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Peshawar is the capital and the largest city of the North West Frontier
Province (N.W.F.P) of Pakistan. The city got its name from a Sanskrit word
"Pushpapura", meaning 'the city of flowers'. Peshawar is a land of
contrast and beauty. It has enjoyed the reputation of being the center of
attraction for tourists since centuries. Peshawar has been the heart of
the ancient kingdom of Gandhara. This frontier town is not only the
meeting place of the sub-continent and Central Asia, but also a place
where ancient traditions jostle with those of today.
HISTORY
Peshawar's origins go back at least 2,500 years. Herodotus, the Greek
historian, wrote about the city in the fifth century B.C, calling it 'Kaspaturos'.
Peshawar has always been coveted by invaders. The earliest penetration of
the valley was by Aryan, about 1,500 B.C. Since then Peshawar has known a
stream of invaders including Persians, Greeks, Huns, Turks, Mongols,
Mughals, Sikhs and finally British. Although the Indus is a barrier to the
east and the mountains are an obstacle in the west, invaders can still
enter the valley through several passes. The most famous of these passes
is the 'Khyber Pass', known as the 'front door' to the subcontinent.
Mauryan Empire
The subcontinent's first true emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, was a
contemporary of Alexander the Great. He laid the foundations for the
spread of Buddhism in the subcontinent. The frontier area was considered
by pilgrims to be the second home of Buddhism. Chandragupta Maurya's
grandson, Ashoka, implanted the religion throughout the north-west, which
at that time (about 250 B.C) was known as Gandhara. Monasteries and stupas
were built throughout the kingdom for Buddhist worship. Ashoka sanctified
many stupas with a relic of the Buddha, making them even more significant
for the thousands of pilgrims. The Mauryan Empire collapsed after the
death of Ashoka in 235B.C.It was replaced by city-kingdoms, ruled in turn,
by Bactrians, Indo-Greeks, Scythians and Parthians.
Kushan Dynasty
Gandhara survived in spite of all political turmoils and reached its
golden age around 64A.D, when Kushan dynasty was established by invaders
from the north. The Kushan ruler who conquered Pakistan was Vima Kadphises,
who was succeeded in about 78A.D. by Kanishka. The Kushans established an
Empire which became one of the world's greatest and most distinguished
empires, both from territorial point of view and from the aspect of
cultural and religious achievements. Purushapura (Peshawar) was the
capital of the Kushan Empire. It became rich under the Kushans, and made
the best of its position at the entrance of the Khyber Pass on the silk
route to China.
Kanishka had adopted Buddhism and it was in his period that both Buddhist
religion and Greek art reached their zenith. Gandhara culture flourished
under the Kushans who did much to promote art and trade. During this
period, at the end of the first century A.D, Peshawar first rose to
prominence, superseding Charsadda as the capital of Gandhara. It even
outshone Taxila, which was a major center of learning at that time. Today,
while Peshawar still thrives and expands, both ancient Taxila and
Charsadda are in ruins.
Tradition says that Buddha himself walked the streets of Peshawar long
before the Kushans, and predicted that a great king would be converted
there; who would build a stupa that would be burnt down and rebuilt seven
times. The history is no different from the tradition. Kushan King
Kanishka was converted to Buddhism in Peshawar around 128A.D. after
watching a young street boy making a model of a stupa out of cow dung.
Kanishka later built a grand stupa on the spot. The stupa was burnt
several times in the sixth and seventh centuries. Today it is a mound of
stone and rubble only about a meter high in a famous cemetery (Shah-ji-ki-dheri)
of Peshawar.
White Huns
After the demise of the Kushan Empire in 241A.D. Gandhara gradually began
to decline as the center of Buddhist culture. White Huns invaded the
region from the north in the fifth century. They destroyed everything of
the Gandharan religion and culture. The first Hun ruler was Thujina, who
had a cruel and vindictive disposition. He practiced most barbarous
atrocities, worshipped the demons and completely ignored the Buddhist laws
and cultures. This was in fact the end of the golden age. Hinduism enjoyed
a brief resurgence in the region during the ninth and tenth centuries.
