The medieval town of Bhera, situated on the left bank of the Jhelum, in the southern Salt Range, can easily rival Toledo of Spain in terms of architectural treasures, While the Spanish government protects the Moorish-style buildings of Toledo and does not allow any alteration or new construction if contrary to the ancient architectural style of the town, poor Bhera, like most Pakistan historical towns and villages are left to crumble, The locals are unaware of the historic significance of their town while un-scrupulous Pathan merchants continue to plunder this bride of her jewels of carved doors, windows, jharokhas and other wood decorations.
It is the same greedy merchants who are guilty of having deprived the Swat valley of its beautiful wooden mosques. These scavengers of culture began by “buying off” the ever-greedy mullah and then tearing down priceless wooden mosques which they would then sell to foreigners. The delicately carved antique doors, beams and pillars, are thus today found everywhere except in these mosques.
Emperor Babar once mentioned in his Tuzk-e-Babri, that “We marched from Bhera after ‘fajr’ the morning prayers, and covered the eight ‘kos’ (about twenty kilometres) distance to Kala Kahar by ‘zohr’ the afternoon prayer” This excerpt not only shown the geographical significance of this town back then, but the historical relevance long attached to it.
Unfortunately, later on when Sher Shah Suri was defeated. Humayun, the Pathan forces took their revenge and destroyed the pro-Moghuls town of Bhera. It is interesting to note that traditionally the Moghuls have been great builders while the Pathans, except Sher Shah Suri, have been great destroyers. Priceless Gandhara sculptures placed in the Buddhist monasteries of the North West Frontier Province have either been defaced or destroyed by the same race. It was Sher Shah Suri, however, who ordered the rebuilding of Bhera as well as the onion-domed Jamia mosque that exists even today. During the reign of emperor Akbar, Bhera regained its former glory and became one of the forty cities of Moghul India with a royal mint for the making of gold and silver coins.
It is commonly believed that Bhera of Be-Rah, a town without a road, derives its name from its location. Sher Shah Suri, the builder of the Grand Trunk Road, did not provide a road link to Bhera, the town that he ordered rebuilt. Ironically, even Daewoo, when building the Motorway, denied Bhera an inter-change giving Kot Momin (in exchange for winning an assembly seat access to the highway instead. In early 1999 the people of Bhela blocked the Motorway for hours in protest, of what they felt was unfair treatment being meted out to them. The only historic town on the Motorway had been denied access to it and they were not going to take this lightly. After much negotiating, the Bhera Interchange was finally commissioned. It has yet to be completed.
It was on a Saturday afternoon, however, that we decided to hit the Motorway to go to Bhera, to, photograph, sketch and try to save what is left of this Pakistan Toledo. We entered the narrow bazaar through the Chinioti Darwaza, one of the three surviving gates left from the original seven, protecting Bhera. Khawaja Zafar, a local sweat merchant, volunteered to guide us through the narrow lanes and twisted alleys of Bhera.
A walk through Bhera is a walk back into history. The rich merchants of this Salt Range city once competed amongst themselves for the more beautiful mansion. Connoisseurs of the rich patterns and motifs of burnt-brick masonry work they took great pride a preserving their heritage. The carved doors, windows, beams and jharokas still bear testament to a time when each family had its own mason and wood carver.
Bhera was so renowned for its woodcarving that its carpenters were regularly taken to England to serve her monarchy and aristocracy. Some of the doors of Buckingham Palace have been carved by carpenters from Bhera, the families of those wood carvers still live in Bhera, one of them now being known as “Wilaity” concerning their ancestors’ trip to “Wilait” England.
Asim Shehzad, a young architect from the National College of Arts accompanying us on this mission, was literally in tears to see such magnificent edifices in ruins. Young students, unaware of their lost heritage, played cricket in the open compounds of the ruined havelis. The broken pieces of carved beams served as wickets while doors and jharokas are still used as firewood in winter. Most of the owners of these magnificent buildings live no more in Bhera but in big cities like Karachi and Lahore. They either do not care or do not have the resources for the maintenance of these havalies. The priceless treasures are left in the care of ill-paid, illiterate chowkidars who make ends meet by deliberately tearing down and selling the havelis, brick by brick, piece by piece.
During our overnight stay at the Bhera Press Club, we were able to convince Mr Shaheen Farooqi, a journalist, Khawaja Zafar, a sweet merchant and some students to form a “Save Bhera Committee” and create awareness in their community to save and not to sell their heritage. I call upon the local administration and the Ministry of Tourism to do some good for a change and call a meeting of all the absentee owners of these havelis to find a way to save Bhera. I am sure architects of the stature of Kamil Khan, Mumtaz, Nayyar Ali Dada, Pervaiz Qureshi and scores of others will come forward to save this priceless piece of our national heritage. Bhera is crying out for help! But first, you have to see Bhera to Save Bhera.