Peshawar

“ The very rigidity of the Indian caste lines has kept the Indian art lines pure, if it has also kept them crude. When you are in Peshawar you are so near the borderland, across which the bravest British soldier goes with more or less trepidation, that the most callous European tourist is justified in feeling himself dangerously near the interesting cradle of Indian art. You can buy a great many things in Peshawar; you can buy two things there that you can buy nowhere else in perfection—waxwork and the skins of snow-leopards. ”

“ Peshawar lies within a horseshoe ring of hills on the edge of the mountain barrier which separates India from Afghanistan, and through it have passed nearly all the invaders from the north. The native quarter is a huddle of flat-roofed houses within mud walls, crowded along narrow, crooked alleys, there is but one fairly wide street of shops. ”

“ How long Masson remained at Peshawar it is difficult to say, for there is a most lamentable 351 absence of dates from his records, and Peshawar appears to have been the base from which he started on a good many excursions. Finally he made acquaintance with a Pathan who offered to accompany him to Kabul, and he left Peshawar for Afghanistan by the Khaibar route. He mentions two other routes as being popular in those days, i.e. those of Abkhana and Karapa, and he asserts that they were far more secure for traders than the Khaibar, but not so level nor so direct. ”

“ Ten days later a native correspondent, giving me the news of the day from Peshawar, wound up his letter with: “There has been much laughter here on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to sell petty gauds and insignificant trinkets which he ascribes as great charms to H. H. the Amir of Bokhara. He passed through Peshawar and associated himself to the Second Summer caravan that goes to Kabul. The merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that such mad fellows bring good fortune.” ”

“ And why should the frontier above Peshawar be so dangerous a barrier for every Englishman and European? If several thousands of Kakeries, Lohanies, Gilzies, and Yusufzies, yearly pass over the northern frontier of Hindostan,—some for mercantile purposes, others to graze their flocks,—why should British travellers not be allowed to venture over the Hindu-Kush, let alone a few hours' journey beyond Peshawar? Afghan merchants drive a flourishing trade with Mooltan, Delhi, Lahore: why, from the English side, may not one mercantile firm or another betake itself for the same end to Kabul? ”

“ Some messengers came in from Peshawar on the 25th. They heard the men of the 13th in fits of laughter at some absurd game they were playing, and all the native soldiers singing in chorus their festival songs. They were astounded.
“Why,” they said, “you are besieged, and ought to be sad and dispirited; but you are all as merry as possible.”
When they saw the ease with which a party of Akbar’s men were beaten in a fight for some grass they were utterly confounded. When they returned to Peshawar all this went down the road to the Khyber, with wonderful additions. ”

“ Some show of making a strike for independence had been made in connection with the Yusufzai rising led by Saiad Ahmad Shah, but it had been suppressed, and during the temporary occupation of Peshawar by the Sikhs the city had been despoiled and devastated. Masson estimated that there were about fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants in Peshawar, where he was exceedingly well treated. "People of all classes were most civil and desirous to oblige." ”

“ We will at any rate follow the text of his own narrative, and surely no narrative of adventure that has ever appeared before or since in connection with Afghan exploration can rival it for interest. Peshawar was at that time held by four Pathan Sirdars, brothers, who were hardly independent, as they held their country (a small space extending to about 25 miles round Peshawar, and which included Kohat and Hangu) entirely at the pleasure of Ranjit Singh, the Sikh Chief of the Punjab. ”

“ We had at Peshawar three regiments of Native Cavalry and five of Native Infantry, not less than 5,000 men, while the strength of the two British regiments and the Artillery did not exceed 2,000. This European force was more than sufficient to cope with the eight Native corps, but in the event of any general disturbance amongst the Native troops, we had to calculate on the probability of their being joined by the 50,000 inhabitants of the city, and, indeed, by the entire population of the Peshawar valley; not to speak of the tribes all along the border, who were sure to rise. ”

