Harking back: Power twists of the distant past and lessons for today

The political drama unfolding before our readers these days is merely politicians of various reputations, all experts at delaying justice, at shifting loyalties, and all with their eyes on power and the wealth it brings. The ‘treasures’ sought can be in any form.

To enjoy the lessons of our history, let us examine two characters from Lahore’s distant past to understand the degree to which rulers can go to gain and ‘enjoy’ power. The question is: “does power corrupt?”

To remain unbiased and without ruffling ‘piety feathers’ so easily done these days, let us examine two rulers of our land, one well over 2,000 years ago, and the other just 1,000 years ago. It will demonstrate just how the use and gaining of power unfolds in bizarre ways.

Last week a guest from Karachi was discussing just how and why Harappa, just 160 miles to Lahore’s south, was destroyed. Now this got me consulting a research paper which dealt with myths, theories and local stories about Harappa. It seems, and this is one of several theories, that at the time of its destruction, the ruler was Hara Pala. The word ‘Pala’ in Sanskrit means ruler. His reign spread over a large country “ten days ride on a cart in every direction”. Hence, it is a conjecture, that the hamlet of Lahu, or Lahore, was very much part of his kingdom.

Just to add a relatively modern detail that in a 1956 archaeological dig in the Lahore Fort at a 50-foot depth opposite the Dewan-e-Aam, pottery and other samples, carbon-dated at 4,500 years of age, were found. Hence one can put forward the proposition that Hara Pala could also have been the ruler of Lahore in that far distant time period, and his influence and pastimes covered Lahore too. Mind you it is an educated guess based on hearsay, myths, and to a degree ‘facts’.

Now why was Harappa destroyed? Local myths all point to one story, and that being that the ruler Hara Pala had passed a decree that all new brides for the first night was his ‘sovereign’s right’. He exercised this ‘privilege’ with abandon, and given the small population size this probably was an accepted practice. There is a narration, which several scholars have mentioned, that he committed ‘incest’ with a very near relative. Now that could be his wife’s sister’s daughter as one source claims, which is the version most popular among the local population still.

Allegedly the poor girl prayed to the Almighty to destroy the ruler and the country, and then a massive earthquake hit the city and it was burnt to ashes. The wicked Hara Pala was burnt alive and the city was abandoned. This seems to be the most popular version still among the local population around Harappa. But then a second, rather hard to verify version, among the local population is that a foreign invader burnt Harappa and killed everyone. They say it happened before Mahmud of Ghazni invaded. A few credible scholars are claiming that an advance force of Muhammad bin Qasim did penetrate north of Multan. The time period seems to nearly match, though archaeologists defer this possibility by at least 500 years.

The archaeological evidence that is pointed out by scholars such as Dr Raymond Allchin tends to suggest that large portions of the destroyed Harappa did have burnt remains. The rest is up to your imagination. But then many a ruler of other lands are also alleged to have followed such bridal incest practices. We also read of similar incest stories concerning Raja Dahir of Alor in Sindh, who allegedly married his own sister, leading to his destruction at the hands of the Arab invader. As his defeated forces moved northwards, it is possible that the story was picked up by local inhabitants of Harappa. Who was to blame, Raja Dahir or Muhammad bin Qasim, for both had terrible ends.

Now let us move to a time period almost 1,000 years ago, and there is recorded historical evidence of this period. Lahore was once ruled by the Bharata family of rulers. Mind you Bharat is named after this ruler of Lahore, just as Hindustan is named after the Arab inability to speak the letters ‘Sindh’ and hence the word ‘Hind’ came about. Details of Bharata are described in the epic ‘Mahabharata’. The last of the ‘Bharata’ rulers of Lahore moved their forces to conquer Jhelum and Takeshar, which were ruled by the Hindushahi ruler Jayapala.

Now this Bharata family of rulers had a strange history where the son on reaching maturity would invariably imprison their old ruling fathers and take over. It was a cruel act, but not unheard of. Raja Bharata was imprisoned by his son Chandrak, as had earlier ones.

When Jayapala heard of this horrible practice, he sent his son Anandpala to counter the evil forces of the Bharata rulers. So from Chakwal moved the Hindushahi forces and in the battle of Samutla defeated the Lahore ruler, who fled. Hence in the year 998 AD Lahore was annexed by the Hindushahi forces and Jayapala became the ruler.

As Jayapala was fighting a series of battles against the Afghan invader Mahmud, on being defeated time and again he committed the honourable Rajput practice of ‘Johar’ (self-immolation) outside Lahore’s Mori Gate, where the Ravi then flowed outside. Surely a plaque to this effect is in order.

The urge to gain power also had two major Mughal rulers imprisoning their fathers, as almost all of them fighting their brothers and putting them to death to gain power. Such is the lure of power, which brings with it wealth and control over other humans. Among the Ottoman Turks this was accepted practice. It is a basic ‘animal instinct’, for humans are just one species of the animal kingdom.

So Lahore and its environs have experienced many such bizarre ways of acquiring power. Whatever is happening these days is very much in line with what our history, as that of every ‘power centre’ in the world, tells us. Be it England or France or Turkey or Iran and beyond in the sub-continent, the struggle for power is there to be seen. The beauty of democracy is that this struggle moves out of the ‘family format’ and depends on the will of the people. Family formats are fatal for democracy.

Here we see all the ‘defeated’ and ‘suspect’ politicians clubbing their efforts to get rid of the ruler. It is almost an exact duplicate of the ‘Dasanrajan’ episode in the ‘Mahabharata’, where the Bharata ruler defeated the nine kings collected from all over the land that is today Pakistan. The similarity is amazing, only now votes not swords matter more. History also tells us of the Mughals and how one set of brothers partnered to defeat another group of brothers, only to end up fighting among themselves.

Will this happen now? My take is that it should all things being equal. That fight will hold a lot of lessons for our politicians, who sadly never learn. My apologies for bringing the distant past to the troubles of today, but then that is why the past is studied. To each his own view.