Travels into Bokhara (Volume 3 of 3) / Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833

by Sir Alexander Burnes

Mooltan.

On the 15th we came in sight of the domes of Mooltan, which look well at a distance; and alighted in the evening at the Hoozooree Bagh, a spacious garden enclosed by a thin wall of mud, a mile distant from the city. The ground is laid out in the usual native style; two spacious walks crossed each other at right angles, and are shaded by large fruit trees, of the richest foliage. In a bungalow, at the end of one of these walks, we took up our quarters, and were received by the authorities of the city in the same hospitable manner as at Shoojuabad. They brought a purse of 2500 rupees, with 100 vessels of sweetmeats, and an abundant supply of fruit: we felt happy and gratified at the change of scene, and civilities of the people.

The city of Mooltan, is described in Mr. Elphinstone’s work on Cabool, and it may appear foreign to my purpose to mention it; but his mission was received here with great jealousy, and not permitted to view the interior of the town, or the fort. I do not hesitate, therefore, to add the following particulars, drawn up after a week’s residence. The city of Mooltan is upwards of three miles in circumference, surrounded by a dilapidated wall, and overlooked on the north by a fortress of strength. It contains a population of about 60,000 souls, one third of whom may be Hindoos; the rest of the population is Mahommedan, for though it is subject to the Seiks, their number is confined to the garrison, which does not exceed 500 men. The Afghans have left the country, since they ceased to govern. Many of the houses evidently stand on the ruins of others: they are built of burnt brick, and have flat roofs: they sometimes rise to the height of six stories, and their loftiness gives a gloomy appearance to the narrow streets. The inhabitants are chiefly weavers and dyers of cloth. The silk manufacture of Mooltan is called “kais,” and may be had of all colours, and from the value of 20 to 120 rupees: it is less delicate in texture than the “loongees” of Bhawulpoor. Runjeet Sing has with much propriety encouraged their manufacture, since he captured the city; and by giving no other cloths at his court, has greatly increased their consumption, and they are worn as sashes and scarfs by all the Seik Sirdars. They are also exported to Khorasan and India, and the duties levied are moderate. To the latter country, the route by Jaysulmeer and Beecaneer is chosen in preference to that by Sinde, from the trade being on a more equitable footing. The trade of Mooltan is much the same as at Bhawulpoor, but is on a larger scale, for it has forty Shroffs, (money changers) chiefly natives of Shikarpoor. The tombs of Mooltan are celebrated: one of them, that of Bawulhuq, who flourished upwards of 500 years ago, and was a contemporary of Sadee the Persian poet, is considered very holy; but its architecture is surpassed by that of his grandson, Rookn-i-Allum, who reposes under a massy dome sixty feet in height, which was erected in the year 1323, by the Emperor Tooghluck, as his own tomb. Its foundation stands on higher ground than the summit of the fort wall; there is also a Hindoo temple of high antiquity, called Pyladpooree; mentioned by Thevenot in 1665.

Fort of Mooltan.

The fortress of Mooltan merits a more particular description; it stands on a mound of earth, and is an irregular figure of six sides, the longest of which (towards the north-west) extends for about 400 yards. The wall has upwards of thirty towers, and is substantially built of burnt brick, to the height of forty feet outside; but in the interior, the space between the ground and its summit does not exceed four or five feet, and the foundations of some of the buildings overtop the wall, and are to be seen from the plain below. The interior is filled with houses, and till its capture by the Seiks in 1818, was peopled, but the inhabitants are not now permitted to enter, and a few mosques and cupolas, more substantially built than the other houses, alone remain among the ruins. The fortress of Mooltan has no ditch; the nature of the country will not admit of one being constructed; and Runjeet Sing has hitherto expended great sums without effect. The inundation of the Chenab, and its canals, together with rain, render the vicinity of Mooltan a marsh, even in the hot weather, and before the swell of the river has properly set in, the waters of last year remain. The walls of the fortress are protected in two places by dams of earth; the modern fort of Mooltan was built on the site of the old city, by Moorad Bukhsh, the son of Shah Jehan, about the year 1640, and it subsequently formed the Jagheer of that prince’s brothers, the unfortunate Daro Shikoh, and the renowned Aurungzebe. The Afghans seized it in the time of Ahmed Shah, and the Seiks wrested it from the Afghans, after many struggles, in 1818. The conduct of its governor during the siege, deserves mention; when called on to surrender the keys, and offered considerate treatment, he sent for reply, that they would be found in his heart, but he would never yield to an infidel; he perished bravely in the breach. His name, Moozuffur Khan, is now revered as a saint, and his tomb is placed in one of the holiest sanctuaries of Mooltan. The Seiks threw down the walls of the fort in many places, but they have since been thoroughly renewed or repaired; they are about six feet thick, and could be easily breached from the mounds that have been left in baking the bricks, which are within cannon range of the walls.

