One of the most sought-after questions, and an important one at that, which readers email me about concerns the age of Lahore. It is a matter that I have dwelt on before, but in this short piece let me address this issue from different angles. Firstly, we know that the nearby city of Harappa, one of the three major planned cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation – the other two being Mehrgarh and Mohenjo Daro – ceased to exist because of prolonged drought followed by massive floods. The population moved to greener pastures and managed to survive on the high mounds along the river Ravi, known in ancient narratives as the river Purshni. We have some archaeological evidence of habitation on the mounds of Lahore, which are scientifically verifiable. That we will dwell on later.

But first let us determine an event that has very much to do with Lahore and its historical importance. The river port of Lahore at Khizri Gate, named after the ancient saint Khawaja Khizr, was a point from where trade flowed to and from all over the sub-continent. Hence its importance as a money earner can well be gauged. Possession of the port, and the river, were critical to the rulers near and far.

It was in this context that the ‘Battle of the Ten Kings’, an important event in the ‘Rig Veda’, was fought. The Indian scholar Amaresh Datta in his 2006 research puts the dateline as being between the 1200 and 800 BC. But then the German researcher Van Buitenen in his classic research ‘Mahabharata’ puts the date at approximately 14th century BC. So, we can determine that Lahore was an important city with a huge river port, over 3,520 years ago. Just in case readers are unaware of this epic event, which every Lahori should know enough about, let me very briefly explain.

The “Battle of Ten Kings” which was fought on the banks of the river Parusni (now Ravi) in central Punjab, in the 14th century BC between the Bharata clan led by Sudas, the then ruler of Lahore, on the one hand and a confederation of ten tribes on the other. The ten tribes consisted of the Purus, the Druhyus, the Anus, the Turvasas and the Yadus; in addition to five minor tribes which were the Pakthas, the Alinas, the Bhalanas, the Visanins and the Sivas. One can narrate details of each tribe, but that is beyond the scope of this brief piece.

Now let us return to the archaeological evidence mentioned at the beginning of this piece. In 1959 the Pakistan Archaeological Survey and the British Archaeological Survey carried out a 50-feet deep dig in the lawn opposite the Lahore Fort’s ‘Dewan-e-Aam’. In that amazing dig they discovered in seven layers that pottery and other utensils that carbon-dated at 4,500 years. These rare findings were within small mud-brick houses.

Sadly, once that report came out the Pakistan government decided, more so the Archaeological Department, that it was too sensitive an issue to make public. Just ‘why’ is beyond me. Hence it was declared a top secret. Since then, scholars working in the London Museum Library have been able to get access to the draft. A Pakistani scholar has also managed to refer to this report. Just why keep such a rare and important finding secret beats the mind. In a way it reflects our academic mindset.

But then this research based on scientifically verifiable carbon-dating shows that humans inhabited the mounds of Lahore in the age when Harappa was alive, or to be safe let us say had yet not been flooded over. This raises the question that did humans live on the mounds of the area along the river Ravi at what we know as Lahore today. The evidence is very much there, and only we must describe it in a common-sense manner.

So, we have the ‘Battle of the Ten Kings’, and we have the Lahore Fort archaeological dig. But let us explain these archaeological findings in its context. For this we must understand that the river Ravi flowed around where the fort exists today. In the past it is very much possible that the river flowed slightly to the east.

The process of meandering which every river undergoes, got the river to find its looped shape. But then as the process continued, as it does today, it moved westwards, and today the river flows about a mile to the west from where it did once, and that was relatively recently. Even today we have the ‘Budha Ravi’, a meandered water lake just next to the old Minto Park, or Iqbal Park as it is known today. Initially the British called it the ‘Parade Ground’ and in the Sikh era it was known as ‘Umroodan da Bagh’. That ‘Budha Ravi’ was once part of the active river.

As the land was fertile and when farming started once the Aryans of the Jatt tribes migrated here, they overtook the earlier Aryan Gujjar tribes who existed on animals alone. For this reason, it is very much possible that humans lived on the mounds in the area that is today Lahore. The fort and the city, and even the legendary river port (historically recently renamed) came after these events.

At this stage let me risk my neck by taking the argument further. We know that before the Aryans migrated eastwards, the Africans had migrated northwards along the rivers of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The clash between the original inhabitants of Mehrgarh, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, who were of African origin, with the fair-skinned Aryans, was in process. This brings the question that if all humans are of African origin, why are some dark and others fair-skinned. The explanation is simple, and scientific.

As humans change their location they, over centuries, confront a different mix of diets, temperatures and humidity, and the sunshine with varying degrees of ‘crepuscular rays’, which consists of UV (ultraviolet) rays, which are UVA and UVB types, which change skin pigment. Over time this change becomes permanent part of the skin DNA. The people of Harappa, and the Lahore mounds surely resembled the people of Makran coast. The Aryan waves decimated them, as they did the people of Harappa, and surely the original inhabitants of the Lahore mounds.

So, in purely scientific terms we can safely say that the age of Lahore, in its different guises is well over 4,500 years. Once humans settled here they, naturally, traded, and hence the river port became important. The age of an urban Lahore can be traced back to the age of its port. That, to my mind, is what should determine the age of Lahore.

As people invaded the land and the city, people changed to suit those who held power, along with that change so did their beliefs … from tribal ritual pastimes, to Hinduism, to Buddhism, to a variety of Hindu beliefs and then the invading Muslims, who after 1947 have been in a majority. I hope this is a reasonable set of facts that determine the age of Lahore.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2023