THE FASCINATION OF LAHORE WITH LEGENDS
HEER RANJHA SWAYEDTHE CITY ALL THE TIME

Every day recitals around the city gardens

Romantic tales are part of the international folk lore. Countries cannot do without a story or two. The story of Heer Ranjha is said to be around five hundred years old and is said to be first written by poets like Dhamendar Dass Arora.The tales are simple in nature. The futility of achieving true love in this temporal world abounds in such themes. The romance of Heer of Siyal with Ranjha is no exception. It was an ordinary story till somebody outside Lahore gave it its spiritual touch.

Two poets are responsible for taking Heer Ranjha to new heights. One is Syed Waris Shah, resident of a village near Sheikhupura, of course just on the outskirts of Lahore. And the other is Baba Hiyadatullah, a Punjabi poet of Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran, who also gave the romance a new lease of life with his own rendition.

The efforts of late B.A. Qureshi Sahib made the mausoleum of Syed Waris Shah a place of pilgrimage again. A water well dated with an Akbari inscription speaks of the old heritage of the place itself. Once famous all over Punjab, Baba Hiyadatullah is lesser known today. Reputed to have attained an age of 120 year old, he was submerged in controversy by his nephews and grandchildren. That generation (someone of them ) embraced the religion of Ahmadiyah and broiled the poor Baba Hiyadatullah in the same controversy. Although Ahmadiyah texts speak of Baba Hiyadatullah as an Ahmadiyah and yet they state that they have no BAIT record of him. It is a frivolous claim made by his daughter’s son, putting the old poet in jeopardy. M.A. Rahman Chughtai who was a next door neighbour of the poet, narrates in his writings, that Baba had often told him of his immense love for the Prophet and his belief in the finality of Prophethood (Check Dabistan mussavari book).

In any case Waris Shah and Hiyadatullah made the recital of Heer Ranjha on the lips of Lahore. In various gardens and city places, men used to sit and recite the poem, amongst the applause the persons sitting here. Many wept when they heard the poem. Various people in their memoirs have recorded such happenings in the city So it was natural for artists of Lahore to illustrating the same. We present here a few illustrations bdone by a Lahore Artist in 1276 AH and published in Lahore in book form. We also include some works done by the artist M.A. Rahman Chughtai. The artist was very fond of listening to the recital of Heer Ranjha and used to travel places to listen to them. The whole mohalla and Chughtai Sahib eulogized the Baba, who coined the term ‘dholi chardain marian Heer cheekan’. Allah bless those talented persons!

THE FIRST PAINTING OF M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI
NUR JAHAN MOURNING AT JAHANGEERS TOMB

A teenager’s fantasy and birth of Chughtai Art

Art activity was in full swing in Lahore. A Punjab Fine Art Society was established here and various exhibitions shows were being arranged at the Lahore Museum. A show of paintings was held and that was seen by M.A. Rahman Chughtai. Instinctively he felt that he could do better than the acknowledged Masters of Hindustan, which included the Bengal School, as well as the great Master, Abindaranath Tagore, the accepted giant of Indian Art. Indeed his assertion was simple, those people had no concept of Muslim Culture and depicted it wrongly all the time.

After his Eighth Class Certificate and education at Railway Technical School Lahore in 1911, the artist had joined Mayo School of Arts for diploma in Photo lithography. Samarendranath Gupta was too vain and arrogant to teach to a Muslim set of students. And there was personal dislike between the two persons at Mayo School of Arts. A three piece English suit Gupta was versus a Sherwani shalwar and turban phag of Master Abdur Rahman, as he was called at that time, and ethnic and religious bigotry was self evident.

It was the years of the photography of M.A. Rahman Chughtai. Armed with a wooden Box camera of his own and a set of glass plates, he was experimenting all the time. His portrait of the Director Education became very famous for its portrayal at that time. Also busy with stone work for his lithography, and printing same in one form or the other. Designing of Eid cards was there as well as aero work for some of his portraits of people. He used to colour the photographs himself, and there is a record of same to this day.

The idea of a painting with Nur Jahan mourning at Jahangeer’s tomb came to his mind. He first did something which he never did all his life. Asked his wife to pose in a praying posture, and photographed some poses of her. These photographs he kept on one side.

