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Peshawar derives its name from a Sanskrit word "Pushpapura" meaning
the city of flowers. Peshawar’s flowers were mentioned even in
Moghal Emperor Babur’s memoirs.
Alexander’s legions and the southern wing of his army were held up
here in 327 B.C. for forty days at a fort excavated recently, 27 ½
kms north-east of Peshawar at Pushkalavati (lotus city) near Charsadda.
The great Babur marched through historic Khyber Pass to conquer South
Asia in 1526 and set up the Moghal Empire in the South Asia.
The pass and the valley have resounded to the tramp of marching feet
as successive armies hurtled down the crossroad of history, pathway of
commerce, migration and invasion by Aryans, Scythians, Persians,
Greeks, Bactrians, Kushans, Huns, Turks’ Mongols and Moghals.
PESHAWAR-THE FRONTIER TOWN:
And Peshawar is now, as always, very much a frontier town. The
formalities of dress and manner give way here to a free and easy
style, as men encounter men with a firm hand-clasp and a straight but
friendly look. Hefty handsome men in baggy trousers and long, losse
shirts, wear bullet studded bandoleers across their chests or pistols
at their sides as a normal part of their dress.
There is just that little touch of excitement and drama in the air
that makes for a frontier land. An occasional salvo of gun fire-no,
not a tribal raid or a skirmish in the streets but a lively part of
wedding celebrations.
THE LAND OF PATHANS:
Remember, we are in the land of the Pathans - a completely
male-dominated society. North and south of Peshawar spreads the vast
tribal area where lives the biggest tribal society in the world, and
the most well known, though much misrepresented.
Pathans are faithful Muslims. Their typical martial and religious
character has been moulded by their heroes, like Khushal Khan Khattak,
the warrior poet and Rehman Baba, a preacher and also a poet of Pushto
language.
Today, they themselves guard the Pakistan-Afghanistan border along the
great passes of the Khyber, the Tochi, the Gomal and others on
Pakistan’s territory, but before independence they successfully
defied mighty empires, like the British and the Moghal and others
before them, keeping the border simmering with commotion, and the
flame of freedom proudly burning.
Peshawar is the great Pathan city. And what a city ! Hoary with age
and the passage of twenty-five centuries, redolent with the smell of
luscious fruit and roasted meat and tobacco
The Old City
Until the mid-fifties Peshawar was enclosed within a city wall and
sixteen gates. Of the old city gates the most famous was the Kabuli
Gate but only the name remains now. It leads out to the Khyber and on
to Kabul.
THE ARCHITECTURE:
You come across two-and-three storeyed houses built mostly of unbaked
bricks set in wooden frames to guard against earthquakes. Many old
houses have beautifully carved heavy wooden doors and almost all have
highly ornamental wooden balconies. There is a tall and broad
structure whose lofty portal look down upon the street. This historic
building houses the police offices and the site was occupied centuries
ago by a Buddhist stupa, then by a Hindu temple and then by a Moghal
serai. It was, in Sikh days, the seat of General Avitable, an Italian
soldier of fortune in the service of Ranjit Singh.
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