About ten kilometers from Gujranwala, there is a village known as Qila Mian Singh. The word Qila in Arabic, Urdu, and Punjabi means "fort," so I assumed there might be a fort or at least remnants of one. An internet search revealed some old structures in the village. To explore further, I marked the location and finally visited it on the 24th of July, 2018.
I found no signs of a fort, but a boundary wall, probably once enclosing a garden, still exists. It is a massive square-shaped compound, with each side measuring about 150 meters, covering an area of over 5 acres. The walls are deteriorating, and some sections have collapsed. The land inside the boundary is now cultivated, with no visible trace of any garden. The site is located at 32° 6' 0.09" N, 74° 4' 42.62" E.
However, two structures, or more accurately, one and a half, still stand inside. One appears to be a samadhi, and the other is the remaining portion of a now mostly collapsed baradari.
The above two pictures are of a Samadhi in the garden. (24.07.2018.)
Before further exploring the samadhi, let us take a look at the old wall of this garden. This strongly built wall encloses an area of approximately 5.5 acres. The enclosure forms a perfect square, with each side measuring almost 150 meters in length. The pictures below show different sections of the wall.
The Samadhi is the only building in this garden that is still intact. The beautiful and colorful paintings inside the Samadhi further increase its architectural importance and attraction. As you can se in the pictures given below.
Paintings of Kokila or Koyal, a bird representing singers.
It was intriguing to see a graffiti in Hindi inside the samadhi, The word Ram is repeatedly written here. On the left side of the human figure, Dwarka Nath Dham is written.
It is obvious that it was written much later. Most probably much after the partition and maybe not a very long time ago. But it is difficult to guest that who could have written it. It was more probable to find something in Gurmukhi, the script Sikhs use to write Punjabi. Anyway, Dwarka is a famous temple in Indian state of Gujarat and one of the four dhams or holy places of Hindus, the other three being Badrinath, Puri and Rameswaram.
Word Ram is repeatedly written here.
A few more sections of the boundary wall. (24.07.2018.)
The above few pictures are of a baradari style building, major portion of which already has collapsed. (24.07.2018.)
A buttress at one of the corners of the boundary wall. (24.07.2018.)
I do not have much information about the garden or Mian Singh himself (some sources suggest the name as Mihan Singh, that makes more sense). I found the following words about him in an article in Dawn newspaper:
Mian Singh di Haveli inside Yakki Gate was taken over by the British in 1849. This modest ‘haveli’ belonged to the Sikh chieftain of the Sukherchakia Misl of Gujranwala, and Mian Singh had a stronghold there which is still named Qila Mian Singh, just near Qila Didar Singh.
The above mentioned article, titled "Amazing speed of the British after taking Lahore", was written by Mr Majid Sheikh and published on 24 May, 2015. The link is given below:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1183916
So it can be safely assumed that Mian Singh, a chieftain of Sukerchakia Misl, lived during the last half of the eighteenth century and due to his services was granted a jagir in this area. The power of Sikhs rose in this region in the 1760s. And perhaps he himself or his descendants built this huge garden, of which only a few traces survive today. But perhaps will not survive for long, because apparently it is not on the radar of any government department and there is no protection or maintenance.
The above two pictures were taken by Mr Ijaz Ahmad Mughal, most probably just a few years ago and uploaded on Panoramio. These clearly show the baradari in its complete shape. Now two thirds of it have collapsed. This show how bad is the condition and definitely, all traces will disappear very soon.
At the end, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr Sameer Kashinath, who helped me in reading the graffiti in Hindi and understanding the paintings inside the Samadhi. Though this structure looks like a Samadhi, but in his opinion, it may not be a Samadhi because decorations were hardly allowed in a Samadhi.
I hope some readers will add to our knowledge about this place.
Update: 17.06.2021.
A few months ago Mr Arv Singh ji, who is one of the descendants of Sardar Mahan Singh ji, provided some information about this place. He confirmed that the name of the place is actually Qila Mihan Singh. Perhaps due to mispronunciation people started calling it Mian Singh, as it is known today. You can see his comments below.
Tariq Amir
December 11, 2018.
Doha - Qatar.
