The ages of the Punjab
The Punjab has been many things: the cradle of the first cities of South Asia, a province of Persia and of Delhi, the road of every conqueror bound for India, the home of Sufis and Gurus and bhagats, a kingdom of its own at Lahore, a colony, and since 1947 two Punjabs facing each other across a line. These are its eight ages.
Stone tools on the Soan, the first farmers below the Bolan, and the brick cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
8 events
The land of seven rivers, Persian satraps and Alexander, the Mauryas of Taxila and the Buddhist kingdoms of Gandhara.
18 events
Ghaznavids, Ghurids and the Delhi Sultans; Data Ganj Bakhsh and Baba Farid, and the first poetry in Punjabi.
14 events
From Guru Nanak's birth to the Guruship of the Granth, under Lodis and Mughals, with Shah Hussain singing in Lahore.
45 events
Banda Singh's rising, Nadir Shah and Abdali, the Ghallugharas, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah, and the twelve misls.
35 events
Ranjit Singh's kingdom from the Sutlej to the Khyber, with Muslim, Hindu and Sikh ministers, and its fall to the British.
26 events
Canal colonies and the army, Singh Sabha, Arya Samaj and Ahmadiyya, Ghadar, Jallianwala Bagh and the Unionists.
38 events
Partition, two capitals, the Green Revolution, wars on the border, 1984, and Punjabis around the world.
42 events