A Samadhi or Tomb present in Tapiala Dost Muhammad Khan (2019)

 (All pictures and research belong to the author and should only be used after written permission)

Date of  visit:- 09 November 2019

Front view of Tomb

Tapiala Dost Muhammad Khan is a small town located 11.7 km on Muridka-Narang Mandi Road. In ancient times Grand Trunk Road passes through this town. I also found some remains of the old Grand Trunk in Tapiala. 

Remain of Old of GT Road Road 

 

GT Road from Tapiala (mausoleum) made the onward journey to Pul Shah Daula with an ancient bridge on Nullah Degh. 

 

There is an old, isolated mausoleum standing in an ancient graveyard of Tapiala Dost Muhammad Khan. Long ago, I read about this mausoleum in a book, "The Silk Roads Highway of Culture and Commerce" by Vadim Elisseeff. But not much written about its history. In the Urdu language, 'Tapi' means tree and the meaning of 'Tapiala' could be derived as' the town full of trees. 

 

The second question that came to mind was that who was Dost Muhammad Khan. 

In history, the most prominent personality by this name was of Dost Mohammad Khan (December 23, 1793 – June 9, 1863). HE was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he became Emir of Afghanistan from 1823 to 1839 and then from 1843 to 1863. An ethnic Pashtun. However, the present tomb is not related to him as the Afghan king died in Afghanistan and has a burial tomb present in Herat. 

 

Meanwhile, we met an elderly guy from Tapiala. He was aware of the history of this place. He shared that Dost Muhammad Khan was a local chief appointed by Mughal Darbar.

 

The tomb's outer facade was plastered recently with cement. It has a double-dome roof, that is present almost in all Mughal mausoleum in the sub-continent.

Inside there were three graves present.

Three Graves

The most interesting thing found in this tomb was fresco paintings on the walls and roof.  One more thing which I noticed inside that there were no Islamic inscriptions are written on the tomb. That is one of the common elements seen in the Islamic architecture of tombs. I also observed that some portion of the paintings were erased and redrawn. The object is redrawn and added later with different types of fruit shapes.

Fruit Painting

Fruit Painting

 

After the decline of Mughals in Punjab, Sikh’s were the main ruler and Tapiala Dost Muhammad khan lies in the area where Sikhs have dominancy.

 

There is a possibility that the current structure might be converted into some Sikh samadhi for some period. Locals also told that in past it is also used for storing crops and excavated many times by treasure hunters. The graves which I found inside were not that old some local saint after pre-partition was buried there along with his family members.

 

The fresco paintings found inside are in very bad condition and can be erased if proper care not done. Hope the concerned department does some needful action before this site disappears completely.

Fresco Painting (image 1)

Fresco Painting (image 2)

Fresco Painting (image 3)

Who is Buried at Nila Gumbad Lahore?

15-05-2018

The rough location of this site is 31°34'9.80"N, 74°18'41.69"E.

The mausoleum of Nila Gumbad houses the remains of the great mystic Sheikh Abdul Razzaq. He belonged to Mecca city, and came to Lahore in the reign of Mughal Emperor Humayun (1508-1556). He became a ‘mureed’ of the famous saint Miran Muhammad Shah Mauj Darya Bukhari, who soon realised that his pupil had powers beyond the ordinary. He called him Sheikh Abdul Razzaq Makki. His scholarship of the Holy Quran and his pow ers of the occult attracted a very large following.

Soon he was considered as the leading ‘seer’ of his time, consulted often by the Mughal court. Abdul Razzaq Makki died in 1084 A.H. and was buried at this place. The Mughal court built him a fine mausoleum, which still stands as a testimony to the man. Next to the graves they also built an elegant mosque, which today is known as the Nila Gumbad Mosque.

When the Sikhs came to power, they ransacked the elegant building of its excellent marble, which they transported to Amritsar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh ordered that an ammunition dump be made of the mausoleum, and to one side in the mosque he housed a gun manufacturing facility. To the western side, among other graves, he built a cannon manufacturing facility. Thus a majority of the graves of some of Lahore’s leading saints and seers were destroyed.

When the British came, they removed the arms manufacturing facility and converted the mausoleum into an eat ery, where officers of the British East India Company used to have their meals. A bakery was set up next door, the very first in Lahore. This bakery was owned and operated by a building contractor called Munshi Najmuddin Thakedar. Once the cantonment was shifted to Mian Mir, the contractor persuaded the British authorities to restore the mausoleum and the mosque. He invested in the project and on his death he was buried to one side inside the mosque.

To the west, just along the alignment where today exists the Anarkali Bazaar was the grave of Khawaja Saeed Lahori. Next to his grave were the grave of Haji Abadullah, and a third grave of the nephew of Khawaja Muhammad Saeed by the name of Abdur Rahman. Next to them is the grave of Hazrat Shah Sharaf. In an earlier piece I had dwelt on the grave of Shah Sharaf, who was originally buried at Bhati Gate. When Maharajah Ranjit Singh ordered that the grave be removed to make way for the expansion of the defences of the city, his grave revealed a man, buried over 100 years earlier, as fresh. The famous Fakir Nuruddin got the saint reburied near the Nila Gumbad.

After 1947 the entire area underwent a massive change, in which new shopping plazas came up. If you happen to walk through the ba zaar, the building to the south of the old Hindu temple to the east of the Punjab University, in which a number of clothes shops exists, is where a few well-known shoe shops exist. If you walk inside the narrow alley of shops, to one side, under a staircase, is the grave of this famous seer. This is what one can call a picture of the age in which we live. All the other graves have been cleared and new shops made on them. Mind you the original grave was built by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, an excellent structure the Sikh razed to the ground.

Outside the traffic flows past a fast deteriorating Nila Gumbad. In the narrow lanes a few graves have been left in small rooms, mostly unmarked. There is a need to research each one of them. The lost ones of some great saints need to be located, and if it is possible to move commercial interest, just let them be known