Mohalla Sethianwala is one the biggest mohallas located in the north centre of Bhera. In the north, it is Circular Road in the west mollahs Kapooranwala and Sheikhanwala, in the south mohalla Sheesh Mahal, and the east, mohalla Chitti Pulli. It is approachable from all four directions. Before partition, a few prominent Hindu Sethis lived in this mohalla. This mohalla had a multi-storey elegant house. Unfortunately, it no longer exists in its original condition. The picture of it taken by me a long time ago is shared.
Zahid Mumtaz
Comments shared by
Prof. Dr Gian Sarup ( 1933 – 2015 ) regarding mohalla Sethianwala ( Kalan ) are as under. It may be of interest to some.
As regards the writings in Hindi on an outer wall of a house in Mohalla Sethianwala, ( depicted in your pictures No. 433K &453K ) it is an advertisement from some Hakeem or Ayurvedic Vaid written after painting the wall with lime ( usually termed as Choona or Sufaidi in our day-to-day parlance ) and then the owner of the house appears to have covered the advertisement by plastering it with a weak mixture of sand, concrete and lime, which with time mostly got detached, but some part of the plaster still sticks obstinately over the advertisement; thus making it partially legible. So I now attempt to write down the legible part of it as it could be depicted in English alpha-bets:-
Kruparge’ ( or Fruparg’ ) kaa
ilaaj barhi meh-
nut vaa uttam………
kiya jaata………..
ghreeb purash……
Incidentally, as per my memory, there were two Sethianwala Mohallas; one was ” Chhota Sethian da Mohalla”, which was situated halfway on the street which led from the main bazaar, near the Hospital, to” Gandhian-wala Mohalla” and this Mohalla ( Chhota Sethian-wala) opened up through very small gate to Ram Leela ground, and the second was ” Vadda Sethian-da-Mohalla” which was situated at the last leg of the zig-zag street which started from “Jethu-wali-Khui” and terminated near.
Now let me switch to the writings in Gurmukhi script on the shops under the Sikh Gurudwara, now Imam Bargha. As it is situated so close to our Mohalla, I am very familiar with its aspects. Before 1941, an old gurdwara existed, which also we visited sometimes. Then in 1941, the Sikh community of Bhera with elaborate planning and resources, raised this grand structure. Yes, there were, I think, five shops on the ground floor, four shops on the right side of the main entrance to the gurdwara and one on its left side where the street towards our Mohalla begins. The shop on the corner at Chowk was rented by a sweets-maker and one of the four shops on the right side in the bazaar was rented by a dealer in electric connection fixtures when electricity was first made available in the city of Bhera perhaps in 1942. As regards the Gurdwara’s high tower (MInar), had concrete and steel rods combination spiral stairs leading to the top. Though there were no protective railings along the rough stairs then, we used to climb up to the top and enjoy the view of the whole of Bhera and beyond through the four circular holes, which were intended for fixing big round clocks. In addition, we could see miles and miles of mountain range across the river Jhelum and two distant hillocks, named perhaps “Tilla Nath” towards the Sargodha side. Oh! In my eagerness to state my boyhood memories/experiences, I have dwelt too much on other aspects of the Gurdwara than to respond to your query about the writings in Gurmukhi on the outside of the shops. The writing as appears in your picture No. 358K, is as follows:- ” Dhan Sat Guru Nanak”, though the alpha-bets ” ana” between N and K of Nanak are missing. The writing as appears in your picture No.383K is not fully decipherable as some parts of cement blocks of some words were broken, though the noble owner of the shop did keep the broken pieces close to the writing structure. However, since the first few alphabets are intact, I believe the text there purports to be:- ” Dhan Guru Gobind……..”
Gian Sarup
