The FIFA world cup semi-finals are here. Nearly a month has whizzed past like a well taken free kick from the edge of the ‘D’; the world’s attention has remained fixed on the ball and when it hits the net. The dazzling skills of players from across the world have made this world cup one of continuous excitement, euphoria and sadness too (for those who lost).
No South Asian team could make it past the qualifiers but there is a special and indispensable part of every single match that ought to make both sides of the vexed India-Pakistan border proud. The football. A majority of them used in the world cup are made in a historic city situated on the river Chenab in Punjab, Pakistan. It was in the 1980s that Sialkot began emerging as a manufacturing hub for high-quality footballs. Today, it is known as the football city, and either hand-sewn or machine-made, but no major tournament takes place without a ball from Sialkot.
Even before it became singularly famous for producing football, Sialkot was known for the high quality sports equipment produced in its factories and workshops. Being one of the oldest cantonments established by the British colonial rulers in 1852, it became home to a sporting culture in which all games were played by the white masters be it Tennis, Badminton, Hockey, Football, Cricket and Polo. Spotting an opportunity, two Sikh brothers – Ganda Singh Uberai and Jhanda SIngh Uberai – established large factories here and founded Uberai sports. They brought in the sturdy willow for cricket bats and ‘toot’ (the curved end) for hockey sticks from J&K, and through this business which was aided by their vast land holding, both acquired immense wealth and fostered a sporting culture in this region of the undivided Punjab. One of these sportspersons was Kulwant Ghuman, a woman, who captained the Indian Hockey team in the 1940s and is still remembered as the ‘girl from Sialkot’.
The Uberai brothers spent their wealth on erecting grand mansions for themselves, one of which in Puran Nagar gave the moniker of Paris road to the street on which it was located. The lore goes that before Uberai ladies stepped out the street was perfumed by their servants. For Sialkot, this was a period of reclaiming some of the glory that it lost centuries ago.
However, no one family can claim credit for Sialkot’s industry. SA Quddus writes in Punjab, the land of beauty, love, and mysticism, “It is a city with its roots stretching back into centuries with innumerable cultures sprouting from its very bosom. It is a city of artisans and craftsmen, of poets and writers and of saints and sportsmen”.
In 1965, the two countries also turned Sialkot into the stage for a major tank battle, now known as the Battle of Chawinda, in which over 300 tanks took part. According to war historians, it was one of the largest tank battles ever fought since World War II’s Battle of Kursk in southwest Russia.
Sialkot: The Sagala of Mahabharat
Was Sialkot the capital of the ancient kingdom Madra which finds a mention in the Mahabharat? Scholarly opinion is divided and leads us into the horological roots of the Mahabharat and its composition itself. The famous English orientalist and first Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, HH Wilson wrote in his much cited work, Ariana Antiqua: A Descriptive Account of the Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan, “the appellation of another principal city in the Punjab, Sangala, appears to be traceable in the Sanskrit Sakala, a city of which mention is made in the Mahabharata as similarly placed…”
From Alexander to Man Singh
According to the Anabasis of Alexander, the great Greek conqueror captured the city of Sangala (also known as Sagala), which is believed to be Sialkot and razed it to the ground around 300 BCE, and it was after this campaign that his Macedonian generals refused to advance any further. Later, in 2nd BCE, Menander I, the Indo-Greek king, is believed to have rebuilt the city close to its previous location. Menander I is well known in Indian history for his conversion to Buddhism after an intellectual discourse with monk and scholar Nagasena as recorded in the fascinating Buddhist text, Milindapanha (Questions of King Milinda). During this time Sialkot became an important centre for trade, particularly in Silk, as well as Buddhism. Alchon Huns overran Taxila and later took over Sialkot in the 5th century, their king Toramana made Sialkot his capital and the Huns remained in control till his son Mihirkula was defeated by the confederacy led by Yashodharman of the Aulikara dynasty of Malwa.
When Xuanzang, Chinese Buddhist monk passed through Sialkot in the 7th century, he found it in decay, he noted, “In Sakala was a Buddhist monastery with above 100 Brethren all adherents of the Hinayana system. In this Monastery P’usa Vasubandhu composed the ‘Sheng-yi-t’i-lun’. A tope (stupa) beside this monastery marked a place where the Four Past Buddhas had preached, and there were footprints where they had walked up and down.”
After the Huns, a period of chaos followed during which Hindu Shahi kings were in control of Sialkot and the region around it. But with the Ghaznavid and Ghurid campaigns Lahore soon emerged as a more important city and Sialkot’s importance diminished. Mohommad of Ghori created a garrison and repaired the old fort here which gives it the name (Kot means a fort).
Emperor Akbar deputed his trusted general Man Singh to run the affairs of Sialkot. Singh built a mausoleum of the saint Shah Muhammad Hamza Ghaus, who in turn, held traditional records, held discussions with Guru Nanak when he visited Sialkot in the 16th century.
Man Singh is also credited with developing the paper industry along with manufacturing swords as well as brassware.
Quddus writes in Punjab, the land of beauty, love, and mysticism, “some local families had those days become experts in making paper and Raja Maan Singh helped them to organise the industry. It was because of this patronage that people began to call the locally made paper as Maan Singh Kaghaz. Gradually, the city became one of the great industrial and commercial centres of the Empire. For the convenience of the people, Akbar established a mint at Sialkot for minting copper coins. ”
(HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal.)