Next was to be a factual record of the tomb itself. The artist was a regular visitor to the Mausoleum of Emperor Jahangeer with other boys to frequent the place. There in early years M.A. Rahman Chughtai copied the sarcophagus of Jahangeer for his proposed painting. We attach here an image of that earliest drawing of the artist. Writings state the colour of the stones used for the purpose. Indeed a unique record in our archives.

Armed with both a photograph of his wife praying and a sketch of the sarcophagus, he completed a painting of the great Queen of the past mourning the loss of her husband. With big fanfare M.A. Rahman Chughtai exhibited the work at a neighbour’s house in Chabuk Sawaran and the family of the neighbour still remember the event. Everyone liked it and praised it. But the artist himself was unhappy with it for his own reasons. Finally he got tired of it and tore it himself. He was also sincere in tearing things that he did not like, much to the regret of family and friends. Children used sneak in his studio to steal torn paintings but he would not allow that. So a cousin of ours had a torn painting but he lost it in a ship wreck in the sea when coming back from England.

The first painting that got published in Modern Review in January 1916, can be compared to his first painting, that was created but could not remain. Other works on the same subject came afterwards but never that painting itself.

MORONS, CLOWNS AND GREED
THE FLAVOUR OF RAMAZAN PROGRAMMES

Where have the scholars gone?

We are firm believers in the spirit of Ramazan. Every year the coming of the month excites us and we are ready for it. It is not always easy ROZAS, as the heat bears on us all the time. But then the challenge is greater and we know that by presenting same to us, Allah loves us.

Pakistan was made by intellectuals, Yes! Our greatest intellectual is Dr Allama Iqbal and we wish we could hear him speak in the month of Ramazan. Maybe quotes of other great Pakistanis too. And invite men of letters, men of intellect to tell us about the spirit of Ramazan. We would love to hear and be involved in the same. Instead we see morons making fun of all intellect, talking and discussing subjects not fit for animals to hear, and clowns jumping in programmes like jugglers on a trapeze. We used to hear Maulana Ghulam Murshid Khateeb of Badshahi Mosque Lahore and used to be transfixed with his ideas. He was selected by Dr Allama Iqbal himself. He could mesmerize the whole audience in second and uplift them into newer realms. Same applied to Maulana Muslim of the Jamia Masjid Lohari Gate Lahore. Now all the Mullas look to us like Halwa eating absurdities.

Restore our intellect. Jumping people with money in their hands and presents to give, is this the call of Ramazan? The sanctity of Ramazan is nullified by these morons and we need to get rid of them.

WHO DECIDES THE FUTURE OF PLANET EARTH?
NOT SENSITIVE PEOPLE LIKE ARTISTS WRITERS INTELLECTUALS

Philistine Neo-Cons and imbecile politicians

The mad race for acquisitions is getting into high gear. The Neo-cons not content with Planet Earth now wants to share the Universe amongst themselves. Planned genocide of the third world communities in their quest to be gods, more likely devils in disguise. God forbid the collapse of the world will come through greed! Peace will remain an illusive dream.

Will the future hold that we will see not nature but robots and machines in the sky, balloons with logos all around as well as bill boards on the Moon itself. God forbid us from such a drastic future?

God gifted us nature in his quest for ultimate aesthetics. Anyone robbing us from nature as it is, will deprive us of the blessings of Almighty. So beware, do not let this crass crowd mutilate the natural relief we feel, when there is nothing good going on, to seek our relief from the beauty of Nature itself.

THE LEGEND OF KHALIFA KABAB WALA
A KABAB SHOP IN ANCIENT LAHORE

The rendezvous place of artists and writers

M.A. Rahman Chughtai is as pure a Lahori as is possible. His family lived in the city for centuries, and were others moved away from it, his family stuck it here in all kinds of weather and conditions. Artists, writers and people of culture called at his house in Chabuk Sawaran from all over the world. At times his wife Wazeer un nisa could cope with the guests, but at times, the guests were beyond her control, in terms of the number of people who called at the house. The artist Chughtai had a favourite remedy for such a situation. He would invite his guests to a spree of Kabab eating at Khalifas, a place walking distance from his house within the city. Even without visitors, it was a place where he went regularly with his brothers, and Dr Muhammed Din Taseer, Colonel Majeed Malik as well as others. Rarely were things brought at home but after the spree, kababs used to be brought for the ladies of the house too.

