Accession of the throne: Hunza
Hunza has been home to many dynasties and tribes. A small valley that remained isolated from the world for the longest time between the huge gigantic snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas. In the earliest time, we see the presence of the Greek settlement in this area. it is said that from Alexander’s army few soldiers were left behind who inhabited the areas of northern Pakistan. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus named Hunza as Dardistan or dardesa . it was also once called balore or baloristan. according to the balti language it had two names hore-Yul, “yul” that means nation in balti, and haha-Yul which meant “Khushi e Watan” or happy nation according to the balti language that is now spoken in Baltistan or Skardu but before these names originated it was called kanjut in the time of Chinese reign.
The whole Dardistan or baloristan was ruled by different tribes of their respective areas. there were 3 khaan’s of Hunza at that time Ganish, altit, and baltit. khaan used to be an area where the people of respective khaans had their homes built together nearby for example it was like a colony of respective khaan’s with their homes built right next to each other. at that time there were 3 khaan’s in Hunza Ganish, known as chok tai cort, baltit as Agai cort, and altit as Burum khaan. Chok tai cort word is derived from Mongols who were also believed to be of Turk origin. Agai cort translates into Aakash, a Sanskrit word while as Burum khaan is derived from the snow-capped mountain of altit. In short baltit, altit and ganish consisted of 4–5 tribes that lived together some that originated at the same time, and some that came one after one.
There was no royalty up till this khaan system, different tribes ruled over time. a man named kissar comes into play. he created a huge goxhil ( water stream) from altit to baltit and the source of the stream was the ultar glacier which was believed to be near the sea. It is said kissar’s wife was taken away by a king ( tham ) or monster ( phut ) . since kissar had ties with the fairies, they told him that a monster or phut has taken her away and after that kissar left the royalty, and went back to ladhak where he was originally from.
Now the royalty fell into the hands of tarakhantin tham or the tarakhan dynasty who ruled in Gilgit. the king at that time had a son who was called “Luzum Gushpur” or the pearl prince. one of the king’s brothers had a daughter called shamli gass. Luzum Gushpur and shamli gass were of the same age. When the king passed away according to the rule there,the heir to the throne was his son Luzum Gushpur but he didn’t want to be the king in presence of his uncle ( shamli gass’s father ) since he highly respected and liked him, as a result, he didn’t ascend the throne but his uncle did. soon after they got married under the rule of a reigning king who was supposedly shamli gass’s father and Luzum Gushpur’s uncle or chacha. soon they had baby boys or twins . the term twins was called tawam.
they had conjured twins who were not separate at birth. Due to the lack of doctors and medical facilities at that time, they were split apart by using knives. according to the rule of culture, the children of kings were not raised at the king’s home but given to the tribes who acted as their foster or “usham” parents. both the boys were given to two different tribes but at times they used to visit the royal court as a part of their duties so they naturally met each other from time to time but they never got along with each other. there was bad blood between these two boys, they fought a lot with each other. one of the boys was named raja girkis also known as shah khan and the other was called raja maghlot. but of course, girkis and maghlot were not their real names, girkis translates into a rat, and maghlot translates into weasel. Naturally, the fight went on until things slimmed down to the accession of the throne, now the question was who gets to be the next heir? they both were born together, how would the justification be made? this turned into another fight but the king advised to give them separate states to rule, therefore after kissan left the royalty it fell into the hands of raja girkis and raja maghlot but another question got raised who would get which state ? a “jirga” was sat (gathering/assembly of people ) to make the decision. the two states were Hunza and Nagar, both tribes wanted to rule Hunza and nobody wanted to rule nagar, this turned into another issue. the king at last assigned this matter to one of his ministers. there is a place called Sumayar or yul. Where Hunza and nagar meet. since girkis was clever he bribed the minister beforehand, so the minister decided to give Hunza to girkis and Nagar to maghlot. the decision was accepted unwillingly. The foster parents of both went with them respectively, throughout the whole time maghlot was unaware of the bribe girkis gave the minister but soon he learned that he was deceived.
