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| Ruins of Tulamba |
Tulamba
The present town of Tulamba
appears to have been pre-Tulamba ceded by at least two previous sites, one
which was at the huge mound known as “Mamu Sher” a mile or so to the south-east
of the present town, and the other among the ruins which extend immediately to
the west. Local tradition ascribes the foundation to one Raja Tul, a descendant
of Raja Salivahan of Sialkot, from whom the fort was called ‘Tul Ubha’ (or
Northern Tul); others, with a shade less of improbability, say “Tul Ubha” (the
Northern Fort). Whether Tulamba is, as Cunnigham suggests, the taken by
Alexander, or, as Masson suggests the also taken by the same conqueror, is a
question somewhat difficult of solution; the distances given being rather in
favour of the former conjecture, while
the fact that the city is still a stronghold of Brahmans is to some extent in
favour of the latter. There is a tradition that it was taken by Mahmud of
Gazni., but its first appearance in actual history is during the invasion of
Tamerlane, who himself in his Memoirs gives the following account of his
capture and sack of the city (October 1898):-
“When I arrived at the city of Tulamba I pitched my camp at the bank of the
river. Tulamba is about seventy miles from Multan. On the same day the Syads, and Ulama,
and Sheikhs, and chief men and rulers of Tulamba came out to meet me, and
enjoyed the honour of kissing my stirrup. As sincerity was clearly written on
their foreheads, every one of them, according to his rank, was distinguished by
marks of my princely favour. Marching forward, I halted on Saturday, the 1st
of the month Safar in the plain which lies before the fortress of Tulamba. My
Wazirs had fixed the ransom of the people of the city at two lakes of rupees,
and appointed collectors; but as the Syeds, who are family and descendants of
our Lord Muhammad, the chosen, and the Ulama of Islam, who are the heirs of the
prophets (upon him and upon them be blessings and peace), had always in my
court been honoured and treated with reverence and respect, I gave orders now
that a ransom was about to be levied from the city of Tulamba, that whatever
was written against the names of the Syads and ‘Ulama should be struck out of
the account, and I sent them away, having filled their hearts with joy and
triumph by presents of costly dresses of honour and Arab horses. A
reinforcement of troops arrived about this time, so that my troops became more
numerous than the tribes of ants and locusts, causing scarcity of provielons,
so that there was a dearth of grain in my camp, though the people had
quantities. Since a part of the ransom, consisting of coin, had not yet been
collected, and since my troops were distressed on account of the scarcity of
provisions, I ordered that the citizens should make payment in grain instead of
money; but they persisted in storing up their corn, totally regardless of the sufferings
of my troops. The hungry Taters, making a general assault upon them like ants
and locusts plundered an enormous number of granaries, so numerous, indeed, as
to be incalculable, and according to the text, “Verily kings when they enter a
city utterly ruin it,” the hungry Tatars opened the hands of devastation in the
city till a rumor of the havoc they were making reached me. I ordered the Syads
and Tawachis to expel the troops from the city, and commanded that whatever
corn and other property had been plundered should be taken as an equivalent for
so much ransom. At this time it was represented to me that some of the chief
zamindars of the environs of Tulamba, at the time when Prince Pir Muhammad was
marching on Multan, had presented themselves before him, walking in the path of
obedience and submission, but when they had recived their dismissal, and
returned to their own home, they planted their feet on the highway of contumacy
and rebellion. I immediately gave orders to Amir Shah Malik and to Sheikh
Muhammad, the son of Aiku, Timur, to march with their tumans and kushuns against
these rebels, and to inflict condign punishment upon them. Amir Shah Malik and
Sheikh Muhammad taking a guide with them, instantly commenced their march, and
having arrived at the jungles in which these wretches, forsaken by fortune, had
taken refuge, they dismounted, and entering the jungle slew two thousand of
these ill-fated Indian with their remorseless sabers, carrying off captives their
women and children, and returned with a great booty of kine, buffaloes, and
other property. When on their victorious return they displayed in my sight the
spoils they had won, I ordered to make a general distribution to the soldiery.
When my mind was satisfied with the extermination of these wretches on
Saturday, the 7th of Safar, I set my foot in the stirrup and marched
from Tulamba.
The statement made in Dow’s translation of Frishta (i., 487)
that the fort was left untouched because its capture would have delayed
Tamerlane’s progress dose not seem to be supported by the original. The city,
however, seems to have continued in existence, and its removel to its present
or at any rate to another, site is ascribed to a change in the course of the
river in the days of Mahmud Khan, Langah at the beginning of the sixteenth
century. Tulamba appears in the Sikh legends as the scene of adventure
experienced with a thag by Guru Nanak. The city is mentioned as one of the
mahals of Multan Sirkar in the days of Akbar and in Shah Jahan’s time it was
the site of one of the serais on the road between Lahore and Multan. This serai is said to have been cut
away by the river in A.D. 1750. The city was looted by Ahmad Shah, Abdali in
one of his incursions, but recovered prosperity under Sharif Beg, after-
Tulamba awards Naib-Nazim of Multan, who built (about 1759 A.D.) the striking
enclosure (said to have been a sarai), which still stands on the south-west
edge of the town, and in which are situated the thana, school, post office and
other Government buildings.
The site of the old city at Mamu Sher is thus described by
Cunnigham, who visited it twice:-
“It consisted of an open city, protected on the south by a
lofty fortress 1,000 feet square. The outer rampart is of earth, 200 feet
thick, 20 feet height on the outer face, or faussebraie, with a second rampart
of the same height on the top of it. Both of these were originally faced with
large bricks 12 by 8 by 2 ½ inches. Inside the rampart there is a clear space
or ditch, 100 feet in breadth, surrounding an inner fort 400 feet square, with
walls 40 feet in height, and in the middle of this there is a square tower or
castle, 70 feet in height, which commands the whole space. The numerous
fragments of bricks lying about, and the still existing marks of the courses of
the bricks on many places on the outer faces of the ramparts, confirm the
statements of the people that the walls formerly faced with bricks.
The traveler Masson, who was here about 1827 A.D., Writes-
“Another march brought us to the neighborhood of Tulamba,
surrounded by graves of date trees and, to appearance, a large populous and
walled-in town. I did not visit it for although we stayed three or four days in
its neighborhood, I feel sick. Close to our camp was however, the ruins of a
mud fortress with walls and tower unusually huge and thick. I cannot call to
mind the name it bears.”
And he proceeds to identify the fortress (the Mamu Sher
mound) with the Brahmin city of Arrian.
Bibliography:
Gazetteer of the District Multan 1923-24
Compiled and Published Under the Authority of the Punjab Government
Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing,
Press1926
Sang-e-meel Publications
Page # 191-193
