Attock Khurd

Akbar's Fort at Attock

www.attockonians.com

Attock Khurd (Little Attock) is a small town located on the River Indus in the Attock District of Punjab, Pakistan. Historically and strategically, Attock Khurd is considered the gateway to Central Asia since it is near Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa border.

History

Ancient history

Attock Khurd (the old city) has a rich history and was of special importance to the entire sub-continent. The great mathematician and grammarian Pāṇini (पाणिन), who wrote Ashtodhyaya, the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar, was born near Attock in Shalātura, modern Lahur, on the right bank of Indus River in the ancient Kambojan/Gandharan territory in 520 BCE. In those days Attock was located on the high road, the Uttarapatha, the principal route of international commerce and communication between the sub-continent, Persia and China.

Attock then finds its name in the history books dating to the rule of Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka, the Emperor of upper India, who had converted to the Buddhist faith. In the Edicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek, it is declared that Greek populations within his realm also had converted to Buddhism:

"Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma."

—Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika).

In the spring of 326 BCE Alexander III of Macedon passed into the Punjab (at Ohind, 16 m. above Attock), using a bridge over the Indus constructed by Perdiccas and Hephaestion. The region became part of the Kingdom of Ederatides the Greek or Indo-Greek Kingdom, who extended his power over western Punjab. The Indo-Greek kings held the country after him (until about 80 BCE) until its invasion by the Indo-scythians.

When the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited the district in 630 CE and again in 643 CE, Buddhism was rapidly declining. The Brahman revival, to which India owes its present form of Hinduism, had already set in the early years of the fifth century, and must have been at its height in the days of Hiuen Tsang. From that time the light afforded by the records of the Chinese pilgrims fades.

The country was under the dominion of the Hindu kings of Kashmir, and remained so till the end of the 9th century. After that, the district became part of the Kingdom of the rulers of Kabul, Samanta Deva and his successors (more accurately designated as the "Hindu Shahis of Kabul"), who remained in possession till the times of Mahmud Ghaznavi. With the passage of time, the Gakhars became strong in the hills to the east, but their dominion never extended beyond the Margalla pass and the Khari Moorat.

Mughal, Maratha, Afghan and Sikh rule

Akbar the Great built Attock Fort from 1581 - 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi to protect the passage of the Indus. Attock was won by Marathas led by Peshwas (Prime Ministers of Maratha rulers, based in Pune) between 1751-1760. The brother of then Peshwa Balaji Bajirao named Raghunathrao won Attock. It saw countless battles and skirmishes between the Sikhs and the Afghans in later years.

In 1813, the Sikh Kingdom wrested the Attock Fort from the Kingdom of Kabul. Maharaja Ranjit Singh's commander Mohkam Chand wrested this strategically placed fort on the left bank of the Indus river from Shah Mahmud's vazier, Fateh Khan Barakzai. This fort had secured the passage of the Afghans to-and-from Kashmir. In 1833, Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sikh Kingdom along its border with the Kingdom of Kabul, strengthened Akbar's fort of Attock by building the very high and massy bastions at each of its gates.

British Era

As a result of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846), the Fort was surrendered to the British. It was briefly lost to the Sikhs during the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–1849) but recaptured towards the end.

Sites of interest

• Attockonians
• Attock Fort