Everyone knew the kababs of Khalifa were so tasty, that every one could lick their fingers in eating them. But the legend was further. It was said that one day a JINN fell in love with the kababs of Khalifa, and Khalifa was dumbfounded when in front of his own eyes, the JINN ate all the kababs in his shop. The story went circulating all around the city. Peole swore that at 2pm the JINN along with a CHURAIL (witch) roamed the galis (streets) of Lahore and were bent upon easting Khalifas kababs. The Khalifa who kept his shop open late at night, started closing it, befgore the arrival time of the Jinn. So the story goes, and what happerned or not happened, one does not know.

Suffice that Lahore loved Khalifas kababs, and he was a legend within his own lifetime. After his death, the next shop which became famous for kababs was that of SAEEN near Lall Khoo, in Mochi Gate, Lahore and that shop still operates today at full capacity, now divided into two wings of two sons. Khalifa shop has recently been restored as a specialized bakery, but the kababs are no longer there.

CHANGE IS LAW OF ALLAH
SYSTEMS CHANGE TO FIT CHANGING TIMES

Ijjtehad is essential to Islam

A century of imbeciles seem to be on card. To debase Islamic concepts, all sorts of literal half-wits come in the arena of imposters and declare themselves to be rubber stamps of previous claimants of revolutions. Compare the real Caliph of Islam with the latest imposter on the scene and you will know the concept of ijjtehad is basic to Islam, otherwise it would have gone down the drain and quagmire of history.

A group which does not hold even the Holy Kaaba as sacred must be representative of the Devil himself. The essential quality of a Caliph is his compassion or humanity. Caliph Mustansar Billa went down the drains long ago for he lost this quality of feeling for others. Death and destruction does not make Islam, but construction, in fact the shaping of PERSONALITY is the keystone to Islamic thinking. A Caliph like Hazrat Umar could feel the pangs of hunger of a hungry dog in Allah’s kingdom, and these new imposters cannot feel for the thousands they are killing in name of tyrannical fulfillments and desires. Impotence of thought does more damage to humankind than actual impotence and these new mischief mongers are important in all ways, fed with their Viagra pills of arms and ammunition by thoughtless and rabid string pullers.

A video shot on Russia Today shows some Palestinian boys firing stone sling shots at heavily armed Israeli troops. Reverse has happened with our David and Goliath concept of the past. It was then David who had the sling shot, now it is held by the opposite divide. What went wrong? Why cannot man live in peace with each other? For where does this deep hatred strive in man for other ethnic races? Islam the way of PEACE requires to be rejuvenated with out these concept spoiler Mullahs and usher in an era of peace on Plant Earth.

BLINDNESS OF WESTERN SCHOLARS
OBVIOUS FAKES ACCEPTED AS GENUINE WORKS

What is the reason for same?

People come here under the scrutiny of Western scholarship and the disdain they feel for our local scholarship. Like colonial Masters, they feel that we know nothing, and they know everything. And yet we find blunders after blunders in their insight based on political motives as well as bigotry of the highest order. Any work really can be checked in a simple way. For instance they have a laboratory in Switzerland where they can scan the works and analyze the pigments and can find the age of most things. Why the obvious fakes are not subject to the scientific test? There must be a reason for same.

Of course our connoisseurship has gone down the drains too. Scholars here free of greed worked day and night to carve their name in the history of insight and scholarship. But here too a total disregard of the arts started and the present Government even abolished the Ministry of Culture. I am sure we could one day have a ban on Art and Culture, if the Mullahs really get through our veins. We too have lost the ability to observe and look at the finer points of most things.

M.A. Rahman Chughtai, the grand Son of the Soil was made of another matter totally. He did not practice Art, but he actually lived ART. All his life revolved around Art in some ways. He need not look at Art of this region, he could feel the Art in his veins. He could spell out likr Emperor Jahangeer the inner point, the finer issues and the background of each work, down to the details, of which portions were by which artists. Observation was that acute. M.A. Rahman Chughtai was irritated with a numberof fakes floating in the Western world, a result of 19th and 20th century Jaipur Artists, made for the dealer GUZDAR in Bombay. To this day various albums touted as Mughal albums contained many fakes like these. The artist Chughtai explained things in detail in his book THE HOUSE OF TAIMUR AND OTHER ARTICLES (1970). We can narrate his judg’ment here, and one can check the attachment we have here. For the full account read the book THE HOUSE OF TAIMUR. Copy can be obtained from us at request. Suffice one can get the idea from the paragraph attached with this writing. Good luck in your analysis. Start having confidence in your own observations.

