THE ENIGMA OF A SULTANATE FIGURINE OF LAHORE
JESTER, ACROBAT, OR GAME PLAYER

Riddles of life in Lahore

A well ten feet down the surface, hidden from sight. A well twenty feet deep carrying secrets of long gone Lahore. Every day Lahore tells us something of its past in a new light. The period authenticated with some Ghaznavid coins lying in the same surface. What does this slim young man is telling us?

Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi founded the city of Mahmudabad. The Muslim city and the Hindu city always stood in dispute, as to the availability of no remnants of the Hindu period from Lahore. Certainly that city was somewhere else. We have already discussed that elsewhere.

In any case with the foundation of the city of MAHMUDABAD, Sultan Mahmud invited people from Ghazni to settle in Lahore. The historian Baihaqi tells us that 200 different professionals came from Ghazni to impart Muslim Culture here and they were so successful in their job. We have discussed that in great detiail at many places.
This latest figurine (discovered from Lahore by someone and in his possession) gives us the face of a very slim young man. He hold certain things in both of his hands. One looks like a hammer or a bat and the the looks like a ball being held in his hand. He wears a pointed conical cap and an upper costume.

Malik Shamas the great expert on Indian Art and Architecture once told me that they have Buddhist Sculpture in which the figurines are shown playing something like CRICKET. AMAZING ISNT IT! Perhaps this figurine is also playing a sort of CRICKET or a BALL GAME. Of course no one can say anything but it excites the imagination beyond control. Viva Lahore!