AN ACTUAL FAMILY OF CHABUK SAWARS STARTING FROM AFGHANISTAN; WITH CONNECTIONS IN PAKISTAN (LAHORE) AND VARIOUS CITIES IN INDIA.

AN ACTUAL FAMILY OF CHABUK SAWARS STARTING FROM AFGHANISTAN;
WITH CONNECTIONS IN PAKISTAN (LAHORE) AND VARIOUS CITIES IN INDIA.

Mohiuddin family tree

In 2017 I received communication from a truck driver in Saudia Arabia, with his family settled there. He was sending me a lot of emails in Roman Urdu, and with lot of details. He told me that they were twelve brothers, and had connections in various cities of India. But their main city was SALUMBAR, and in it was their Mohalla, which was 500 years old. The city was basically a Muslim city and was composed of various ethnic groups, mainly Mirza, Pathan, Nayak, Sheikh and others, but all of them were referred as of Turkish origin. He narrated his family as:

MOHIUDDIN KHAN, Son of
SAALEH MUHAMMED KHAN, Son of
MUHAMMED FATEH BAKSH KHAN CHABUK SAWAR, Son of
MUHAMMED NOOR BAKSH CHABUK SAWAR, Son of
RAHMAT KHAN CHABUK SAWAR, Son of
RAHEEM KHAN CHABUK SAWAR, Son of
RAJU KHAN CHABUK SAWAR.

He says there is family resemblance to a certain Prince Muhammed Raheem Khan of Uzbekistan. It means that some migration occurred there too.

One of their elder NOOR KHAN was murdered in Bhadeswar, and his Mazar is still there. He was poisoned through his food by his slave. His eldest and only son BHURRE KHAN JI, as a child, was taken pity upon by the Raja of Mewar and given a jageer. This occurred around 1800 AD. The family spread over many cities.

Mohiuddin Khan says that the family tree starts from either father and son, or two brothers, namely RAJO JI and KHAJO JI. It is the start of the Chabuk Sawars perhaps even from Lahore, as told by an old lady of that family. 

And what about the Gul Bahar colony, some miles away from Kabul, Afghanistan? Isolated from other places, a lush green area, famous for horses and Chabuk Sawars. We will explore that later.

A COARSE BLACK DRESS, CONTAMINIATED NAPPI FISH, MURDERED PARENTS: HELPLESS; AMEENA MUGHAL PRINCESS, DAUGHTER OF SHAH SHUJA; PREGNANT BY HEATHEN KING.

A COARSE BLACK DRESS, CONTAMINIATED NAPPI FISH, MURDERED PARENTS: HELPLESS;
AMEENA MUGHAL PRINCESS, DAUGHTER OF SHAH SHUJA; PREGNANT BY HEATHEN KING.

In 1927 Babu Astosh Chaudhury of Chittagong got enamoured with a different Bengali Ballad, which he picked up from a host of local singers, mainly first a gypsy singer, then another singer Makbul, a whimsical singer Belait Ali, and another Manjhi from a boat, who used to sing it in the night. It affected Babu Astosh immensely and he saw neglected and forgotten, historical truth in it, so he sent it to a scholar of University of Calcutta, Dinesh Chandra Sen. It was a lament of a Mughal Princess in Arrakan, namely Ameena and she was the daughter of Prince Shah Shuja, son of Emperor Shah Jahan. And who was this Shah Shuja and what was he doing in Arrakan?

Prince Shah Shuja

The story of the Mughal Prince is narrated by many people. It includes the rascal Bernier, as well as some Muslim writers. It is about the rebellion of the four sons of Shah Jahan and their fight with each other. The most able warrior was Aurangzeb Alamgeer and he was not liked by the father or by the other three brothers. The fate of Shah Shuja hung in a balance as he had been defeated two times by Aurangzeb. He decided to flee the safety of his home domain Bengal to the Burmese land and the territory of Arrakan. Bernier says he went on a Portuguese ship, while Muslim writers say he went on an elephant cavalcade through the jungle of Burma. He was received by the King of Arrakan with great pomp. The King offered him place to live and the hands of his own daughter. Prince Shah Shuja accepted the offer, but in return the heathen King wanted the hands of Ameena, daughter of Shah Shuja. Shah Shuja was in no mood to submit to this insult, and refused, As a result fight occurred between both parties and King of Arrakan had the whole Shuja family thrown in the sea. The wife of the Prince and one daughter died in the sea, while it is reputed that somehow Shah Shuja escaped the drowning incident. For it is seen that he finally came to the Mazar of Nangiana in Sargodha and spent the last years of his life there and is buried in the mazar. Proof exists nowhere but the speculation looks fine.

