Harking back: Unending search to find the origins of Lahore

Ever since this column was launched almost 20 years ago, thanks to the late Zafar Iqbal Mirza, the then Editor (of Lahore Metro), the question most posed by curious readers has been: “Who founded Lahore and when?”

The logical answer one will try to compress in one column. But first the name itself. Over the centuries, if a few thousand is more appropriate a time scale, the names have slightly varied. But the central theme has remained the same. Myths tell us that the hero of the epic of ‘Ramayana’ was Rama, who had two sons, namely Loh and Kash. Rama was the ruler of Lahore and he was a ‘Solanki’- solar or Sun – Hindu Rajput.

Ancient Sanskrit scripts identify the cities named after his sons as Lo-awar, meaning the fort of Loh, and Kus-awar, meaning the fort of Kash. Hence the names of Lahore and Kasur have their origins in Rajput epic rulers of the land. We also know that the Rana rulers of Mewar claim that their origins are from Lahore, as they are the descendants of Prince Loh. A lot of other Hindu Rajput rulers also make the same claim still.

The other ancient epic is the ‘Mahabharata’ which clearly names Loh-awar as the battle site. My research tells me that it was allegedly fought at where Mahmood-Boti Bund exists today just off Lahore’s Ring Road. The battle for possession of Lahore was fought between the Kauravas, the sons of Dhritarashtra, who was a descendant of the Kuru, and the Pandavas, all sons of Pandu. This epic of 100,000 couplets is probably the longest ever written, and was completed to the west of Lahore.

The Mahabharata was in essence the fight between sectarian Hinduism and an emerging Jainism and Buddhism. Battles tend to still be defined in communal terms for it appeals to the illiterate where priests reign supreme. In simpler financial terms it was a fight over the possession of the river port of Lahore from where trade flowed southwards.

We know that port as Khizri gateway, renamed relatively recently by Maharajah Ranjit Singh as Sheranwala Gate. Khawaja Khizr Elias was ‘Phineas’ - a companion of the Prophet Moses, and is known as the saint of sailors and fishermen. Hence this epic is less than 3,300 years old for the name is mentioned in Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious texts.

But how does these happenings date the name Lahore? This is an event occurring a few thousand years before the ‘Mahabharata’ battle for possession of Lahore’s river port. We learn from myths that the father of Rama was Dasharatha who was allegedly born in 12,300 BC. Epics date the birth of Rama at 12,240 BC. One epic gives the exact date as 29 November, 12,240 BC, with the Rama-Sita wedding timed as the first week of January 12,223. Just how this exact date was reached is bizarre in itself. But belief-based ‘research’ tends to be abrupt in this regard. If the reader is still interested all he, or she, can do is consult the research of Shri Pushkar Bhatnagar in Part 1.

We also know from Indian sources based on astronomical calculations the ‘Mahabharata’ took place approximately 5,000 years ago. Now we also know from scientific sources that humans were living in caves in the late Paleolithic Age, and used primitive stone tools. So most details about the battle for Lahore did not have the bows and arrows mentioned in the epics. But then priests always manage to invent stories to increase their earnings. This is true of all belief systems.

Now let us return to the reality of archaeology to date the name Lahore. The sole archaeological expedition in 1959 carried out by the department of archaeology and a British team of experts in the Lahore Fort opposite the Dewan-e-Aam was a 50-feet deep pit in seven stages. Pottery and fragments discovered have been carbon-dated at 4,500 years in age. The only other discovery was in Mohallah Maullian inside Lohari Gate where fragments found from a business dig have been dated at 3,250 years in age.

So this clearly shows that the very first inhabitants dwelt on mounds. In a piece written earlier we reached the conclusion that whenever floods hit the nearby Harappa area, people flocked to any mound they could easily reach. The mounds of the River Ravi at Lahore was an attractive and safe place. The fragments found closely resemble those found in Harappa.

Various scholars have tried to research the origins of Lahore. Probably the oldest known is the Maulvi Noor Ahmed Chisthi’s ‘Tehkiqat-e-Chisthi’ in 1867. Then this was followed by a similar history of Lahore by Thornton and J.L. Kipling. Best known is Kanhiya Lal’s ‘Tarikh-e-Lahore’. All of these tend to get lost merely 1,500 years or so. To trace just how ancient the city is no small feat.

We have tried to be more exact and have depended on both epics and scientific facts. The pottery carbon-dating takes us a mere 4,500 years back, which is fine. The epics of myths put the timeline at approximately 4,000 years plus. The birth of Rama and his son have been timed at well over 12,250 years. But let us add another scientific fact to the picture.

For this we will have to proceed extreme southwards at Mehrgarh in Balochistan. As humans moved northwards up the River Indus, we know that the excavated site at Mehrgarh on the Kacchi Plains of Balochistan was probably the world’s oldest planned city. Experts time it as coming about 7,000 BC, or 9,000 years ago. The latest calculation goes on to put it at 12,000-plus years.

If we move up north we have Mohenjo-Daro timed at 7,500 years and Harappa at 5,500 years. So there is a remote possibility that the birth of Lahore could be approximately 5,000 years old. But then the name baffles.

As the Solar Rajput ruler of Lahore – Kanekson – migrated towards central India, it seems beyond doubt that the city was always a Rajput city, and that names like Bhatti, Janjua, Minhas and Ghakkar time and again come to light. Even Akbar the Mughal expanded the city to create a Bhati gate to accommodate the Bhatti tribe opposed to his rule.

But taking a long historic view of the city of Lahore, it is clear that it is a Hindu Rajput city of solar worshipers. All of them migrated eastwards over time as Muslims invaded from the West and persecuted beliefs opposed to them. In 1947 the process took an extreme form and cleansed the city and the land of its original dwellers.

So Rama and Loh, after whom Lahore is named, allegedly dwelled at least 10,000 years before the city took its name. An archaeological project with carbon-dating at the Temple of Loh might yet give the city a new dimension.