Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Multan, thanks to last week8217;s Indo-Pak cricket match, is in the news. Legend has it that it was a centre of singing sufis and dancing dervishes. 8220;Multani mitti8221; is not just clay, it is a therapy. Alberuni, who accompanied the invading forces of Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th century, referred to it as a centre of Hindu learning with hundreds of Deva temples. Muslim divines succeeded them a century later. In no time Multan became famous for its Islamic lore. According to a Persian proverb, Multan was famous for beggars in front of its mosques and scholars engrossed in studies in the maktabs.
When Guru Nanak reached the city8217;s outskirts on his way to Mecca, some well-known divines sent him a bowl of milk, implying that Multan was already full of mystics and that there was no room for another. Nanak placed some fresh jasmine petals on the milk and asked the messenger to take it back. The message he sought to convey was that he would give no trouble, seek no accommodation or food except the remains of the 8216;langar8217;. Deeply touched by this gesture, the divines took him straight to their main maktab for discussion. They begged him to stay on and enlighten them. The farewell of Guru Nanak is still the theme of dancing dervishes.
Such a fabulous town could not have remained hidden from the rising sun of Sikh rule. Long before Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, the Bhangis a Sikh sub-group had wrested Multan from the Afghans. But it soon slipped out of their hands to become a part of the Kabul kingdom. Ranjit Singh invaded Multan five times, the fifth was a conquest 8212; thanks mainly to the Sikh cannon called 8216;zamzama8217;, which was brought from Lahore to pound the town. The victory at Multan heralded the Sikh victory over the Afghans, who had long trampled Punjab8217;s wheatfields. Ranjit Singh was kind to the fallen foes. No wonder the people hailed him as a liberator rather than a conqueror.
It is said that the people of Multan are more hospitable than those of Lahore or Rawalpindi. In pre-Partition Punjab, they would greet visitors with Multani mangoes. As a child I remember attending a marriage at Multan where every 8216;barati8217; was given a rumal handkerchief and a blue vase. Those were the days of wick lamps and slow passenger trains carrying timber, 8216;hing8217; and tobacco, to and from this city.
Multan then is essentially a city founded on friendship and the mingling of cultures. It was apt, therefore, that a Test match in the Indo-Pak friendship series was held there.