And the fights began between Hunza and Nagar there was a lot of spying between both states. For peace to prevail intermarriages began between both states. one-day maghlot learned that girkis was going to Gilgit to meet his father. so maghlot went to the place where Hunza and Nagar divided and hid behind a mountain carrying a bow and arrow. when girkis came into the range maghlot shot him dead but according to other sources maghlot invited girkis for hunting ducks to “mamuhar” and maghlot got girkis killed by Mughal baig. now there was even more bad blood between both states, they were constantly at war. the monarchy ended right there. after that the descendants of girkis controlled Hunza. he had a daughter Noor bibi /shahkhatoon.
Due to the terror of kissar, Lali tham and shah tham/bhukha tham left and went to Afghanistan from there to Badakhshan Tajikistan, and than to darwag. since they planned to rule together but that failed. chusatin from Gilgit bought Chilas khan from darwag who was the grandson of king “tham” who ran away to darwag. chilas khan was bought to marry Noor bibi daughter of girkis. soon tarakhan dynasty ended forever. In baltit existed a more powerful tribe dirumphakux who originated from shiskat (ter )meadow while the altit tribe was called hussainkux and the Ganish tribe was called hemachatin soon after a conflict got rifted between the dirumphakux and the other two tribes of altit and ganish because dirumphakux sort of dominated them. therefore hussainkux and hemachatin planned to finish off the tribe of dirumphakux, which they succeeded by luring them into a big gathering and drowsed the dirumphakux in alcohol and they executed the plan. not soon after hemachatin and hussainkux also got killed. At this time hussainkux roots have vanished. from both tribes, very few people survived who carried on the tribe. the legend of shiribadat quickly arose who was supposedly a cannibal who ate small children’s flesh according to the source. he was the last Buddhist ruler of Gilgit. Mir ayash khan the legendary hero who married Shri Badat’s daughter and founded the line Hunza Mir’s was no mere human, but a “fairy-born” prince, who descended to earth from another realm. The rulers of Hunza were ascribed magical powers and held to be “sky-born” (Ayesho in the local language Burushaki) like the hero who routed Shribadat. Mir ayash was known as ayesho. Shri badat was overthrown by his daughter and Mir ayash khan and from that on, the lineage of Mir’s started with
1790 –1823 Salim Khan II
1823–63Ghazanfar Khan I
1863–86Ghazan Khan I
1886–91Safdar Ali Khan
1892–1938 Nazeem Khan
1938–46Ghazan Khan II
1946–74 Jamal Khan
1974 Hunza state was abolished, but Mir Ghazanfar Khan II acts as the ceremonial Mir.
In midst of all this, the Dogra rule got carried out side by side where the British attacked Gilgit and ruled over it for many years and Gilgit Baltistan liberated their homeland from the Dogra Raj in 1947. Hunza was called Hunzo before later on the British replaced the O with A. people called Gilgit as gleat British replaced it with Gilgit or once it was called girgirath. Giri is a Burushaski word for deer and girath for dance. in the present time, there is no acting monarchy but rather an unrest political system. the information enlisted above may or may not be accurate as I have referred to multiple sources each has a different story to tell and everything listed is cut too short, there is more to the history of Hunza that is yet to be explored.
Special thanks to the following sources for playing a vital role in promoting and preserving our history of Hunza. a very helpful and brief video by Ejaz ullah baig: https://youtu.be/J6ZY5oZzCz0 history of Hunza
source for more information: https://fazalamin.com/collection-of-the-memoirs-of-the-last-rani-of-the-former-hunza-state-an-exclusive-and-inspiring-discussion-of-late-madam-shams-un-nihar-wife-of-mir-muhammad-jamal-khan/
https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2019/07/19/lost-horizon/
http://www.mockandoneil.com/shrib.htm shiribadat reference
file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/SB-Girkis_ke_Maghlot.pdf
https://youtu.be/xRZweSmnAhE Hunza history is another source
Hunza paradise on earth: book reference
Read more about the traditions, culture of Hunza, and poetry stayed tuned with me. to connect with me catch me on Twitter @lostsoup101 or Instagram @_tales_of_thelost. bringing you indigenous stories straight from the mighty mountains of the north! along with my passion for writing, I love taking pictures too.
