http://www.statesman.com.pk/today/local/local2.htm
The old and the elegant City
By Kazi Sarwar
According to Dr. Ahmad Hassan Dani, historian, scholar and famed archaeologist, “Peshawar is the oldest living city in Pakistan with a history as varied and adventurous as the romantic charm of the surrounding hills and the world famous Khyber Pass. The old city saw several changes in history. The rise and fall are inseparably linked with the story of the peoples that pushed through the western gates and made a bid for new historic life in the role of Peshawar. The haven of refuge for the wandering humanity over the rugged western hills.”
The history of Peshawar or Parashawar and its people, their deeds and experiences, that attended them discovering their different humours, presents the pleasant features of the moving accidents and surprises that raises enthusiasm.
It is in this context, what enabled travellers, scholars and historians to save and recover the history of Peshawar or Parashawar and into people out of movements, wards, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books and the like, from the deluge of time. Peshawar was first mentioned by Fa-Hein in 400 AD at the time, the king of Ghandhara was at war with the king of Kipin or Kophene - that was Kabul, Ghazni and the surrounding hills and valleys.
Sung Yun in his memoirs did not name the city, yet his vivid description of the great stupa of King Kanishka was quite enough to establish the identity of Peshawar. The City was next mentioned by Musuid and Abu Rehan in the 10th and 11th centuries as Parshawar.
Zaheerud Din Babur, the founder emperor of the Mughal dynasty, frequently wrote Parshawar in his commentaries. He was very fond of the city for its lush-green and magnificent gardens and beautiful fertile valley bedecked with flowers and laden with fruit.
“In some places yellow flowers bloomed in plots, in others sheets of ‘arghawani’ (red) flowers in several plots. Both the yellow and the red flowers bloomed together, while we sat on a mound near the camp to enjoy the site. There were flowers on all sides of the mound, yellow here, red there, as if arranged to form a sextuple and were extremely beautiful.”
The great object of reverence and veneration at Peshawar, in the first century of the Christian era was the famous and sacred begging bowl of Lord Buddha. Yet another historically worth-mentioning site in Peshawar was the holy ‘Pipal’ tree, approximately two miles away to the south west of the City. The holy ‘Pipal’ tree was said to be 100 feet high with its sprawling branches in all the four directions. Strange enough, FA-Hein did not notice the holy tree, though Sung Yun gave lengthy details describing it as the ‘Buddhi’ tree whose branches were spread out and made the sight of the sky shut out. The holy tree was said to be planted by King Kanishka, and believed to have been seen by Zahir-ud-Din Babar who described it as the “stupendous tree of Bagram.” To the west of the ‘Buddhi’ tree, there was an old monastery, also built by King Kanishka. Babar wrote that he had heard of the fame of Gor Gathri, one of the holy places of the Hindu ‘Jogis’ where ‘Jogis’ came to the monastery from distant places in Hindustan. After cutting their hair and shaving their heads, they stayed and prayed at the monastery.
The city owes its present name to Akbar, the Great Mughal Emperor, whose fondness for innovations led him ultimately to change the centuries old name of Parshawar to Peshawar, batter known later on as the Frontier Town.
The city occupied a space of 49,420 acres and was populated with 84,191 souls including suburbs. It was surrounded by a very long mud wall said to be the works of General Aviatabile, the governor of Peshawar during the Sikh domination paid for by the levy of a tax, cruelly and in most cases ruthlessly collected from the Muslim inhabitants of the city. The city had sixteen gates, commencing from the west were Ramdas, Dabgari, Bajoury, and Kabuli, to the north Asamai, Namadmali, Kutchery, Reti, Rampura and Hashtnagri, on the eastern side of the city were two gates, namely Lahori and Ganj, while to the south were Yakkaatoot, Kohati, Thandi Kohi and Tabiban gates. All these gates were closed in the evening at gun-fire and opened by the sound of gun early in the morning.
The city was divided into five main localities. These were Sarasia, Jehangirpura, Andersheher, Karimpura and Ganj. Of these, Andersher was known as the rich people’s locality. Houses built had an attractive style of architecture with specious courtyards to enable the inmates of the house to walk about. Andersheher was devastated by a huge fire, which almost raised the entire locality to the ground. The city had the most flourishing markets known far fair trade. Of these the largest and credited with enormous local as well as foreign trade were the Ganj Mandi, Pipal Mandi and Mewa Mandi near the Dabgari gate. These were eleven big Sarais (resting place) where travellers from far off places stayed for a nominal charge not exceeding one rupee for two days sojourns including three meals a day.
The city was commanded by a mud fort built on the ruins of the Bala Hisar, once the residence of the Durranis. The fort quadrilateral in shape, measured about 200 years on its south, east and west, while on its northern side 220 yards in length the walls rose to a height of 92 feet. The fort dominated every part of the old City.
Peshawar was threatened by a flood in the river Bara in 1860, which caused considerable damages to private and public buildings in and around the city. A dam some three miles up stream was constructed which afforded protection to the City.
Peshawar was once a great trade market, to Afghanistan, Swat, Bajour, Tirah and Central Asia. Matter of fact, Peshawar the elegant City, was known far and near as the chief emporium of overland communication on the western side of the mighty Abaseen (Indus river).
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When spring time flushes the desert grass, our ‘Kafilas’ wind through the Khyber Pass,
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Lean are the camels best heavy the frails, light and the purse, but heavy the bales
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When the snowbound trade of the north comes down.
To the market square of Peshawar town. (Rudyard Kipling)