Tulamba the forgotten Archeological Site

Reference Archeological Survey of India (Volulme V) 04-11-2017 

Tulamba is more than 2500 years old. People say that Tulamba was here even in the era of Noah. Tulamba faced many armies as it was in the way to famous Multan. The forces coming from North and West had to pass from Tulamba to go to Multan.On digging, five eras are discovered. The first era belongs to Moi tribe. The remaining four belong to Greek, Sasani, Budh, Hinduand Muslim civilizations. From Aplodots Sir Megas to Muhammad Ghauri, the coins of several governments were found here.

When Alexander the great invaded Indian Sub-Continent, he also came to Tulamba. In that time, Tulamba was ruled by Moi people. They were very brave and courageous, that's why Alexandar faced big difficulties here.The history of Muslims begins with Muhammad bin Qasim when he came to Tulamba in his way to Multan. The place from where he passed is now called Qasim Bazar.

Sher Shah Suri built a Fort right in the center of the city, whose boundary wall and some parts of the building are still present. The Girls High School and the offices of Town Committee are present in the Fort.

The ruins of older city are on a distance of one kilometre from the city. Though they are in a miserable condition due to rains and negligence, but their bricks are still visible. When Dr. Sayyed Zahid Ali Wasti visited Tulamba in 1967, he saw the ruins spread in the area of several miles. He saw a Fort with walls and a very high Tower. He saw a three thousand years old trench around the fort which was dig for the protection of the fort. He describes that walls were beautifully plastered with mud and floors were not solid. Yet most of his description is now unpredictable, because ruins are very much destroyed now.

The present town of Tulamba is said to have been built by Shujawa khan, son-in-law and Minster of Mahmud Langa of Multan, between A.D, 1510 and 1525. The old fortress, which had escaped the army of Timur, was situated upwards of one mile to the south of the modern town. It was upward of 1000 feet square, the outer rampart being about 200 feet thick and from 35 to 40 feet in height above the fields. Inside there is a clear space of 100 feet in width and 15 feet above the country, surrounding an inner fort upward of 400 feet square and 60 feet in height the level of the faussebraie. The eastern ramparts of the inner fort are still upwards of 50 feet in thickness. The whole was originally faced with brick walks, the traces of which still exist in the horizontal lines of the courses on the outer face of the ramparts, and in the numerous pieces of brick lying about in all direction. This strong, old fort is said to have been abandoned in consequence of a change in the course of the Ravi, which took a more northerly course, and thus cut of the old ramparts were then removed to build the wall of the new town, in which it is curious to see numerous carved and moulded bricks placed in various odd positons, sometimes singly, sometimes in lines of five or six and frequently upside down. The true name of the place is said to have been Kulamba, or Kulambha; but no meaning is assingmed to the name, and no reason is given for the change to Tulamba. Masson writes the name as Tulumba; but al the Muhammadan authors, from Sharf-ud-din downwards spell the name Tulamba, just as it is pronuced at the present day. The earliest notince of Tulamba that I am aware of is in Sharf-ud-din’s History of Timur, The town capitulated on terms which, as usual, were broken by Timur and his troops. “During the night the soldiers under pretence of making a search (for grain), marched towards the town, which they sacked and pillaged, burning all the houses , and even making the inhabitants slaves.”But the fort escaped. As its siege would have delayed Timur for some time, and he was imptietn to push on to Delhi.

In A.D. 1480, just one generation later, the unfortunate town of Tulamba again captitulated  to a Muhammadan invader , Amire Shekh Ali, Governor of Kabul, under Shah Rokh. Again the invader broke his pledge, and after plundering the town and killing all the males able to bear arms, he burned the place and carried of the women and children as slaves.

Tulambah is a historical place in Khanewal district. According to the district gazetteer of Multan, the present town appears to have been preceded by at least two previous sites, one of which was at the huge mound known as Mamu Sher, a mile or so to the southwest of the present town, and the other among the ruin which extends immediately to the west. According to some oral traditions, this was the place where Alexander had to face stiff resistance from the local people, and it was here that an arrow hit him which ultimately became the cause of his death on his way back to Athens.

The location on the east bank of the Ravi and the presence of ruins of a fort are a proof of the tradition. This place emerges in history many times. Many centuries later, it gave stiff resistance to Amir Temur while on his way to Delhi. According to his memoirs, he had halted here but was not welcomed by the local people for which they had to suffer at the hands of his commanders, Amir Shah Malik and Shaikh Mohammad who had slaughtered two thousand men who had taken refuge in the neighbouring jungles. Temur writes: "Amir and Shaikh slaughtered two thousands of these ill-fated Indians with their remorseless sabres, carrying off captives of their women and children." The city till 1947 was a stronghold of Brahmins who had resisted the invasion of Mahmood Ghaznavi. He plundered the city. For the fourth time, it was looted by Ahmad Shah Abdali in one of his incursions.

The city with such a glorious tradition of resistance against foreign invaders had produced a historian like Satya M. Roy who had to migrate to the Indian Punjab in 1947. She wrote a book on The Revolutionary Movements of the Punjab (1906-1946) which has been translated into Urdu by journalist Mahmood Zaman under the title, Punjab ki Inqalabi Tehreekein (published by Jamhoori Publications, Nila Gumbad, Lahore).

Migrated Tribes from India, after partition of Sub continent, people from India came to Tulamba, Shorkot, Makhdoom Pur, Kassowal, almost all parts of Southern Punjab. These people who came from India mostly are muslims and agricultural professionals, their languages are rohtiki or heryanvi.There is family like khan,s they speek pure urdu and punjabi as wel They are Rajpoots and have any subcasts according to clan and tribes system in the subcontinent; Tiagi, Sarohi, Chohan, Rajpoot, Mdahr, Toor etc. Also people from other casts; Dogar, Mio Pathan(Khan,s) Blouch and clans migrated to Tulamba