Brick laid to revive temples in Pak

The Shiva temples hold great religious and architectural significance. The temple at the heart of the cluster is believed to be one of the two ponds that filled up with Shiva’s tears when his wife Sati died. The Pandavas are said to have halted here during the course of their exile. It is on the banks of the lake that Yudhishthira passed his greatest test of wisdom to bring his brothers back to life.

‘‘In Pakistan, a Hindu temple being restored is in itself an unprecedented landmark. We hope this will further the political process of improving relations,’’said Advani. Mushahid Hussain, said the fact that the Leader of the Opposition in the Indian Parliament had been invited by the president of ruling PML, ‘‘which created Pakistan’’, begins the process of healing old wounds. He added the next step should be a similar visit by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to a mosque in India.

Shujaat Hussain said he hoped the foundation stone would be the first brick in a new block of Indo-Pak relations.

Yusuf Salahuddin, grandson of Mohammad Iqbal and initiator of the project, was also in attendance. At a small reception, Raja Mohammed Ali, a classmate of PM Manmohan Singh’s Gah classroom, was present. (Gah too falls in Chakwal.) Later at a function by the South Asian Free Media Association in Lahore, Advani said, Fiza zaroor badli hai (the atmosphere has indeed changed), and his Pakistan visit had already confirmed that ‘‘there is a little bit of India in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistan in every Indian.’’

‘‘As far as my party is concerned, I would like all the people of Pakistan to know that the emergence of India and Pakistan as two separate, sovereign and independent nations is an unalterable reality of history,’’he added.

At Katas Raj, the process of breathing life into these abandoned temples revealed the need for cooperation between the two countries. Orai Maqbool Jan, Director of Archaeology in Punjab, pointed out that his artisans are not familiar with architectural details of Hindu temples. ‘‘We need expertise from India,’’ he said.

Katas Raj has only recently come into focus. Mushahid Hussein said renovation has been held hostage by the chequered history of India and Pakistan. Of late however, Michael Meister, a professor of art at the University of Pennsylvania, has collaborated with Professor Farid Khan, of Peshawar’s Heritage Society, to document these structures.