Mandi Bandala: Sarai Saadabad, the Zaildars and the Khori Jagir

Bandala (بنڈالہ), a village in Tehsil Samahni, District Bhimber, Azad Kashmir, was the seat of Mandi Bandala, one of the four mandis of Chibhal Rajana, the hereditary estates of the Chib royal house of Bhimber. It stood on the old Mughal road to Kashmir, its lands held the Mughal caravanserai of Sarai Saadabad, and a raja of Bhimber was crowned in its square. According to the 1997 Chib history, its families went on to produce zaildars, revenue officers, a commissioner and a member of the Azad Kashmir assembly.

Bandala: the highest share on the road to Kashmir

The book explains the name Bandala as a corruption of (Wand) Band-Aala, “the highest share” (p. 276). In the past, it says, Bandala and its mandi family were of great importance to Chibhal, the land of the Chib Rajputs, because the Sultans of Delhi, and the Mughal emperors above all, used the Kashmir highway through Bandala on their journeys from Delhi and Lahore to Kashmir. That road is the subject of Bhimber: Gateway on the Mughal Road to Kashmir.

Bandala appears early in the Chib chronicle. When the brotherhood quarrelled after the death of Raja Bhom Khan, his younger son, Raja Ghaggi Khan, took his four nephews and his own sons to live in the houses at Bandala that the rajas of Bhimber had built, after Kot Aadhi, as a summer retreat; a cantonment was later set up there, and its ruins could still be seen (p. 120). It was in the chowk, the square, of Bandala that Raja Karamullah Khan, eldest son of Raja Rehmatullah Khan, received the tikka of the throne of Bhimber (pp. 122, 276). The lake of Baghsar, beside which the founders of the first Chib mandis built their four forts, lies near Bandala (p. 201), and between Samahni and Bandala the book describes two ancient temples of massive black stone on great platforms, which local people attributed to giants and fairies (p. 38).

In the twentieth century Bandala was also a place of learning for the surrounding villages. Raja Suhbat Ali Khan Shaheed and Judge Raja Imdad Ali Khan of Ghawaliyan began their schooling at the primary school in Bandala, and Raja Nur-us-Samad Khan of Malot was headmaster of Government High School Bandala.

Sarai Saadabad and Jogi Hattiyan

The famous Sarai Saadabad, a caravanserai built by Allama Saadullah, called “Allami”, the celebrated minister of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), lies within the bounds of Bandala Mandi. The author laments that through neglect this great historical and cultural heritage was falling into ruin, and warns that it may one day vanish as if it had never been (p. 276). It was at Sarai Saadabad, the book says, that a British representative touring the state in 1931 picked out the young Suhbat Ali Khan of Ghawaliyan for the state police (p. 268).

Jogi Hatti, or Jogi Hattiyan, also lay within Bandala Mandi. It was built by Raja Jog Jit Khan, better known as Raja Jogu Khan, ruler of Bhimber and a contemporary of the emperor Aurangzeb, at a spot in the stream bed near Saadabad, and the imperial camp, which would stay there for months, drew its supplies from it. Because it lies beyond the ceasefire line, Jogi Hattiyan is today on the Indian-administered side of the Line of Control (p. 276).

Who founded Mandi Bandala?

The book’s narrative, following the manuscript of Maulvi Zain-ul-Abidin Kohi Samahnavi, places Raja Madad Khan, better known as Raja Madan Khan, in the sixth generation after Raja Bhom Khan, eldest son of Baba Shadi Shaheed. Of Madan Khan’s five sons, the descendants of Raja Darya Khan divided: those of Malahim Khan settled at Malot, those of Yar Beg at Pathorani (reading uncertain) and those of Sultan Khan at Bandala. “This same Sultan Khan,” the book says, “was the progenitor of Bandala Mandi.” The village of Khori also belonged to the mandi, and in the past Bandala and Khori together formed a jagir worth Rs 1,160 (p. 277).