WESTERN SCHOLARSHIP ON THE DECLINE
NO UNDERSTANDING OF REGIONAL ART POLITICS

Fading glory of connoisseurship of past

There is no doubt that British understood this region well. The scholars they created in the Arts knew all this more, and excellence in scholarship was created by people like Sir Thomas Arnold, Laurence Binyon, Basil Gray, Robert Skelton, Ralph Pinder Wilson, Robert Hellebrand and others. But a new wave of students got their knowledge in India after 1947 and never got a chance to come to Pakistan after 1947. Their minds and eyes got muddled and soon scores of art dealers muddled the whole picture of Indo-Pakistani Art.

Yes, there are lies, and there are Art lies. The two Nation theory is ever dominant in the Arts too. Both nations had their own way of dealing with the Arts. A basic and natural aversion to sculpture which was to be worshipped was there. Muslims enjoyed figurines for pleasure, never for religious sake. And the figures they saw being worshipped, as iconoclasts, they destroyed in a political wave. Most of this sculpture was purely erotic and they would fail to understand why the LINGAM or the PHALLUS was worshipped as a natural god here. In Mandirs in deep down dark caves, young girls lost their virginity on lingams and this blood was offered as sacred duty to the gods. The most erotic sculpture was there, in unimaginable sexual positions, to wrest the equilibrium of these people. But the Hindus loved to revel in Stone in line of the Buddhist before them. But the local sculpture did not have the aquiline poses of Central Asia. The Shiva and Krishnas were stout warriors here in their own Art.

The Muslims did ART FOR ART SAKE only. No religion was involved here, and they accepted everything as a thing of beauty that could be a joy forever. Aurangzeb Alamgeer had all praise for the CAVES OF ELLORA (Even Mahmud Ghaznavi liked Hindu Architecture). He himself was a connoisseur of Art and Art did not falter but continued with its far reaching effects on the region.

Paper came from China but in this region it was introduced by the Muslims. So painting on paper became a tradition of Muslim Painting itself. And although all kinds of painting flourished here as Wall paintings too, they were replaced by Albums of paintings and the art of the miniature, for basically horse men and elephant riders, like the Muslims would love to carry Albums with them, to read and study by their campfire for enjoyment on the journeys. With times change, so did the composition and size of the paintings itself.

M.A. Rahman Chughtai would get irritated with the massive fake portrayal of CHERUBS in Fake Mughal Art. There was no scope for the depiction of silly images which only suited Western Art. Here the concept of Angels was bathed in beauty and the Angels wore beautiful clothes, peacock like feathers and beautiful faces. Naked Cherub boys were not in taste of these people. Scholars impose this image on the Mughals to raise their stature high, as that the Mughals were indebted to them for inspiration. It is a pity that the bigotry of these many western scholars have not been able to evade. We look at Mughal Art through Mughal eyes, not eyes tainted by jealousy and envy of culture.

Western scholarship recognized all this once upon a time. But now it seems funny that they have made STEREOTYPES of things with fixed accounts. This is just a call forward to the Western world to study our culture too and our point of view. Many of the works you hold for as genuine are just fake works. And M.A. Rahman Chughtai was the first to point out that. But more of this in another blog.

THE MELODY OF “AZAN” MORE THAN BEETHOVENS SYMPHONY
DECIBELS SHRIEKS IN MOSQUES DESTROYING EARDRUMS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Mullahs obsession with unnecessary sound is OCD

When loudspeakers came in the region, the fatwa of the Mullahs was unanimous. Loudspeakers were Anti-Islamic in nature and should never be used. Then in their Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the Mullahs realized that the same could be a tool for tyranny in their hands by destroying the peace and tranquility of the neighbourhood.