Dawn of Islam
In the beginning of eleventh century, Mahmood of Ghazni swept down out of
Afghanistan and captured Peshawar. He introduced Islam here. Peshawar has
been an Islamic city ever since. When Marco Polo visited Peshawar province
in 1275 or there about, he found a place:
"The people have peculiar language; they worship idols and have an evil
disposition".
But these days Pathan hospitality is legendary, and since conversion to
Islam, worshipping idols has ceased.
Mughal Era
Mughal Emperor Zaheer-ud-Din Babar came to Peshawar in the sixteenth
century. The massive walls of the Balahisar Fort were originally built by
him in 1530A.D, just before his death. His grandson Akbar formally gave
the name "Peshawar" to the city and truly changed the city into one full
of flowers. Many trees were planted and gardens were laid out. Peshawar
achieved great eminence under the Mughals. The Mughal emperor, Sher Shah
Suri, turned Peshawar's renaissance into a boom when he ran his
Delhi-to-Kabul Shahi Road through the Khyber Pass.
Sikh Rule
In 1818, Ranjeet Singh captured Peshawar for his Sikh Empire. He burned a
large part of the city and felled the trees shading its many gardens for
firewood. The following 30 years of Sikh rule saw the destruction of
Peshawar and its people, the population was reduced to almost half. The
Sikhs, who showed scant respect for the religion of the land, were faced
with a series of rebellions and revolts. They are reported to have dealt
with the problem by hanging four citizens from the beautiful minarets of
the Mahabat Khan Mosque weekly. The fort walls were extended by the Sikhs
in their brief and unhappy rule in Peshawar.
British Empire
The British chased the Sikhs and occupied Peshawar in 1849 but, as much as
Sikh rule had been hated, its British replacement aroused little
enthusiasm. More or less continuous warfare between the British and the
Pathans necessitated a huge British garrison. When the British built a
paved road through the Khyber Pass, they needed to build numerous forts
and pickets to guard it. The British made Peshawar their frontier
headquarters. They built a cantonment here to house their officials and
troops. Though the British have gone, the cantonment still lingers on,
giving off the faint, nostalgic aroma of the Empire.
After Independence
After the independence in 1947, Peshawar continued its journey toward
progress and prosperity. Peshawar being the capital of a province full of
striking contrasts has truly been 'the Paris of the Pathans'. A traveler
passing through the city today will agree that this description given by
Lowell Thomas is still a valid one. There has been notable
industrialization and modernization in the city over the period of half a
century.
HISTORICAL SITES IN PESHAWAR
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Balahisar Fort
Peshawar was enclosed within a city wall and sixteen gates till the mid of
last century. Little remains of the wall and gates now. Outside the former
ramparts stands the massive Balahisar Fort. It is a huge, frowning
structure as its name implies and any newcomer passing under the shadow of
its wide battlements and ramparts cannot fail to be impressed. The fort
meets the eye when coming from Rawalpindi or from the Khyber. The early
history of the fort is marked in mystery. Emperor Babar rebuilt it in
1530. It was again rebuilt by the Sikh Governor of Peshawar, Hari Singh
Nalwa in the 1830s under the guidance of French engineers. Presently it
houses the government offices.
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Jamrud Fort
Jamrud Fort, 18 kilometers (11, miles) from Peshawar and at the mouth of
the Khyber Pass, is as far as you can go without a permit. The fort,
coarsely constructed of stone daubed with mud plaster, was built by the
Sikhs in 1823 on the site of an earlier fort. The famous Sikh general Hari
Singh died and is buried here. The modern stone arch spanning the road
dates from 1964. There is also an arch, the Bab-i-Khyber (gateway to the
Khyber) which dates from 1964. There is a viewing platform for visiting
dignitaries and information about the pass on a nearby wall.