The book’s table of mandis (p. 395) tells the story differently. It gives the founder of Mandi Bandala as Mirza Ibrahim Khan, son of Raja Karamullah Khan of the ruling line, lists the family’s titles as Rajana, Raika, Khanka and Mirzana with the got Ghanial, and values the Bandala–Khori jagir at Rs 1,168. Among the families it lists are those of Karam Singh and Fateh Singh, brothers of Raja Karamullah Khan; the descendants of Mir Baz Khan, called Raika, at Bahana Khurd and Bahana Kalan; and the families of Ata Muhammad Khan and Sultan Muhammad Khan at Khori. “Khori too became part of the Bandala mandi,” its note says. A family tree headed “fourth house” (p. 416) suggests that several houses shared the mandi.

The zaildars of Bandala

The best-documented house of the mandi is the family of the zaildars of Bandala, whose tree was compiled by Raja Sardar Ali Khan, a retired naib-tehsildar (p. 411). It descends from Raja Diwan Bakhsh Khan, whose sons were Raja Habib Khan and Raja Muzaffar Khan. Habib Khan’s eldest son, Raja Ghaus Muhammad Khan, was sardar and zaildar of Bandala Mandi about a century before the book was written; his younger brother was Raja Sher Alam Khan.

Raja Nur Ali Khan, revenue officer

Ghaus Muhammad Khan’s eldest son, Raja Nur Ali Khan, became zaildar after his father, then joined the government Revenue Department as a naib-tehsildar. He rose to tehsildar and to revenue officer (afsar-e-mal) and retired from that post. The book praises his ability, honesty and discipline, his strict observance of prayer and fasting and his loyalty to Rajput traditions. When the Mangla Dam was built, the demanding work of surveying, settling and rehabilitating the affected areas was completed under his supervision; see Mangla Dam and the Chib Diaspora. He died about 1988.

Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, head zaildar

Ghaus Muhammad Khan’s third son, Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, was head (sarbarah) zaildar of Bandala Mandi and one of its leading men. In October 1947 he fought beside Raja Rahmdad Khan of Ghawaliyan against the State’s Dogra forces, together with Raja Kifayat Ali Khan, numbardar of Bandala (p. 266). He died about 1993.

Raja Hamidullah Khan and his sons

Sher Alam Khan’s son, Raja Hamidullah Khan, a first cousin of Nur Ali Khan, retired as a naib-tehsildar in the Revenue Department of Azad Kashmir and died about 1996. His eldest son, Raja Saeedullah Khan, a businessman and industrialist, became president of the Steel Mills Association of the Industrial Estate at Bhimber.

Commissioner Raja Maqsood Ahmad Khan

Raja Nur Ali Khan’s only son, Raja Maqsood Ahmad Khan, matriculated from Government High School Bhimber, took his B.A. at Gordon College, Rawalpindi, and his LL.B. at Sindh Muslim Law College, Karachi. After a short time at the bar he joined the Revenue Department of Azad Kashmir as a tehsildar and rose to commissioner, retiring in 1997. The author holds him up as a model of integrity in public office, a man who never took the smallest personal advantage from the high posts he held.

Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan

From Muzaffar Khan’s branch, Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan, third son of Raja Birbal Khan, was elected chairman of Union Council Bandala in the local elections of 1987 and held the post until 1992.

• Raja Diwan Bakhsh Khan
  • Raja Habib Khan
    • Raja Ghaus Muhammad Khan, sardar and zaildar of Bandala Mandi
      • Raja Nur Ali Khan, zaildar and revenue officer (d. about 1988)
        • Raja Maqsood Ahmad Khan, commissioner (retired 1997)
      • Raja Fateh Khan
      • Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, head zaildar (d. about 1993)
    • Raja Sher Alam Khan
      • Raja Hamidullah Khan, naib-tehsildar (d. about 1996)
        • Raja Saeedullah Khan and his brothers
  • Raja Muzaffar Khan
    • Raja Birbal Khan, father of Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan, chairman of Union Council Bandala
    • Raja Faqir Muhammad Khan

The fourth house: the Malikan of Bandala

A second tree compiled by Raja Sardar Ali Khan covers the “Malikan (proprietors) of Bandala Mandi, fourth house”, the descendants of Raja Dasaundhi Khan (p. 416). Dasaundhi Khan’s son married twice, once into a family of Thotha Rai Bahadur and once into a family of District Gujrat, and his sons founded the branches of the house. From one of them, Ghulam Qadir Khan, the line runs through Bota Khan and Ghulam Hasan Khan to Raja Sardar Ali Khan himself and his brother Raja Imdad Ali Khan.

Raja Sardar Ali Khan began as a functionary in the Revenue Department of Azad Kashmir, rose to naib-tehsildar and retired in 1991. The author notes his love of learning and literature, and the book owes to him several of the family trees it prints. His younger brother, Raja Imdad Ali Khan, not to be confused with the judge of the same name from Ghawaliyan, was a project manager in the local government of Azad Kashmir. According to the tree, Imdad Ali Khan’s sons include Raja Tariq Javed Khan, a sub-judge in Azad Kashmir, Raja Amjad Pervez Khan, an assistant commissioner, and Major Raja Shahid Pervez Khan of the Pakistan Army (pp. 280, 416).

Raja Maqsood Ahmad Khan, M.L.A.

Bandala’s best-known public figure in the book is a second Raja Maqsood Ahmad Khan, son of Raja Muhammad Yaqub Khan, managing director of a steel re-rolling mill in the Industrial Estate at Bhimber. Elected to the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly from the Samahni constituency in 1985, he is credited by the book with a series of development projects for the Samahni valley:

• electricity for the valley and metalled link roads;
• metalled roads from Samahni to Mirpur by way of Pir Gali, and from Samahni to Bhimber by way of Jandi Chontra;
• boys’ and girls’ schools in every village of the valley;
• a water-supply scheme;
• the status of a sub-division for Samahni.

From 1990 to 1995 he was vice-chairman of the Azad Kashmir Local Development Council at Muzaffarabad, and later a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Council in Islamabad. When Bhimber became a district he was the first, founding president of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in District Bhimber, and at the time of writing he was with the Muslim Conference (S). His family tree traces his line from Khan Alam Khan through Madad Khan, Sohna Khan and Fateh Sher Khan to his father (p. 430). For the wider story, see Chib Rajputs in Kashmir Politics.

Khori and Wazir Burhan Khan

The village of Khori was a jagir within Mandi Bandala. Its most famous son was Raja Burhan Khan, minister (wazir) of Raja Sultan Khan, the last Chib ruler of Bhimber, and the ruins of his haveli and garden at Khori, the book says, still survive. Shrewd and far-sighted, and fully aware of the designs of the Dogra Raja Gulab Singh, Burhan Khan advised Sultan Khan again and again not to go to Jammu. Sultan Khan went at Gulab Singh’s invitation all the same, and in the book’s words the decision cost him his life and took the state of Bhimber from the Chibs for ever (p. 281).

A family tree compiled by Raja Sardar Ali Khan, headed “Mauza Khori, Tehsil Samahni: Taraf Malkani, Patti Mahmud Khani, Qaum Chib Rajput”, starts with Wazir Burhan Khan and follows his descendants through his son Faujdar Khan and another son to the twentieth century (p. 428); taraf and patti are shares of a village, explained in our glossary of Chib clan terms. Among Khori’s later notables the book names Raja Sardar Ali Khan, numbardar, and Raja Ali Shan Khan, a teacher who in 1998 was central president of the Teachers’ Union of Azad Kashmir.

Other notable people of Bandala

Besides the families above, the book names these notable people of Bandala Mandi, past and present (pp. 277, 280):

• Raja Diwan Bakhsh Khan and his sons Raja Habib Khan and Raja Muzaffar Khan, founders of the zaildar house
• Raja Muhammad Yaqub Khan, managing director of a steel re-rolling mill at Bhimber
• Master Raja Allah Ditta Khan, former member of the District Council
• Raja Zafar Hussain Khan, deputy commissioner
• Raja Muzaffar Khan, police inspector

Frequently asked questions

Continue reading

• Bhimber and the Mughal RoadThe imperial highway that ran through Bandala
• Baghsar FortThe fort and lake of the Samahni valley
• Raja Sultan KhanThe last ruler of Bhimber, whom Wazir Burhan Khan warned
• The Mandis of ChibhalHow Raja Madan Khan’s sons divided the land
• Mandi GhawaliyanBandala’s neighbour, with Hindu and Muslim branches
• Mangla Dam and the Chib DiasporaThe resettlement Raja Nur Ali Khan supervised