Hadali, a village in Sargodha district, was the birthplace of India’s most prolific writer and historian Sardar Khushwant Singh. Sargodha also brings back memories of some of the prominent personalities we studied in our history books, such as Daya Ram Sahni, the Indian archeologist who supervised the very first excavation of Indus valley site at Harappa in 1921 and who was later appointed as Director General of Archaeological Survey of India in 1935.
In this district, the town of Bhera was home to the enterprising, education-loving business class of Sikhs and Hindus who dominated trade and commerce in pre-partition Punjab. Families with last names like Kohli, Sethi, Suri, Tandon, Chawla, Sahni, Chadda owned large swaths of farmland and majority of businesses in Sargodha. They also claim to be the direct descendants of King Porus. More recently, Marina Wheeler has written a book about her maternal origins. Her mother Dip – then a Sikh teenager – had survived the trauma of Punjab’s partition, of having to leave behind “the Sargodha Homestead, the beautiful house on Civil Lines, the garden and its fruit trees, indeed their whole way of life”.
In his book, “A Tour in the Punjab” written in 1878, historian Alexander Cunnigham, mentions that the original name of the town was Bhadrawati Nagari. The city of Bhera, which was part of the ancient trade routes to central Asia, is mentioined in the studies of Hindu kings that ruled Punjab for over a thousand years before the arrival of Islam.
Cunningham also writes that in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, Sargodha had a ruler of its own, named Biji Rai, who was, however, a descendent of Anand Pal, the great King of Peshawar and Lahore. As the city was reputed to be wealthy, Mahmud of course made an expedition against it. The first fight for Punjab against the invaders was fought in Sargodha. This battle is chronicled by Mahmud’s lieutenant Utbi who writes the following:
“Ghazni marched towards the city, the walls of which the wings of an eagle could not surmount, and which was surrounded as by the ocean with a ditch of exceeding depth and breadth. The city was as wealthy as imagination can conceive in property, armies, and military weapons. There were elephants as headstrong as Satan. The ruler at that time was Biji Rai, and the pride which he felt in the state of his preparations induced him to leave the walls of his fort and come forth to oppose the Musalmans, in order to frighten them with his warriors and elephants and great prowess. The Sultan fought against him for three days and nights, and the lightnings of his swords and the meteors of his spears fell on the enemy. On the fourth morning a most furious onslaught was made with swords and arrows, which lasted till noon, when the Sultan ordered a general charge to be made upon the infidels. The friends of God advancing against the masters of lies and idolatry with cries of ‘God is great’! broke their ranks, and rubbed their noses ‘upon the ground of disgrace’.
The Sultan himself, like a stallion, went on dealing hard blows around him on the right hand and on the left, and cut those who were clothed, making the thirsty infidels drink the cup of death. In this single charge he took several elephants, which Biji Rai regarded as the chief support of his centre. At last God granted victory to the standards of Islam, and the infidels retreated behind the walls of their city for protection. The Musalmans obtained possession of the gates of the city, and employed themselves in filling up the ditch and destroying the scarp and counterscarp, widening the narrow roads, and opening the closed entrances. When Biji Rai saw the desperate state to which he was reduced, he escaped by stealth and on foot into the forest with a few attendants, and sought refuge on the top of some hills. The Sultan despatched a select body of troops in pursuit of them, and surrounded them as a collar does the neck, and when Biji Rai saw that there was no chance of escape he drew his dagger, stuck it into his breast, and went to the fire which God has lighted for infidels and those who deny a resurrection, for those who say no prayers, hold no fasts, and tell no beads.” Continued in part-2