Remnants of the past sultanate
The ancient graveyard Lal Mahra offers much more than heaps of rocks and scattered pottery shards. Its four large mausoleums pale every other view offered by the surrounding landscape
By Muhammad Saad Nawaz Qaisrani
For years unending, I had been passing this signboard on the Indus Highway (N-55) proclaiming the existence of an ancient graveyard nearby but could never venture close enough to the graveyard to get a glimpse of it. Unlike the lofty peaks of the Suleiman Mountains which can be seen on any clear day from the Indus Highway over 100 kms away, the 6 km distance between the graveyard known as Lal Mahra and the highway is too great for it to be visible from the road. Consequently I could know nothing more about Lal Mahra than the very fact of its existence as conveyed by the signboard on the highway.

Athens was awesome. I was in this ancient city to cover the 2004 Olympics. The Olympiad was returning to its birthplace and sports buff around the world were

excited. So was I.

For Pakistani, at least, history repeated itself -- once again, like the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, they returned home empty-handed. Their best shot was hockey. But after missing a semi-final spot the team settled for a disappointing fifth place.

As luck would have it, I was deprived of an Olympic media accreditation by our National Olympic Committee, the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because somehow (and don't ask how) I ended up with a VIP guest accreditation card issued to people near and dear to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

So, for me Athens was simply incredible. With a 'VIP pass' in my pocket, I chatted and dined with international celebrities. I had my first taste of royalty at the majestic Olympic Hockey Centre -- when on a pleasant August evening, Pakistan played against Spain in what was seen as a potentially explosive encounter. The match turned out to be a huge disappointment: our 'greenshirts' were blanked out 4-0 by the Spaniards. As the match progressed, I chatted with this elegant Spanish couple sitting next to me.

They were both friendly and looked vaguely familiar. We talked about hockey and the two seemed pretty happy with the way their team played the match. Well obviously! They left just before the match ended to catch some other Olympic action -- and a few minutes later a female volunteer came to me and asked, "Did you know who they were?"

"I don't know. Probably some big shots from Spain," said I.

"They were the Crown Prince and Princess of Spain," she told me.

Wow! I should have known. They seemed familiar because I had seen their pictures splashed in Spanish newspapers when I had travelled to Madrid to cover the Olympic qualifiers earlier that year. Then Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia were about to be married.

The IOC guest pass had its perks. Later, sitting next to the legendary American boxer Evander Holyfield, I went on to watch that memorable Olympic final between Amir Khan, the British-born youngster of Pakistani origin, and Cuban star Mario Kindelan.

Cities hosting the Olympic games are almost always overshadowed by the quadrennial spectacle. Athens was no exception. The city reminded me of home. It was hot and it was crowded with more traffic jams than any European city I've visited so far.

But it was a fascinating place. One of the oldest cities in the world, walking through it seemed like taking a stroll into history. I walked through its ancient agora or on the acropolis each time I managed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Olympics.

The centrepiece of the Olympic games was the modern stadium with its Santiago Calatrava-designed roof.

I was impressed by Athens' public transport system. "Thank to the Olympic games," said a local. I was told that it used to be pretty bad till the IOC voted in favour of Athens to host the 2004 Games. Buildings were renovated and the city's major arteries were modernised. Many historical monuments and places including the acropolis from Dionysiou Areopagitoy Street to Thission and Keramikos were made 'pedestrian only'.

Acropolis is to Athens what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. So you have to begin your tour of the city with a visit to what the Greeks call the sacred rock. I went there three or four times -- and what a place! Standing there one can take a peek into the glory of ancient Greece.

My next stop was agora. The temple to Hephaistos is still in good shape so is the temple to Zeus and the arch of Hadrian.

When in the old city you can't stop walking to see one place after the other. It used to work really well for my appetite, and with Plaka -- this incredible place for food and shopping in the shadow of the acropolis -- one can't resist the idea of a meal or even a quick snack. I loved eating there and used to pick places randomly. Almost all of them were good. My personal favourite was Souvlaki, Greece's answer to burgers or shawarmas.

Plaka is also a good place to discover how the ancient Athens once looked like with it low buildings and small streets.

One of the high points of my Athens visit was a trip to Ancient Olympia. It was here that the original Olympics began as a small regional festival in the 11th century. The spectacle was dedicated to the God Zeus. The first Olympic games were held in 776 BC and reached their height of popularity in 576 BC. They were later banned for being pagan.

