19/09/2022
....The story of Sargodha.........
....Ahmed Sher Ranjha.........
Sargodha, as the legend goes, developed around a Sar (water pond) where a nomadic hindu recluse called Godha lived by himself.
He must've found this place; hidden in the barren uplands of Kirana Bar & located right under the shadows of Kirana hills, where at the highest peak, Gorakhnathi faqirs had built their holiest temple of ideal solitude & worship..
The place was located right at the cross roads, connecting the holy temple with central India on one side & Kashmir & the Far East & Central Asia on the other; thus it gradually turned into a busy camping ground for the exhausted men & beast coming from far flung places across India, far east & all other directions.
But people would also talk reverently about the thirst quenching "Sar of Godha" as there remained a steady rush of devotees from all over, round the year, to pay homage to the well loved Shivite temple of the Gorakhnathi faqirs..
Geographically this was the "Doaba of Chaj" or the land between the Chenab & Jhelum river corridor with the hilly Bar, or barren land of "Kirana" running across it .
"Bars", as one must know to understand the cultural & geographical base of Sargodha, were the elevated uplands found in between the five Punjabi rivers where nomadic buffalo rearing local "Jaangli" tribes roamed freely under the lordly sway of their cattle lifting "Raaths" & the law & order of river-side civilized cities like, Bhera, ,Shahpur, Chiniot, Jhang & Lahore connected to the far away Dehli hardly effected the peculiar life & living style of these Jaangli free booters.
Here they had their own code of life totally uneffected by the civilized society & their ruling dynasties.
These high & dry Jaangli uplands (Bars)only acquired the attention of history when the British arrived & began their great clearing & "Land Settlement" operations somewhere around mid 19th century & established their district headquarters at the existing river side location of "Shahpur City" as their young & energetic survey engineers, fresh from England, went headlong into the wild & virgin Chaj Doaba to create their mind boggling marvels of railways & canal
systems here in this vast Jaangli bush land.
Thus the hitherto, high & dry Bar uplands became full of life & agriculture as fresh running waters from far away Himalayas began nourishing the newly settled "Mandi Towns" like Sargodha & the railways began transporting the surplus agricultural produce from Sargodha to Karachi & London.
Yes, the new city & busy railway junction of Sargodha was founded the moment the newly marked, water artery, the great Lower Jhelum Canal (LJC) was commissioned around the close of 19th century & this new & startling socio-economic achievement made the old river- based city of Shahpur, economically, redundant and outmoded.
And now the ancient "Sar of Godha" located right in the middle of Chaj Doaba & ideally connecting the new & well watered rich lands of Gondal & Kirana Bar together had become "Sar-Godha" as it was ideally suited as a new District Headquarters and a bustling Mandi(market)Town....This happened somewhere around 1927..( Ahmed Sher Ranjha )
( Published some times back in the "Daily Dawn" newspaper & a portion of it reproduced here for my new friends)...