“ In 1828 he started for Peshāwar, attended by, it is said, upwards of 100,000 Indians, and accompanied by his chief followers, Ḥājī Ismā‘īl and ‘Abdu-l-Ḥayy. He was furnished with means by a general subscription in northern India, and by several Muhammadan princes who had embraced his doctrines. At the beginning of 1829 he declared war against the Sikhs, and in the course of time made himself master of Peshāwar. ”

“ Fortunately for India, there were good men and true at Peshawar in those days, when hesitation and irresolution would have been fatal, and it is worthy of note that they were comparatively young men—Edwardes was thirty-seven, Nicholson thirty-five; Neville Chamberlain, the distinguished Commandant of the Punjab Frontier Force (who was hastily summoned from Kohat, where he happened to be on his tour of inspection) , was thirty-seven ”

“ Long caravan trains of camels and donkeys were then filing out and across the dusty plain to pass the night in the fortified serai below Jamrud fort, ready for a sunrise start through the defile to Lundi Khana at the Afghan end, where no white traveler goes, save by very special arrangement with civil and military authorities.
Peshawar, once an Afghan city in fact, still bears all its Persian and Central Asian characteristics ”

“ Life on the frontier in those days had a great charm for most young men; there was always something of interest going on; military expeditions were constantly taking place, or being speculated upon, and one lived in hope of being amongst those chosen for active service. Peshawar, too, notwithstanding its unhealthiness, was a favourite station with officers. To me it was particularly pleasant, for it had the largest force of Artillery of any station in India except Meerut; the mess was a good one, and was composed of as nice a set of fellows as were to be found in the army. ”

“ John Lawrence was hedged round with dangers. European regiments were urgently demanded for the siege of Delhi, and he could not spare a man. He was compelled to keep 3,000 Europeans for the defence of the valley of Peshawar, and he had only 2,000 Europeans left to garrison the rest of the Punjab. In this dilemma he proposed to abandon Peshawar and make it over to Dost Mohammed Khan of Cabul. ”

“ The last day’s journey is from Lundi Kotal through the Khyber Pass, and past Jumrood, the fort which guards the mouth of the Khyber on the Indian side, and on into Peshawar, where one enters once more into civilization.
From Jelalabad to the Khyber mountains the country is a comparatively flat one, and for the greater part of the journey the route follows the course of the Kabul river, which is here broad and shallow, though the current is swift, on account of the considerable fall in level between Jelalabad and Peshawar. ”

“ Pashtu is the common language in Peshawar, Kohat, and Bannu, and is spoken on the western frontiers of Hazara and Dera Ismail Khan, and in the independent tribal territory in the west between the districts of the N.W.F. Province and the Durand Line and immediately adjoining the Peshawar district on the north. Rajasthani is a collective name for the dialects of Rajputana, which overflow into the Panjab, occupying a strip along the southern frontier from Bahawalpur to Gurgaon. ”

“ The Indus in British India.—After reaching British India the Indus soon becomes the boundary dividing Hazára and Pesháwar, two districts of the North West Frontier Province. Lower down it parts Pesháwar from the Panjáb district of Attock. In this section after a time the hills recede on both sides, and the stream is wide and so shallow that it is fordable in places in the cold weather. There are islands, ferry boats and rafts can ply, and the only danger is from sudden freshets. ”

“ His transference to the north-west frontier at Peshawar in 1849 had meanwhile directed his chief attention to the Pushtu or Afghan language, history, and ethnology. To the 'Transactions' of the Geographical Society of Bombay, Raverty contributed in 1851 'An Account of the City and Province of Peshawar,' illustrated with maps and sepia sketches. In order to acquire practical knowledge of the Pushtu tongue he had to collect, arrange, and systematise almost the whole of the needful grammatical and lexical material. ”

“ It very frequently happens that a man carrying for hire gets a load in Peshawar for all his camels, horses, etc., part of the load being booked to Jelalabad, which is half way to Kabul, and the other part of the load to Kabul. On the man reaching Jelalabad he delivers the goods which are consigned there, and leaving there those goods which are to go further on, he returns to Peshawar for another load, and he continues going backwards and forwards until the goods for Kabul are sufficient for all his animals and then he goes on to that place. ”

