Charsadda I Gandhara's 1st Capital I 2nd Largest Cemetery of South Asia I Legend of Maula Ali's Tomb

#charsadda #gandhara #khyberpakhtunkhwa Charsadda I Gandhara's 1st Capital I 2nd Largest Cemetery of South Asia I Legend of Maula Ali's Tomb Special Thanks: Syed Ibrahim Bacha, Syed Hussain Bacha Music: Binu Kumar, Kerala, India @SoundSFX (Under License) Chārsadda is a town and headquarters of Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is the eighty fifth-largest city of Pakistan, according to 2017 census. Located in the Valley of Peshawar, Charsadda lies about 29 kilometres (18 mi) from the provincial capital of Peshawar at an altitude of 906 ft. The ancient name of Charsadda was Pushkalavati. The city hosts the ruins of what was once the ancient Gandharan capital city of Pushkalavati (meaning Lotus City in Sanskrit), and The father of Sanskrit grammar, Pāṇini was from this area and lived around 4th century BCE. Charsadda's huge cemetery currently occupies an area of 3x4 km, but it used to be bigger, a lot of the current town has been built on top of the old cemetery, often illegally. The age of the cemetery is not known.  One local tradition holds that Ahmad Shah Durrani originally endowed the land to the locals as a reward for their military support during his Indian campaigns.  Another tradition places it in the 15th century, when there was widespread migration of Pashtun tribes into the Peshawar valley.  These migrations would have been accompanied by violent conflict, and the battlefields were supposedly seen as unfit for cultivating or living on after they had been "stained with human blood".  According to Qasim Jan Mohammadzai, the cemetery likely originated when the local population converted to Islam and thus began to bury their dead close to their villages. The site chosen for the cemetery would have originally been communal land, known in Pashtun as Shamilat, that had previously been used for cattle grazing. Different clans (Khels) each have different sections of the cemetery to bury their dead in.  The boundaries between these sections are marked by shallow trenches or brick walls.  Most of the graves are decorated with marble slabs; many of them belong to the period of Durrani rule.  There are also separate sections for Christians and Ahmadis near the main Janazgah, as well as a separate section for non-locals in the southeastern part of the cemetery.  In this section, called the Musafirkhana, anyone may bury without needing prior permission. Although not as large as the Makli necropolis near Thatta, the Charsadda cemetery has a much higher density of graves.  Whereas Makli primarily houses the graves of the ruling class and prominent holy men, Charsadda is used mostly by ordinary people.  That said, there are several prominent saints' tombs at Charsadda, as well as royal Durrani graves from their time in power. Among the saints' tombs at Charsadda are those of Ghazi Gul Baba, Mullah Shah Alam Baba, Mian Sayed Noor Baba, Baba Sahib (aka Ali bin Yousaf Dalazak), Jhare Baba, and Shaheed Baba.  South of the main Janazgah, on the right side of the Ali Khan Baba road, there are two prominent enclosures, each marked off with a brick wall and accessed by a gate on the west side.  This area is known as the Chardewarai. The larger enclosure houses eight tombs of the Ali Khel clan, who were the local rulers at the time of the Durrani hegemony; its gate is ornately decorated. The other one has the grave of the 18th-century poet Ali Khan.  Southwest of these two enclosures is a (now ruined) domed brick mausoleum on a raised platform, said to belong to a holy woman.  None of these tombs have any inscriptions providing a specific date for their construction.  One of the most distinct features of the Charsadda cemetery is the way its graves are decorated.  About 90% of the graves are decorated with small black and white stones arranged to form geometric or floral designs.  This type of decoration is locally known as Da Kanro Gulkari, and the style of grave is known as a Hashtnaghri Qabroona or a Hashtnaghri grave.  Some wealthier people's graves are made of brick or marble, but Hashtnaghri graves remain popular because they are cheaper, quickly made, and durable. Another tradition associated with the Charsadda cemetery is the annual family visits to deceased relatives' graves.  These take place both on Ashura, when any necessary repairs to the grave are done, and on the first day of Eid al-Adha celebrations.  During the Eid visit, family members arrive early in the morning to recite the Fatiha and the Tilawa; this visit is considered compulsory if the buried person died recently. Follow us on: Facebook:   / ​.  . Twitter:   / gilanilogs   Instagram:   / zulfiqargil.  .