Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro

Fateh Jang, in Attock district, is home to a number of Sikh and Hindu monuments which are in deplorable condition. In Fateh Jang town are located two temples which stand together. Both temples are accessed through two small domed structures, the mandapas. The walls of both the mandapas do not exist anymore. Both the temples are square in plan. The temples are adorned with paintings representing themes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana and Gita Govinda. The southern temple depicts more interesting themes from these sacred texts. The walls of temple depict Vishnu reclining on the coils of great serpent Shesha. Lakshmi is shown massaging his feet, Brahma seated on a lotus emerging from Vishnu’s navel and sage Markandeya paying homage to him.

The southern temple depicts different avatars of Vishnu. It shows Matsya avatar, incarnation of Vishnu, Krishna-lila episodes. It also shows the battle between the armies of Rama and the king of Lanka. The artist has painted it on the southern wall of temple in which monkey hordes, loyal to Rama and his allies, battle Ravana’s army of titans. The ceiling of southern temple depicts Parasurama (Rama with the axe). In the painting, Parasurama is shown conquering the warrior class to restore the social order who, according to Hindu mythology, had tried to wrest the spiritual power of the Brahmins or priests. Parasurama is the sixth incarnation of Vishnu.

The ceiling of the southern temple depicts Rama with his consort. It also depicts the King Bali offering water as a vow to donate his kingdom to dwarf Vamana, the fifth incarnation of Vishnu. The southern wall of the temple depicts Samudra manthan (churning of the ocean) as well. It also shows the infant-god Krishna killing Putana, the demoness (rakshasa). The scenes from Bhagavata Purana has also been painted in the temple. In one of the paintings Krishna is shown killing Kansa with an elephant tusk removed from a mad elephant that he and his elder brother Balarama have killed. Kansa is shown seated with his attendants holding sword around him but they did not resist as they saw Krishna killing Kansa. The Potohari artists have tried to paint them from Bhagvata Purna with the details of each of the characters. Krishna is also represented milking the cow as Radha looks on at him.

The most amazing paintings are dancing scenes. In the first panel in the southern temple, Radha and Krishna are shown dancing together. In the northern temple, the Raas Lila of Krishna with gopis (cow-herd girls) is painted on the ceiling.

Apart from Fateh Jang temple, there are also few Sikh and Hindu monuments in Qutbal village in Fateh Jang tehsil. Qutbal was an important trade Centre during the Sikh rule over Punjab and was also famous for Hindu merchants who controlled business in Fateh Jang and other towns in Attock district.

After 1947 the Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India. Today the village is mainly inhabited by Khatter, Mughal, Awan and other castes.

Some of the monuments built during the Sikh and British periods still grace the landscape of Qutbal. The ban (pond) constructed of semi-masonry was used by Hindus for ritual baths with a small area reserved for women, which no longer exists. Another building complex from that period is that of a temple, a Samadhi and haveli (locally called Maari) which dominate the landscape of Qutbal village.

The most amazing paintings are dancing scenes. In the first panel in the southern temple, Radha and Krishna are shown dancing together

The temple is believed to have been built by Lakhi Devi in the memory of her father Narain Singh in 1924. The inscription slab is fixed on the façade of the temple. It is a square building. The sanctum is superimposed with a square shikhara (superstructure), different from other temples in the Potohar region, which have octagonal shikharas.

The artists of Attock have also added corner turrets to the structure which are normally found on Muslim tombs. In the temple architecture, the skhikara is always decorated with miniature shikhars or niches for placing the images (murtis). The temples found in other towns and villages of Attock district, particularly at Makhad Sharif, Attock Khurd, Attock town, Hazro, Kot Fatah Khan, Fatah Jang, and Hasan Abdal do not have corner turrets or kiosks.

Corner turrets are, therefore, peculiar to the Qutbal temple. This is the innovation of the Attock artists, because the artists of the Attock were famous temple- and haveli-builders in the Potohar region.