“ His popularity with the tribes enabled him to keep the frontier quiet until the spring of 1919, when war with Afghanistan became inevitable; his presence at Peshawar was then a tower of strength, and great was the regret when, in the autumn of that year, increasing ill-health forced him to relinquish his post and return to England. ”

“ Peshawar, the great field for their plundering operations, is also the market for their produce and the source of supply for their many domestic wants. Exclusion from Peshawar is to many clans a severe form of punishment; and an effectual blockade that will cut them off from the outer world, would probably bring them to terms sooner than an expedition.” But Holdich again reminds us that “across those wild break-neck passes over the Safed Koh into Ningrahar ... ”

“ The district is naturally fertile and well watered, and is irrigated by the Swat River Canal. The principal crops are wheat, barley, maize, millets and oil-seeds, with a little cotton and sugar-cane. Peshawar also produces a fine variety of rice, known as “Bara rice,” after the river which irrigates it. The North-Western railway crosses the district from Attock, and has been extended from Peshawar city to Jamrud for military purposes. The district is chiefly inhabited by Pathans; there are some Hindus engaged in trade as bankers, merchants and shop-keepers. ”

“ The Akhund of Swat The Punjab Government advocated the despatch of a very strong [Page 282] force. Accordingly, two columns were employed, the base of one being in the Peshawar valley, and that of the other in Hazara. The Peshawar column was to move by the Umbeyla Pass, the Buner frontier, and the Chamla valley, thus operating on the enemy's line of retreat. ”

“ The Mullah had been gathering forces together for an attack on Peshawar, a strong British fort. To make his attempt successful he needed more men than he had under his command; he therefore ordered a tribe called the Mohmands to join him, and marched toward Peshawar, expecting to meet them on the way. ”

“ In 1876 Pelly was again in attendance on the government of India, but was soon sent to Pesháwar as envoy-extraordinary and plenipotentiary for Afghan affairs. His mission was one of many steps which preceded the outbreak of war in 1878. The amír, Sher Ali, owing to the assiduous attentions he had received from British India on one side and from Russia on the other, formed an altogether exaggerated notion of his own importance. ”

“ Pursuing the main road from Peshawar to Kabul, the fort of Jamrud, which commands the British end of the Khyber Pass, lies some 11 m. W. of Peshawar. The road leads through a barren stony plain, cut up by water-courses and infested by all the worst cut-throats in the Peshawar district. Some three miles beyond Jamrud the road enters the mountains at an opening called Shadi Bagiar, and here the Khyber proper begins. ”

“ Every colour is lovely and every space is light; the world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony, and all gloom a part of light" (1446-1524) .
Peschiera, one of the fortresses of the Quadrilateral (q. v.) , on an island in the Mincio, 14 m. W. of Verona.
Peshawar or Peshawur (84) , a town on the Indian frontier, and centre of trade with Afghanistan, is 10 m. from the entrance of the Khyber Pass, on the Kabul River, and though ill-fortified is a bulwark of the empire, being provided with a large garrison of infantry and artillery. ”

“ The Deputy-Commissioner of Peshawar urged that a military force should be sent into the country, pointing out that, whereas the Sikhs collected their annual revenue under the cover of a considerable military force, none of our troops had ever been seen near this part of our border, and the hill tribes therefore imagined we had either no force to employ, or were afraid to entangle it in those fastnesses. ”

“ When hotly pushing on to retrieve a check to his advanced troops, he boldly at much loss forded the Indus at the head of 15,000 cavalry, crossing his light guns on elephants, and swept through the valley. Another and last attempt was made in 1837 by the Afghans, led by the Amir, to recover Peshawar, when again they were defeated and retreated precipitately. Fierce and sanguinary were the struggles for the possession of the northern gate into the Punjab. ”