Lahore before the Mahomedan conquest

On the authority of the Chinese traveller, Hwen Thsang, that Taki, or Asarur, was the capital of the Panjab in the seventh century. According to Major-General Conningham, it was the name of the capital, as well as of the kingdom of the Panjab at that time. The more ancient capital was She-kie-lo, identified by Professor Lassen with the Sakala of the Mahabharata and the Sanghala of Arrian, within a few miles of Taki. Sakala was the ancient capital of the powerful tribe of Takas, whose country was, after them, called Takadesa. The kingdom of Taki comprised the whole plains of the Panjab, from the Indus to the Bias, and from the foot of the hills to the junction of the five rivers below Multan, and embraced several of the most celebrated placed in ancient India, some famous in the wars with Alexander, others renowned in Budhist history. Lohawar, or Lahore, was one of these, and with Kusawar (Kasur) and Chinapatti (Patti), was included in the Bari Doab, or the country between the Bias and the Ravi.

Major-General Cunningham identifies the Tafak of the merchant Soleman, the earliest Mahomedan author who visited the East before 851 A.D., as the Taki of the Chinese pilgrim. In the Geography of Almasudi, the “Herodotus of the Arabs,” it is called Tafan. Both Abu Rehan and Rashid-ud-din, who has borrowed from Al-Biruni call it Takishar, and agree in stating that “the great snowy mountains of Kelarjik (larjik), which resembled Demavend in its cupola form, could be see from the boundaries of Takishar and Lohawar.” Tukishar and Lohawar are here mentioned, as cities. Thus, the mention of Taka along with Lahore by the early Arab geographers of admitted authority, shows that both these cities existed contemporaneously, and since Taka flourished in the seventh century, it is probable that Lahore must have flourished then too.

Lahore seems to have risen to importance in the eighth and ninth century, when it became the capital of a reigning family of the Brahmans who, in the tenth century, were invaded by Sabuktagin and his son Mahmud. Owing to change of dynasty, or its exposed situation on the road from Cabul to India, the city of Lahore seems to have been deserted sometime before the invasion of Mahmud, for, in contemporary Mahomedan histories, mention of Lahore exists as a Province. The Hadikatul Akalim of Murtaza Husain expressly mentions the fact of the transfer of the seat of government from Lahore to Sialkot, or Salwanpur, built by Raja Salwan in the time of Raja Vikramajit, where the Bhatis subsequently established themselves. As stated before Al-Biruni mentions Mandhokar (or Mahdhokot) as the capital of Lahore, the Province. Mr. Thornton identifies Mandhokot, with Mankot, a place near Sialkot, and believes it to be the capital of the last native dynasty. This belief is strengthened by the fact that Sher Shah, the Sar Afghan, seriously contemplated the removal of the seat of government from Lahore to that very place. The date of the desertion of Lahore may be approximately fixed at the tenth century.

From Sialkot, or its vicinity, the seat of government was removed to Lahore at the period of Mahmud’s invasion, in the beginning of the eleventh century, when that conqueror, having rebuilt the city, established a garrison in a fort built by him.

The result of enquiries into the pre-Mahomedan history of Lahore may be briefly recapitulated thus:-That Lahore, the Lavpor and Lohkot of the Hindus, the Lohawar, Lohar, Lahanur, or Rahwar, of the Mahomedans, and possibly the Labokla of Ptolemy, was founded by an ancient race of Rajputs towards the end of the first, or beginning of the second, century after Christ; that it rose to importance in the eighth and ninth century, becoming the capital of a powerful principality and the parent of other colonies ; that, owing to a change of dynasty, the seat of government was transferred to Sialkot in the tenth century ; but, in the beginning of the eleventh, it became again the seat of Mahomedan government in the north-west of the Panjab. Mr. Thornton thinks it more probable that it was founded as early as the beginning of the second century, and his conclusions are fully supported by the previous writings of Wilford and the subsequent researches of so eminent an authority as Major-General Cunningham.

In “Tuhfatul Visilin”, a book written by Sheikh Ahmad Zanjani in the name of Sultan Masud Ghazanavi we come across a tradition that during the later Vedie period Lahore was founded by Rafa Parikshit the king of Kurukashetra. This Raja belonged to the Ila race, and it appears that he constructed a settlement at the city of ancient Lohkot or Lohpur and caked it Ila-war’, the town of the Ilas. The presunption receives sopurt from the fact that Allah-abad was originally known as Ilabas – the habitat of the Ilas.

 Rajaparikshit was later overpowered by the Takkas. It is probable that at the site of Ilawar, the Takkas constructed another town. The Takkas were snake worshippers and their symbol was ‘Ala’- the river snake. It is thus very likely that under the Takkas ‘Ilawar’ of Raja Parikshit become ‘Alawar’ – he abode of the Nagas. This sounds very much like Alawar in Rajputana.

 In the geography of Piolomy written in the second century A.D. mention is made of a city ‘Labokla’. Cannbigham has identified Labokla with Lahore. It thus appears that under the Greeks there was a town at the site of Lahore which called ‘Labokla’ and which meant a fortified towns.

 In his book “Annals of Rajasthan”, Colnol Tod has mentioned a tradition of the migration of the Rajputs from Lohkot to Rajputana in the second century A.D. under Raja Kaneksen. Raja Kaneksen has been identified with Kenerkis the last ruler of the Sakas at the time of the advent of the Kushans. It appears that under the Sakas, ‘Labokla’ of the Greeks become Lohkot of the Saka, and that when the Skas were overpowered by the Kushans, they migrated from Lohkot or Lahore to Rajputana.

 In the ‘Itinerary of the Roman Empire,’ drawn up in the third century mention is made of a city ‘Tahora’ on the Ravi. In the list of towns, Tahora follows the city of Spatura on the Chenab. The identification of Spatura with Sodhra, and that of Tahora with Lahore is very obvious and is supported by scholars likee Cunningham. It appears that after the destruction of the Saka town ‘Lohkot’, the Kushans established a new town at the site Lahore and named it ‘Tohara’. The Kushans were Tocharies or Thakurs, and Tohara merely meant the city of the Thakurs.

 There is a tradition that during Gupta period the emperor Vikramaditya established a town at the site. After Vikramaditya came Samand Pal, anmd he renamed the town as Samand Pal Nagri. Later when Raja Dip Chand became the king of Delhi, he gave away the Punjab as a jagir to his nephew Lohar Chand who named Samand Pal Nagri as Loharpur’.

 Lahore we come across another tradition that sometime in the eighth century Haj Bandra was the ruler and founder of Lahore. It appears that when the Muslims captured Multan under Muhammad bin Qasim in the early years of the eighth century, some Hindus ousted from Multan found refuge at Lahore and set up a principality there. There is a tradition that Bhandra established at Lahore a fire temple. That points to the origin of the family from Multan, and the temple that they set up at Lahore was a replica of the famous Multan temple.

 It appears that under Bhandara and his successors the principality was known as Lahore while the city proper was known as Mandkukur. Presumably the Bhandras were Khokars and Mandkukur meant the town of Khokers.

Bhandra was succeeded by his son Haj and he was in turn succeeded by his son Banrat. His son Thanrat deposed him and usurped the kingdom. Thanrat was in tyrn overthrown by the Hindushahis in 999 A.D. and the principality of Lahore was annexed to the Hindu Shahi kingdom of Wahind