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A Lost WorldBy Zulfiqar Syed 4 DECEMBER 2002 NO COMMENT

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If Nagar is the culture capital of Tharparkar, Karunjhar is the

embodiment of its wisdom a nd beauty. Paraser, a mah atma,

wh ose hy mns a re par t of t he V edas, medit at ed some th ousan ds of

y ear s ag o, ne ar th e Teer at h spr ing, up i n t he c av es in th e

Karunjhar h ills. This is the asthan of Shiva, a Hindu god. He was

the father of Machganda, a female character in Indian

my thology , wh o was born from the womb of a fish, say s Ali

Naw az Khoso, a liv ing legend of Thar w ho is well-ver sed in

Sindhi, Gujrati, Marwari, Kutchi and Hindi folk-wisdom and

my sticism. He is one of a dyin g breed that identifies with a

Sindhi-Kutch i-Gujrati cu ltur al union. Khoso, standing at th e foot

of the hills, turns toward an army ofmounds in t he desert, and

say s, These bhits preserv e the secret s of wars, stories oflovers

and treasur es of herita ge. Na gar , he say s, is a canv as painted in two different colours Jainism and

Hinduism. Lower Sindh an d Kutch , once part an d parcel of a Sindhi kin gdom, were th e hubs of

Ja inism and Hinduism, wh ile u pper Sindh was the centre ofBuddhism. When the river Saraswati was

flowing in the heart ofThar, a nd the Rann of Kutch was a gulf of the Arabian Sea, Nagar w as a city of

business and trade, with thr ee seaports. The mercha nts were Jain , wh ile the rest of the population

was Hindu.

Several m andirs and ashrams spread around Karunjhar afford a magnificent glimpse into the

magn ificent ar chitecture of a glorious civ ilisation. Within them are the remnants of treasures dating

bac k a cr oss the cen tu ri es. Gor i a shr am , some 4 0 k ilom eter s in th e nor th east of the h ill s, is a

paramount holy place in the Jain faith. The Ashram was built between the second and third century

AD. The m iniatu res paint ed in side t he tom b depict th e socia l st ru ct ur e an d tr adi tion s of that tim e.

The paintings are th e work of fairies and they come ev ery nightsay s Maho, the car etaker of the

ashram. The work of art is truly magnificent.

Kharrio Mandir, some 51 kilometers south of the hill, is

considered to be one of the oldest mandir s in Nag arpar kar. It is

believ ed t o be abou t 5 00 0 y ear s old. Sa rdh ro, an other tem ple a t

the start of the Gordharo stream, is a place of pilgrimage. At the

temple of the water -pool here, Hindus perform ritu als for th e

deceased. Near the pool was a fort, wh ich wa s destroyed in 1 859

by th e Br it ish gov ernm ent . A t t he dista nc e of a k ilom etr e

towards the south is an ancient stone statue of a cow, out of

wh ich wa ter flows int o the ta nk .

Vi ra v ah , a v ill ag e some 24 kil omet re s aw ay from Karun jh ar in

the north east, is important on account of a series of Jain r uins,

and contains the remnants of the old town of Parinagar in its

v ici ni ty . It i s said th at th e ci ty wa s found ed in th e fift h or sixt h

centur y BC and was destroy ed in the twelfth centu ry AD. This flourishin g town has been reduced to a

mound of bricks, and one sma ll Jain t emple rema ins. Mr. Giles, once Deputy Collector of the district,

found the m agnificently car v ed block of marble, which is now in the Karachi m useum.

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Bhalva, in the northeast of Nagar, is the nativ e village of the legendary Marvi, a heroine in the

poetry of Shah Latif Bhita i. Marv i, a respected daught er of Sindh, is still a sym bol of patriotism.

Trav elling acr oss the Thar, Mahmood Ghaznav i constructed the m osque of Bodesar a fter the conquest

of Somnath, which now stands in ruins. The mosque resembles a mandir in its architecture.

The gy psy tribe, Rebari, is to be found in Nagarpa rkar . They r ear cam els for their liv elihood. A Rebari

wom an we ar s bla ck robes a ll of h er l ife. T he Reba ri is a tr ibe t ha t r em ained loy al to Dodo Soomro, a

brav e king of Sind h w ho foug ht ag ainst inv ade rs a nd got m ar ty rd om, na rr at es Al i Naw az. The

Rebaris ar e famous for distribut ing ca mel-milk free of cost. Rebari women, say s Khoso, w ore the

bla ck dress as a sy m bol of gr ief on t he m ar ty rdom of Dodo Soomr o. An d th ey stil l w ear it.

Nawaz, an elderly man, recounts the story of war between Colonel Tyr whitt an d Karan Singh, in

wh ich Rooplo Kohli fough t u nt o the last. He points ou t t he t ree wh ere th e Br iti sh A rm y ha ng ed h im .

He claims that th e battle between Ram and Parsram, characters of Ramay an, a holy scripture of

Hinduism, was fought in Karunjhar .

He knows about oceans of my sticism and stream s of my thology an d rides ev ery tide of the desert. He

explains karm a, discusses current w orld dev elopments and tells about the ghost of a woman th at

marches around the village, lantern in hand. He narrates various folk stories of the subcontinent.

Naw az has so mu ch m ore to tell, if only he can find someone to hear h is story .

The opinions express ed in this article and the view s shared by readers in the comment forum below do not

necessarily reflect the editorial stance or policies ofNewsline.

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