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By Bahzad Alam Khan
 The arid regions of southern Sindh and lower Balochistan have a number of stone-carved graveyards. Thanks to the indifference of the federal archaeology department, most of these have fallen to ruin. But the 17-century Rumi graveyard on the outskirts of Karachi has finally been restored.
"There are about 32 graves in this graveyard, which is located 1.5 kilometres east of the main Karachi-Hub road. Unscrupulous treasure-hunters had looted the grave structures and left piles of broken stone slabs in their wake.
We restored the graves brick by brick and based our assessment about the graveyard on the decorative motifs which we found on other graves," said Dr Kaleemullah Lashari who, along with Dr Asma Ibrahim, carried out the restoration work.
According to Dr Lashari, the area, the carved designs on the graves and the name Rumi indicate that the graveyard belonged to the Baloch people. "The Baloch started moving into Lasbella and lower Sindh in the 10th century.
Subsequent waves of migrants continued to swell the Baloch population in these areas. Following their persecution by Mahmud Ghaznavi, the tribes kept moving eastwards. Most of them settled on or near the coast.
One of the natural bays at Kalmat silted up, compelling the Hoat branch of the Baloch to move southwards. These tribes subsequently became known as Kalmatis. The graves in the Rumi graveyard are believed to be those of the Kalmatis," explained Dr Lashari.
In his book, Chaukandi tombs in Pakistan, former director-general of the archaeology department Shaikh Khurshid Hasan devotes a chapter to the Kalmati tribe. He writes: "The Kalmatis migrated southward from Kalmat and after crossing the Hingol River they kept moving onwards by their stage wise settlements through the Lasbella country. Their ballads mention prolonged feuds with the Burfati tribe of Lasbella.
"The Kahera Kot region and the Vindur Valley were, however, the main centres of their settlement before they moved onwards into the cis-Hub Khararri-Bhawani region and eventually into the Hub River valley region.
From there they possibly entered Sindh by the turn of the 13th century. In the 14th century they were in substantial strength and joined other Baloch tribes already in Sindh in supporting and strengthening the power of the Jam rulers of the Samma dynasty."
Dr Lashari pointed out that the graves in the Rumi graveyard were built in the traditional West Indian trabeate style. "The stones were perfectly cut and dressed to set in. They were placed over one another in such a way that mortar was not required. But lime mortar was employed to cap the stone, sand and clay-filled platforms.
"At times metallic clamps were also used to keep the stone slabs together. The stone used was sandstone and was apparently quarried in the vicinity of the graveyard," explained Dr Lashari spointing to a grave which had the name of the man buried inside, Gohar bin Shaho, inscribed on it. Another inscription on a platform of five graves showed the amount spent on erecting the graves: 10,000.
Dr Ibrahim recalled that she and her colleague had carried out the restoration and preservation work in 2001. "Our organization adhered to the conservation principles of the Venice Declaration. The missing slabs had made it very difficult for us to get the structures restored.
With the help of mathematical calculation and a comparative study of the grave structures of the 17th century, we identified the missing slabs and restored the graves," she explained.
In his book, titled A study of stone carved graves, Dr Lashari argues that the architectural style of the graves is representative of the tribes inhabiting the region and is not influenced by the architectural practices of the Summas, Arghuns and Moghals.
The federal archaeology department can garner a wealth of information from these graveyards. But apparently many of those on its payroll cannot find the time for an academic exercise.
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