Aror

Aror
The old Alamgir Mosque at Aror
Aror
Aror
Shown within Sindh
Aror
Aror
Aror (Pakistan)
LocationSukkur District, Sindh, Pakistan
Coordinates27°39′00″N 68°59′00″E / 27.65°N 68.9833°E / 27.65; 68.9833
TypeSettlement
History
Abandoned9th century AD

Aror (or Alor or Arorkot) is the medieval name of the city of Rohri in Sindh, modern Pakistan.[1][2] Aror once served as the capital of Sindh.[3][4][5]

History

See also: Battle of Aror

As Roruka, capital of the Ror dynasty, it is mentioned as an important trading center in early Buddhist literature. In the Chachnamah, members of the Brahman group were noted in the city of Aror.[6] Little is known about the city's history prior to the Arab invasion in the 8th century CE.[7] Ror was an ancient kingdom of the lower Indus Valley.[8] Aror was the capital of the Ror dynasty and then the Rai dynasty and Brahman dynasty that once ruled northern Sindh.[9]

Aror is the ancestral town of the Arora community.[10][4][11][12] In 711, Aror was captured by the army of Umayyad general Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.[13]

In 962 it was hit by a massive earthquake that changed the course of the Indus River and ruined the town's mud brick building,[14] thereby setting into play the city's decline, and eventual re-settlement at Rohri,[15] along the modern-day shores of the Indus.[16]

Ruins

Most of Aror's ruins have been lost, though some arches of a mosque built shortly after the 8th century Arab invasion remain standing.[16] The Kalka Cave Temple, a Hindu temple dedicated to Kalkaan Devi, still exists near the ruins, and is still used.[16] The Chattan Shah ji Takri shrine is built atop a high rock outside the city, and is traditionally believed to be a companion of Ali, cousin of Muhammad.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh; Ghosh, Tapash Kumar; Nath, Surendra (1996). People of India: Delhi. Anthropological Survey of India. ISBN 9788173040962. Retrieved 8 October 2014. The Arora or Rora is a community of traders of the south-western part of the Punjab. Their origin according to the Bhavishya Purana, can be traced back to the time of Parshuram, who in anger started killing the Kshatriyas. In this process, Parshuram met a Kshatriya who refused to oppose the Brahmans, and winning Parshuram's respect, was asked to go to Sindh to setde there. Later, the place came to be known as Arutkot or Arorkot. His progeny are called Aroras.
  2. ^ "The News on Sunday (TNS) » Weekly Magazine - The News International". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 1 August 2023. More than a thousand years ago Arore (also known as Alore) was the capital of Sindh, and the boundaries of this Hindu kingdom extended far and wide.
  3. ^ Commissioner, India Census (1912). Census of India, 1911 ... Printed at the Government central Press. p. 445. The Arora or Rora is evidently connected with Arorkot near Rori (Sukkur), the ancient capital of Sindh .
  4. ^ a b Malhotra, Anshu (2002). Gender, Caste, and Religious Identities: Restructuring Class in Colonial Punjab. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195656480. Retrieved 8 October 2014. The Aroras were also said to be the Khatris of Arorkot, or Aror, the ancient capital of Sindh.
  5. ^ Handbook of the Punjab, Western Rajputana, Kashmir, and Upper Sindh. John Murray. 1883. p. 293. Retrieved 8 October 2014. Aror.--While at Rorhi, a visit may be paid to the very ancient town of Aor, which is only 5 m. distant to the E. This was the capital of the Hindu Rajas of Sindh and was taken from them by the Muslims, under Muhammad Kasim, about 711 A.D. At that time the Indus washed the city of Battle of Aror, but it was diverted from it by an earthquake about 962 A.D., at which the river entered its present channel.
  6. ^ Derryl N. MacLean (1989), Religion and Society in Arab Sind, p.51,136
  7. ^ Hughes, Albert William (1876). A Gazetteer of the Province of Sind. G. Bell and Sons. p. 677. Retrieved 19 December 2017. aror .
  8. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 8: Karna Parva: Section 44". Internet Sacred Text Archive. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  9. ^ MacLean, Derryl N. (1989). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. BRILL. ISBN 9004085513.
  10. ^ Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-19-977169-1.
  11. ^ Thakur, U. T. (1959). Sindhi Culture. University of Bombay. p. 58. This Arorkot is Arore or Alore and the Aroras are called after the name of the ancient capital Arore.
  12. ^ Dogra, R. C.; Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1995). Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. Vikas Publishing House. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7069-8368-5.
  13. ^ History of the Punjab, Volume 1 by Fauja Singh, Published by the Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, 1977
  14. ^ Rose, H. A (1911). A Glossary of The Tribes & Castes of The Punjab & North West Frontier Province. Vol. II. Lahore: Samuel T. Weston. p. 17. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  15. ^ Bowden, Rob (2004). Settlements of the Indus River. Heinemann-Raintree Library. ISBN 1403457182. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  16. ^ a b c d "Where the city of Aror once stood in glory". Dawn. Retrieved 19 December 2017.

Further reading

  • Ottomano C. and Biagi P. 1997 - Palaeopedological observations and radiocarbon dating of an archaeological section at Aror (Sindh-Pakistan). Ancient Sindh, 4: 73-80