SARAI MUGHAL (2018)

Date of  visit 04-03-2018
All pictures are owned
Tomb in Sarai Mughal

Ten years back Sir Salman Rasheed wrote enlightening writing about Sarai Chamba and Akbar era tomb near Sarai Mughal.

Sarai Mughal is a small village that lies hardly seven kilometers from the Head Baloki. Last year, I traveled to Sarai Mughal to visit one of the tomb sites. Fortunately, along with that tomb, I found remnants of two more historical edifices in Sarai Mughal Village. Not sure what was the name of Sarai Mughal in the past, but it is named like this due to the presence of a caravanserai in its vicinity. 

An arched gateway standing in the middle of the village constructed from Mughal era bricks. Imran Saeed is another brilliant historical writer who has visited this place and he thought that this could be the only evidence that this place once lies between the ancient route between Lahore and Multan that was called Kakkhan Wali Sarak.

The other landmark, found in this village was ruins of a British-era rest house. The most notable thing about that rest house was that it was also constructed from Mughal era bricks. These Mughal era bricks must be taken from the parts of old Sarai building.

Also, I found many houses in this village which construction done by Mughal era bricks.

CHAUBARA OF CHAJJU BHAGAT - CHAJJU DA CHAUBARA – LAHORE (2018)

Date of Visiting the Site:- 22-05-2018

Date of Posting:-18-09-2019

All fotos are owned except last two 

CHAUBARA OF CHAJJU BHAGAT - CHAJJU DA CHAUBARA – LAHORE

CHAJJU BHAGAT

East or West, Home is the Best

“Jo sukh Chajju de chaubaray, oh na Balkh na Bukharay”

(Allegorically, it would mean that the comfort and pleasure that you would find at home is incomparable to even the luxuries of such affluent cities as Balkh and Bukhara..)

جو سکھ چھجو دے چوبارے - او بلخ نہ بخارے
ਜੋ ਸੁਖ ਛੱਜੂ ਦੇ ਚੋਬਾਰਾਯ - ਓ ਬਲਖ ਨਾ ਬੁਖਾਰੀ 
जो सुख छाजो दे चोबरय - ओ बलख न बुखारी 

It was situated on Anarkali Road. During the regime of Bhangi Sardar’s, a temple and inn was constructed in the Chajju' dwelling which later came to be known as Chajju da Chaubara. Chaju was a contemporary of Mughal rulers Jahangir and Shah Jahan. From a rich goldsmith he changed his way of living.

According to Syed Muhammad Latif, Chajju da Chaubara  was situated close to the Mayo Hospital, south of Ratan Chand's Serai. Chajju was a godly man in the time of Shah Jahan. He was a resident of Lahore, and by caste a Bhatia. He was a sarraf, but was fond of the society of the fakirs.

At last, having forsaken the world, he became a Bhagat, or devotee, and devoted the rest of his life to meditation and prayer. His death was mysterious. It is said that, when his last moments approached, he entered his cell and was seen no more.

He died in 1696, The Chaubara, or one storied room, was used by Chajju as his place of worship, and where the Mandar now is, there existed his shop for transecting his business. During the ascendancy of the three rulers of Lahore, Bawa Pritam Das acted in the office of Mahant. He build a large Mandar here. Ranjit Singh held the place in great respect, visiting it every Monday, and making large offering of money at shrine. He built spacious chambers and rooms for the accommodation of the Sadhus, and increased its establishment, to maintain which a great of rent-free land was made. From a rich goldsmith he changed his way of living, became a bhagat and was revered by both Hindus and Muslims of that time. Later Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave grants to the management of this place to distribute food and fruits among the needy and the visitors and also made arrangements for health care of inmates. Each Monday and Tuesday, crowds of men and women assemble there, and the musicians sing the sacred songs.

Chajju da Chaubara Lahore Pakistan

In 1985, when the administration dug a 10 feet deep hole in the front garden of the chaubara, its plinth, concealed under a mound for several years, was revealed. A female skeleton was found when the place was dug up for renovation. At another place near the chaubara, hundreds of oil lamps were found, which were used to light up the place 450 years ago. No one cared for them and they all were broken and wasted. Chajju, who was a goldsmith, had become Bhagat Chajju was originally called Chajju Bhatti. He never married.

Chajju spent long hours with the well-known saint of the time Hazrat Mian Mir. In Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s memoirs Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, Mian Mir was mentioned not only as an extraordinary spiritual figure but also a favorite of the Mughal emperors, and the spiritual mentor of the crown prince.

Sikh hagiography describes Mian Mir as a close friend and an associate of the Sikh Guru Arjun Dev Being a Bhagat, Chajju had sworn never to take alcohol or eat meat; be truthful and worship only the Almighty.

