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

5 thoughts on “THE MOHALLA OF CHABUK SAWARAN IN LAHORE; FROM WHERE DID THESE HORSE RIDERS COME HERE?”

  1. There are PHDs on Horses in Indo Pakistani region. But over protective of ones way of life fail to explore reasons.

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