SARAI MUGHAL (2018)

Date of  visit 04-03-2018
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Tomb in Sarai Mughal

Ten years back Sir Salman Rasheed wrote enlightening writing about Sarai Chamba and Akbar era tomb near Sarai Mughal.

Sarai Mughal is a small village that lies hardly seven kilometers from the Head Baloki. Last year, I traveled to Sarai Mughal to visit one of the tomb sites. Fortunately, along with that tomb, I found remnants of two more historical edifices in Sarai Mughal Village. Not sure what was the name of Sarai Mughal in the past, but it is named like this due to the presence of a caravanserai in its vicinity. 

An arched gateway standing in the middle of the village constructed from Mughal era bricks. Imran Saeed is another brilliant historical writer who has visited this place and he thought that this could be the only evidence that this place once lies between the ancient route between Lahore and Multan that was called Kakkhan Wali Sarak.

The other landmark, found in this village was ruins of a British-era rest house. The most notable thing about that rest house was that it was also constructed from Mughal era bricks. These Mughal era bricks must be taken from the parts of old Sarai building.

Also, I found many houses in this village which construction done by Mughal era bricks.

A Ten year Wait to Visit an Akbar era Tomb in Sarai Mughal (2018)

Date of  visit 04-03-2018
All pictures are owned
Tomb in Sarai Mughal

Sir SALMAN RASHID is my favorite travel writer from Pakistan. In the mid-90s, there was a TV show that used to be telecast on PTV “Travelling along the Alexander trail” that was hosted by Sir Salman Rashid. That, TV show not only inspired me but also become a reason for growing wish inside my soul that sometime in my life; I will do some similar exploring work. 

More than ten years back, I read one of his articles that was about a tomb whose history and name is totally unknown to historians. Sir Salman mentioned some general guidelines about the location of this tomb; it is somewhat 5 km from the head of Baloki on the outskirts of Sarai Mughal. I could not find the exact location of this site on Google earth; however, I put a location pin on the map that maybe I would be able to visit in the future.

My plans to visit Sarai Mughal could never get finalized due to a lack of information about the place. Also, I could not able to find any post or picture related to this tomb on the internet

Well in 2018 after a lap of ten years; I left for Sarai Mughal in search of an unnamed tomb. To my good luck, I found the tomb after some effort.

An eighteen feet high, square tomb stands at the outskirts of the village graveyard. The site is roughly five kilometers to river Ravi. There is no grave inside the tomb. Salman Rashid during his visit to the place had concluded that this (most likely) Akbar-era tomb of the 16th-century era was pre-built but no one got the honor/chance of getting interred here.  A little outside the village, by a government school, and surrounded by a graveyard there stood the lofty building with its squat dome. Other than the lime plaster eroded from the plinth and in patches from one side, the building was in good fettle. In fact, if the plaster on the dome had not been blackened by age, I could have said it had been laid only a few years earlier. In my layman’s estimation the building dates to the last quarter of the 16th century, that is, the final years of the reign of Akbar the Great. The interior of the square building had a bare floor: there was no burial. But the walls were ornate with Mughal-style frescoes. Faded, discolored, and chipped, they had also been marred by cow dung patties.