Jiwan Singh the Lost Heritage (2015)

Date of Visit:- 06th January 2015

Jiwan Singh the Lost Heritage 

A few months back, I have seen some amazing historical pictures of an old haveli on my friend's wall. On inquiring him he told that these pictures were taken from the border village of Lahore named Jiwan Singh. 

I was too much eager to visit this site that I have put a sticky note on my laptop about Jiwan Singh. It is located fourteen kilometers from Lahore Jalo Park. It took us ninety minutes to reach there on a motorbike. The site is located in the center of the village and Indo Pakistan border is less than a kilometer from this place.  The haveli which was actually a fort in past is not in good condition and badly destroyed because of vandalism.  Still the crumbling arches, domes, curvatures telling what a great Sikh Architecture it was. .The villagers are more than friendly they offered us tea and show us all parts of the fort.

History and Background;- 

Jeevan Singh's father played an important role in shaping the history of Punjab. He arrived at Thay Pur, from Kalkey Kasur where he made an army of his own and captured all the land from here till Rawalpindi. At that time Pindi was a small town, and he constructed large buildings there as well. It was also made the capital of his empire. He died in 1804, handing over his kingdom to his son, who later handed it over to Ranjit Singh and became his ally. Jeevan Singh's progeny lived in this village till 1947, when they moved to somewhere around Amritsar.

The ruined fort and Samadi are now the only link between  Jeevan Singh and this village but they are too disappearing fast. Even with conservation efforts, little can now be preserved because of the immense destruction that time has wrought over it.

The locals say the condition of these historic buildings in the village was much better till the war of 1965. In the war, this village was taken over by the Indian forces who brought a lot of destruction here. It is said that they purposefully damaged the fort, perhaps to prevent it from being used as an army strategic location. However, when they were returning, the elders of the locality claim that they renovated the samadhi, in the outer-skirts of the village.

This fort, which is the main attraction of this village, is now in a pathetic state. The entire body of the edifice has almost fallen, only leaving a hollow structure, like the Laxmi building at the Laxmi Chowk. However, whatever remains of the structure, suggests a splendid past, of Sikh architecture. A few arches, pillars, frescoes, sculptures, speak to us about the luxury of this building which was clearly built for residential purposes. The entrance into the relic of the fort is towards the Eastern side where still a large arch remains. This was a double-story building, however, for the most part, the second portion has been destroyed. A few rooms, filled with all sorts of unwanted stuff survive here and there. Nobody is using the building, except for cows, and their dung. A few rooms are being used as storage rooms by the LOCAL people. Where that has been done, new constructions have been made, to optimize the space of the building. Old bricks have been robbed by people, to be used in their houses. All over the village, one finds houses with petit bricks. It appears that the pattern on the ground floor, composed of a combination of rooms, courtyard, and a few big rooms, was replicated on the second floor. The courtyard was on all sides of the building; however, now that has been taken over by the people of the village.

There is a dome on top of one room inside the edifice which has relics of colorful Sikh guru frescoes on the wall inside. There was a small platform in the middle of the room and a broken wooden palki nearby. There is only one entrance into the room. While the locals say there was no gurdwara in the village, all the evidence points towards the fact that this was a Sikh shrine within the complex.

Facing this fort is another building that at first appears to be part of the edifice but is not. This is also an old building, made around 1939 according to the testimonies of the people. This was a triple story building standing on top of the highest side of the mound. The top of this building is the highest part of the region from where one can see Indian villages, buildings.

Further East, there were 3 samadhis, 2 small and 1 big one. The condition of these structures is MUCH like the buildings just visited if not worse. Of the three, the condition of the only one is recognizable. However, even its dome has fallen and it has been stuffed by bricks and closed. Bricks from here have also been taken by the people. There are some floral frescoes on this samadhi in red and green. This is an octagonal construction with a pier on each edge.

These three samadhis belong to Jeevan Singh, his wife, and his son Sardar Anand Singh, who was the landlord of the region during the days of the Empire. There was a PROTECTIVE wall around these three structures, which now has fallen. Sardar Jeevan Singh was responsible for the construction of the first fort we visited. According to the British land records which now have been lost and are only available with Iqbal Qaiser, this fort was made in 1798, around the time when Ranjit Singh became sovereign of this region.

Jeevan Singh belonged to the sub-caste of Sher Gill and originally belonged to the village of Thay Pura, around 4 kilometers north of the present location, within the jurisprudence of Pakistan. Around that time, it is said that his village was subjected to perpetual raids by various people, which is why, he along with other people left it, and came and established themselves here. Principally, there are two castes here, Sher Gills, and Jut Gills. They both came along with Jeevan Singh. The former were bigger landlords whereas the latter smaller. During the Partition, Jut-Gills converted and stayed back. However, their land was taken over by the government with the pretension that it belonged to the departed. They FILED litigation and got the ruling in their favor. They are still found in the village, living in a poor condition.

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