Lost glory
Depalpur, on the bank of River Beas, was the cultural centre of the region before Lahore
By Dr Raheal Ahmad Siddiqui
Amir Khusrau, the poet of mediaeval India, fell into the hands of marauding Mongols, just outside the city of Depalpur and was made a prisoner. Like all victims of the Tatars in the 13th century, he too found their appearance devilish.
Depalpur, an important provincial town of medieval India once bustling with trade, now reduced to the level of an ordinary Tehsil headquarter, lies 25 kms west of Okara. Mian Allah Ditta Naseem Saleemi, a retired ‘vasika navees’ whom I met in Depalpur resents city’s lost glory. Twelve years ago, he wrote a book ‘Tarikh-e-Depalpur’, a hotchpotch of facts and fiction, from which truth could be extracted only if you are sufficiently versed in history. Nevertheless, a laudable effort by a man, who drew his inspiration from the taunting question he faced in 1970s, while visiting Lahore, “Where is Depalpur?” Lahoris would ask him.
Now, Depalpur’s lost glory is balanced by its rich history and heritage. The earliest historical reference of the city is found in ‘Chach Namah’ and ‘Tarikh Maasumi’. After Multan, Muhammad Bin Qasim conquered Depalpur, which was on the bank of River Beas. He then marched out to the frontiers to mark the boundary with Kashmir.
The year was 713 A.D and Lahore was not worth mentioning in this narrative. Saleemi was correct; 1000 years ago, when Lahore was just a growing village, Depalpur was the provincial headquarter, a city rivalling Multan in importance. With the roles reversed, his ancestors must have grilled the visiting Lahoris with the same question, “Where is Lahore?”
Taking a day off from Lahore, I reached the office of assistant commissioner Depalpur. Amir Kareem, the young bureaucrat, took me for a round of the old city. This fortified town had four gates on each side and were named to honour the city it faced: thus we had Multani, Bekaneri, Dehli and Lahori gates respectively.
Few miles outside the Multani gate was the bed of River Beas, the lifeline for the prosperity of this city. The river changed its course some time after the Arab conquest of Sind and Multan. In March 1285, the brave Prince Muhammad, rode out of this gate for the last time to face the Mongol hordes. The dried bed of the river was then the scene of the clashing of the swords. Saleemi insisted that the “Martyr Prince” was buried inside the town, a presumption not supported by historical references.
In order to prove his point, he promised to lead us to the tomb of Balban’s son. Following Saleemi, we walked past the arched gate and entered the city. Entering a complex guarded by green and black flags we found the tomb on one side of the compound. It had a circular dome painted white, resting on a square base. We found two inscriptions, both in Persian, embedded on baked bricks, one just above the front door and the other on the back wall. I carefully took photographs so that the true meaning of these writings could be deciphered later.
A closer inspection inside the tomb revealed more secrets. All four walls of this building had arched passages, quite opposite to each other, for better light and cross ventilation. The three entrances were now blocked with bricks, which accounted for near darkness inside the tomb. On the forth-frontal side, a wooden door had been added. In this poor light we searched for murals or frescoes, but found none. Our efforts revealed a stone slab, half broken and poorly embedded in the wall, containing a Persian inscription. Instead of one, there were two graves draped in green chadar. The identical tombstones, though poorly carved, gave a brief introduction of each occupant. The one on the left was the ‘Mazar Mubarak’ of Hazarat Hussain Shah Gillani who died on May 1, 1947.
Naushaba Anjum, a numismatologist, the science of coins and medals, knows Persian. Using a magnifying glass, she deciphered the inscriptions for me. The one above the front door gives the following information: “By the grace of Allah, Toozi son of Jalaluddin Khan, the slave of Holy Prophet (Pbuh) had built this structure”. The inscription on the back wall was the first part of an incomplete verse that read, “If a favourite, popular and a brave man embrace death…”
By putting the pieces of this jigsaw together, the mystery was unfolded. It is a fact that Balkan’s favourite son and heir apparently died bravely fighting to the end. Amir Khusrau, the court poet, who survived this Mongol adventure, dramatised the event, converting it into a local legend. Feroze Shah Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi, famous for building walls, mosques and a canal, heard this tale of chivalry during his stay at Depalpur.
Under his royal orders, Toozi, the architect had built a tomb over the grave of Muhammad, the martyred son of Balban, almost a century after his death. And to top it all, Mian A.D. Saleemi’s hotchpotch history had hit the bull’s eye.