urbanization or attributed to lack of funds," says a resident of Gulgast colony.

Archaeologist Nazir Ahmed complains," the intelligentsia is inactive and people have no time for pursuits like preservation of historic and cultural heritage." The original defensive wall -- 40-50 feet high -- dating from the seventeenth century was demolished in 1854 after the British captured Multan but its lower sections survived. The present remains of the wall preserves the semi circular form of bastions at intervals.
The wall was reduced to 10-12 feet during the British period. It contained seven gates, of which Lahore, Delhi, Daulat and Khizeri gates have disappeared. Dilapidated Khuni Burj (Bloody Tower) named after the bloody battle fought here when British force stormend Multan in January 1848 still survives.
A circular road (alang) runs around the walled city connecting the surviving gates, Khuni Burj and Hussaim Agahi entrance. Three of the six gateways -- Bohar, Haram and Delhi -- were rebuilt in the latter half of the nineteenth century with pointed arches and castigated towers. All of them badly need renovation.
Once an imposing gateway, Lahori Gate existed even in the nineteenth century when Alexander Cunningham visited and wrote about Multan. It was damaged when the British annexed Multan and totally demolished in 1854. The new gate built on this site is a combination of two double story towers with a flat band above and is without much decoration. Haram gate comprises of two pylons on each flank, with a large four cantered pointed arch in the middle. The castigated towers on flanks are double storied. Delhi Gate, one of Multan's oldest landmarks, existed even before arrival of the British. The present gate was rebuilt during the British rule. Its construction is similar to Haram Gate except that its arch has a wider span. The gateways have been white washed and painted several times with water based earth colours and none of the original work has survived. The wooden doors have also disappeared. The gateways are surrounded and engulfed by encroachments, cubby-hole shops, hundreds of advertisements and hoardings.
As for the wall itself, its present condition is ruinous and at no place does it maintain its original shape. At most places, it is totally missing. Most salient portion exists between Daulat Gate and Pak Gate. Rows of houses and shops have been erected on the strip of land between the outer face of the circular road and the inner face of the wall, in the process concealing several notable historic features.
However ruined it maybe, the wall still defines the edge of the old city far more clearly than the circular road and is an immediate reminder of Mutlan's historic character. The circular road is in fairly good condition through its width and right of way has been considerably reduced due to unchecked encroachment.
Multani monuments face unsympathetic development, unsuitable repairs or general neglect. All the surviving gates should be cleaned, repaired and renovated to their original shape as far as possible, says Nazir Ahmed. They should be freed from all sorts of neon sign that hide more than they highlight.
The Antiquities Act 1975 and the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985 are not sufficient to protect historic cities. A new concept for area conservation is required to be developed through government polices and public education. Towards this end, the departments of archaeology, Auqaf and civic bodies all need to work together to save what remains of a once glorious medieval Islamic culture.

RAJA PORUS

Fahd Sheikh
FOOTLOOSE: On Raja Paurava and Alexander — Salman Rashid

We do not celebrate Paurava; we name no roads after him and do not teach our children of his lofty character because he shines in our pre-Islamic darkness. But can we today name even one leader possessed of just a shadow of the integrity and character shown by Raja Paurava?

I lament that we in Pakistan, those of us whose ancestors converted to Islam, insist on denying our pre-conversion history. For us, it simply does not exist. We invent tales of imaginary ancestors having arrived in the subcontinent duly converted to the ‘one and only true faith’ from some place in Iran or Central Asia. Pride of place of course goes to all those who subscribe to the yarn of their ancestors’ heroic overland trek direct from Mecca. I know of families who possess genealogical charts connecting them to prophets of yore and, in one case, even to Adam himself!

Consequently, everything that transpired in this great and wonderful land of the Sindhu River before the arrival of these august (albeit imaginary) personalities was Kafir. To be proud of it is criminal; to acknowledge it negligent of religious duty. Not surprising then that some of us even have a problem mentioning Moen jo Daro and Harappa.

