Mud Fort that once defined Abohar

Yogesh Snehi & Kuldeep Kumar

In 2008, an ordinary-looking object was discovered at the Mud Fort of Abohar in Punjab. It appeared like a conch shell popularly used in temples. Made up of grey clay, baked and hardened, it was lying in a rainwater gully that usually exposed such objects during monsoon. It remained unidentified for more than 14 years before it was shared with an archaeologist friend, Dr Aadil Zubair. His exploration helped us identify the object. It turned out to be a medieval explosive, a prototype of modern hand grenades. The object was potentially from the 13th or 14th century and may have been used by the Mongols during their military expeditions in India.

Abohar, Bhatner (modern Hanumangarh) and Tabarinda (modern Bathinda) were frontier forts that had been strengthened by Balban and later the Delhi sultans to protect the Delhi Sultanate from the ravaging destruction caused by the Mongols.

The Mud Fort is abundant in such rich archaeological data. In 1939, when a carpenter named Moda was levelling the ground in front of his house adjacent to the fort, he stumbled upon an earthen pot containing a ‘treasure trove’ of copper coins. He handed these over to the Naib Tehsildar of Abohar, who transferred these to the Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepur district. The DC handed these over to the Superintendent, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Lahore Circle, in 1940. These coins are still at the Central Museum, Lahore. The coins were from the reign of Muhammad Ghori (1149-1206) to Akbar’s era (1542-1605). Earlier, in 1874, JG Delmerick found a stone inscription from the debris of the Mud Fort. The inscription related to the renovation of a well during the reign of Iltutmish by Qutlugh Khan Aibak, the region’s governor, in 1232. The inscription is now in the Indian Museum, Kolkata.

According to the ASI, the antiquarian remains of the Mud Fort comprise pottery sherds, structural remains of the walls made of unbaked mud bricks, clay beads, toys, etc. These remain visible on the surface and in the rain gullies and have been attributed to various periods. The Mud Fort is an important archaeological mound. It was declared protected by the ASI in 1941. After the partition of Punjab, the protected site, which is located on the edge of Jammu Basti of Abohar, was gradually encroached upon by poor refugees. Only in 2001-02 was the mound fenced to prevent it from extraction of soil and illegal construction. However, the fence soon became redundant due to the poor upkeep and monitoring.

Besides large baked bricks, the Mud Fort still has mud-brick walls from the Kushan era. The rain gully also occasionally exposed glazed pottery, typical of the early medieval period.

The Mud Fort is called theh in the local language. The mound is mentioned in Allchin and Allchin’s ‘Early Civilisations in India and Pakistan’. The ASI argues that the site is situated on the bank of the dry bed of the Ghaggar river. It has an elevation of 60 feet and is spread over 9 acres. The fort was surrounded by vast uncultivated pastures suitable for cattle rearing and horse breeding. According to Prof Suraj Bhan Bhardwaj, the local Bhatti rulers of Abohar during the Sultanate period were also horse breeders and controlled the trade in horses, which was the source of power, authority and legitimacy. It is not a surprise that the rain gullies expose several clay toys resembling horses or mules.

Abohar thrived as an important military and trade hub during the Sultanate period of Indian history due to its strategic location on the medieval highway, that connected the mouth of the river Indus via Multan to Delhi. In the 13th and 14th centuries, it was a principality of a local Rajput ruler, Rana Mal Bhatti. When Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller, who was going to Delhi from Multan reached Abohar in 1333, he termed it the first town in India proper. He left Abohar for the onward journey along with 22 horsemen, partly Arab and partly Persian and Turkish traders. The city developed a deeper connection with the Tughluqs. Firoz Shah Tughluq’s (died 1388) mother Bibi Naila was from Abohar and Firoz’s court historian Shams-i-Siraj Afif lived here. The Mud Fort was the epicentre of these patterns of trade, travel and local power structures.

It is nothing less than a tragedy that the site remains in deep neglect despite its richly layered history from the Indus Valley Civilisation to the Mughal period. This is also one of the few sites that the ASI manages in Punjab. The relationship of the site with Partition migrants makes its conservation very challenging. Several houses were demolished after illegal occupants were served legal notices in 2009. This led to a political uproar and genuine demands for the resettlement of the displaced. One of the significant problems with the ASI’s approach is its inability to excavate the site and set up a museum here. This would address the livelihood issues of locals, who may generate employment from tourism and give the small town its due place in history.

— The writers were associated with the Abohar History Project