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Sphola Stupa
Sphola Stupa, a Buddhist ruin dating from the second to the fifth
centuries A.D stands to the right of the road and above the railway at the
village of Zarai, 25 kilometers (I6 miles) from Jamrud. The stupa has a
high hemispherical dome resting on a three-tiered square base. Some
beautiful Gandharan sculptures were found here when the site was excavated
at the beginning of this century. Some of the finds are now in the
Peshawar Museum. The side of the stupa facing the road has been restored.
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Gandhara Remains
The three most interesting archaeological remains from Gandhara are Takht-e-
Bai, The Ashokan edicts (two inscribed boulders) and Charsadda. These
three places can be visited in a one-day outing from Peshawar.
Charsadda, the site of Pushkalavati, is 28 kilometers northeast of
Peshawar. Pushkalavati was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara
from about the 6th century B.C to the 2nd century of A.D. Today, there is
nothing to see except a huge mound about 800 meters to the left of the
Charsadda called Bala Hisar. This mound has been excavated thrice, and
according to Sir Mortimer Wheeler, here lay the great fort which was
invaded by Alexander's generals in the 4th century B.C.
Shaikhan Dheri, another great archaeological site is a kilometer northeast
of the Bala Hisar. From the top of Bala Hisar mound it is visible across
the river. It is a place to which the habitation had shifted in the 1st
century B.C. Remains of a Greek town have been excavated here .Charsadda
is surrounded by hundreds of hectares of graves, all decorated with black
and white stones in geometric pattern.
Some 801/2 km. (50 miles) from Peshawar, and 16 km (10 miles) north-east
of Mardan town, is Takht-e -Bai , the ruins of an ancient Buddhist
monastery situated on the top of a 52 meters (500 feet) high hill. The
last 3 1/4 km (2 miles) have to be walked uphill unless a jeep is at hand.
The difficult approach has helped the preservation of the monument. The
site consists of a large rectangular court, on the north of which is the
main monastery and to the south is a well-planned monastic shrine on a
high terrace. The main structure dates back to the 2nd-5th centuries A.D.
The monastery, on the north, was probably a double storey structure
consisting of an open court ringed with cells, with kitchens and a
refectory attached. On the west there is a double row of subterranean
meditation cells.
PESHAWAR CITY
Until the mid fifties Peshawar was enclosed within a city wall and sixteen
gates. The most famous of these gates was the Kabuli gate, which lead out
of Khyber and into Kabul. Today Peshawar is divided into three sections,
the old city, cantonment and the modern residential area or the university
town. The Peshawar of the hoary past is the old city, the Peshawar of the
British period (1849-1947) is the Cantonment but the Peshawar of
independent Pakistan is the vast extension of the city west and east.
Cantonment
The British added a new part to the historic city: typical colonial
garrison with Gora Bazaar, Church, single men barracks, bungalows and
cantonment Railway Station. The shady trees, flower beds along pathways
and spacious houses in garrison still stand out boldly in contrast to the
multi storied residences in the old city. Peshawar is now the blend of
colonial and Mughal architecture.
As in other garrison towns in India, the British lived and worked within
the cantonment, out of sight and earshot of the bazaar. Here they planted
trees and built the barracks, offices, churches and clubs deemed necessary
to administration and social life. The cantonment lies on the one side of
the railway line. Its tree-lined streets are wide and straight, with
gracious administrative buildings and spacious bungalows on both sides.
The Mall, Saddar Bazaar and the airport are the British contributions to
the modernization of Peshawar.
The most imposing building is the Peshawar Museum, built in 1905. It was
formerly Victoria Memorial Hall. The Museum is situated between Deans
Hotel and the Old city; about five minutes walk from the Railway station.
The Museum has one of Pakistan's best collections of Gandharan art, and
the pieces are well arranged and properly labelled. The sculptures
illustrating Buddha's life are placed in chronological order. The
ethnological section has wooden carvings from the Kalash people in Chitral
and other tribal handicrafts. There is also a Muslim Gallery, which
displays Islamic treasure.