Since all our imaginary Islamic ancestors came from the west, we somehow got it into our heads that all those who came from that direction were also necessarily Muslims. An ‘historian’ at Taxila once told me that Alexander the Macedonian was one of Islam’s greatest heroes. Similarly, on a visit to the village of Mong (Mandi Bahauddin) many years ago, a man floored me by not only commending Alexander as a personality of the Scripture but also for reviling Paurava (Porus in Greek) as a Hindu. But history remembers Raja Paurava as a man of rare character.

The Battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum River) was fought in the year 326 BCE on a beautiful morning in late May after a night of torrential rain. The crystalline blue sky would have been piled up with cumulus when Paurava’s Punjabis advanced to meet their foe the Macedonian, Greek, Scythian, Persian and even a brigade of Punjabi troops from Taxila. From even before day broke, it was a hard fought contest. And before the sun had started to wester, the Punjabis were in disarray. The battle had been lost.

Arrian, the Greek historian, writing four hundred years after this epic battle pays tribute to Raja Paurava thus — and there can be no greater tribute for it comes from a foreigner: ‘Throughout the action Porus proved himself a man indeed, not only as a commander but as a solider of the truest courage...his behaviour was very different from that of the Persian King Darius: unlike Darius, he did not lead the scramble to save his own skin ... [but] fought bravely on.’

With all his units dispersed, Paurava, himself grievously wounded in the right shoulder, eventually submitted to an old philosopher friend of his and permitted himself to be led into Alexander’s presence. Arrian recalls that encounter: ‘[Alexander] looked at his adversary with admiration: he was a magnificent figure of a man, five cubits high and of great personal beauty.’ The cubit being variable in various parts of Greece, this figure would yet mean that Paurava was no less than seven feet tall! And Alexander of middling stature would have had to look up into those dark eyes and the sweat-streaked face.

It was then that the famous exchange took place that even the most ignorant among us know of. What, asked Alexander, would Paurava wish that the conqueror do with him and Paurava replied that he wished to be treated as a king. This much we all know. But Alexander had a farther query. ‘For my part your request shall be granted. But is there not something you would wish for yourself? Ask it.’ And Paurava the Punjabi who we are ashamed to claim as our own said that everything was contained in this one request.

Peace was made between the victor and the vanquished and it has been said that this was one battle where both sides emerged victorious. Alexander returned Paurava’s kingdom to him and shortly after the death of the king of Taxila asked Paurava to look after the affairs of that kingdom as well. Just three years after this great battle on the Jhelum, Alexander died under mysterious circumstances in Babylon. That was June 323 BCE. Within years, the great Raja Paurava was assassinated and the story seems to have ended. But not quite.

In 44 CE, Taxila was visited by a Greek philosopher named Apollonius. The philosopher’s account (kept by his diarist) tells us of two temples, one outside the city walls and the other by the main street leading to the king’s palace. Both temples had large copper plate murals adorning their walls. The murals depicted scenes of battle from the struggle that had taken place on the banks of the Jhelum River three hundred and sixty-seven years earlier.

The account marvels at the finesse of the renditions: the colours and the forms were as though one were watching a real scene frozen in time. The murals in both the temples depicted Raja Paurava in defeat. The account goes on to tell us that these murals were commissioned by Raja Paurava when news of the death of Alexander arrived in Taxila. Consider: Alexander was dead in distant Babylon, his Greek garrisons in the Sindhu Valley had deserted and Paurava was now the unquestioned master of this country. As sole sovereign, he could have ordered the murals to turn history around and depict him in glorious victory and Alexander in abject and shameful defeat.

But the Punjabi king was not just great in physical stature; he possessed also a soaring spirit and largesse of the heart that few of us know. The king ordered the murals, so it is recorded by Apollonius’ diarist, in order not only to acknowledge his friendship with Alexander, but also to preserve history as it had actually unfolded. In his wisdom the king knew that the creative passage of time was bound to alter history.

