The notion that Lahore was named after Prince Lava, the eldest fair son of Rama, has set many readers writing in to ask about Lahore before Lava was born. So, to the epics one returns.

For starters you can imagine the mounds of Lahore with the River Ravi curling around it. So, this empty space on the mounds is what motivated people to stop, or later, live there. The archaeological findings in the Lahore Fort have timed the oldest habitation at 4,500 years plus, which is about the same time when Harappa was hit by a series of high floods. But let us go further back to when the first Aryans moved eastwards.

The first Aryans to walk into the Punjab were the Lohanas, which makes them the ‘oldest’ surviving community in the world. This is the Aryan migration version of scholars. The top archaeological scholars, however, put it down to almost 60,000 years plus earlier when the first Africans migrated northwards and eastwards, going right up to present-day Australia.

The Original Australians, known racially as ‘Aborigines’, by white scholars, have been timed at over 50,000 years plus, walking along the safe coastlines right up to Australia, which was then joined to the tip of south-east Asia.

But then we have the world’s first known planned city in the shape of Mehrgarh in Balochistan, which experts time at over 12,500 years. So as the original inhabitants moving along the coast from Africa, a large number moved northwards they set up Mehrgarh, the surrounding areas still speak Brahui, a version of the Dravidian language. Then follows Mohenjo Daro, a few thousand years later, where people speak one of the Euro-Aryan languages. Then about 7,000 years ago they set up Harappa.

If you have noticed that the people on the Makran are almost African in appearance. If you move to the extreme north like Chitral, where people are tall, fair with blonde hair and blue eyes. These changes in appearance scientists tell us is because of the sun’s ultra-violet rays, diets dictated by local conditions, the ground altitude, and thousands of years of exposure over which these three conditions changed humans.

The Aryans came much later, and they were cattle grazers from Central Asia and Iran and Afghanistan. The first lot were cow and buffalo grazers, hence the first Gujjars came about. The grazers, or Gujjars, initially worshipped the Lord Krishna, and prior to the Mahabharata War these original inhabitants lived in green strips of land. Agriculture had yet to arrive. They organised around one ruler called a Raja, hence the Rajputs came about.

Once agriculture developed and the next wave of Aryans were called Jatts, which means a ‘posse’ or a ‘gang’. These agriculturists started taking over possession of land, finally giving it a legal status. They also started the practices of the Gujjars and became Rajputs. Thus, we see Punjab’s society starting to organise along tribal lines.

The Lohanas trace their roots in history right up to the time of the Aryans in the Indian sub-continent (which then included today’s Afghanistan), making them one of the oldest surviving community in the world.

According to ancient Indian texts, the Aryan civilisation was established by king Ishaku some two to three millennia before Christ (BC). His alleged ‘63rd’ descendant was the great king Raghu, who established the Rahguvanshi Dynasty.

Lohanas’ history begins with King Raghu, who belonged to the Suryavanshi lineage, thus called because they worshiped the sun (Surya). Raghu”s grandson was the legendary King Dashratha of Ayodhya, of whom Prabu Shri Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu was the eldest.

When Ram chose to give up his throne he split the kingdom between his sons, Luv & Kush. The younger son Luv was given the northeast region of his kingdom, which came to be, called Luvalka or Luv’s land. This is the first mention of Luv, or Lava, the ruler of Lahore in the ancient Vedas.

In the Ramayana, Luv is portrayed as a brave warrior. In one episode, even though he is a mere boy in a hermitage, he brings the entire army of his father Lord Rama to a standstill by his prowess at archery. His descendants too were of the same mould, but they were not satisfied with Luvalka and pushed to the west and annexed today’s Afghanistan and adjoining areas.

Around 580 BC, Hindu society came to be divided into different castes based on their occupation. One of these castes was called Kshatriyas and King Luv’s descendants were classed with them and came to be known as Luvanam, which was also referred to as Luvana. The Luvanas from Loharghat became known as Loharana (masters of swords), which later became Lohana. The very first inhabitants of Lahore on the mounds of the Ravi were Lohanas.

In a way the very name Lahore has its origins in the Lohanas. For this reason, maybe, Lahore is still surrounded by Rajput tribes in the shape of Gujjars and Jatts. Many historians have paid tribute to Lohanas as warriors of great bravery. A possible reason for the bravery is that they had placed themselves for centuries in the direct path of invaders from northwest like Persians, Macedonians, Mughals, etc.

Ruling in Afghanistan for many centuries they braved onslaughts of invaders looking for converts in India. From 7th to 11th century A.D., living on the small hills in the northwest which saw hordes of Muslim invaders at the gates of India, the Lohanas fought bravely against these invaders.

They held their grounds for long in northwest, but finally were defeated and had to fall back and moved initially to the Sindh province of today’s Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Prophet Mohammed established Islam. His followers spread out in different directions to preach His religion and in due course they turned towards India too. When these hordes reached the northwest, they had to contend with the brave Lohanas and were held back for many years. So, Sindh fell to Muslims and Lohanas disintegrated into small segments.

The Lohanas felt their identity was increasingly threatened in Sindh and they began to migrate towards Kutch, Saurashtra and Gujarat. Famous warriors once, they took to trade and business. Their instincts of the warrior past were tested in 1764, when Gulam Shah Kora attacked Kutch and they had to account for themselves in the battle of Zora. Lohana women fought alongside their men in this battle and the land of Kutch is strewn with memorial stones marking the deaths of brave Lohanas.

Lohanas are still to be found in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are now Islamic states. In Afghanistan, they still maintain their religious identity and are known as Lokhathra. The Lohanas who keep their Hindu identity in Sindh are known as Sindhi Lohana.

Those Lohanas who were converted to Islam are known as Khojas. Many of them retain their Hindu names. The most celebrated among them was the creator of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whose father’s name was Jinabhai Thakkar. A few other names in the long list of great Lohanas are Shri Guru Nanak, Guru Jalaram Bapa, Yogiji Maharaj, Thakkar Bapa, Shree Nanjibhai Kalidas Mehta, etc..

It makes greater sense if we as a people stop counting our history as beginning from when the Muslims invaded our land, but also go back in time and read the epics and other sources that narrate our past.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2023