Home

Contact Us


Synopsis of History of Lohanas - by R. T.Somaiya

History main











Download
Gujarati
Fonts

From Fa-hien downward all pay tribute to the Lohanas as brave. A possible reason for the bravery is that they had placed themselves for centuries in the direct path of invaders from northwest like Persians, Macedonians, Huns, Mughals, etc.

Ruling in Afghanistan for many centuries they braved onslaughts of invaders looking for converts in India. From 7th to 11th century A.D., living on the small hills in the northwest which saw hordes of Muslim invaders at the gates of India, the Lohanas fought bravely against these invaders.

They held their grounds for long in northwest but finally had to fall back and moved initially to the Sindh province of today's Pakistan. Meanwhile, Prophet Mohammed established Islam. His followers spread out in different directions to preach His religion and in due course they turned towards India too. When these hordes reach northwest, they had to contend with the brave Lohanas and were held back for many years. But finally they lost when one Kualnger of Narsvat community (the Brahmins who performed rites for the Lohanas) betrayed Loharana king Chahir Ray. So Sindh fell to Muslims and Lohanas disintegrated into small segments.

But the saga of this brave community did not end there. After the community split, they found a new leader. He was Veer Jashraj, who is revered as Dada Jashraj, who was born in the city of Lohar (today's Lahore in Pakistan), which was the capital of Lohargadh. His domain extended from Lahore to Multan (also in Pakistan today).

As the story goes, Mongol invader Changez Khan, attacked Multan and was killed by Dada Jashraj, Rana of Lohargadh. A plaque in Chinese language on the great Khan's grave says " Killed by Rana Jashraj of Lohergadh". This finds mention in folklore, which say, " King of Mongols was killed by Mirana, the tiger of Multan fort".

His descendants who proudly carry the surname of 'Mirana' preserve the memory of this great warrior king. He was treacherously killed when only 28 - a life so short but full of heroic deeds.

After the death of Dada Jashraj, the decline of Lohanas began and their reign at Lohargadh ended. At this time, king Dahir ruled at Naryankot (today's Hyderabad in the Sindh province of Pakistan). Disunity among Lohanas weakened his kingdom and he died in a fight with Muslims. The Muslims took over Narayankot and Sindh and the mighty Lohanas fell to a hard time, many of them having been converted to Islam.

BACK

NEXT

Disclaimer / Copyright 2008