Most English visitors to Tatta go there for the shooting only and I
should be the last to blame them. Below the ancient fort of Kalankot
near Tatta is a lake of the same name. It is quite shallow and
overgrown with tall reeds, the home of innumerable duck. They rise all
round, as one is poled in boats through lanes cut among the reeds and
quick eye and hand are needed before they can be bagged. But close to
the bungalow are a number of ancient tombs; and as no record of their
owners is to be found on the walls, a few facts about them may prove
interesting to future visitors.
The tombs are built on a ridge known as the Makli Hill. Two derivations
of the name are given. Some say that the hill owes its title to a pious
woman called Makli who lived and was buried on it. Others say that a
holy man gave it the name of Makli because he deemed it Maka laali or
the threshold of Mecca. Whatever the true origin may be, let us take
the tombs from north to south and put down what we know about them. The
farthest to the north is a brick tomb on a masonry plinth, plastered
and white-washed. Beneath it lie the earthly remains of Sayad Ali
Shirazi. Great saint though he was, he would long ago have been
forgotten, save for the fact that for a moment his career touched that
of the great Akbar. The Emperor Humayun, defeated in battle after
battle by the great Afghan soldier Sher Shah, fled to Sind. After
trying in vain to establish himself at Sehwan and Bukkur, he started
for Bikanir, only to learn that the Chief meant to hand him over to his
enemy. He turned back and made his way first to Jasalmir and then
through the desert to Umarkot. Most of his companions died of thirst.
The others losing in their misery all respect for their leader, let him
walk so that his wife, Akbar’s mother, should ride. At last with only
seven attendants he reached Umarkot and there on the 14th October 1542
Akbar was born. Humayun had neither gifts to distribute to his friends
nor clothes in which to wrap the baby. The first difficulty he overcame
by breaking a pod of musk and letting its perfume spread among his
guests, at the same time exclaiming with prophetic truth that his baby
boy’s fame would diffuse itself through the world like the fragrance of
the musk. The second difficulty he met by cutting Akbar’s first garment
out of the coat of Sayad Ali Shirazi, who had been sent by the people
of Tatta with gifts and greetings. Ali Shirazi lived for thirty years
afterwards and the date of his burial is inscribed on his tomb, viz.,
1752 A.D.
South of the Sayad’s tomb is that of Makli, the eponymous heroine of
the hill, and south of Makli’s is that of Jam Nindo. It is easily
distinguished as it has no roof and its stones were evidently taken
from some ancient Hindu temple. Jam Nindo or the Little Jam was the
founder of Tatta. His real name was Jam Nizam-ud-din and he was a Samma
by caste. Here we must go back into early Sind History. When the Afghan
Emperor Ala-ud-din Khilji conquered Sind, a Rajput tribe named the
Sumras were in possession. Subdued then, they successfully revolted in
the reign of Ghazi-ud-din Tughlak. In the middle of the 14th century,
however, they were ousted by another Rajput tribe the Sammas. The
latter ruled Sind from 1350 A.D. to 1521 A.D. But until Jam Nindo’s
time they did not live at Tatta. They lived at Samui three miles to the
northwest. When Jam Nindo had established his power and cleared the
land of robbers, he thought he would build a new town, “wherein
happiness might remain for ever.” He chose a site to the east of the
Makli Hill and on a day picked out by the Brahmans, he founded his
city, Tatta. There he ruled for at least fifty years and was buried on
the Makli Hill. Another Samma chief buried there was Jam Tamachi. He
was the Jam who loved the fisher maiden Nuri and was the ancestor of
the Jadeja Raos of Cutch. But it is not possible to say with certainty
which his tomb is! [3]
Jam Nindo’s son and successor was Jam Feroz. But the new Jam loved too
warmly the beauty of his dancing girls and the jokes of his jesters to
be a good ruler. The result was that in 1521 A.D. he was driven from
his throne by Shahbeg Arghun, who had himself been driven from Kandahar
by the lion-hearted Babar. In 1536 A.D. Shah Hussein Arghun succeeded
his father Shahbeg and was the ruler of Sind when Humayun fled to it
and Akbar was born. In 1554 he died and Mirza Isa Tarkhan, the founder
of the Tarkhan Dynasty, became master of Tatta. It is to his tomb to
which we come, shortly after saying goodbye to Jam Nindo’s. Isa Khan’s
last dwelling place stands in a large courtyard close to an old mosque.
The tomb is entirely of carved stone with perforated slabs let in here
and there. It was in Mirza Isa’s time that the Portuguese sacked Tatta.
