Forts of Sindh
By Ishtiaq Ansari
Endowment Fund Trust for Preservation of the Heritage of Sindh, Karachi
ISBN: 978-9699860386
250pp.

Forts of Sindh is a labour of love by Ishtiaq Ansari — a travel enthusiast, civil engineer, historian, archaeologist and research scholar hailing from Larkana, Sindh. In it, he discusses 19 forts extant in the southeast of Pakistan.

The term ‘fort’ conjures up images of sieges, attacks, patrolling guards and various other machinations associated with battle or war. It is true that, historically, forts were essentially part of defence or military architecture. However, they served many secondary functions as well. For example, in Seljuk times, the ribbat or military outpost on the outskirts of the city served as a caravanserai for the protection of caravans and travellers plying the trade route.

Building a fort is no mean feat. Other than being an expensive exercise, it requires the combined skills of an engineer, architect and defence strategist. The sheer size of walls that are expressly designed not to be scaled, fashioned out of stone or brick, baked or sundried, can also captivate anyone, including much beloved poets. In his preface, author Ansari writes: “The mention of the fortified cities can be found in many folk stories and songs. The great Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai also sang of Sindh’s forts in different surs, such as Sur Marvi, Bilawal, Sarang, Kedaro, Dhar, Soorth and Samondi.”

Forts can be of multiple types and sizes. Some are small outposts at the border of a larger town, others are a massive construct containing entire settlements and cities within their periphery. For instance, Rani Kot, popularly known as the “wall of Sindh”, is an outer fortified ring that uses the topography of the Kirthar mountain range to its advantage. Three smaller fortresses — Miri, Shergarh and Mohan — are mentioned in the book as dotting the precinct of the larger Rani Kot.

An effortless read that can captivate readers with its textual and visual wealth, an arresting book on heritage documents 19 citadels in Sindh, going beyond the more well-known fortifications

A number of fortified cities, such as Lahore, Agra and Delhi, were established in the Subcontinent during the Mughal era. Sindh is no exception, and Ansari’s book illustrates how the cities of Hyderabad, Umerkot, Sehwan and Brahmanabad belong to the same category.

The main fort of Hyderabad — now heavily encroached by shanty towns and other unauthorised structures — once sported massive walls, as can be seen from ‘Illustrations of the Scenery and Architecture of Scinde and the Adjacent Frontier’, a painting by Lieutenant William Edwards that is reproduced in the book. Locally, the fort is called the Pacco Qilo, as it was constructed with kiln-baked bricks. This differentiates it from the Katcho Qilo, also in Hyderabad, which was built with sun-baked mud bricks. This differentiation is important, as both forts were built during Kalhora rule in the 18th century.

Another smaller fort in Hyderabad, built in the same period, is called the Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhora Fort. A beautiful display of the architectural finesse and aesthetics of the Kalhora builders, it houses the family tomb complex of the Kalhora sovereigns.

Kot and qilo are local terms used to define the varying size and type of fortification. Several other identity markers are also explained in the author’s discussion of the forts’ architectural etymology and some thought-provoking accounts trace the origins of several terms to Sanskrit. ‘Rani’, for instance, and its multiple iterations such as ‘Ronai’, ‘Runi’, ‘Raini’, ‘Rann’ etc, all relate to water and Rani Kot, by virtue of its location, literally means “fort on a hill torrent.”

Similarly, Sirni — a lesser known fort from the Buddhist period, located in the district of Naushahro Feroze — acquired its name either from its location on a high mound, or from the Sanskrit word ‘shran’, meaning shelter.

Almost all the forts discussed in the book have etymological references that serve as curios and may interest the lay reader as well as the serious researcher. Another catching reference to the local nomenclature for forts from old Indian texts is based on their location and/or construction material, such as Jala Durg, meaning river-forest fort; Mali Durg, meaning mud fort; and Vana Durg, meaning jungle fort.

Rani Kot, Umer Kot, Kot Diji, Pacco Qilo and Katcho Qilo are some of the more well-known citadels of Sindh. Therefore, the book deserves credit for bringing the more unknown fortifications to the fore, such as Sirni, Drigh Bala, Rato and Dahlil forts.

It is interesting that many of Sindh’s forts are either irregular in shape, following the natural terrain of the location, or rectilinear. The only exception is Dahlil Kot, which is a perfect circle with a diverted entrance.

The author relates this exceptional design to cosmological symbolism: the circular centre represents the sun and the 12 bastions signify the signs of the Zodiac. The chances of the fort being deliberately designed on such heavy symbolic references taken from Hindu cosmology are plausible, since the time period of its construction is given as the Brahmin Dynasty,

Looking at the images in the book, it becomes apparent that some of Dahlil’s entrances and walls were renovated later. Reinforcing and renovating fortifications was common practice, especially in times of apparent threat of war. Under the Rai Dynasty, prior to the Arab conquest, Dahlil and many other forts were reinforced. Fortifications from earlier periods may have been repaired and extended in later periods; Rani Kot is a good example of this exercise.

The foundations of Rani Kot were laid possibly during the time of the Scythians in the ninth century BCE, or Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. The latest construction is attributed to the Talpurs who ruled Sindh during the 18th century CE.

There is also evidence of building new forts over the foundation of the older ones, and of abandoned forts serving as a quarry for constructing new structures. The pictures in the book, complemented by the information in the text by the author, attest to this fact of renovations, rebuilding, or sites being used as quarry, as is visible from the decrepit condition of the forts.

It is understandable that images and photographs cannot supplement an actual visit to these heritage sites, but the impeccable quality of the photographs in Forts of Sindh brings us very close to the real experience. They do so much more than simply provide a glimpse of renovations and repairs, and the double-page spreads of drone photographs, especially, are a sight to behold. The Endowment Fund Trust for Preservation of the Heritage of Sindh must be acknowledged for providing readers with such publications that hold immense visual wealth.

Overall, Ansari’s book is an effortless read that can captivate readers with its textual and visual wealth, and the author must be credited for this gesture. It is never an easy task to bring together varied information from multiple sources in a coherent manner on paper and also make it flow. This kind of publication requires an experienced author and Ansari proves to be just that.

The author provides us with notes at the end of each chapter and a satisfactory bibliography. However, one misstep that can be rectified in future editions is the provision of in-text citations. That being said, the book will serve well as a springboard for travellers looking for sites to visit within rural and urban Sindh.

The reviewer holds a doctorate in History of Architecture from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, and is assistant professor at the Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, November 6th, 2022