Bala Hissar (

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindko: ), also spelt Bala Hisar, is a historic fortress located in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. First mentioned by 7th-century explorer

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

, the fort was used as a royal residence for the Durrani Empire since 1747, when the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Durrani, conquered Peshawar. The

Marathas The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

briefly occupied it after capturing Peshawar in 1758 but it was soon retaken by the Afghans. The Sikhs destroyed and reconstructed the fort after capturing Peshawar in March 1823. In 1849, the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

reconstructed the fort's outer walls. The fort now serves as headquarters for Pakistan's

Frontier Corps The Frontier Corps ( ur, , reporting name: FC), are a group of paramilitary forces of Pakistan, operating in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to maintain law and order while overseeing the country's borders with Afghanist ...

Etymology

The word ''Bālā Hissār'' () is from

Dari Persian Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

, meaning "elevated or high fort." According to historian Hussain Khan, this name was given by the Afghan Emperor

Timur Shah Durrani Timur Shah Durrani (; prs, ;), also known as Timur Shah Abdali or Taimur Shah Abdali (December 1746 – May 20, 1793) was the second ruler of the Afghan Durrani Empire, from November 1772 until his death in 1793. An ethnic Pashtun, he was the s ...

. In 1834, the Sikhs named the fort as ''Samīr Gaṛh'' or ''Sameer Garh''. ''Samīr'' was another name for

Mount Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has an altitude of ...

, a high peak in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

considered sacred in

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

, and

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

; ''Gaṛh'' means "fortress" in Hindustani. However, this name did not become popular and was soon replaced again by "Bala Hissar". During the times of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

and

Sur Empire The Sur Empire ( ps, د سرو امپراتورۍ, dë sru amparāturəi; fa, امپراطوری سور, emperâturi sur) was an Afghan dynasty which ruled a large territory in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent for nearly 16 year ...

, it was known as "Bagram Fort" after ''Bagram'', another name for Peshawar.Fort Bala Hisar - Peshawar.
3 July 2005. Khyber.ORG.

Design

The fort stands on a high mound in the northwestern corner of Peshawar City. Not long ago, the fort used to be conspicuously away from the old city of Peshawar, but now the construction of new buildings has covered space between the old city and the fort. However, the fort's position on a high mound gives a commanding and panoramic view of Peshawar and the entire Peshawar valley.

History

According to historian

Ahmad Hasan Dani Ahmad Hassan Dani (Urdu: احمد حسن دانی) FRAS, SI, HI (20 June 1920 – 26 January 2009) was a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He was among the foremost authorities on Central Asian and South Asian archaeology ...

, a Chinese Buddhist monk and traveller

, when visiting Peshawar in 630 AD, found a "royal residence" and called it with Chinese word ''Kung Shing'', which is used for its significance and is explained as fortified or walled portion of the town in which the royal palace stood. Hiuen Tsang then makes a separate mention of the city, which was not fortified. This shows that the royal residence formed the nucleus of a Citadel, which must have been further protected by a moat. Dani further says that a channel of old Bara River surrounded by a high spot, which includes the Bala Hissar and Inder Shahr. The higher area could have been the citadel, which is the present Bala Hissar. The fort still existed during the time of the Mughal Emperor Babur, who referred to it as Bagram Fort. The fort was used as a royal residence for the Durrani Empire since December 1747, when Ahmad Shah Durrani conquered Peshawar. The Afghan King

(1773–1793) used the fort as the winter capital of his empire. Up to the early 19th century, Peshawar was the winter capital of the Afghan Empire and the Bala Hissar was the royal residence of Afghan kings. The

Battle of Peshawar The Capture of Peshawar took place in spring of 1758https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Chhatrapati_Shivaji/ngCqCQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Battle+of+Peshawar%22+1758&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover Page 37 when Maratha Empire in alliance with the ...

took place on 8 May 1758 between the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Sh ...

and the Durrani Empire. The Marathas were victorious in the battle and Peshawar was captured. The battle was seen as a huge success for the Marathas who hoisted the Bhagwa Jhanda (Saffron flag) on top of the Peshawar fort, their rule had now stretched from Pune to Delhi and now to the border of the Durrani Empire in Peshawar. Before that, the fort of Peshawar was being guarded by Durrani troops under Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan. After being defeated by the army of Marathas, Durranis with Jahan Khan and Timur Shah Durrani left the fort meanwhile Marathas captured and took control of the fort.War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740-1849
/ref> The victory in this battle is considered a great success for Marathas as now their rule had extended to the border of Afghanistan, located 2000 km far from their capital Pune. The Sikhs fought and defeated the Afghans at the

Battle of Nowshera The Battle of Nowshera ( ps, د نوښار جګړه; pa, ਨੌਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਦੀ ਲੜਾਈ) was fought in Nowshera in March 1823 between the Yusufzai Afghans, supported by the Peshawar sardars, alongside Azim Khan Barakzai, the Afgha ...

near Peshawar in March 1823. The Sikhs followed this by the destruction of the Afghan royal court and the fort of Bala Hissar in Peshawar. Soon after, the Sikh commander-in-chief

Hari Singh Nalwa Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) was Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar and Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was respon ...

commenced the reconstruction of the fort.Nalwa, V. (2009), Hari Singh Nalwa - Champion of the Khalsaji, New Delhi: Manohar, p. 228, . After the

First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 in and around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession o ...

in 1845-46, the British

reconstructed the outer walls of Bala Hissar in 1849. The fort is now used by the

, a paramilitary unit of the Pakistan Army.

As a Tourism Point

The provincial government has expressed desire the control of the fort from the Frontier Corps in order to open it to tourists. The fort has been opened for tourists (Saturday for families only and Sundays will be opened for everyone, with or without family) without any cost, but tourists are requested to bring their CNIC along with them, while international tourists are requested to bring their passports. There is also a museum of the Frontier Corps in the fort showcasing the different uniforms of Frontier Corps throughout time since the start of Frontier Corps and weaponry used by different local units of Frontier Corps KP including but due to prevailing situation of COVID-19 Fort is currently closed for all types of visits.

References

External links