Edwards College, one of Pakistan's prestigious boarding schools was
founded in 1855 as the Sir Herbert Edwardes Memorial School. It has
splendid Mughal-Gothic buildings replete with ornate cupolas and pillars.
The heart of the Saddar (cantonment) is the Khalid bin Walid Bagh which is
an old Mughal Garden. Its huge ancient trees and gorgeous big roses are a
sight to remember. Two other splendid old gardens are the Shahi Bagh in
the northeast and the Wazir Bagh in the south-east, all of which give the
character of a garden city to Peshawar.
The Peshawar Club, on Sir Syed Road near The Mall, is the former
cantonment club house. As in the past, its membership policy is still
extremely exclusive. Though the Club entrains members and their guests,
but non members can also go in to look around or browse in the library.
There is a reciprocal arrangement for temporary membership with the
Rawalpindi, Quetta and Karachi clubs. There is a swimming pool surrounded
by large shade trees.
University Town
The University Town lies about seven kilometers from the center of
Peshawar on the road to the Khyber Pass. Its oldest building is Islamia
College which was built in 1913 to educate the sons of Pathan chiefs. The
college was extended and raised to the university level and named 'Khyber
University' in 1950. The University has a beautiful building and one of
the largest campuses in the world. Its elegant Mughal-Gothic hall can be
seen on a hundred rupee note of Pakistani currency. It is the nucleus of
the rapidly developing residential district, now known simply as
'University Town' on the western outskirts of Peshawar. Various research
departments in the area include the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development
and the Pakistan Forest Institute. Hyattabad and Karkhanai Bazaar or the
smugglers' bazaar, are beyond University Town on the road to the Khyber
Pass. The smugglers' bazaar is full of imported electrical goods, fabrics,
clothes and cosmetics available at economical rates.
OLD CITY
The old city is a maze that bewitches one. It is indeed the most exciting
part of Peshawar, with elements that date from Sikh, Mughal and even
Buddhist times. The central bazaar district has scarcely changed. Hoary
with age and redolent with the smell of frying chappali kabab (cubes of
meat mixed with tomato, corn flour, green chilies and eggs) and Qehwa
(green tea), it pulsates with the sound of craftsmen's tools, the
clip-clop of tongas (horse drawn carriage) and the rasping motors of
Suzuki vans. Peshawar is a colorful mosaic of traders, travelers, Pathan
tribesmen and Afghan refugees.
The best known part of old Peshawar is the Qissa Khawanni Bazaar, the
street of the story tellers. In the old days, before radio and television
provided a quicker medium, it was a place where news and views were
exchanged and where professional raconteurs enthralled large audiences of
passers-by. A walk down Qissa Khawanni is still an exciting experience.
Although the story tellers are long gone, the street still throbs with
activity. Colorful fruit-stalls and sweet-shops compete for your attention
with wayside restaurants selling a bewildering variety of kebabs, grilled
meats and freshly-baked unleavened bread. The aromas of tea and cardamom
seed fill the air and mingle with sandalwood, incense and tobacco in a
heady cocktail. Vendors proclaiming the virtues of their wares switch
languages with ease as one customer is replaced by another. Pashtu,
Persian, Punjabi, Urdu and English all seem to be spoken with equal
fluency. The bustling sidewalks and the road itself confirm the
cosmopolitan nature of the crowd.
At the end of Qissa Khawanni, near the heart of Peshawar's Old Town, the
street takes a sharp turn left into the Bazaar of the Coppersmiths. The
smiths are proud and skilled men, and several of them have achieved
international acclaim. A wide range of new and old wares are sold here.
Ali Brothers on the left is the best known where all VIP visitors are
taken.
Immediately after the brass shops are the shops where one can see
Peshawar's pottery. The wide range of ornamental and utilitarian pottery
is glazed in strong earth colors. The lane opposite to the pottery shops'
street leads to the cloth bazaar. Beyond that is the basket bazaar, which
is full of baskets from Dera Ismail Khan. On the main street towards Chowk
Yadgar is the bird market, where songbirds are sold as pets in small
cages. Peepul Mandi is also near by; the main grain wholesale market. A
peepul tree here is believed to be descended from the tree beneath which
the Buddha preached.