King Shudarma of Arrakan kidnapped Princess Ameena from her father’s camp and threw the rest of the family in the sea. The ballad records the tragedy of the Princess, used to the best in the world, she was forced to wear coarse black dress and eat NAPPI every day, a dish made of contaminated fish and dog’s tongue. The Mughals had recorded their attitude towards the people of Arrakan, and even Emperor Jahangeer had called them animals. Ameena was pregnant, but the King had no respect for same, and had her killed too. Or she escaped to Chittagong. Open to speculation. Centuries later the ballad of the LAMENT OF DAUGHTER OF SHAH SHUJA was still being sung by Bengali singers. It is on record now and we have added it to blog, as an attachment. The rise and fall of dynasty are a divine principle, and it opens our eyes to the tragedy of life itself.

THE MOHALLA OF CHABUK SAWARAN IN LAHORE; FROM WHERE DID THESE HORSE RIDERS COME HERE?

THE MOHALLA OF CHABUK SAWARAN IN LAHORE;
FROM WHERE DID THESE HORSE RIDERS COME HERE?

The Mohalla is famous for artists, architects, poets, historians, journalists, preachers and what not? And from where comes the Horse Riders? A registration deed daily 1170 AH has no mention of Chabuk Sawaran. Then sometime later, the place is famous as Mohalla of Horse riders.

The famous local historian Ahmad Baksh Yaqdil of the Chisti family of Lahore, describes his home as:

“Dewar Khana waqia Darul Sultanate Lahore, Mohalla Qazi Saderuddin Marhoom; Havelli Adina Beg Khan; Guzar Chabuk Sawaran; Kake Zayen; Mutasil Kocha Muhammed Sheryar Lahori; Mutasil Masjid Chinay Wali, mubina Hazrat Bahadur Shah Alamgeer Badshah; Feil Khana Shahnawaz Khan; Takia Sadaun; Katra Haji Aman ullah; Chotta Mufti Baqir.”

The description gives us the whole history of the area, but the Guzar Chabuk Sawaran reference is new, and it is late 18th, or early 19th century. It is being called Guzar Chabuk Sawaran.  A show place of horse riders. Either showing off their horses, or their riding skills. Research on same goes way back in research on horses in the region itself.

A study of Elephants and horses in this region is like a study of the two-nation theory. The history of horses in this region is an uncharted territory. Some people have written about ancient horses. The Hindu epic Mahbharata mentions horses but as sacrificial animals. And relate them to Bhadeswar, historically known as Bhadvarti. History speaks of a shipwrecked Ismaeli ship in the coast of Rann of Kutch and the survival of seven thoroughbred horses. From these horses sprung the lineage of all thorough bred horses in the region. This reference is more than 1100 years old. It is strange that in a Surya temple the figure is repeated as Surya the Sun rides a chariot driven by seven horses. That is:

“The iconography of Surya in Hinduism varies with its texts. He is typically shown as a resplendent standing person holding lotus flower in both his hands, riding a chariot pulled by one or more horses typically seven. The seven horses are named after the seven meters of Sanskrit prosody: Gayatri, Brihati, Ushnih, Jagati, Trishtubha, Anushtubha and Pankti.”
Seven a magic word. Strange that the ship wrecked horses were also seven.

But a study of major battles in the region show that Hindus preferred fighting on elephants and the Muslims loved to fight on horse backs. The fight of Muhammed bin Qasim and Raja Dahir was between elephants and horses. Research work is all possible on this aspect of history. Even the Central Asian Mongols invaded this region on back of horses. And this applies to most of the entrance of fighters to the region, including Ghaznavids, Tughlaqs, Lodhis, Mughals and Durranis. Strange that we hear of horses being used as sacrificing animals in Bhadeswar etc, and the strange part is that sculptures exist of Hindu rajas having sex with horses and these are there in famous temples. That is around 1250 AD, or about 800 years ago. Some images are included but cut to preserve sanctity of our writing. Check original on link:

The foreigners preferred horses for agility and speed of traveling. The Hindus preferred elephants for their might and relative safety for ground fighting. It is also related to class consciousness. On horseback all fighters fought on egalitarian footing, while on elephants the riders were in fact sitting on an upper stratum of things. Class consciousness in reality! No comradeship there. In any case horse history is worthy of extensive research.

In the Mughal times we hear of two horse markets in Lahore. One outside Taxalli Darwaza, and the other outside Delhi Darwaza, Lahore. Horses were brought here for sale. From where did these horses come from? There is an interesting reference about a Gul Bahar Colony, some 74 mile say from Kabul, which was a beautiful place from isolated from the world. Access to it was from a thin bridge. A gazetteer of Afghanistan describes it in detail. It was famous for horses. When Qazi Abdul Wahab who was the Qazi of Delhi under Aurangzeb Alamgeer, went after the Mimar family of Lahore, some member of the family fled to Gul Bahar. When they came back after forgiveness from Aurangzeb Alamgeer, did they bring the horse traders to Lahore from that place?

To be continued