Beloved Chakwal used to take pride in its ancient sites located in the picturesque Kahoon Valley, nestled in the fascinating hills of Salt Range.
The Kussak Fort, The Malot Fort and The Nandna Fort have already been ruined by the sheer apathy instilled in us in great abundance. Today, there are only remains that hint at the greatness that they once encompassed, and even these remains won’t last long.
One of these sites is Katas Raj, the home of Hindu Lord Shiva. It also houses within it the remains of Stupas from the Buddhist era along with a complex of seven ancient temples, Hari Singh Haveli, the remains of a university and a grand building of a police station, all located around a revered pond.
Katas, a word derived from the Sanskrit word “Ketaksha” literally means ‘weeping eyes’. According to Hindu mythology, heroes of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, the Pandava brothers spent four years of their exile at Katas until their brother Yudhisthira defeated the Yaksha with his wisdom to bring his brothers back to life.
There are two other legends that are also associated with the revered pond. One is that Lord Shiva had seven wives and the most beloved of them for Lord Shiva was the beautiful Satti. Legend goes that Lord Shiva shed so many tears over the death of his beloved Satti that two ponds (one in Pushkara in Ajmer and the other at Katas Raj) created out of his tears. The other account says that as Shiva wept over the demise of one of his beloved horses named ‘Katas’, his tears gave birth to these two ponds.
But legends aside, historians ascribe a different sort of importance to this spot. In the ancient past, after the period of the Buddhists, history records that Hindus fled to Katas Raj when the Muslim kings from Afghanistan invaded India. Katas remained the primary base for Hindus till the bloody partition of 1947 when Hindu association with the place started withering away.
Over time, the sacredness of the site was appreciated and celebrated. Hindus used to take bath in the pond for their salvation and issueless women worshipped the symbolic phallus of Lord Shiva so that their barrenness could be over-turned into fertility.
As Hindus started migrating to India, the destruction of Katas Raj began. The home of Lord Shiva and the holy water of the pond which is revered to them became inaccessible for Hindus after partition.
The site of Katas Raj was mutilated for sixty years, but during Gen Musharraf’s regime, in a gesture to win over the trust of India, the doors of Katas were opened again for the Hindus.
A project in the name of ‘Improvement and Renovation of Katas Raj’ was also initiated at the cost of Rs112 million during the regime of former Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. It was inaugurated by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on June 30, 2006 as the BJP’s leader L K Advani and Ch Pervez Elahi stood witness at the occasion.
Work started and basic facilities were built as well as renovation of the temples and stupas were taken on. The laudable initiative, not unexpectedly, hit a snag as the Punjab government failed to release funds after the first 50 million rupees.
Today, the toilets have been rendered dysfunctional by the students of nearby school while the staff residence remains deserted as not even a single person has been recruited to look after Katas Temples Complex.
Similarly, the Public Health and Engineering Department is not doing anything in the name of providing a water supply to the holy pond as there is no alternative facility of water for the nearby towns.
The holy pond, whose depth could not even be fathomed in the past, has dried up. The Stupas and temples have crumbled while Hari Singh Haveli and police station remain locked.
“This is the worst possible condition I could ever imagine. Shiva has gotten tired of weeping perhaps”, moaned Shahid Azad, a lecturer at Government College Chakwal, as he sees the plight of the pond.
If the Punjab government did not wake up, the obituary of The Land of Shiva would be written soon.