The bazaar of Goldsmiths and the Silversmiths is a narrow, steeply rising
street with high old buildings on either side. In this hot half-darkness
the jewelers display bangles and necklaces, rings and pendants, behind
glass cases. The atmosphere of intrigue is increased by the money changers
who have installed themselves in the same street and who sit, crouched
protectively over colorful piles of paper currency, doing their
mathematics on pocket calculators.
The Bazaar of Goldsmiths and Silversmiths forms the approach to the
Mahabat Khan Mosque, built by Peshawar's Governor in the 1670s during the
rule of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The mosque is named after the governor.
This is the only Mughal Mosque in the old Peshawar city which survived the
depredation of the Sikhs. Its entrance is a narrow gateway between
jewelers' shops. The mosque is beautifully proportioned Mughal structure
orthodox in design. Its open courtyard has an ablution pond in the middle
and a single row of rooms around the sides. The prayer hall occupies the
west side, flanked by two tall minarets. According to the
turn-of-the-century Gazetteer for N.W.F.P, the minarets were frequently
used in Sikh times "as a substitute for the gallows" by General Avitabile,
an Italian military advisor to Ranjeet Singh. The interior of the prayer
hall is sheltered beneath three low fluted domes and is lavishly and
colorfully painted with floral and geometric designs.
On entering the mosque from the busy street, a restful silence envelops
one and the bustle and barter of the commercial world is left behind. Here
people come to pray or to rest themselves during the heat of the afternoon
by the fresh pool in the tiled center of the wide courtyard. Rich and poor
alike may pause here to contemplate beneath the soaring white minarets and
the open and breathless sky.
The central square of Old Peshawar is known as Chowk Yadgar (the place of
remembrance). The monument in the center commemorates the heroes of the
1965 Indo-Pakistani War. The square is a traditional site for political
rallies and for meetings of all kinds. Various political rallies and
demonstrations during the struggle for independence, and many anti-British
demonstrations started out from this square. On the left (west) side of
the square, money-changers squat on hand knotted carpets with their safes
behind them and their pocket calculators and mobile telephones at the
ready. They will change any currency (illegally), but will accept only
large notes. The houses here, built mostly of unbaked bricks set in wooden
frames to guard against earthquakes. Many old houses have beautifully
carved heavy wooden doors and almost all have highly ornamental wooden
balconies.
Nearby the Chowk Yadgar is a Cunningham Clock Tower. It was built in 1900
"in Commemoration of the Diamond jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen
Empress". It is named after Sir George Cunningham. Cunningham started his
Asian career as the political agent assigned to North Waziristan (in the
Tribal Areas) and advanced to become governor of NWFP in 1937-46 and again
after Independence in 1947-8.
A Mughal gateway of a caravanserai known as "Gor Khatri" is situated at
the top end of Sethi Street. A huge Mughal gateway leads into a courtyard
over 200 meters (650 feet) square, which was once surrounded on all four
sides by rooms for travelers. The site has been considered holy for nearly
2,000 years. In the second century AD, it was a Buddhist shrine and
monastery known as the Tower of Buddha's Bowl. With the decline of
Buddhism, it became a Hindu shrine. In the Mughal times Shah Jahan's
daughter built a mosque here and surrounded it with a caravanserai. During
the Mughal era, it was common practice throughout the empire for local
notables to construct safe places where wealthy merchants could stay. The
merchant and their retinues lodged in the lock-up rooms surroundings the
central courtyard of the caravanserai, normally paying a charge for the
privilege. The gates were locked from sunset to sunrise and the walls
manned day and night by armed guard, so that merchant could rest secure in
the knowledge that their goods were safe from robbers.
The Sikhs knocked down the mosque during their 19th century rule and
replaced it with a temple to Gorakhnath. This still stands in the south
eastern corner of the courtyard, with a shrine to Nandi beside it. The
Sikhs closed the caravanserai and installed their governor in the
compound. Since that time it has housed government offices and also houses
police and fire stations.