The top of the shikhara is also decorated with a turret, not with the kalasa or amalaka as found on the shikharas. Close to the temple is a Samadhi which is also built on a square plan. The main entrance of the Samadhi is flanked by two niches which were used for placing oil lamps. From inside it is decorated with floral designs but most of its paintings have now been damaged.

However, the truly impressive structure in Qutbal is the haveli. It is a two-story building and decorated with fresco paintings on the inside as well as outside.

There is no comparably impressive haveli in the whole of Fatah Jang tehsil. One of the distinctive features of the Maari is the tower on the top of the haveli which, in Potohari havelis, is generally square or octagonal.

The havelis in Daultala and Kontrila in Gujar Khan, Khem Singh Bedi haveli in Kallar Syedan and Wah have towers for taking a panoramic view of the surroundings and enjoying the morning and evening breeze in the summers.

The haveli was turned into government girls’ primary school when the owner of the building migrated to India.

Much of the painting work is now damaged. Floral paintings on the façade of the haveli are also in a bad condition. The wooden doors of the haveli are all gone. The wood carvings found on the windows and the ceiling of the haveli are also in a bad state of preservation.

All these historical buildings are victims of neglect. Authorities should take note of the crumbling condition of the temples, haveli and Samadhi. The haveli being used as a school needs to be repaired as it is serving a purpose and is a landmark of the history of the village.

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Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro is an anthropologist and has authored 12 books: ‘Symbols in Stone: The Rock Art of Sindh’, ‘Perspectives on the art and architecture of Sindh’, ‘Memorial Stones: Tharparkar’ and ‘Archaeology, Religion and Art in Sindh’. He may be contacted at: zulfi04@hotmail.com

Courtesy: The Friday Times Lahore

The post Fateh Jang Temples first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Rafiuzzaman Siddiqui

When my grandfather migrated from Lucknow to Karachi in 1947 after his slight altercation with Jinnah, he wanted to stay away from the political bickering. Ayub Khuhro, the iron man of Sindh, took him to Larkana where he had lined up a few houses for my grandfather to spend his days in seclusion, away from the political chaos.

Of the many houses abandoned by Sindhi Hindus, dada liked this one haveli a lot and chose it as his residence.

This haveli is divided into two portions and sprawls over 700 square yards. The main building has three floors and the ground floor possesses a big living room with black and white tiled flooring, wooden cupboards, air-ventilators and a very high ceiling which is meant to keep the room cool in cruel summers and warm in winters. There’s a mantle-piece in the living room, commonly called ‘drawing room’ and a fireplace which was regularly used in biting winters of Larkana.

Adjacent to it on its left is a dining room with wooden cupboards, one of which connects to the kitchen so food can be brought in directly into the dining room. On the right side is a bedroom.

These structures open up into winding veranda with beautiful arches adorned with flowery tiles breaking the monotony.

There is a huge courtyard facing the veranda and another small room called ‘office’ near the main entrance of the house. A bathroom with the old-style water tap called ‘hand pump’ and toilet next to it find space in the courtyard. On the first floor are two bedrooms and a small bathroom. These rooms open up into a similar winding veranda with beautiful wooden balcony on one side and iron balcony on the other, with Ohm inscribed on the iron balcony.

The third floor has a big open space, and this is where we would sleep in summers. As kids, we would fall into the laps of sleep while looking at stars above, listening to the gurgling waters of Rice Canal at a distance which was only a few furlongs away from the haveli.

Bolan Mail’s chugging into Larkana station and ubiquitous women singing wedding beats in the nocturnal vastness were regular fixtures. This portion of the house which was called Temazala was again adorned with two beautiful iron balconies. Temzala also had an open portion with rectangular arches with chimney jutting out of the center – one emanating from living room on the ground floor going all the way up and opening into the fourth roof which always remained inaccessible.

Besides the main structure, the house had another big courtyard which according to my parents was a beautiful garden called chaman. It carried this name to this day despite losing its greenery in early 1950s due to some soil issues. In its fold, the chaman housed five servant quarters.

The haveli had two main entrances, one on the chaman side with access to cars while the entrance of the main building with huge doors embedded in layers of three thick walls opens up in a narrow alley with four steps running down the lane.

