Attock Khurd

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This page is about the historic city of Attock. For the city founded in the British era, see Attock.

Attock Khurd (Hindi: अटक खुर्द, Urdu: اٹک خورد‬‎; “Little Attock”) is a small town located on the River Indus in the Attock District of Punjab Province in Pakistan.[1]

Historically and strategically, Attock Khurd is considered the gateway to Central Asia[2] since it is near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border.



Ancient history: Attock Khurd (the old city) has a rich history and was of special importance to the entire Indian Sub-continent. The great grammarian Pāṇini, who wrote the Aṣṭādhyāyī, the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar, is said in some historical sources to have been born near Attock in Salatura, modern Lahur, on the right bank of Indus River in the ancient Kambojan/Gandharan territory in 520 BCE.[3] In those days Attock was located on the high road, the Uttarapatha, the principal route of international commerce and communication between the sub-continent, Persia and Imperial China.

Attock then finds its name in the history books dating to the rule of Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka, the Emperor of upper India, who had converted to the Buddhist faith. In the Edicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek, it is declared that Greek populations within his realm also had converted to Buddhism:

"Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma." —Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika).

In the spring of 326 BCE Alexander III of Macedon passed into the Punjab (at Ohind, 16 m. above Attock), using a bridge over the Indus constructed by Perdiccas and Hephaestion.[4] The region became part of the Kingdom of Ederatides the Greek or Indo-Greek Kingdom, who extended his power over western Punjab. The Indo-Greek kings held the country after him (until about 80 BCE) until its invasion by the Indo-Scythians.

When the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited the district in 630 CE and again in 643 CE, Buddhism was rapidly declining. The Brahman revival, to which India owes its present form of Hinduism, had already set in the early years of the fifth century, and must have been at its height in the days of Hiuen Tsang. From that time the light afforded by the records of the Chinese pilgrims fades.

The country was under the dominion of the Hindu kings of Kashmir, and remained so till the end of the 9th century. After that, the district became part of the Kingdom of the rulers of Kabul -- and the town, then known as Udhabandhapur or Waihind, their capital until 1001 when the capital was moved to Nandana in Salt Range after Battle of Peshawar (1001) -- Samanta Deva and his successors (more accurately designated as the "Hindu Shahis of Kabul"), who remained in possession till the times of Mahmud Ghaznavi. With the passage of time, the Gakhars became strong in the hills to the east, but their dominion never extended beyond the Margalla pass and the Khari Moorat.

The city got more fame by Sufi's & saints which were mostly consist of Bukhari-ul-Naqvi and Bukharis such as Makhdoom Jahaniyan Jahangasht (born in Uch Sharif) and Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari from Bukhara (Urdu: سید جلال الدین سرخ پوش بخاری c. 595-690 AH, 1199–1291 CE). They were titled Dewans of Attock in last era of Lodhi period.

Imperial Rule: Akbar the Great built Attock Fort from 1581 - 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi to protect the passage of the Indus. It is ruled by Nawab of Punjab until 1754 and then captured by Durrani Empire. Attock was won by Marathas led by Raghunathrao in 1758. But this conquest was short-lived and then Nawab of Punjab again captured the Attock Khurd which was followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's conquest under a treaty with Nawab. According to which, Attock Khurd was divided between Afghans and Nawab.

It saw countless battles and skirmishes between the Sikhs and the Afghans in later years.

In 1813, the Sikh Empire wrested the Attock Fort from the Kingdom of Afghanistan in the Battle of Attock and Nawab of Punjab through "Treaty of Misls".[5] Attock fort had secured the passage of the Afghans to-and-from Kashmir. In 1833, Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sikh Empire's army along its border with the Kingdom of Kabul, strengthened Akbar's fort of Attock by building the very high and massy bastions at each of its gates.[6]

British Era: As a result of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846), the Fort was surrendered to the British.[7] It was briefly lost to the Sikhs during the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–1849) but recaptured towards the end.[8]

The Uttarajyotika seems to have been the same as Landikotala, Vrindataka as Burindu and Attuck and Dvarpala as the Khybar.[9]


विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[10] ने लेख किया है ...अटक (AS, p.16) पश्चिमी पाकिस्तान, का एक एक छोटा सा नगर है, जो सिंधु नदी के तट पर स्थित है जो अपनी सीमावर्ती स्थिति तथा ऐतिहासिक दुर्ग के लिए प्रसिद्ध है। प्राचीन समय में अटक को 'हाटक' भी कहा जाता था।[11] अटक का सुदृढ़ क़िला, जो नदी तट पर ऊंची पहाड़ी के शिखर पर स्थित है, उसे मुग़ल बादशाह अकबर ने बनवाया था। मध्य काल में अटक को भारत की पश्चिमी सीमा पर स्थित माना जाता था। यह कहा जाता है कि राजा मानसिंह ने अकबर द्वारा अटक के [p.17]: पार यूसुफजाइयों से लड़ने के लिए भेजे जाते समय वहाँ अपने जाने की सम्मति देते समय कहा था कि- "मुझे अन्य लोगों की तरह वहाँ जाने में आपत्ति नहीं है, क्योंकि 'जाके मन में अटक हैं, सो ही अटक रहा।"


विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[12]ने लिखा है .... हाटक (AS, p.1018): महाभारत सभापर्व में उल्लिखित स्थान है, जिसे यक्षों का देश कहा गया है. इस पर उत्तर दिशा की दिग्विजय के प्रसंग में अर्जुन ने विजय प्राप्त की थी- यह स्थान कालिदास के मेघदूत की अलका के निकट ही स्थित होगा. मानसरोवर यहां से समीप ही था- यह तिब्बत में स्थित वर्तमान मानसरोवर और कैलाश का निकटवर्ती प्रदेश था. यहां गुहयकों (यक्षों) तथा गंधर्वों की बस्ती था. श्री बी.सी. ला के मत में हाटक वर्तमान अटक (पाकिस्तान) है. एन.ल. डे के अनुसार यह हूण देश का नाम है.

देशवाल जाटों का राज्य

महाभारत युद्ध के बाद देशवाल जाटों का राज्य मध्यपूर्व में रहा। इसका एक प्रमाण यह है -

सन् 41 में खरोष्टी भाषा में लिखा हुआ अरा (Ara) में शिलालेख है जो कि अटक के निकट है। उस पर लिखा है कि देशवहर (Dashavjara) ने अपने माता-पिता के सम्मान में एक कुंआ खुदवाया था। यह देशवाल वंशज जाट राजा था। यह जाट वंश पहले से अफगानिस्तान में आबाद था।[13]

See also


  1. "Attock Khurd". Attock Khurd.
  2. Adil Najam, "When Kabul comes to Attock", Pervaiz Munir Alvi, Travel & Tourism, History and Economy & Development
  3. See H. Sharfe, Grammatical Literature (Wiesbaden, 1977), p. 88, note 4: "Panini is called Śālāturīya 'man from Śalātura' in an inscription of Śilāditya VII of Valabhī, J. F. Fleet, Corpus Inscr. Ind. Ill, p. 175, in Bhāmaha's Kāvyalaṃkāra VI 62 and in Vardhamāna's Gaṇaratnamahodadhi, commentary on verse 2."
  4. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alexander III." . Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 548. M. A. Foucher, Notes sur la géographie ancienne du Gandhara (commentaire a un chapitre de Hiuen-tsang)", Bulletin de l´École Française d´Extrême-Orient, I, No. 4 (Oct., 1901), pp. 322-369;
  5. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Punjab" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  6. Nalwa, V. (2009), Hari Singh Nalwa - Champion of the Khalsaji, New Delhi: Manohar, p. 131, ISBN 81-7304-785-5.
  7. Gazetteer of the Attock District 1930, Punjab Government, Lahore 1932. Reprinted version: Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore, 1989 Pg. 314
  9. Proceedings and Transactions of the ... All-India Oriental Conference, Part 1, 1966 - All-India Oriental Conference,p.148
  10. Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.16-17
  11. हिस्टॉरिकल ज्योग्रफी ऑफ एंशेंट इंडिया- बी.सी. लॉ, पृ. 29
  12. Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.1018
  13. Jat History Dalip Singh Ahlawat/Chapter XI,p.999