When the murals were put up, Taxila was what we today know as the Bhir mound. Two hundred years later, the Indo-Greeks shifted it to the remains we today call Sirkap. It is evident that the murals were admired to be moved to the new city. In the subsequent two hundred odd years the city was rebuilt several times as the various cultural layers show. Each time the murals were safely removed to a new site or they would not have survived three and a half centuries. Finally, in 25 CE Taxila was levelled by a severe earthquake. And when nineteen years later Apollonius arrived, the city was being rebuilt under a Parthian king and the murals had faithfully been reinstalled at the brand new temples. History was not permitted to be tainted.

We do not celebrate Paurava; we name no roads after him and do not teach our children of his lofty character because he shines in our pre-Islamic darkness. But can we today name even one leader possessed of just a shadow of the integrity and character shown by Raja Paurava?

Salman Rashid is a travel writer and knows Pakistan like the back of his hand

PUNJAB RAJA PORUS

The ‘Indian’ tomb of ancient Athens

By Majid Sheikh

The ancient Punjabi warrior king Porus and Alexander the great

Among the Rajputs of Lahore, especially among the Khokhars, a curious custom is still alive. Before being buried, the elders of the clan cut a few strands of hair from the deceased and burn it before burial. It was this curious custom that set me off on the trail of the Khokhars.

The Jhelum River in Punjab, Pakistan

The Khokhars have lived from antiquity on the banks of the River Ravi right up to the banks of the Indus. They have ruled Lahore many times, only to be thrown out by powerful invaders. Each time they surprised even the strongest adversary by the speed with which they rebound. Today they are the largest and most powerful Rajput clan of the Punjab. The Khokhars were originally Hindu of the Kshatriya warrior caste. They were also known as ‘Datts’ in the Jhelum region and still maintain many Hindu customs. Muslim Khokhars are known as Qutb Shahi Khokhars. There is a fair sprinkling of Christian Khokhars, equally proud as Hindu, Muslim or Sikh Rajputs.

An 1876 engraving of Khokar rajputs, from theIllustrated London News

Here an interesting tale hangs, and one that I have narrated before, and will briefly do so again at the end of this piece. But my story this time starts from Athens in Greece. In my student days I hitchhiked to Europe to find, in central Athens, a small sign that was the replacement of an earlier and older one, outside the ‘tomb of the Indian’, which read: “Zarmanochegas, an Indian, a native of Bargosa, having immortalized himself according to the custom of his country, here lies.”

Who was Zarmanochegas? There is considerable material about this person in the books by Mcrindle, by H.A. Rose and by Vincent Smith, at least enough to piece together a reasonably accurate picture of this mysterious person, for he was an ambassador sent from Lahore by the great Raja Porus in 327 BC. We all know of Raja Porus as the man who faced Alexander, and on being defeated insisted on being treated as ‘a king by a king’. Knowing several Rajputs friends, his is not a surprising comment.

The Punjab and it's surrounding areas in 1903. The historical home of the Khokhar clan.

Let us focus on Raja Porus first. He belonged to the Chandarbansi family, and as the Khokhars were the rulers of the Punjab even 200 years before Alexander came to the Punjab, the probability of him being a Khokhar is exceptionally high. We know that Porus was the fourth successor of the Khokhar Kshatriya Raja Kaid Raj, and as Hystaspes states that he was a contemporary of the Persian King Darius, it is obvious that Porus was a Khokhar Rajput. Now to this custom of hair burning.

When Alexander left the sub-continent, Raja Porus sent an embassy to Emperor Augustus Caesar, for he was known as the most powerful Raja of the Doabs between Ravi and Chenab of the Punjab, with influence right up to the Hindukush. The embassy remained in Athens, and when on learning of the death of Alexander, the loyal Khokhar Rajput announced that he would commit ‘johar’ as was the order of Porus the Great of the Punjab.

Samarkand in Uzbekistan Jasrath was captured and brought here after Shaikha Khokhar's defeat in 1398 A.D.

Mcrindle describes the cremation: “He prayed and sprinkled himself with a libation and cut off part of his hair to cast into the fire. He ascended the pile … lay down on the pyre and covered himself with robes. When the flames reached he did not move, as is the wont of a brave Rajput, until the sacrifice was auspiciously consummated according to the custom of the sages. He was from the town of Loh (Lahore) along the Ravi”.

