The mountains of Margalla, whose name bears a bloody history

The Margalla Hills National Park was created in 1980, covering about 43,000 acres. Margalla is also called the foothills of the Himalayas because this is where the great mountain range begins.

It is said that millions of years ago when these mountains did not exist and there was a plain floating along the coast of the Antarctic subcontinent. Continents are constantly in motion due to tectonic plates, so 220 million years ago suddenly due to the movement of these plates, the subcontinent began to slide northward at a speed of a few inches per year.

It moved 6000 km and hit Asia 40-50 million years ago. The Himalayan mountains were formed by this terrible impact, but the effects of this impact are still present and the height of the Himalayan peaks increases slightly every year.

The age of these rocks has been estimated to be 40 million years from the remains of marine life in the limestone here. This shows that earlier these hills were under the sea. Today, the Himalayan range extends over 2,900 km across four countries, Pakistan, India, China and Nepal, with some of the highest peaks in the world.

If you remove Margalla Hills from Islamabad, perhaps the beauty of this city will be meaningless. During President Ayub’s reign, the new capital of Pakistan was also chosen because of the beautiful views of the Margalla Hills. But actually there is a horror story behind the name of these hills.

Taxila, whose fame was once in the world and the smell of Gandhara’s knowledge and art was in the whole world, but then suddenly a storm came from the north in the form of white swans, which destroyed everything. The luxurious cities were burned to ashes. Neither city nor village was spared from their evil, the devastation was so great that the people who survived were lost somewhere far away. The destruction was so great that not only these cities could not be rebuilt, but the name and mark of this civilization was also erased.

Today, there are only a few passages left in the history books that show us a glimpse of this great civilization or the signs in the museums of this civilization from which we draw our own opinions.

It may come as a surprise to people that Margalla is related to a chieftain of the same White Huns, Raja Mehr Gul alias Raja Gola, who was the son of Turman, the chieftain of the White Huns. When Raja Maher Gul captured Taxila and left no human alive there, in celebration of his victory, he organized a celebration on these hills and sacrificed thousands of human beings before the sun god. Later he built his base throne here, called ‘Mahar Golewali’ which later became Margala.

The Chinese tourist ‘Sing Yan’ has also written the name of Mahar Gola’s kingdom as ‘Maher Gola Wali’, while another Chinese traveler Hiun Tsang has written the name of Mahar Gola’s throne as ‘Sagula’.

Another tradition attributed to Pandit Kalhan, author of Raj Tarangani, says that the moon was first worshiped on the same hills and there was a temple called ‘Marikala’. Mari means place of worship and Kala means moon. This Mari Kala later became Margalla.

There is also a tradition that the invaders who came from the west had to sacrifice thousands of their soldiers while crossing these hills, because the local tribes used to ambush them and kill them at night. Called the throat cut.

According to another tradition, there were many poisonous snakes here due to which many lives were lost, hence it came to be called Margalla. Some people believe that there were many elephants and rhinoceros in this forest. In Sanskrit, elephants are called Gaj and the hill is called Meer. In the local language Potohari, the path is called as a herd pass. It may also be a relative.

The Mughal emperor Jahangira writes in his book Tuzk Jahangiri, ‘On Monday I entered the Kharbuza inn, which is known as Khurbuza, and the Gakhas had built this inn to receive the passage. This road originates from the Margalla pass. Mar means highwayman in Hindi while Gula means caravan. Thus Margalla means where caravans are returned. This pass is the border of the territory of the Ghakharas who are always at odds with each other.’

According to Manzoorul Haq Siddiqui, the author of Tarikh-i Hasan Abdal, traces of 11 civilizations have been discovered around Margalla, some of which created space by erasing the previous ones, while some civilizations flourished with time. Seven civilizations including Achaemenid, Greek, Mauryan, Greek-Bactrian, Shaka, Pahlavi and Kushan have been found in Taxila, while traces of four different civilizations have been found in Sarai Khola.

All these civilizations were settled on the other side of the Margalla and the hills were in a way their natural enclosure. A route leads from the village of Shahullah Dutta in Margalla where there are ancient caves. This is believed to be the ancient route and there are also the remains of a watch tower on the hill. which is a square stone building with arrowheads showing that it was not a stupa but was built as a security point where lamps were lit at night to help travelers find their way. It should be easy and if there is any danger, the soldiers stationed here can go to Taxila to inform and prepare the army for the fight.

This watch tower is located in a very important place, on one side, the valley of Taxila can be seen far and on the other side, it can be seen up to Rawat.

At the back of this watch tower there are traces of the first mosque of Muslims in the subcontinent. While the road from Shahullah Dutta to Khanpur also has a bowli of Sher Shah Suri era. When the first civilizations of India reached Gandhara after Mehrgarh, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, these hills of Margalla were of special importance.

The civilization that developed at their foothills was spread from Taxila to Swat and Peshawar. Thousands of years ago, the civilization on the other side of Margalla towards Taxila was the center of attention. Today, Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is located on this side of Margalla. Where the Parliament of Pakistan is located at the foot of Margalla. The President’s House is the Prime Minister’s House. There are headquarters of all three armies of Pakistan. Once at the foot of Margala sat Kautilya Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka Azam. Today, the history of this side of Margalla is waiting for a great ruler like Chanakya, Chandragupta and Ashoka. The mountains are the same, the scenery below them has changed.