Olympia is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Greece. The village of Olympia itself is a collection of tourist shops, cafes, restaurants and Historical Museum of the Olympic Games. Though it a full-day trip, yet was refreshing.

Back to Athens, the Olympic games were a rip roaring success. In the pool, Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps and Jodie Henry hauled unforgettable victories while Kelly Holmes and Hicham El Guerrouj shined on the track.

On the medal table, the United States was once again on top, winning 35 golds, 39 silvers and 29 bronzes for a total of 103 medals. But the spotlight was on China that finished second with 32 golds, 17 silvers and 14 bronzes for a total of 63. Russia finished third with a total of 92 medals and Australia fourth with a total of 49 -- 9 shy of the record 58, won by them four years ago at home in Sydney.

For years unending, I had been passing this signboard on the Indus Highway (N-55) proclaiming the existence of an ancient graveyard nearby but could never venture close enough to the graveyard to get a glimpse of it. Unlike the lofty peaks of the Suleiman Mountains which can be seen on any clear day from the Indus Highway over 100 kms away, the 6 km distance between the graveyard known as Lal Mahra and the highway is too great for it to be visible from the road. Consequently I could know nothing more about Lal Mahra than the very fact of its existence as conveyed by the signboard on the highway.

The long journey from Rawalpindi to Tibbi Qaisrani would never allow me to undertake the necessary detour near Mahra Sharif to visit the graveyard, while the distance between Ramak and Tibbi Qaisrani would discourage any attempt to pay it a special visit. One day however, the urge to see it grew so strong that I finally decided to visit Lal Mahra.

It was a frosty morning of mid-February in 2004 when I undertook the visit. Accompanied by two cousins, I made for Lal Mahra in my father's car. A few kilometers north of Ramak the signboard guided us to a dead-end, with no way ahead. All that could be seen in front was heaps of cut sugarcane, ready to be dispatched to the nearby sugar mills. For a few desperate moments it seemed as if our endeavour to see Lal Mahra would end in a failure, but the day was saved when we came across a Pashtun who led us to the correct route to the graveyard.

About half an hour of some of the toughest riding my father's car has ever seen, we entered the graveyard. It was actually sugarcane season, and so all traces of the katcha roads were by now obliterated by overloaded tractor trolleys that plied on these routes to transport the cane.

Once we got close enough to Lal Mahra, it became evident that this graveyard was not what I had expected -- heaps of rocks and scattered pottery shards. In fact, it was something grander, and much more magnificent. The sight of Lal Mahra's four large mausoleums paled every other view offered by the surrounding landscape. A blue board of the Archeological Department at the entrance of the graveyard detailed all that is known to date about the Lal Mahra. As per the board, there was no exact history of the graveyard. Subsequently studies were conducted by historians such as Dr. Ahmed Hassan Dani who concluded that the architecture corresponds to the Tughlaq era (1321-1398). It also claimed that the tombs were known to have existed close to 200 years prior to the founding of the Dera Ismail Khan city, and that the four mausoleums are the only remnants of a total of eleven such structures, the rest of which have been lost to the ravages of time.

The era to which this graveyard has been dated was a tumultuous time for the Delhi sultanate. Since 1221 AD, the Mongols had begun adventurous undertakings in the subcontinent. These intermittent invasions and skirmishes which lasted for more than a century had tumultuous effects for the sultanate and proved to be great threats to its survival. Numerous attempts were made by the Mongols to subdue the Delhi sultanate but these were met with stiff resistance by the Khilji and Tughlaq dynasties. In the struggle to protect the sultanate from the rampaging Mongols, princes such as Muhammad, a son of Ghiyas-ud-Din Balban had to part with their material existence.

It must have been sometime in this period that Mongols possibly descending from passes in the mighty Suleiman mountains came face to face with the sultanate armies of India in the vast desert expanse close to Lal Mahra. As we learn from Muhammad's example, the sultanate armies would have been led by princes who had no choice but to defend their homeland. In the battle that ensued, the Mongols were routed but the cost that had to be paid was heavy. Nobles and princes would have lost their lives in this battle with the Mongols, and it is they who would have been honoured by the sultanate by creating such monumental mansions to house their remains.

As my cousins and I trod in Lal Mahra exploring all its dimensions, time passed and the mid-day started heating up. It was then that we decided to make use of a luxury that we had on that day, but one that the battling armies of the sultanate did not have in their time. It was the luxury of retirement.