The dome of Bhagat Chajju’s Chaubara is round and it is placed upon an octagonal base although the structure of the Chaubara is a square. The dome is typically influenced by the Sikh architecture with huge dome-shaped elevated canopies called Chhatris (umbrellas). This dome is made of white sandstone now painted in whitewash.

Each dome is shaped like a lotus flower with its petals widespread. The lotus is known as the flower that blooms amidst stagnancy, signifying the need to create a unique identity by rising above the temporal issues and affairs of daily life. The dome springs from a floral base and has an inverted lotus symbol top from which rises the kalas or ornate finial. 

The interior of the dome consisting of elegant and rare metal work, and recalls 

of the mirrors in Lahore’s Sheesh Mahal.

This portion has also survived damage and you can see the original design pattern. The whole dome is filled with tree-like motif which is a Perso-Mughal element. Between every two motifs there is a convex shining metal piece.

The Sikh architectural interior is beautified by means of stucco work, tukṛi or fixing of mirror pieces, and fresco painting. These techniques are used to produce beautiful designs and friezes based on vine, plant, flower, bird and animal motifs. These techniques, time-consuming and costly, require highly skilled artists. They are, therefore, used in sacred shrines. Examples of such work can be seen in the Golden Temple. The largest number of frescoes has been painted on the first floor walls of Baba Aṭal.

The interior of Chaubara has a square room with straight curves on the four sides of the floor. Inside the front wall, the upper part of door has about one foot wide boundary of embellished area. This was the area where Chhajju Ram’s customers came to purchase gold when he was worked as goldsmith. The main entrance was lavishly decorated. Many cracks have appeared now in this part. 

Above the windows there are three cusped arches of same sizes as the windows below. The same plan repeated in both north and south wall. These arches are beautifully painted with eight sided star shape motif. The use of red and sharp red inside these arches make these motifs more elegant. Some portions have clear picture of motif as most of the portion had been rubbed off during re-touching of this chaubara. The dome is placed on octagonal plane and every angled corner have specially embellished with massive use of gold and steel pieces on it. Inside this corner there is a, arched door almost two feet high. 

Butterflies of Swat

Trekking is not only name of traversing some certain land. You can document many interesting things like topographical features, mountains, streams, locals foods, birds, fossils, plant types, flora fauna and many more things.

I found elven species of butterflies in Swat during my recent four days visit, without the help of my friend Ackram Awan it could be impossible to learn about there ids.

Dharmarajika Stupa Taxila (2018)

All fotos are owned
and few taken from book, "Guide to Taxila" by John Marshall
Text  wikipedia & "Guide to Taxila" by Joh Marshall

The Dharmarajika Stupa, also referred to as the Great Stupa of Taxila, is a Buddhist stupa near Taxila, Pakistan. It dates from the 2nd century CE, and was built to house small bone fragments of the Buddha. The stupa, along with the large monastic complex that later developed around it, forms part of the Ruins of Taxila - which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

History

It has been claimed that that Dharmarajika Stupa was built over the remains of an even older stupa that had been built by the Mauryan emperor King Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, though other archeologists alternatively suggest that this is unlikely. Indo-Greekcoins found at the site date from the 2nd century BCE, suggesting earliest possible establishment of a religious monument at the site.
Small stupas that predate the main stupa are found throughout the Dharmarajika site, and surrounded an earlier core stupa in an irregular layout. It is known that the earlier core stupa contained a pathway for circumabulation that was made of plaster, and decorated with shell bangles in geometric patterns. The earlier stupa likely had four gates in axial directions.

The site came under control of Persian Sassanid rule, and suffered a period of stagnation. Large-scale developments took place during the late Kushan and Kidarite era which added numerous monasteries and stupas to the site.

The current stupa was believed to have been established in the 2nd century CE during the Kushan era in order to house relics of the Buddha, which may have been sourced from earlier monuments, and originally buried at the site around 78 CE.Buddhist texts mention that frankincense was used during religious services at Dharmarajika, while the complex was paved with colourful glass tiles.

 

Destruction

The site was devastated by the White Huns in the 5th century CE, and then abandoned. Subsequent rulers, such as the Hun king Mihirakula, persecuted the region's Buddhists. Under his reign, over a thousand Buddhist monasteries throughout Gandhara are said to have been destroyed. The White Huns destroyed not only Taxilan sites, but also devastated nearby Peshawar.

        Excavation

The stupa was excavated by Sir John Marshall in 1913. The stupa had been looted several times prior to Marshall's discovery, and was badly damaged. Marshall noted that a large trench, requiring tremendous effort, was built at some point in the past in order to loot the stupa's precious relics. By 1934, enough of the site had been uncovered that the site's scale could be appreciated. Human skeletons were discovered in the open area immediately south of the stupa, and may be the remains of monks who were killed during the invasion of the White Huns.

