Page 28 - Lohgarh

28 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

sparrows, parrots and dolls, etc.) have been found in a large part of the
Lohgarh Fort. These can be seen lying in an area of about 8 acres, which
means that there used to live several families of the soldiers; and they
must be having children for whom these toys were being manufactured.

Who was the owner of the Lohgarh Fort, Dabar Zone and the land
around it?

Lakhi Rai Vanjara was the owner of perhaps 80 villages i.e. the land on
the foothills of the Lohgarh Fort (he had given this land to his employees;
later, they too came to be known as Vanjaras).This fact of his ownership
is proven by the evidence that he had constructed deep wells in all
these villages. Though a large number of wells have been filled or
covered or have disappeared due to one or another reason, but still
some of them have survived; so far 52 such villages have been identified,
e.g. Banda Bahadurpur, Garhi Varan, Garhi Vanjara, Sandhaya,
2
Machchrouli , Chhchhrauli, Balachour, Marwa Kurd, Sarwan, Lakhi Bas,
Bani Bahadurpur, Niwarshi, Lohara, Garhi Sikkandra, Kaserla, Ranipur,
Mughalawali, Sunder Bahadur, Mehilawali, Dayalgarh, Laharpur ,
Jihwerhari, Sudhal , Budhi, Vansantoor, Shahjadwala etc still have Lakhi
Rai’s wells. These wells are about 50 feet deep and are made of
Nanakshahi bricks and finely cut rocks (there were no drilling machines
in those days). These bricks and rocks were finely stacked and were
filled with lime etc. To dig so many wells and construct them on the
pattern of Egyptian pyramids was a terrific job. History has no answer
to such splendid work. In fact, Lakhi Rai Vanjara, who was the greatest
trader of those times, had his business spread between Central Asia
and Sri Lanka; hence he had knowledge of every type of architectural
work and building construction. He must have imported not only
materials but also masons, workers and other experts from various parts
of the world. In some of these villages, Lakhi Rai had built some small
Fortresses as well, e.g. at Burhia, Garhi Vanjara, Dialgarh, Sooh, Deen,
Mullana, Mansoorpur etc.
As far as Lohgarh Fort is concerned, only a wealthy person like Lakhi
Rai could have built it. He had a force of hundreds of thousands of