Queen Of Punjab: Mai Moran

I began my education in Gujrat in 1957 in a Municipal Corporation Primary School (a tat school) located near Islamia High School and a couple of hundred meters south-east of Zahoor Palace. When my father got posted to Lahore in 1960 (he worked for Punjab Irrigation Department), I got admitted to another tat school in Musti Gate Lahore opposite Akbari Gate of the Royal Fort. As the standard of education of this school wasn’t to my father’s liking, he had me shifted to a Municipal Corporation Primary School on a bylane of Pappar Mandi Bazaar. This school was better, where for the first time, I studied seated on a desk instead of on a dusty mat. That was in 1961, when I was still a pre-teen child and a student of class four. I studied in the school for two years till I passed my class V.

I used to commute to this school from Pani Wala Talab, where we lived, either walking through Maya and Indroon Suter (yarn) Mandi Bazaar to Pappar Mandi, or would ride on bicycle with my father via Suha (gold) Bazaar and Shah Alam Market Road. In Papper Mandi, I would pass by two mosques; Mai Moran and Neeven (Low) Masjids, whose historic importance was not known to me at that time.

This article is about the lady whose name is borne by this mosque.

The nomenclatures around Pappar Mandi give an indication of the colourful past of the mosque and its surroundings. In the early 1960s, the mosque was still referred to by the local residents as Kanjri Di Masjid, the road connecting Papar Mandi with Lahori Gate Chowk as Chakla Bazaar (Red Light area) and the chowk in-between – now called Bukhari Chowk – was then known as Chowk Chakla.

The seemingly derogatory names didn't raise my young eyebrows. One, I regarded them as part of quirky Lahori lingo and, two, because I knew about the existence of the actual flesh market of the city in Heera Mandi, adjacent to Pani Wala Talab area, that I passed through on our regular visits to Badshahi Mosque for Jumma and Eid prayers, and, occasionally, to buy our Halwa-Puri from Taj Mahal Restaurant outside the 200-year-old Cheet Ram Streets; something that we still do on Eid days though we now reside far from the area.

It was much later that I became aware of the history of the area, the mosque and etymology of the old names associated with these places.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the one true indigenous strongman and ruler of Punjab, had two Muslim wives. He married Gul Begum in 1832 when he was over 50 years of age; only seven years before his death in 1839. However, Maharaja’s first and true love, and that of his early youth, was Moran, meaning peacocks.

In 1802, Ranjit led a successful expedition to Multan and forced Raja Muzaffar Khan to pay tribute to the Lahore court and not to Kabul, as Multan had been a tributary of the Afghans since the days of Abdali. On his return, he held festivities in the Lahore Durbar to celebrate his victory and also to solemnise the engagement of his three-year-old son Kharak Singh to a princess of the Kanhyya clan. According to Khushwant Singh in his history of Ranjit Singh, entertainments included dancing by attractive courtesans. One such dancer who performed before the 22-year-old Maharaja was a 21-year-old pretty girl named Moran. Ranjit was smitten. Khushwant adds that: “A few days later, the girl left the sordid atmosphere of the brothel to live in the royal harem."

Moran was born in the village called Makhan Windi, close to Amritsar, in a Muslim family of courtesans. Her family may have been of Kashmiri origin. Ranjit Singh adored her, not only for her beauty and dancing abilities, but also due to her wisdom and sagacity. Having kept her as a harem-girl for some time, Ranjit became aware of her extraordinary intellectual abilities. According to Khushwant Singh, in 1802, a year after he became the Maharaja of Lahore, Ranjit decided to elevate her to the position of a queen. Among at least a score of women who caught Ranjit’s fancy during his life, this honour of a formal marriage instead of only a chadar andazi (spread the mantle), was granted to only a few.

According to some traditions, Ranjit lost interest in Moran and sent her to Pathankot in 1809. However, other reports suggest otherwise. For instance, Ranjit built the mosque in Pappar Mandi in 1824 on a request from Moran

However, honouring a Muslim, and that too a courtesan, angered his staunch but unruly Sikhs, who had fought bloody battles against the Afghans and the Mughals in the previous one century and suffered much at their hands. Ranjit offered himself for retribution. Having married Moran and gone for a dip in the Ganges, he presented himself before the Akal Takht and accepted the punishment of public flogging. He was tied to the slings by Akali Phula Singh and lashed. It must be kept in mind that he was merely 21 of age, but resolute and firm.

While travelling between Amritsar to Lahore, Ranjit Singh would spend some time at a resting place about four kilometres north of Wagah consisting of a decorated garden and a baradari on the bank of the canal that Shah Jahan had built to water Shalimar gardens. Ranjit, a young man still in his early 20s, would watch Moran dance and then spend time in her company. It is said that one evening, while walking to the baradari, Moran fell into the canal and lost a slipper. Ranjit immediately ordered that a bridge be constructed across the canal. The place, now renovated, is still called Pul-e-Kanjri (bridge of the courtesan) and contains a bathing pool, a temple, a Gurudwara and a mosque. Its official name now is Pul-e-Moran.

In his life, Ranjit didn’t issue any coin in his own name. However, he minted a coin honouring Moran. This coin has a figure of the feathers of a peacock. The coins were called “Moran Shahi.” Nadhra Shahbaz Naeem writes in Life at the Lahore Darbār: 1799-1839 that Ranjit struck all his coins in the name of the Khalsa and none in his own name. The sole exception was the coin in the name of Moran, after which she was referred to as “Moran Sarkar.” The coin carried two peacock feathers in honour of the queen.

According to some traditions, Ranjit lost interest in Moran and sent her to Pathankot in 1809. However, other reports suggest otherwise. For instance, Ranjit built the mosque in Pappar Mandi in 1824 on a request from Moran. Also, Sohan Lal Suri, the official biographer of Ranjit Singh, refers to an interesting incident in his book Umdat-ul-Tawarikh. He writes that in October 1831 A.D. Lord William Bentinck, the first Governor General of India, crossed the Sutlej near Ropar to pay a visit at the court of Maharaja Ranjit accompanied by his wife. Ranjit was impressed that the "Nawab" Sahib, as the Punjab Darbar addressed the G.G, personally went forward to receive the Begum Lady Sahiba (wife of G.G) as she crossed the river by a boat, and, taking her by hand, made her sit in a chair in such a way that it indicated his heartfelt affection and deep love between the two. The Maharaja said that seeing this, he was put in mind of his connection with Biwi Moran, for he said that he had exactly the same kind of love and unity with her and could not prepare his mind to accept separation from her even for a moment, and that every moment they remained fully aware of each other's doings. This remark of Ranjit clearly shows the love that Ranjit had for his wife a quarter century after he was supposed to have separated from her.

After the end of the Sikh rule, Moran continued to live in a house next to her mosque. As a former queen, she was granted a pension by the Company. She spent part of her wealth to build a madrassah attached to the mosque. Moran died in 1862 at the ripe age of eight-one. She was buried in Miani Sahib but there is now no trace of her grave.

The board outside the mosque declares that it belongs to a particular sect. This is ironic. Moran was a Muslim married to a Sikh. Neither the Maharaja asked her to convert nor she was inclined to do so. As one enters the gate and climbs up a flight of stairs, one enters a courtyard. On the right side is the ablution area and the living quarters of the Imam. On the left is the covered mosque which is only two prayer-mats deep and about fifty feet wide. Its construction is very plain and austere, a reminder of queen who lived through a very difficult time for Lahore and Punjab.

There are many such stories about Lahore that need to told to preserve them for posterity.

 

Note: All photos are by the author