There is famous case of the a Hindu girl in a small village. She used to hear the Morning Azan every day and its melody, took her in so much ecstasy, that she embraced Islam for its harmony for the soul. Today loudspeakers clash with each other for dominance of sound. If one mosque has one loudspeaker, another has two, another four, perhaps some even sixteen. When the Azan is recited in a number of nearby mosques, mosque after mosque, the clashing sounds turn the eternal beauty and melody of the Azan into an eardrum piercing exercise. There is no religion or Deen involved here. Nobody objects to the Azan, nor anybody can do the same. It is the destruction of melody which disturbs most people and they do not have the GUTs to take the area Mullah in their hands and tell them that they are not involved in religious duty in any way by piercing eardrums, but a menace to society and peace of the neighbourhood.

The natural sound of the Azan was turned and tested by musicians and they put the musical nodes to it, and found that the sound itself is a Divine blessing and very pleasant to the ears. Even today on Television, there are some QARIS who rivet your ears to the beauty of the rendering of the Azan. It is a science in itself. But this science is disturbed by the zero aesthetics and sound understandng by an overruly Mullah of the neighbourhood, for whom more decibels mean more power. There was a blind Qari in the Wazeer Khan Mosque (no loudspeakers then) and when he recited the Azan, people used to stop in their tracks to hear it. It is said that his melody could even be heard near the Lohari Gate, just the voice and its purity of expression.

SOUND MASTERS should be hired to test the area of each mosque and like stereo harmony, set the decibels of each mosque, so that there should be no conflict, and that the purity of the Azan can come not only to the ears of Muslims, but also others, and like the Hindu Girl, they too should be forced to acknowledge the DIVINITY that is inherent in every choice of Allah. This does not require much investment but the result would be tremendous and the Blessings of Allah will dawn upon us.

DIARY OF A HINDU PRINCE OF DEV GEER (DAULATABAD) 694 AH (1294 AD)
PROFESSOR HASSAN NIZAMI’S EFFORT TO SAVE HISTORY

An important conversion of Allauddin Khiljis reign

The great Professor Hassan Nizami was obsessed with history and his contributions to Sultanate period in this region is indispensable. He was also an outright mureed of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and wrote whatever he could about him and his followers. In the life of the great Saint, he came across the diary of a Hindu Prince Raj Kumar Hardev. The story of Raj Kumar, put in isolation by Hindu historians, is a very important episode in the history of this region. But here we have life of a manuscript to discuss.

When the Mahrattas sacked Delhi, the loot they took to Bharatpur and in a Royal library of Bharatpur, was a manuscript of a DIARY OF A HINDU PRINCE RAJ KUMAR HARDEV. It was found that after his capture in Daulatbad, Allauddin Khilji took a tutor to him to teach him Persian langage and he became an avid Persian writer. Now and then he would jot own details about his life. The result was a diary which he called as CHAEL ROZA. Hassan Nizami was fascinated with this information, as this very Prince after conversion, not only became MIR IMARAT Chief Architect of the reign, but also the PRIME MINISTER and later married the daughter of Sultan Tughlaq. He is also known by his many Royal titles. So his story could not be diminished, and had to be saved for the future.

Hassan Nizami was all bent on publishing this diary separately, when riots broke out in India. The original MS was destroyed in Bharatpur to his information. The published book at Delhi was subject to watering and that was on the verge of total destruction. With a few copies in hand, Hassan Nizami fled to Deccan, the home of the ancient Hindu Prince himself. Here he gave those badly printed copies for publication. He could not check it himself as his eyesight was failing and had failed. His sons helped him in the review. It was printed in Deccan in 1948, and then again Deccan was annexed by the Delhi regime itself.

How many copies survived of the poorly printed Ms we do not know? But they must be out there. But their contents do not suit the Hindu historians who twists tales all the time. Here is a tale from a diary of an important Hindu Prince who converted to Islam at the hands of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and he lies buried in his complex, as the SECOND OCTAGONAL MASOLEUM in INDO PAKISTANI REGION. The first being the Mausoleum of Ruknuddin Alam in Multan where the Prince had ruled as a Governor.

The mausoleum is in total ruins and lie in the complex of Nizamuddin Aulia. Neglected by the Historians and Conservators of India, it may soon see oblivion. But so does this important publication. It needs to be published again in fresh format. Maybe someone out there will do it. Hats off to Hassan Nizami Sahib. May Allah rest his soul in peace!