Pul Shah Daula, A Two-story bridge that Constructed 400 years ago. (2019)

 Saturday, 09 November 2019 (Date of Visit)

(All pictures and the writeup is author integral property, please respect copyright)

 Pul Shah Daula, A Two-story bridge that Constructed 400 years ago. 

 

View of Bridge from the downstream west side

Tapiala Dost Muhammad Khan is a small town located 11.7 km on Muridka-Narang Mandi Road. The old route of Grand Trunk Road passes through this town. Remains of the old Grand Trunk road still can be seen outside of this village. Also, GT Road from Tapiala (mausoleum) made the onward journey to Pul Shah Daula with an ancient arched bridge on Nullah Degh. 

 

Dr. Saifur Rehman Dar is a famous historian and has done a detailed survey on GTR and caravanserais built along this road. According to him, the Pul shah Daula was most likely constructed in the times of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. So, the bridge is roughly 400 years old.

 

However, no reference in any history books could be found, that why the name of this bridge attributed to a famous saint Shah Daula, who buried in Gujrat. 

 

I visited the site of the bridge in 2019. It is a tall bridge spanning over five arches and still operational for every type of traffic. The most fascinating thing about this bridge is that it has two stories. The piers supporting the top deck slab are rising from another deck slab which lies roughly at one foot above the current water level in the stream.  Both Deck Slabs have a 20 ft difference in height.

Another View

 

The bridge was constructed in two phases. After the completion of the first phase of construction, the Degh Nullah (which have a source from Jammu) have seen some high floods, and the bridge got completely drowned under the water. 

 

Shah Jahan expanded the Mughal Empire to the west beyond the Khyber Pass to Ghazna and Kandahar. For timely supplies and communication of military troops, Grand trunk road played an important role in the past.  Pul Shah Daula was one of the major bridges on Grand trunk road. The news of it getting drowned must have been created a panic in Shah Jehan court. The architect assigned to design the bridge screwed for considering the wrong values of flood levels. Mughals who have all the resources and builders at that time to construct a new bridge. It seems the orders of construction of the new bridge on the existing bridge deck have come in quite a haste.  

One last Burj is standing on one end of the parapet wall. The overall stability condition of this bridge does not seem to be good.  Complete neglect has been observed by the concerned Government department to conserve such a great architecture of the past.

The last Standing Burj on Bridge

Burj, cracks can be seen below, could be collapse at any time 

Standing on deck slab of Bridge

Degh Nullah downstream in background

Another view of the Bridge from the upstream side 

Another view of the Bridge from the upstream side 

Another view of the Bridge from the upstream side 

Portions of Grand Trunk Road present before the Bridge of Shah Daula

Remain of Grand Trunk Road

Remains of Grand Trunk Road

Remains of Grand Trunk Road

Remains of Grand Trunk Road

Remains of Grand Trunk Road

Remains of Grand Trunk Road

Historical Mosque Muhammad Bin Qasim (2020)

(All pictures are taken by author) 

Date of Visit 22-02-2020

The First Mosque in Sub-Continent

At the beginning of 8th century, the boundaries of the Muslim empire had expanded in all directions and soon reached the very limit of Sindhu valley. Then, due to some unpleasant happenings, the Arab Viceroy of eastern regions was prompted to launch a military expedition against the ruler of lower Sindhu valley named Raja Dahir, in 711 A.D. As a result, a young Arab general named Muhammad bin Qasim, a nephew of Hajjaj bin Yousaf, was dispatched to measure sword with Raja Dahir.

First, Muhammad Bin Qasim besieged the coastal city of Daybal which fell to Arab army. The occupation of Daybal was followed by other important towns of Dahir's kingdom such as Drawar, Alor, Nerun and Multan which, after a hard resistance, were captured by Muhammad bin Qasim. With the conquest of Dahir's kingdom, the boundaries of Muslim empire on the southern borders extended to the lower valley of river Sindh. It was a general practice among Muslim invaders, that wherever they went, marked out a place for offering prayer. Muslim invaders of Sindh also followed this practice and built mosques.

Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir on 10^th of Ramadan 711 AD. On 11th of Muharram, after appointing governors in all principal districts of Sindh, he left Brahamanabad and marched Towards Alore (Modern day Arore) where Fofi, son of Raja Dahir, had fortified his position. Muhammad Bin Qasim called his forces to a halt opposite the fort. This is where he built a mosque, known as Muhammad Bin Qasim Mosque. The ruins of the mosque still stand on top of a hill in Arore.

The remnants of the mosque built on a mound. Sadly, only few arches have survived but to our surprise, there were few praying mats and a speaker installed at the top, indicating that the mosque is very much active. The mosque is in Arore city, opposite Govt. Elementary Campus School Arore, Taluka Rohri District Sukkur. It is attributed to Muhammad Bin Qasim perhaps built in the 8th century A.D.

At present only two walls are remaining of the structure, the total area measures about 45’-0” x 78’-0” feet (3510 sft). The mosque consists of two entrances, decorated with Tudor arches and Tudor arched rectangular panels are designed symmetrically on the left and right side of the open arch. Tudor arched ventilators are also constructed on above of opening arch. Newly constructed area for prayers is made with cemented material. There is only one window on the western side wall and decorated with bricks jali. The limestone blocks were found in large quantity in various parts of the site where the cultural material was seen embedded in the section of a burrow. Mosque is almost 95% destroyed.

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)