The building, as is evident from the pictures, was mainly a brick structure which did not need to be painted to save the interior begged for distemper in two years or so. The flooring of main courtyard was that of narrow bricks which crisscrossed in a defined symmetry while flooring of veranda and rooms were of broader bricks.

The doors and windows of the haveli were made teak with straight iron bars. The entrance to the first floor had a beautiful wrought iron door of superior quality, not the modern ones that we normally see these days.

The haveli has been host to many intellectual and political luminaries of Pakistan.

In the early fifties, the haveli did not have access to motors or cars. This was perhaps the last building of the town. The access was only through small narrow serpentine alleys.

Once my grandfather (when he was Governor East Bengal) invited Sardar Abdur Ran Nishtar over for dinner and as Nishtar, meandering through the narrow lanes, approached the haveli, he was stunt by its grace. He averred to my grandfather ‘چوہدری صاحب یہ تو گدزی میں لعل ہے  ‘

My grandfather, however, did not stay long in Larkana and moved to Karachi since he was asked by Jinnah to take over the presidency of Pakistan Muslim League.

My mother Begun Sakina Atiquzzaman, in her late twenties, became the most prominent lady of Larkana by joining politics and engaged in sundry humanitarian and social activities especially at a time when a large number of Muslims from UP were arriving in Larkana to pitch their tents here for good.

Because of my mother’s indefatigable endeavors in providing succor to the needy – both locals and immigrants – she soon assumed larger than life role in local politics.

The haveli then became the central point of her activities and earned the Sindhi title of ‘Begum Atiq jo Bungalo’ (Begum Atiq’s Bungalow).

The haveli is witness to many ups and downs for its inmates. It has served as a citadel at times of political difficulties and has seen birth of our progeny. I now stand solely in midst of chaos all around it.

The unplanned urbanization of Larkana city is casting a shadow of dust on the haveli. Nonetheless, this piece of Hindu architecture and marvel of engineering stands majestically tall on the shores of Rice Canal and in the politically vibrant city of Bhuttos and Khuros seeking overdue recognition from all and sundry.

In 1952 my grandfather hosted a dinner at the Haveli which was attended by the leadership of Muslim League, Prominent among those who attended the dinner included Mumtaz Daulatana, Mushtaq Gormani, Sardar Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Ayub Khuro, Qazi Fazalullah etc. The dinner was served in the main courtyard of the building with ‘farshi’ arrangement. According to my uncle the typical ‘Lucknawi’ cuisine served was voraciously consumed and relished by the honorable guests.

On the ground floor, the doors and windows which opened up into the veranda had colored glass panes which gave colorful and cool ambiance to the rooms below.

The veranda on the ground floor had beautiful small alcoves. The veranda on its first floor had two windows on each side of the door, which opened up into the main living room basically for women to enjoy events held in the main living room. Qawalis were regular feature in the haveli arranged by my parents. Ladies would enjoy these through the main door and windows from the first-floor veranda.

According to our old servants, the reason why the haveli never encountered any peeling off paint, which pucca buildings in in the interior of Sindh continue to face due to salty soil, was because of the owner of the house. He himself was an engineer by profession and had spread out coal and drums of honey in the foundations of the building to avoid the menace of color.

To this day, the haveli has thankfully not faced this issue.

The credit for the maintenance and upkeep of the haveli goes to none other than my maternal cousin, Ahmad Faruqui, whose penchant for old buildings knows no bound. He himself lives in Larkana in another beautiful haveli called Toolani House built in 1930. Ours is a year older.

The haveli’s unique architecture is an amalgam of both Islamic and Hindu character.

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Rafiuzzaman Siddiqui, the author is a retired diplomat. His last posting was Pakistan’s Ambassador to Bangladesh. His maternal cousin Ahmed Faruqui lives in another beautiful Haveli called Tolani House built in 1930. (Owned by Kaka Pribhdas Sakhawatrai Tolani) 

Courtesy: Lahore-based Naya Daur TV website – The article was published on April 13, 2019.

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