It seems that in 1555 Mirza Isa Khan quarrelled with Sultan Mahmud the
Governor of Bukkur by whose aid he had become King of Sind. Isa Khan
sent an envoy to Goa to ask help from the Portuguese. The fame of that
nation in India was then at its height. Only a few years before they
had helped the King of Guzarat to drive out Humayun and in return had
received Bassein and the whole Province of the north including Salsette
Island. With their aid Isa Khan felt sure that he could humble Sultan
Mahmud. On the other hand, no doubt, the Portuguese Governor-General
dreamed visions of a second northern province on the banks of the
Indus. He sent a fleet of 28 ships with 700 men under Pedro Baretto.
The gallant Pedro duly sailed up the Indus and reaching Tatta asked for
orders. In the meantime, however, Isa Khan had in several actions
instilled into Sultan Mahmud Khan a sense of his inferiority and had
forced him to sue for peace. Isa Khan sent word from Bukkur that he no
longer needed Portuguese help. Pedro then asked for the cost of the
expedition, estimated, I dare say, on a liberal scale. Isa Khan
politely refused to pay. Dom Pedro flew into a rage, sacked Tatta,
killed 800 people, took away two millions sterling and left the town in
flames. Isa Khan rebuilt the town but he entered into no more alliances
with the Portuguese. He ruled prosperously until 1572 A.D. when he died
and was buried on the Makli Hill.
On Isa Khan’s death his son Mahomed Baki succeeded him. His tomb is a
small ruined brick enclosure, the one immediately to the north of Tural
Beg’s, of whom I shall say a word or two later. Isa Khan’s tomb is a
poor thing compared with his father’s and his son’s, but then so was
Mahomed Baki himself. For twelve years he gave the good people of Tatta
a dreadful time. To slit their ears and noses and shave off their
beards was the favourite pastime of his leisure moments. To hang them,
impale them and throw them under the feet of his elephants was the
serious business of his life. At last in 1584, having lived to see his
daughter returned with thanks by the Emperor Akbar, he committed
suicide. To him succeeded his son Jani Beg, whose tomb is the
southernmost of all. It is of brick, faced with glazed blue and green
tiles. It has a perforated window above the door and there are
geometric tracery windows also on the four sides. By the time Jani Beg
had succeeded his father, the genius of Akbar was at its zenith. Sultan
Mahmud of Bukkur yielded to the great Emperor his sovereignty without a
blow. But Jani Beg was of sterner stuff. Entrenching himself behind the
river Phito, he withstood for some months the imperial forces. Driven
from his trenches he fell back on the great fort of Kalankot; but that
Akbar should not use Tatta as his base, he destroyed it and left the
emperor a smouldering ruin. Yet brave as he was, he had at last to kiss
the stirrup of the world conqueror, was graciously received and
confirmed as imperial governor of Tatta. He died there in 1599. The
Emperor confirmed in his place his son Ghazi Beg. The latter lived
until 1612, when he was murdered. His body was buried in the same tomb
as Jani Beg and the common grave was for many years the scene of a
curious pilgrimage. Both father and son were renowned as poets and
musicians and childless couples who desired off-spring, used to visit
their tomb and try and win the favour of their spirits by songs and
instruments. But efficacious as his spiritual aid may have been in
procuring sons for barren women, poor Ghazi remained childless himself.
He had no son and with him the Tarkhan dynasty of Sind ended.
The Moghul emperors thereafter ruled Sind through governors appointed
directly from Delhi. The Tomb of Diwan Shurfa Khan, the minister of one
of these governors, Amirkhan by name, is one of the best preserved on
Makli Hill. Another less well preserved, but even more imposing tomb,
that of Nawab Isa Khan, dates from the same period A.D. 1628–1644. It
has an upper storey to which leads a flight of stairs. To the east of
Isa Khan’s tomb are the graves of the ladies of his ample Zanana. To
the south of Isakhan’s tomb is quite a small one, that of Mirza Tural
Beg. It appears that he misused his position by artificially forcing up
the price of grain and then selling his stock at a large profit. He was
so hated in his life-time that he took the precaution to build his own
tomb. But even so he did not escape infamy. He was nicknamed the
“Dukario” or “Famine Man” and every one who passed his grave used
regularly to heave a stone at it. In time the stones were piled up
right to the stone canopy above it. Fortunately for the “Famine Man”
the Public Works Department have taken charge of his tomb and have
removed the stones. But his memory is still detested and his present
address is believed to be somewhere in the very centre of the flaming
halls of Iblis.