By Mahmood Zaman

Date:28-08-05

Source: Dawn

Tilla Jogian has a rich historical background that needs to be preserved by ourauthorities

Located at 3,200ft above sea level, Tilla Jogian is the highest peak of the Salt Range, which is known for its temples, forts and fossilized rocks and trees. This peak is famous for its ruins of Hindu temples dating back to the time when Alexander the Great came to this part of the world as the head of a military expedition. Scenic and beautiful, Tilla Jogian is a pleasant picnic spot from where one can have a magnificent view of the river Jhelum and the vast landscape of the Potohar Plateau.

The Punjab government has recently chosen this site for adventure tourism and has already sponsored a few visits of students and other tourists to spend a day in the calm and serene presence of the remains of the monastery which Guru Goraknath, the founder of the Jogi tradition in India during the reign of Raja Salvahan of Sialkot in the first century BC, established to spread Hindu education with special emphasis on meditation.

Many traditional stories have been attributed to Tilla Jogian. One of them relates to Raja Bharthi, also known in history as Puran Bhagat, the elder brother of Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain, who left his throne to his brother to join the monastery as a disciple of Guru Goraknath. A samadhi (grave) on the top of the mound is said to be that of Puran Bhagat, a legendary character in Punjabi folk.

According to another tradition, the legendary romantic hero, Ranjha, joined the fraternity of jogis at this very place after his heart was broken because Heer was forcibly married off to someone else. He travelled all the way from Sial in Jhang, the village of Heer of Sialan, to Tilla Jogian away from Jhelum, to become the ‘faqir of Heer’. Dressed in saffron robes with ears pierced and wearing wooden slippers, Ranjha resumed his journey to find his beloved from this mound carrying a begging bowl.

Another story links Tilla Jogian with Hakeem Abu Rehan Al-Bairuni, the mathematician and scholar of the Mahmood Ghaznavi period, who spent 13 years in this area to discover the circumference of the world. He first sat on Tilla Jogian and then the Nandna Fort to accomplish his rare scientific feat, which is to date acknowledged as the correct measurement of the global circumference. The scientist, historian and philosopher from Afghanistan, considered to be a rebel by the rulers of Ghazna, has narrated his visits to the Salt Range in his famous book Kitabul Hind. For Mughal monarchs, the pine-strewn heights of Tilla Jogian must have been a welcome respite from the summer of Punjab as they usually stopped here during their journey between Lahore and Kashmir. It was because of this stopover that Emperor Akbar got a water tank built here. It is said that Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, spent 40 days to complete the ‘chilla’, worshipping his lord. For the British rulers of Punjab, Tilla Jogian served as a summer resort and the deputy commissioner of Jhelum stayed here for weeks when hot weather in Lahore would become unbearable.

The mound area has three groups of old structures at its top. Twelve temples, a shrine and a monastery, all in ruins, stand out among them. A central water tank and a well built in the Central Asian style from the Mughal period also adorn the historic site. The water tank, made for storage of rain water from the catchment area, is square in shape with 10 steps on all four sides. Also standing here is a ramp from the floor in the northern wall having semi-hexagonal minarets and walls on both sides. Each minaret has a kiosk on top surmounted by a fluted and ribbed dome finished with a lantern. The eastern parapet is separated by a wall for women bathers and cross-legged deities which are a special feature of this part of the tank.

The shrine commemorates the visit of Baba Guru Nanak and its damaged structures can be seen on the peak of the hill. There is also a cave underneath. The monastery, a lonely clump of weathered buildings, is located in the forest peak. Most of its buildings are roofless hulks and are in ruins. But the temple of Lord Shiva has a roof and is, by and large, intact. Noted archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham, who visited this site in 1864, believes that Guru Goraknath was the transmutation of Lord Shiva. The monastery survived and thrived for more than 2,000 years with Goruknath and his disciples imparting learning and the art of meditation to the followers of the Kunphatta (torn ears) sect of jogis from all over India.

As for temples, they are 12 in number and are clustered on all sides of Tilla Jogian. All are built with stones and are square in shape. Three of them are to the west of the main tank. A complex of seven temples is in the north-west and two of them stand on the eastern side.

Tilla Jogian has for centuries been the site of a great annual congregation of jogis from India. Now this mound is a deserted place where the wind sighs through hundreds of pine trees. It has a colonial building where British officers used to spend their pastime. The building is now serving as a rest house for tourists besides a camping site where cooking facility is available.

Tilla Jogian is located 24kms from the Rohtas Fort, built by Emperor Sher Shah Suri which is now listed by Unesco as a world heritage site. The tour package offered by the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) includes a visit to the 16th century citadel which has majestic fortification walls on the contours of the hills unparalleled in the world.

The road from the Rohtas Fort to the mound is in a bad condition. The entire road is bumpy and uneven. There are sharp, narrow and dangerous turns near Tilla Jogian.

The TDCP has no immediate plans to get the road metalled, because the site is meant for adventure tourism and a good road means losing the charm of adventure.