Nurdi Serai’s Mughal connect: The forgotten caravan serai in Tarn Taran

Amanpreet Singh Gill

Nurdi, a small village on the Tarn Taran-Attari road, is more popular for landmarks in the city of Tarn Taran like Nurdi Bazaar, Nurdi Road and Nurdi Adda. Few would recall that Nurdi was named after a Mughal official, Nur al Din Quli Isfahani. As the name suggests, he belonged to the Irani faction at the Mughal court. Isfahan in Iran was the centre of Islamic architecture and at Nurdi, an anonymous tomb and remains of a caravan serai survive to tell the story of this broken link with the Indo-Persian and Central Asian heritage.

Nurdi is much quoted as the birthplace of Bhai Santokh Singh, a 19th century poet and historian who composed a multi-volume history and ‘sakhis’ of Sikh Gurus and later-day developments in Sikhism. This unique work, ‘Gurpartap Suraj Granth’, is composed in Braj bhasha.

There are many Mughal remnants along the Sher Shah Suri road near Nurdi. Akbar spent 14 years (1584-98) in Lahore. This area was the theatre of chase of Khusrau Mirza, Akbar’s grandson and Jahangir’s rebel son, in 1606. Jalalabad, Fatehabad and Khwaspur are the towns around Tarn Taran which speak of the Mughal legacy. The lasting sites, however, are Serai Amanat Khan and Serai Nurdi. These caravan serais were medieval time container docks where traders used to stay with their goods, camels, horses and servants.

A high-vaulted entrance, vast courtyard for men and cattle, small resting compartments and places of worship — these were similar in style to the grand serais in Central Asian trading towns.

A Tribune report published in 2021, ‘Slice of history from Tarn Taran’, mentions how the serai was built by Nawab Amirudin in the memory of his father, Noordin, in 1654. Only one gate of the serai survives, but the tomb has refused to succumb to the vagaries of time. Though forgotten, it sits majestically on a Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak linking Nurdi with the Amritsar-Khemkaran road via Lalu Ghuman village.

Historian Subhash Parihar, who has spent a lifetime researching medieval architectural heritage in Punjab, discovered some unique references about this tomb. In an article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1997, he used graffiti inscriptions as a source of historical enquiry. He employed a historian’s caution that whose remains are entombed in this structure is not exactly known, but he tried to gather evidence to link it with Nur al Din Quli Isfahani, who was killed by Kishan Singh Rathore in 1632. When the tomb was built is not known. Graffiti on the tomb is proof that it existed during the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-58). Among five graffiti texts, one is unique because it indicates the date of the Balkh expedition sent by Shah Jahan. The text deciphered by Parihar goes like this:

Ali Muhammad, the son of Ali Murad Barlas, on Tuesday 24th of the month of Ramadan year (AH) 1055 (3 November 1645), from Akbarabad to Lahore with all hopes, was going at a time when in the expedition against Balkh, Nawab Ali Mardan Khan, Nawab Aslat Khan, Raja Jagat Singh, Bahadur Khan Rohilla and others were assigned to the expedition...

This precious record now survives only in the form of photographs clicked by Parihar.

Tarn Taran became a district in 2006, but the administration took no interest in conserving or popularising the medieval heritage in and around the city. This tomb was declared a protected monument in 2016 under the Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1964. Today, thorny weed is the only protection it has against trespassers.

While Serai Nurdi suffered from government apathy, another serai on the same road, Serai Amanat Khan, gained more attention from heritage lovers and authorities. It was built by another Iranian, Abd-Al-Haq, later known as ‘Amanat Khan’ for his services as the chief calligrapher of Taj Mahal. The serai was restored following sustained efforts of the Archaeological Survey of India and the Punjab Tourism Department.

— The writer teaches at SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi

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