Panoramic view of Pharwala Fort, traditional seat of the Gakhar Clan(The fort is in a bad shape, being situated in the Kahuta area)

The Khokhar Rajputs originate from Persia and are descendants of the Persian Emperor Jamshed, the man the Parsi community venerates. Clans of Rajputs exist from Iran to the Punjab, including the tribes of Jadeja, Khokhars, Pahalvi, Kamboja, Rathore, Chibh, Bhats or Bhatti, Samma, Virks, and other such clans.It were the Khokhar Rajputs, known as Datts in the Jhelum area, that accompanied Alexander as trusted guards back to Greece. It goes without saying that he did not trust his own Greek guards given the politics of that age. After he died in Alexandria in Egypt, they settled along the Arabian coast, and traded.

The Battle of Karbala:7 Punjabi Dutts/Khokhars
(Hussaini Brahmins) were slain in the battle.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) prophesied the slaying of his grandson Hussain at Karbala, and had requested the Datts and their sons, with whom he traded, to protect him as he would not be around. That promise the Khokhar Rajputs, all Hindus, kept, for at Karbala seven Datt brothers were slain.Their ancestors are known as Hussain Brahmins and in a curious miracle of sorts they are born, even today, with a slit across their throats.

Sunil Dutt

 The Indian actors Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt are from that tradition. In an earlier piece I have dwelt in detail on this famous family that left Lahore in 1947. I once met, in a remote

Sheikhupura village, a Hussain Brahmin with a huge leather-bound book, registering the births and deaths of true Syeds. He claimed he had just walked through the wired fences on the Indian border. That is a tale I did not lump, but you never know.

As we pass through history, we see the Khokhar Rajputs emerge in the shape of the Raja, or Puru, from where the Latinised version Porus comes, of Lahore by the name of Jaipal. His clash with the Afghan invading force of Subuktagen in 988 AD led to a series of battles. After a number of defeats against the forces of Mahmud, his last being in November 1001, and the Great Puru, the Khokhar Rajput ruler, Raja Jaipal, committed ‘johar’ outside Mori Gate along the banks of the River Ravi where today stands a huge banyan tree just behind the fish market. No monument marks that place of the great man of Lahore.

Raja Jaipal:The Warrior Punjabi King defended the boundaries of Punjab fiercely.

This act of ‘johar’ spurred the Rajputs to collect a force of 30,000 Khokhars in 1009 AD under Raja Anandpal to face the invading Afghans. The brave Rajputs went into battle bare-headed as a mark of respect for honour lost and smashed the Ghazni forces. Their bravery and valour became part of Punjabi folklore, and a huge portion of eastern Rajputana was renamed Khokhara. Bhera for a long time remained their capital. It was then a 21-gate city. Today it is a dismal ruin, and one that Pakistan should retrieve and show the world their history.

Razia Sultana marches with an army of Khokhars to recapture Delhi

Over the centuries the Khokhars won and lost Lahore a number of times. In 1395 the famous Sheikha Khokhar of village Thakkar, 13 miles from the banks of the River Chenab, raised the banner of revolt and captured almost the entire of the Punjab. He captured the Lahore Fort. He ruled Lahore wisely and his son Raja Sheikha Khokhar ascended the Lahore throne in 1427 AD. After that they captured and lost Lahore almost 15 times, each time rising to power when least expected.

Shahabuddin Ghouri: was murdered in Sohawa/ Dhamayak  in 1206 CE in the Jhelum district by the Khokhars

hroughout the Moghal period and the later Afghan and Sikh periods, the Khokhar Rajputs of the Doab between Lahore and Gujrat kept the fight on to keep their lands free from foreigners. They even battled the British when it came to the end of the Sikh period. From the ‘johar’ in Athens to the ‘johar’ of Jaipal, to the battles of 1857, these sons of the soil have never relented. No wonder Maharajah Ranjit Singh once said: “Raab tay Khokharan toon darr lagda aye” – I fear the Almighty and the Khokhars.