Layout

The location of the stupa and its monastic community about 1 kilometre outside of Sirkap aligns with ancient Gandharan beliefs that the Buddha recommended monasteries should be neither "too far" nor "too close" to adjacent towns. Three distinctive types of masonry in the buildings around the main stupa suggest the contributions of different periods to the building activity.

      Core stupa

The passageway between the main stupa and several smaller stupas was used for the practice of pradakshina.
Dharmarajika Stupa is the largest of all stupas in the Taxila region, surrounding the main mound is a passageway for pradakshina — the ancient practice of walking around a holy site.
The stupa's large anda, or hemispherical mound, is damaged − though the plinth of the mound, known as the medhi, is still largely intact. The anda mound was made of ashlar stone. The stupa's harmika, or fence like structure built atop the anda mound, has been lost.
The stupa's southern gateway was initially considered the most important, though the construction of four smaller stupas (termed G7, G8, S7, Q1) to the west of the stupa indicate that this then likely became the preferred entrance for those performing circambulation. Later constructions around the "Eastern Avenue" then shifted the preferred route for circambulation to the eastern side of the stupa.
Before entering the main sacred areas, visitors to the shrine from Sirkap would pass through a large building, now termed building H, that would openly display relics. Visitors likely venerated the relics at building H before entering the main stupa area.

Peripheral stupas

Chambers containing religious imagery were built along the "Northern Avenue".The stupa was surrounded by a circle of smaller stupas which were built approximately 200 years after the main stupa's construction, and were likely constructed together as part of a project funded by a single patron.Additional stupas were built further along the northern portion of the site by various patrons, and date from the Indo-Scythian period. These stupas form a "Northern Avenue," that had several small shrines with devotional images, rendering the Northern Avenue as a processional corridor. Devotional images were likely relegated to the periphery of the complex due to religious conservatives, who were hesitant to fully embrace the new practice of using imagery in religious practice.
Unlike constructions at Sanchi, stupas around the Dharmarajika Stupa were built by individual donors, rather than as part of a communal effort.

 
Monasteries

Ruins of several monasteries are located around the main stupa.Early monastic cells near the stupa were built as a row of rooms, with a verandah, The verandah style was later dropped in favour of monastic living quarters surrounding quadranglesthat were built immediately north, northeast, and east of the stupa approximately 300 years after the stupa's construction.

The northern monastery consisted of two courtyards that were each built around a large stupa.The smaller eastern courtyard is believed to have housed 13 monks.

Monastery G, located immediately west of the stupa has at least 50 monastic cells, a stupa, and was likely multistoried. Monastery M in the extreme northwest section of the site, and contained its own stupa in a small courtyard. Monastery M is connected to a long residential monastery, oriented in a roughly north-south direction. At the southern edge of this monastery are the remains of two stupas, now termed E1 and E2. E1 was built in a pre-existing cell, while E2 was a more elaborated stupa that contained a small passageway for circambulation. Neither stupa was likely open to the public.

The site is famous for its bone relics – thought to be those of the Buddha, Much of the stupa's precious relics had been looted by the time it was discovered by Sir John Marshall. A silver casket containing a silver inscription was recovered from the stupa's chapel after discovery, The inscription is written in the ancient Kharosthi script that was once common throughout Gandhara, The inscription states that Urusaka of Noachaplaced bone relics of the Buddha in his chapel at Dharmarajika in 78 CE.

In 2016, 2 bone relics from the Dharmarajika Stupa were sent to Sri Lanka for one month. The relics were displayed at important shrines in Polonnaruwa, Colombo, Kandy, and Anuradhapura, and attracted 9.3 million visitors.

Reliquary vessels

18 reliquary vessels were also recovered from smaller stupas surrounding the Dharmarajika Stupa that yielded a wide array of relics, including one that encased a cylindrical piece of gold. Other reliquaries yielded gold jewelry and precious jewels, while others contained items from distant locations such as lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, pearls, and shells − reflecting the large trade networks operating from Taxila. Several coins of the Indo-Greek king Zoilos II were found under the foundation of such a 1st-century BCE stupa.

EtymologyThe name Dharmarajika comes from Dharmaraja, a name given to Buddha who was the true Dharma Raja (Lord of Law), according to Marshall. It is also believed that ‘Dharmarajika’ is derived from the word ‘Dharmaraja’, a title used by Mauryan emperor Ashoka. The stupa is also popularly known as Chir Tope, or "Scarred hill".

AccessThe Dharmarajika Stupa lies about 3 kilometers east of the Taxila Museum, along the PMO Cny Road, northeast of Taxila Cantonment. The stupa was located near the ancient city of Sirkap, which also forms part of the Ruins of Taxila.