Antiquity of Mooltan supposed Capital of the Malli.

Mooltan is one of the most ancient cities in India. We read of its capture by Mahommed-bin-Cassim, in the first century of the Hejira, and its wealth afterwards attracted the Ghiznian, Ghorian, and Moghul emperors of Hindoostan. But we have little reason to doubt its being the capital of the Malli of Alexander: Major Rennell has supposed that metropolis to have been higher up, and nearer the banks of the Ravee, because Arrian states, that the inhabitants fled across that river. This is high authority, but Mooltan is styled “Malli than,” or “Malitharun” the place of the Malli, to this day, and we have no ruins near Tolumba, the site pointed at by Rennell to fix on as the supposed capital. It is expressly stated that Alexander crossed the Ravee, and after capturing two towns, led his forces to the capital city of the Malli. As the distance from the river is but thirty miles, and Mooltan is considered a place of high antiquity, I do not see why we should forsake the modern capital when in search of the ancient: had we not the earliest assurances of the age of Mooltan, its appearance would alone indicate it. The houses are piled upon ruins, and the town stands on a mound of clay, the materials of former habitations which have gradually crumbled, an infallible proof of antiquity, as I have remarked of Tatta and Ooch. The late Nawab of Mooltan, in sinking a well in the city, found a war drum, at a depth of sixty feet from the surface; and several other articles have been from time to time collected, but no coins have been hitherto seen. Mooltan may, in some degree, be considered to answer the description of the Brahmin city and its castle, which Alexander captured, before attacking the capital of the Malli; but in that case, we should have no site to fix on as the capital. The manufactures of Mooltan and Bhawulpoor, the “kais” and “loungee,” seem to assist in fixing the country of the Malli, for Quintus Curtius informs us that the ambassadors of the Malli and Oxydracæ (Mooltan and Ooch) “wore garments of cotton, lawn or muslin (lineæ vestes), interwoven with gold, and adorned with purple,” and we may safely translate “lineæ vestes,” into the stuffs of Mooltan and Bhawulpoor, which are interwoven with gold, and most frequently of a purple colour.

Buildings of Mooltan. Superstitions.

During our stay at Mooltan, we were freely conducted to view the lions of this decayed Viceroyalty of the Mogul empire. In the interior of the fort there is the Hindoo temple, before alluded to, which its votaries believe to be of boundless antiquity, and with it couple the following tradition. One Hurnakus, a giant, despised God, and worshipped himself; he desired his son Pylad to follow his steps, and was about to murder him for his contumacy, when the youth was miraculously saved by an incarnation of the Deity, who appeared in a shape of half lion and man. Hurnakus had given out that his death could never be effected in earth or air, in fire or water, by sword or bow, by night or day; and it happened without an infringement of these conditions, for Nursingavater (the name of the incarnation) seized him at dusk, and placing him on his knee, tore Hurnakus to pieces, and took his son under protection. This Hindoo temple, which goes by the name of Pyladpooree, is a low building, supported by wooden pillars, with the idols Hooneeman and Guneesa as guardians to its portal. It is the only place of Hindoo worship in Mooltan; we were denied entrance to it.

There is a shrine of some celebrity, near the walls of Mooltan, where rest the remains of Shumsi-Tabreezee, a saint from Bagdad, who is believed to have performed many miracles, and even raised the dead. This worthy, as the story is told, was flayed alive for his pretensions. He had long begged his bread in the city, and in his hunger caught a fish, which he held up to the sun, and brought that luminary near enough to roast it; this established his memory and equivocal fame on a firmer basis. The natives to this day attribute the heat of Mooltan, which is proverbial, to this incident.