Remains of Bakhar/Bukkur Fort (Island), Sukkur (2020)

23 February 2020

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Bakhar During our trip to Sukkur, we planned to visit Bakhar Fort. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain permission to visit this historical site, as it is located on a small island named Bakhar in the Indus River, between the towns of Rohri and Sukkur. Currently, the premises of the fort are occupied by an army school, and access is restricted to the general public.

Despite being unable to enter the fort, we managed to capture a few pictures of the site from the opposite bank of the Sindh River at Satyan Jo Aastan, known as the "Seven Sister Graves."

The island itself has an irregular shape, approximately 2 furlongs broad in the North-South direction and 4 furlongs long in the East-West direction. The entire island is encompassed by the fortification wall, which runs along the outer periphery and touches the waters of the Indus. The western portion of the island is inhabited and features barracks and a parade ground, but it lacks any prominent monuments except for a shrine and a ruined mosque. However, the presence of brick bats, pottery shards, and heaps of earth scattered throughout the area suggests that this part of the island once contained numerous buildings. The fortification wall, which used to encircle the entire island, has mostly disappeared, except for a few remnants here and there, particularly in the southern and northwestern sides. The wall was constructed using burnt brick tiles, primarily measuring 12"x12"x21½" in size, although various sizes of bricks were likely used for repair purposes. Several bastions, with semi-circular and elliptical shapes, still stand, alongside gateways of different sizes, now partially obscured by rubble. The fortification wall is approximately 5 feet thick, but in some places, it reduces to only 2 feet in thickness, while its height ranges from 10 to 10 feet.

The fort is divided into two equal parts by a railway line. The western part of the fort contains only two buildings—a modern shrine or tomb and a mosque constructed with burnt bricks and mud. The eastern part, however, only exhibits scattered foundations of walls.

Bakhar Fort, also known as Bakhar (meaning "Dawn") as named by Sayyid Muhammad Al-Makki in the seventh century of the Hijri calendar, is situated on a limestone rock island. The island is oval in shape, measuring approximately 800 yards long by 300 yards wide, and stands at a height of about 25 feet. According to historical records from 1912, the Superintendent of Land Records and Registration in Sindh stated that the area of Bukkur Island was 255,292 square yards, equivalent to 49 acres (20 hectares). Presently, Bukkur Island is occupied by an Army public school and the tomb of Sayyid Sadruddin, the son of Sayyid Muhammad Al-Makki.

The fortress of Bakhur was constructed using brick on a low rocky island made of flint, located 400 yards from the left bank of the Indus and slightly less distance from the eastern side of the river. Its walls were fortified with loopholes and flanking towers that sloped towards the water's edge, with a maximum height of twenty feet. The fortification featured a gateway on each side, facing Roree and Sukkur, as well as two smaller wickets. The interior of the fort was densely populated with houses and mosques, some of which extended above the walls, including parts of the rock itself. The fort had an approximately oval shape, measuring 800 yards in length and 300 yards in breadth. Although the rock had been pared and scraped in certain areas, Bukkur Fort derived its strength not from its structures, but from its strategic position

In 622 H. (1225 A.D.), Shums-ud-deen led an army to Oochch with the intention of overthrowing Nasir-ud-deen, who had entrenched himself at Bukkur. During this campaign, Shums-ud-deen detached Nizam-ul-Moolk to Bukkur, but Nasir-ud-deen attempted to escape by boat, which tragically capsized in a storm, resulting in his drowning.

During the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839, the fort was armed with a garrison of 100 men from the Khyr poor Ameer and fifteen pieces of artillery. The fort's walls enclosed the entire island, except for a small date grove on the northern side, which provided a potential landing point from the right. The fort could be captured through escalation or breached from the riverbank.

Diji ji Takri (Mound) Kotdiji, Khairpur (2020)

KOT DIJI ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE 

February 23, 2020
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The ancient site at Kot Diji was the forerunner of the Indus Civilization. The occupation of this site is attested already at 3300 BCE.

Situated fifteen miles south of the Town of Khairpur KotDiji is the earliest known ruin of the great Chaleolithic Civilization of the Indus Valley. Excavation at the prehistoric mound of Kot Diji has dismissed the long-held view that” the Indus Valley Civilization was a static an uninspired monument of ultra-Conservation.

In 1946 Sir Mortimer Wheeler discovered a distinct glass of ceramic below the defenses at Harappa which he considered of an insignificant nature and belonging to some alien people. The excavations conducted by Dr. F.A. Khan at Kot Diji proved that the “alien pottery below the massive defenses at Harappa, in fact, belonged to a distinct pre-Harappan Culture”.

The ancient Kot Diji comprised a citadel where the ruling class lived and an outer part of the city that was the dwelling of the common populace. Today the main axis of the 40 feet high mound runs from east to west and measures 600 feet in length and about 400 feet in breadth. 

Excavations, both vertical and horizontal, on the top and the eastern slope of the mound have provided a complete cross-section of the Kot Diji site, revealing valuable information about the cultural sequence, and the art and architectural details of the occupation phases. The excavations extend the prehistoric chronology by 300 years beyond the date of the beginning of Harappa.

The few upper layers of vertical digging represent a typical mature phase of the Indus Valley Civilization contemporary to the Harappan Culture. The underlying 17 feet thick cultural accumulation is separated from the superimposed Harappan levels by a thick layer of Charred material suggesting a holocaust and a temporary discontinuity in the chronology of the settlement. The levels of occupation below this plane represent the older culture of Kot Diji, distinguished by a peculiar type of ceramic industry.

In the upper levels of Kot Doji excavation the general characteristics of the pottery and their designs are the same as observed in the Harappan pottery, possibly with a few minor differences, but the typical Harappan pottery, possibly with a few minor differences, but the typical Harappan steatite seals and terracotta human and animal figurines are very rare only one steatite seal depicting the “unicorn” was found and three terracotta female (mother goddess) and a dozen of bull figurines were recovered.

Below the layer of charred material, the cultural finds represent the Kot Diji culture. The most distinctive feature of the pottery in these layers are the fine thin body, short beaded or slightly everted rim, fugitive, broad band round the neck in red, brown, sepia or warm black one to three inches wide, painted on a cream or dull red slip. It is wheel made and has no visible affinity with the normal Harappan were higher in texture, form, or decoration.

Small finds from the Kot Dijian level are very rare. Still, they provide evidence of a highly developed culture, and compared with the Harappan specimens, they show superiority in technical skill.

Excavation has clearly revealed the evidence of settled conditions when the Kot Dijians manufactured well-finished pottery and built their houses in mud bricks. The people of Harappan borrowed some of the decorative designs and motifs on pottery from the Kot Dijians and above and they learned they are of fortification from the Kot Dijians to which their fortified cities, Harappan and Mohenjodaro bear witness.