Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro
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All Rights Reserved Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Book Name: Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Author: Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro Year of Publication: 2018 Layout: Imtiaz Ali Ansari Publisher: Culture and Tourism Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi Printer: New Indus Printing Press Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro Price: Rs.400/- ISBN: 978-969-8100-40-2 Can be had from Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Department Book shop opposite MPA Hostel Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidaytullah Road Culture and Tourism Department, Karachi-74400 Government of Sindh, Karachi Phone 021-99206073 Dedicated to my mother, Sahib Khatoon (1935-1980) Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 7 Publisher’s Note 9 Introduction 11 1 Prehistoric Circular Tombs in Mol 15 Valley, Sindh-Kohistan 2 Megaliths in Karachi 21 3 Human and Environmental Threats to 33 Chaukhandi tombs and Role of Civil Society 4 Jat Culture 41 5 Camel Art 65 6 Role of Holy Shrines and Spiritual Arts 83 in People’s Education about Mahdism 7 Depiction of Imam Mahdi in Sindhi 97 poetry of Sindh 8 Between Marhi and Math: The Temple 115 of Veer Nath at Rato Kot 9 One Deity, Three Temples: A Typology 129 of Sacred Spaces in Hariyar Village, Tharparkar Illustrations 145 Index 189 8 | Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh | 7 book could not have been possible without the help of many close acquaintances. First of all, I am indebted to Mr. Abdul Hamid Akhund of Endowment Fund Trust for Preservation of the Heritage who provided timely financial support to restore and conduct research on Preface and Acknowledgements megaliths of Thohar Kanarao. I wish to thank Naseer Mirza who provided me information and books for two of the articles on Imam Mahdi. I am equally grateful to This book comes out of my ongoing research that I Sohbo Khan Jamali who introduced me to many Jats of have been doing on religion and art in Sindh since 2000. Digano and Bakhar Jamali when I was doing M.Phil The journey that I undertook to study Sindhi syncretism, research on camel art. Two of the papers on Jats have asceticism and mysticism led me to focus on those been extracted from my M.Phil dissertation. Mr. Sobho dimensions which were not investigated earlier. My Khan Jamali was of great help indeed. I also benefitted anthropological pursuits broadened my horizon and gave from the help of Anbji Jago and his son Panchraj Singh me impetus to write more on these hitherto unknown Jago of Hariyar village who provided most of the aspects of Sindhi culture and religion. information about Malhan Devi and Hario Jago. I am also Sindh’s rich cultural and religious diversity makes it grateful to my friend Gul Hasan Kalmati for his help in unique in Pakistan. In past few decades, there has been a writing article on human and environmental threats to growing interest in the archaeology of Sindh by both Karachi. local and international scholars. There has been a The list of acknowledgments would not be complete welcome shift from the international scholars and without mention of my family and dear friends who researchers’ work upon which we solely relied upon to constantly encouraged me and lifted my morale in many especially national local Sindhi scholars who have been ways and this helped me to complete this book. I am contributing in English language and bringing hitherto thankful to my wife who stood by me on every occasion unknown tangible and intangible heritage of Sindh to and provided the much needed inspiration to successfully international limelight. This trend has facilitated young finalize this arduous work and encouraged to pursue my archaeologists and anthropologists to explore the hidden research on Sindh. I feel grateful to my good friend treasures of Sindh. The present book is also one in the Muhammad Juman Zardari who sometimes accompanied series on those hidden and unknown cultural and in the field. Finally my word of appreciation for Sohail religious diversity that Sindh has been celebrating since Ahmed who diligently undertook to proofread and edit ages. It is a collection of articles dealing with the manuscript. archaeology, art and religion in Sindh which I have discussed in detail in the introduction. I have sincerely endeavored to provide information in the papers that I collected over a period of time. This 10 | Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh | 9 written on history of Jats in Sindh but not much is available on their folklore and art. In this book two articles, based on primary sources, deal with art, culture and folklore of Jats. The author has also touched upon the lesser known but important religious communities in Publisher’s Note his book. This includes Veer nathi Panth, a panth which has not earlier been discussed by any of the researchers and scholars. Veer nathi panth is believed to have been The Culture Department, Government of Sindh