Ruins of Tulamba

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 1^st 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 7^th 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