Rohtas Fort: Reminiscing the once glorious Sher Shah Suri

Rohtas Fort: Reminiscing the once glorious Sher Shah Suri

Travelling the legendary Grand Trunk Road (GT Road) from the capital city of Islamabad towards Lahore, a dirt road just ahead of a remote town of Deena, would lead to one of the greatest gigantic structures built during the Mughal era. Rohats Fort is located
some 109 kms south-east of Islamabad and the fortified structure which acted both as a strong hold of the then Suri army was also centre of social activities of the region during the times of peace.

Rohtas was built by the great Afghan emperor of Indo-Pak Sher Shah Suri and the fortress served the primary purpose of warding off hostile movement of the enemies both from the west as well as the indigenous elements. Suri, who started off his career as
one of the trusted employee of the Mughals, gradually grew in strength to the extent that one day he was successfully able to drive out the Mughal emperor Humayoon, forcing him to seek shelter in Iran. Suri, born to an Afghan bookkeeper of the Mughals, did
not have the blue blood of the Mughals but during his reign, he turned out to be the most influential and beneficial rulers for the sub-continent.

Rohtas, named after the famous Rohtasgarh Fort in Shahabad district near Baharkunda, Bihar, and which was successfully overpowered by Suri in 1589, is a sprawling structure spread to an area of four square kilometers, has twelve huge gates and no less than
69 bastions all of whom are still standing tall and strong. Construction of the fort started in 1541 A.D and took almost nine years to complete. The fort was strategically built to provide a buffer against the raging Afghan hordes from the west and also to
fight the restive Ghakkar and Khokar tribes of the Salt Range.

The giant structure is also on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites and is a unique amalgam of the Afghan-Indian architecture. The giant gates are named after some of the decorated soldiers among Suri’s army and also some of the local saints of the area.

Today, the fort stands as a diminishing memory of the once great Sher Shah, battling the ravages of time for almost 500 years. The fort now holds a strong population of local village houses and neighbourhoods equipped with mosques, schools and bazaars. The
fort also holds the office of the Archaeology department of Government of Pakistan.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=3041

Posted by Naveed A Bari on Nov 10 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry