VANIEKE

From a lay man at Jago Shaheed, Kohali, I heard about Vanieke that it is a ancient village and enjoyed the status of a taluka during the days of Sikh and British Raj. He told me that there was a Burj built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Reaching Vanieke, I realised the tremendous archaeological potential of Vanieke. The village of about 3000 souls smelt of history and history and nothing more. There were many structures which were built of Nanakshahi small bricks.

I was told that this was a flourishing town till 1988 when the Hindu population of roughly 60 families had to migrate. The Khalistanis had struck this village on April 17, 1987 which brought panic in the minds of Hindus who fled from it.

I accordingly telephoned Sh. Dev Dard, a teacher who is taking a lot of interest in archaeology and have in fact a very huge collection of archaeological artefacts. Dard told me that this town was nanke of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

I took the help of Sh. Harbans Lal a provision store owner at Vanieke. The moment we proceeded we came accross an abandoned mosque. This was not more than 80 years old as per my estimates. The brick used in construction was big one i.e the modern one. But no cement was used.

There after we straighaway reached at Burj. It is a round towering watch tower, in two stories. Only outer wall was surviving. Roof of both the flours has since paved way. This is all in small Nanakshahi bricks.

Harban Lal told on digging the ground people often find coins. He had read one coin which belonged to Iran. Earthen pots are often found.

Harbans told me that the old village was near tomb of Kareem Shah and was shifted to the present site by the efforts of one Moola Brahmin. But the level of present village site is much higher than the tomb. Rather the village is on a mound.

Near the Burj we saw another mosque. But this was much older to the earlier we saw. Here the brick used was small one. But the face of building is cemented. It is likely that the it was plastered some 70 years ago. We found 2 inscriptions also.

I learnt that Banda Bahadur stayed at Vanieke for a night.

We next moved on to the old temple on the west of village. This is the most thrilling structure in Vanieke. The very sight of it shows that it is not less than 200 years old. There is a huge tank built by pucca bricks. On the north-western corner is a temple which bears inscription in Gurmukhi. The inscription is not more than a century year old. On the north side is the main temple.

In the main temple we find linga and on western wall there is an image of goddess Durga. It is carved in a marble slab. I think this should not be less than 1000 year old.

A similar carving of goddess Chamunda is seen on the southern wall inside the temple and belongs to the same age as that of Durga. Both these are master pieces and beautiful pieces of art. The Ganesha image is comparatively rough and is smeared by saffron.

People were telling that Maharaja Ranjit Singh used to store water of the tank of this temple as it had medicinal properties which cured the stomach of Maharaja.

Half a kilometer awayfrom village in the west is the tomb of Baba Kareem Shah. I found a bedding kept ready for the Baba and on the floor was kept a pair of shoes ready for wear of Baba. Paintings and photos of Sikh and Hindu religious dieties were also on display.

There we find a number of Vann trees. I also found that people addressed to Baba as 'Vanan wali sarkar'. It is thus obvious that village must have drived its name from this Vann tr