Indian Antiquary Vol 55

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 26

16
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1926
PaniAb recommended that the life jagir be raised to Rs. 2,000 and continued to a selected heir during the pleasure of Government. The jagir allowance was duly increased ; but with regard to the second proposition, the Supreme Government deemed it advisable merely to lay down that it should receive consideration on the death of the present incumbent."
To these facts it may be added that Muhammad 'Isma'il Khan was the owner of four thousand acres in seventeen villages of the Jhang and Shorkot tahsils, and enjoyed eventually an income of about Rs. 10,000 per annum. He was held in the highest esteem by the many English district officers who knew him. It is clear from the above narrative that the date of the legend is 1848.
General Reynell George Taylor is mentioned in the story more than once, and his life roughly supports the dates evolved from the story itself. He lived from 1822 to 1886, and in 1848 he was at the siege of Multân, being then a Captain. He later on commanded the Corps of Guides on the Panjab Frontier, and was in charge of Kangra during the Mutiny.
During its course, this story also relates that the Ħaji first met the mother of Muhammad 'Isma'il Khan and related the tale to her, with the result that she became a regular worshipper at Hir's tomb near Jhang. In the tale of Isma'il's Grandmother her place is taken by his grandmother, according to the Panjabi bards from whom I heard it. But they said that HAkim Jan Muhammad, the original narrator thereof, who was still alive in 1884, averred that it was the mother, and not the grandmother, who took to looking after Hir's tomb, though it was against the traditions of her tribe to do so. He also said that she began to do this shortly before the commencement of the British rule in the Panjab (1849). Liko the teller of this tale, he also said that he was then 18 years of age. It is clear, therefore, that the two tales are versions of one original. From all the above information one gathers that, if the lady was 'Isma'il Khan's grandmother she was the wife of Kabir Khan and daughter of 'Umar Khan, but if she was his mother she was the wife of Ahmad Khan.
From the Bracelet-maker of Jhang ne further information is to be extracted, but as the tale of 'Abdu'llah Shah of Samin is so closely connected with this one and is not long, I reprint here the translation, together with these introductory notes, after the text of this tale, so that students may compare the two stories for themselves. It is quite possible, indeed, that 'Abdu'llah Shah represents the Haji of the present legend.
True Lovers Never Die. I remember that when I was about 14 or 15 years old that a traveller, aged about 40 or 45 years, said to be a ájî, came to my great-grandfather, Ħafiz Ahmad (God have mercy on him), and told him this tale :
I am a Sial and a native of the country round Chachh-Hazara, and left my home to make the pilgrimage to the House of the Ka'aba [at Mecca). Travelling, travelling, travelling, I embarked on a ship. By the will of God the ship went to pieces at some place by the ocean. By the will of God also I was saved on a plank. It was I don't remember how many days afterwards that I reached the shore at some spot.
I was hungry, thirsty and weary, and there was no strength left in me to move or travel, and life meant nothing to me. I ate the leaves and berries of trees, and when I had thus recovered some strength, I climbed the highest hills and trees around to look for signs of habitation. When I had been looking for some time, I saw at last some tracks of buffalo Ows and I knew them to be signs of habitation.'
1 That is : Takht-Hazara in the Gujranwala District.
% This shows that the narrator could not really have ever left the Panjab, and thus the whole story must have been only a dream,