Jajmau's past buried under hide soaking pits of old tanneries

Jajmau is a place where people continue to shift particularly from the city areas and find a home and means of livelihood. It provides every facility to its inhabitants. It is really not what it used to be above 30 years ago. Once there was eerie silence, now pollution dominated its surroundings. Its mound is still a big identity of this place undeniably. If you have yet to stumble upon this page, allow me to introduce you to the business place. 

How Jajmau got its name is quite hard to find out. Some link the name with a small village on the banks of the Ganga while others point out that it got its name during the past British days. Therefore, the fact is still entangled between the older Jajesmau or Georges mau to the modern Jajmau. 

Its population stands to be 6,52,831 according to the Census 2011. It must have been increased by now. As many as thirteen long years are going to be completed after the previous census. It is not a lesser-known industrial suburb because of its leatherwork.

Frankly speaking, Jajmau’s historical evidence is either buried under its famous mound or whirling around the buffalo hide-soaking pits in the old tanneries. To have an idea of those bygone days' images I wanted to shoot through the handy mobile camera, as this helps in viewing the perfect description. 

What exactly strikes the people of this area is the amalgamation of every traditional thing with the modern-day luxurious style of living. If there are still several marvellous buildings, there is no dearth of even small houses here.  Does the glint of old and new not exist here? 

Along the banks of the Ganges, a very small village by the name of JA J EJ S MAU or even Siddha puri was supposed to be settled on the entire terrain spread all over.

There might have been a river route to enter this bordered area, there were enough wooded areas to check inhabitants’ free movement on all the flanks. At the present time, the famous Cantonment area is leafy and verdant amply. 

Its existence as a hamlet has been found following the excavations launched by the Uttar Pradesh State Archaeological Department in two varied phases. 

First, it was conducted in 1956-58 and 1973-78 respectively and later in the year 2006. The digs uncovered facts dating back from 700 BC to 1600 AD. 

All the excavations were conducted during the construction of a new bridge and further in the year 2006 for widening the bridge highway. 

The Jajmau mound can still be seen from one end to another end. It is said to be the fort of the Hindu king Yayati during ancient times. 

Getting significant information about its history from the locals looked as if a jumpy exercise. However conventional details provided valuable historical specifics. 

What became known from them is a story about the mound regarded as relics of an ancient King’s palace which had been turned upside down by the curse of the Sufi saint Hazrat Makhdoom Shah Baba whose mausoleum can still be seen. 

Historically, Tughlaq dynasty ruler Sultan Ferozshah Tughlaq built his tomb in 1358 AD. Besides, a mosque constructed by Kulich Khan in 1679 AD also stands. 

However, a good part of the mound was blown up during the road bridge construction over the Ganges. What was unearthed from the partial excavations of the mound indicated the use of mud bricks for making houses and also burnt bricks to make streets, an iron artefact, red-ware, pottery, terracotta seals and house complexes in quite unbroken condition. 

By its topographical expansion, it seemed this region had been developed during the medieval times. Existing on this mound a very famous white Jinnato Ki Masjid draws everyone’s curiosity. 

It was said to be completed in one night as the locals backed up. Not much ago a very courageous attempt to test out the Jannat’s presence in the mosque’s precincts was endeavoured. 

One member of the research team was slightly shuddered with out-of-the-ordinary fear for a split second. He a bit more realised that the enthusiastic viewers found him in a quivering state. 

The horizontal length of this mound (Tilla) on the banks of the Ganges is still visible up to the hustle and bustle of the Massacre Ghat. Nearby Dapkeshwar Ghat site has earned enough publicity with the sudden surfacing of silver coins of a later medieval period. 

This notable mound is certainly not wholly cut off from the army areas. It exists like that of the Vindhyachal region. On a train journey, it presents a view of the Vindhyachal region passing by Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. 

Despite the very fact that this Cantonment area covered more than 28 acres of land, the suburb received its gradual identification following a treaty between Nawab of Awadh and the British in 1803 AD. 

A Girls' Convent school board describes of establishment year 1899 in the Cantonment area. With the English authority over the place, the army settlements began to sprout up accordingly. The finely carved Church is a big example of this historical fact. 

It becomes apparent that whatever ruins or buildings survive after the ravages of time, belong to the medieval and modern periods of Indian history. 

It can’t be denied that the British administration also understood its strategic position. It was here established the first leather harness factory to pave the way for the leather works. 

There is one desolated structure of a mosque still standing in the army area while two mosques are intact. At present, Jajmau is a densely populated place where leather tanneries are scattered all over. 

Whatever scant information is gathered from the inhabitants, the localities were inhabited by the very vindictive Mallah community people in its uneven areas. 

By their severe unkind nature, their terror prevailed until the year 1992. Later, the city’s rich Muslim families started investing their money into buying houses in the famed Defence Colony, KDA Colony and another important Colony in the area. 

The roads were not too good to move with speed in this area. Fright of robbers and dacoits stayed in the inhabitants’ minds for a longer time. 

Muslims’ surge became more vital because of their leather business directly or indirectly connected with the tanneries. Therefore, their population quickly started surging but they remained clustered in a very limited part of the suburb. 

What they in later days bought were the pieces of the land of the closed tanneries which were spread still in a vast tract of barren Gram Sabha lands bought above half a century ago. 

It is this unique suburb where the younger generation is dazed to find the older modes of transportation and several old-styled flour mills, blacksmiths and weekly bazaars. 

Buffalo-driven carts, horse-driven elevated carts, cobblers, flour mills, and blacksmiths were the traditional activities in those past days. Leather raw and tanned goods and other heavy materials were used to be carried. 

Recollecting their past days a few senior citizens pointed out how they used to save five paise out of a small round twenty-five paisa coin from their parents for paying the wheat-mashing charge at the flour mill. They devised tricks diligently to save five paise from that scanty amount. 

Those were the tough days when they used to cover school distances on foot. The condition of the flour mills has not modernised because of the lesser income from these mills, as the owners point out. 

Some vestiges of ancient temples are still found in the ruins of the Ram Rai Sarai but are hard to locate. It might have been the only Sarai that existed by the roadside.

It is unclear whether this halting quarter was for the army or for the public. As we learn from the history Sarai used to serve the purpose of stay and communication carrier in the medieval period. But older people told me that there was existing a Raja Ram Sarai.

Flowing slowly the river water is today not as pure as it used to be earlier. It is dirtier, polluted and contaminated but the residents shifted here due to spaciousness and total freedom from the hustle and bustles of the city-crowded localities.

In the past approximately fifty years, as more senior people maintained, this populated area has expanded a lot in several forms and whatnot. Today, finer roads, nicer and costly cars, quicker automatic teller machine cabins, brighter high-masts, more politicians, glassy beauty salons, well-equipped gyms, swimming pools, mall-type stores, bank branches, railways reservation centres, newer convent schools, higher buildings have cropped up in this suburb. 

Very old schools both for girls and boys already exist. There are weekly vegetable markets within its precincts. Even the medical facilities are also functional adequately.

Above all, the construction of several marriage halls and Lawns has completely finished the marriage party on the tanneries’ compounds in the area. In the bygone years, the residents used to arrange marriage functions within the walls of tanneries.

All the small or big facilities of modern life remain available here but what lacks prominently is the good roads. Residents groan over this pressing problem usually. However, they are anyhow managing to persist in their dash.