has named after Veer Nath who lived in the sixteenth century been promoting and preserving Sindh’s culture and Sindh, first mentioned in his poetry by eminent Sindhi heritage with dedication through a number of activities. Sufi poet Shah Inayat. The Risalo of Shah Abdul Latif is In recent years, the Department has intensified its full of references to Nath Jogis for which Shah has used activities to promote and highlight Sindh’s culture several titles to refer to them. Shah Abdul Latif has through multiple cultural events including seminars, devoted two whole surs Ramkali and Khahori exclusively workshops, conferences, cultural programs and festivals. to the Nath Jogis and there are also some references in A frequent holding of these cultural events has made other surs of the Risalo. The article by Dr. Kalhoro is Culture Department one of the most sustainable and very useful in understanding the history and development vibrant amongst the provincial culture departments of the of Veer nathi order. He also throws light on his various rest of the provinces in Pakistan. Apart from organizing disciples who spread Veer nathi Panth in Sindh, Punjab, regular cultural events, Culture Department also Gujrat and Rajasthan. There is also an interesting and publishes books on history, language and literature, useful material on the sacred typology of Hariyar village Sufism, heritage and culture of Sindh in Sindhi, Urdu and in Tharparkar. English languages. The present book written by an I hope this book will be useful and equally important eminent anthropologist Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro is the addition to the existing cultural treasures of Sindh and for latest edition in the series of documentation of Sindh’s the students of anthropology, archaeology, history, art history and heritage that this department is doing for history, literature and comparative religions on one hand posterity. Dr. Kalhoro’s book deals with some of the and for the general reader on other. most important dimensions of Sindh’s archaeology, art and religion. One of the uniqueness of the book is its focus on hitherto unknown heritage sites including one on Ghulam Akbar Laghari Megaliths in Karachi. We have already Indus period sites Secretary to Govt of Sindh in Karachi district but the discovery of and discussions on Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department megaliths in Karachi reflect how rich the region of Karachi was in the ancient times. Moreover, the author has also delineated similar types of monuments in other provinces in the country. Something has already been 12 | Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh Archaeology, Art and Religion in Sindh | 11 Cult practices hosted by South-West University Neofit Rilski University Research Center for Ancient European and Eastern Mediterranean Cultures at Blagoevgrad, 12- 15 October 2016. The symposium was attended by the renowned archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and Introduction heritage managers from across the globe. The subject of megaliths is entirely new in the archaeological annals of Sindh. In this paper I have only discussed megaliths in Sindh is a land of mystics, mysteries, myths, and Karachi which I extracted from my forthcoming book on monuments. Almost every village and town has history ‘Megalithic Sindh’, a book that deals extensively with to boast legendry values, tribes to tell myths of their different types of megaliths in Sindh. Megaliths have origin, religious groups to mirror the unique social been found in other parts of Pakistan too but those in transformation, peculiarities and distinctive features to Sindh are totally unknown to archaeologists, celebrate and artisans to carry forward centuries old anthropologists and historians to this day. Many different artistic traditions. While travelling through the cultural types of megaliths have been discussed in my landscape of Sindh, one comes across both prehistoric forthcoming book on megalithic Sindh which include and historic monuments which have withstood the dolmens, stone circles, stone circular structures, stone vagaries of weather narrating the tales of culturally rich alignments, menhirs. During my exploration and bygone past of Sindh. Many a monuments are now documentation of megaliths in Sindh, I came across many important part of history. large stone circles and stone alignments some of which This book is a collection of 9 articles dealing with were in very bad state of preservation. One of the stone broader themes of archaeology, art and religion. Some of circles was restored to its original condition with the the articles were published earlier in national and financial help from Endowment Fund Trust for the international journals which were not accessible to Preservation of the Heritage of Sindh (EFT). Pakistani scholars who are working on the history, Another paper “Human and Environmental threats to anthropology, archaeology and religion of Sindh. Four of Chaukhandi and role of civil society” was presented in a these presented in the international conferences have also conference at Istanbul.