Harking Back: Valmiki’s temple could be Lahore’s oldest structure

We often ponder just which is the oldest structure of Lahore? This is a loaded question, but the answers exist at three levels. These levels being (a) archaeological, (b) literary, and (c) structural.

For starters this subject can take up an entire booklet, let alone a book. But let me sparingly touch on the subject and bring forth a few propositions. First the archaeological side of this proposition. In 1959 the Pakistan Department of Archaeology and the British Archaeological Society undertook an initial dig in the front of the Lahore Fort’s Dewan-e-Aam. They went 50 feet deep covering numerous strata.

As they went deeper the brick work appeared and the earliest occupation came at 35 feet. As they went deeper to 50 feet they discovered earthenware whose carbon dating took them back 4,500-plus years. These were very similar to those found in the early Harappa Period. With this awareness I visited Dr. Cameron Pertie of Cambridge University’s archaeology department, and a Harappa expert.

His theory, in short, is that climate change, even lasting 200 years of relative extreme dryness, followed by massive floods, forced people to head towards nearby mounds, giving rise to the first urban dwellings. This was, and still is critical. Recent events are proof of this. Hence what better place than the high mounds of Lahore. The pattern is for urban areas to get populated in droughts, and the opposite in times of plenty of rain.

Let me add here that almost 10 years ago a Cambridge researcher visiting Lahore happened, purely by chance, to be walking in Mohallah Maullian inside Lohari. He was looking for the house where Buddha allegedly stayed for three months. He saw a trader digging up the foundations of an old ‘protected’ house. Deep down fragments of pottery appeared which they threw aside.

He asked if he could take some, they laughingly said “Sure, as many as you like”. Back in the testing laboratories of Cambridge it emerged that they were 3,200-3,000 years old. So on this smaller mound also people lived in that time period, if not earlier.

So there is now growing archaeological evidence of movement between the mounds of ancient Lahore and nearby places like Harappa, which because of climate change was finally deserted. We know from experience gained by the Aga Khan Trust work on the Shahi Hammam inside Delhi Gateway that the foundations were 12 feet deeper than the outside road today. The reader can visit the place and see for themselves. So if dust settles over 10 feet in 380 years in an urban area, then over 4,000 years it surely gains 125-plus feet, which is what happened to the deserted Harappa.

Now let us return to a few literary pointers, and this piece is really a build-up to an important small project that might soon take off. Legend has it that Rama and Sita the rulers of Lahore had two sons, namely Lava and Kusha. The story of these two are the foundations of the Hindu literary tradition as depicted in the epic ‘Ramayana’ written by Valmiki.

Hindu legend says that both twin brothers were born in the ‘ashram’ of Valmiki, and in their honour the cities of Lahore and Kasur were named. This means that Lahore as we know it had a name before Lava appeared on the scene. Now this is where some differences appear in research interpretation.

The traditional Hindu version is that Rama belonged to Kosala, which according to Valmiki’s ‘Ramayana’ was ruled by many kings, including Rama, and they were descendants of the Sun God. This is well over 350 miles to the East of Lahore. But then we also know that a Sun Temple existed where today is Paniwala Talab in Chuna Mandi, the highest mound of the city after the fort.

Now his capital was Ayodhya. The word ‘ayodhya’, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘yudh’, meaning war, or a place of war. The epic ‘Mahabharata’ depicts the Kurukshetra Wars where two branches of this family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, battle it out on the river. Experts have identified this place as the Irawati, or Ravi, in a fight against Prince Bharata, the ruler of Lahore. It was all about rights over the river trade on the Ravi.

This is a long debate, mixed more with belief than reality, and better left alone. We know that the Hindu religion was born in the land that is today Pakistan. That Rama’s sons were born in Valmiki’s ashram, and became rulers of Lahore and Kasur, so it is a safe assumption that they were born not very far from these two cities.

So let us concentrate on Valmiki. Legend has it that much before Islam came to our city and country, three ‘kos’ from the mud-walled city of Lahore, a temple dedicated to Valmiki came up. Today this still exists, and is probably the oldest standing temple, or building, site in Lahore. In terms of the city’s origins, this is a good pointer.

When the rage of Babri Masjid took over the sub-continent, a mob of communalists attacked this ancient temple in Nila Gumbad and destroyed its main structure. They did the same with Jain Mandir, even though the Jains had nothing to do with the Babri Masjid debate.

So who was Valmiki? Valmiki in Sanskrit literature is known as the ‘Adi Kavi’, or the first poet. The Sanskrit language itself emerged as an elitist language of the Brahmin classes from the languages of Northern Pakistan, especially Pratik, or Old Punjabi. The very first Sanskrit dictionary, known as ‘Arthashastra’ was compiled by Chanaka, also known as Kautilya, whose family belonged to Charsadda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but was born in Taxila, where he was educated.

So this elitist language slowly died out and only the priestly classes learnt it. So we have Valmiki the very first Sanskrit poet who had an ‘ashram’ probably near Lahore, but surely not far from it. He compiled the epic ‘Ramayana’ dated at any time between 500 BC and 100 BC. This means that Hinduism shifted eastwards relatively in recent historic time.

Why did it move eastwards? Well, the invading nomadic Aryans believed it human equality and the ‘threatened’ caste-ridden structure of Hinduism found it safer to move eastwards towards the Ganges for the Brahmins to practice their religion, where people have to pay them to reach the Almighty.

Valmiki’s father named Pracheta Bhrigu was a ‘rishi’- a sort of ‘malang’ - born in western Haryana nearer Lahore. The book ‘Bhrigu Samhita’ is said to be written by a Bhrigu is the oldest book on astrology. At least Paul Deussen in his research ‘Sixty Upanishads’ says so. As Valmiki wrote the epic classic ‘Ramayana’ most Hindus believe that after his death he was reborn as a Brahmin, for he was originally from a Dalit caste.

Our interest is in the Valmiki Temple in Nila Gumbad, Lahore, for that is estimated at being well over 1,300 years old. Why was this place chosen? No proof exists of this place having a direct connection with the poet, but as he is a respected person, hence a ‘rishi’ of sorts, this ‘ashrams’ came about. It was a large space that today the Evacuee Trust has rented out to shopkeepers.

The space left for the Valmiki Temple is relatively much smaller than the original area. The old temple has stood the test of time, and finally an effort has started to rebuild it in its original shape. After Jain Mandir, this temple should truly reflect the tolerance of Lahore.