PLACES AROUND
Khyber
Peshawar has enjoyed tremendous historical, military and political
importance because of the Khyber Pass which has been a vantage point as a
gateway for invaders of the subcontinent. The historic Khyber Pass is at a
distance of 16 km west of Peshawar and extends up to the Pak-Afghanistan
border at Torkham, 55 kms away. Starting from the foot-hills of the
Suleiman Range it gradually rises to an elevation of 1,066 meters above
sea level.
Khyber Pass has been a silent witness to countless events in the history
of mankind. It has seen traders, kings, nomads and travelers passing
through it. Tourists need a permit and an armed escort from the Political
Agent in Stadium Road to visit the pass. The permits are free and
delivered immediately. The hills dip down here, leaving a passage
sometimes as broad as 1½ km. (1 mile) and sometimes as narrow as 16 meters
(52 feet). The pass begins near Jamrud Fort, 18 Km. from Peshawar and
extends beyond the Afghan border of Pakistan at Torkham, 58km. away. The
visitor here has a vivid sense of time not passing as it ought to.
Kipling's "Ballad of the King's Jest", written in the nineteenth century
is as true today as it was then:
When spring-time flushes the desert grass,
Our kafilas (caravan) wind through the Khyber Pass.
Lean are the camels but fat the frails,
Light are the purses but heavy the bales.
As the snowbound trade of the North comes down,
To the market square of Peshawar town.
Landi Kotal
Landi Kotal, at the end of the railway and eight kilometers (five miles)
from the border, is still a smugglers' town. There is a Central Asian
caravanserai and a fort garrisoned by the Khyber Rifles. But the most
exciting aspect of the town is the bazaars. All kinds of imported goods
are available. One shop sells only clothing with the St. Michael (Marks
and Spencer's) brand name. There are all kinds of electrical goods, china
and glassware, secondhand cars and parts of cars. The best known of all
are the drugs and gun shops. Imports have continued unimpeded by the war
in Afghanistan.
Darra Adam Khel
Darra Adam Khel is 42 km. (26 miles) south of Peshawar and leads on to
Kohat. Darra is the biggest center of indigenous arms manufacture of the
Tribal Areas. It has been supplying arms to the whole tribal belt for the
last 100 years. In Darra village, almost every house is a gun factory,
fabricating astonishing copies of all imported guns and pistols with the
crudest of tools. Buses and taxis ply to Darra. The visit to Darra is
subject to permission by the Secretary, Home Government of N.W.F.P. The
permit is free and issued while you wait, but you should get it the day
before you plan your factory visit.
Darra's main street is lined on either side with small forges at which
guns are made by hand. The tools are astonishingly primitive, yet the
forges turn out accurate reproductions of every conceivable sort of
weapon, from pen pistols and hand-grenades to automatic rifles and
anti-aircraft guns. The copies are so painstakingly reproduced that even
the serial number of' the original is carried over. Much of the
craftsmanship is very fine, but the materials are sometimes wanting: gun
barrels are often made from steel reinforcing rods diverted from the
building trade. The main street constantly erupts with the roar of
gunfire, as tribesmen step out to test prospective purchases.
GETTING THERE
Peshawar is linked to almost all major cities and towns of Pakistan by
air. Besides this it is linked even to Europe via Dubai. On the national
rail system, it is the last stop for tourists. Bus and mini bus services
run between Peshawar and Islamabad and other major cities. The city can
conveniently be reached by one's own transport too.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Population: 750,000
Area :77 sq. km. (30 sq. miles)
Language: Pashtu
People : Pathans
Climate: Peshawar's climate is regarded as Pakistan's healthiest climate.
Winter (Nov-Feb)
Min: 3.89 'C
Max: 25.56 'C
Spring (Mar-Apr)
Min: 8.33 'C
Max: 33.33 'C
Summer (May-Oct.)
Min: 18.89 C
Max: 41.11 'C
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