My Visit to Hari Mandir, Hazro
—All photos and text by the author
Date of Visit: - 29-03-2018
Hazro is a town
located in the north-west of Pakistan in the Attock District of the Punjab
province Pakistan. According to the Gazetteer of Rawalpindi, Hazro was the
scene of the great battle in which, in AD 1008, Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi defeated
the united forces of the Rajas of Hindustan and the Hindus of Punjab with a
slaughter of 20,000 men, it was afterward fixed upon by some of the Pathan
followers of that chieftain to be the site of the colony
The population
according to the 1901 census of India was 9,799. According to the Gazetteer of
Rawalpindi, Hazro had a significant Hindu population which was "half
Pathan, half Hindu".
Long ago, I have seen
a picture of this town. A large complex of Hindu Temple, with amazing
Jharoka’s, wooden balconies, and paintings at the facade. That made me travel from Lahore to visit this
magnificent architecture. The temple is named 'Hari Mandir’ and located in the
middle of town. After all this travel, when I reached this place, I came to
know that this Hindu temple is occupied by an Afghan refuge family and they
were very much reluctant to show this building.
In fact, they did not
open the door and asked me from the inside to run away. I was standing in despair when I told by
local boys that the first floor of this temple has been occupied by some other
family. I found that family very welcoming and they allowed me to visit their
portion of the building. Narrow damage stairs took me to sikhara (tower of the
temple). On the lower part of Sikhara, few lines in Hindi script have been
carved on the surface. Thanks to my friend Rohit Bhat from Mumbai, India, who
has translated these for me:-
OM
Shree Ganeshay Namah
Shrimaan Bhagat
Vishandas Swargwasi ji ki Mitrawari
Shrimaan Swami
Dayanand Saraswati
Babu Ramdasji mandir banwaya.
Mahina Falgun (Feb- March basically Holi)
The last lines are blurred
That temple is
constructed for Hindu deity Vishnu. Most of the rooms of that portion were
locked and their keys are with the owner.
I again came outside the
complex and started taking photographs of elevations. Then, I saw another
inscription present above the main entrance:-
The
temple was built in memory of Bhagat Bishandas Vekanth by Swami Diyanand of the
Sarswati Sabhapati Harri Mandir committee of Hazro in vikram sambat (Indian
calendar) 1989 that is, circa 1928 A.D.
So,
it means that this temple is constructed nineteen years before the partition of
British India.
The
mandir is connected with an adjacent building with a bridge and might be served
as the living quarters for the pilgrims at that time.
The
photograph of the front facade and floral painting which I have seen some years
back is sadly disappeared now.
My
task of visiting the ground floor of this complex was still left and I was
standing in chaos what to do next? I have no energy left to knock the door
again and to request the Afghan family to permit me to visit this place. I was
about to leave, then suddenly somebody called me from behind, it was an old
Pathan lady from a neighboring house. She already came to know from street
children that a guy comes from a Lahore and leaving the place because of not
getting the permission. But she still inquired me my purpose of visit and asks
me to wait outside. She went inside the Afghan family living portion and came
after five minutes and asks me, "Son, I took the permission but took
photos as earliest as u can."
Earlier,
I read an article by prominent writer Zulfiqar Ali Kalharo about this place
that there were floral paintings in every room of this temple, but the current
owner whitewashed them. Unfortunately, Zulifqar not able to take any picture of
inside of this building
I
hastily went inside the Afghan living portion of the building, found a
rectangular roof supported by two-story motifs-column and arch frame. That roof
luckily still has floral patterns and landscape paintings on its surface.
I
thank the old Pathan lady and left the place.
It
is very sad to see the current depilated state of this amazing historical and
religious architecture. Old edifices like these are representations of the true
heritage of any place. But the concerned department's negligence brought it to
total vandalism.
