Two years ago it was the first time I heard the name of Ram Sunara (Ram the Goldsmith). A few days before a visit into the Suleiman Mountains via the Litra pass was due, a friend's father told me about Ram Sunara and his ruinous city in the Litra pass. He hadn't divulged many details of the fable or the associated city, yet I knew that this was one place I had to see. A few days later and into the pass, I couldn't go to the ruins as we had passed them and had come to realise it way too late. As there is no turning back when in the mountains, Ram Sunara's city had to be left for some other day.

In the following period, I had nearly forgotten Ram Sunara, until I chanced upon his name in an internet article. I decided on my next trip to the area I shall see the ruins. Little did I know that it wasn't only me but most of the people in my area were now quite interested in Ram Sunara and his little fable. But what had caused this sudden newfound interest in Ram Sunara; I was only to know when I was to go to my village.

As luck would have it, July turned out to be the month when I was in Tibbi Qaisrani. The weather was hot and I might never have undertaken the arduous tour to the ruins if Saadullah Qaisrani, a son of Mithwan, had not inspired me. Apparently he was one of the several hunters who dared to enter Ram Sunara di Pahari (Ram Sunara's hillock) in search of treasure.

While trying to enter one of the several caves poking the 80º slope of the hillock, Saadullah suddenly lost control of his rope plunging over 60ft to the ground. He was wounded but alive.

Saadullah remembers little detail of the fall; he claims he was barely conscious and understandably had all his energy concentrated in trying to find even a straw to cling on to. Superstitious as they are, the Baloch of the land concluded that Saadullah's fall was the job of some spirit guarding the caves. Unfortunately Saadullah remembered little to rebut the conclusion. But what do spirits have to do with Ram Sunara? This is better told by Ram Sunara's fable:

It is said that during the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor, the Khetrans of Vehoa took in a Hindu from the east as a tribal guest. The Hindu who went by the name of Ram Sunara was a convict (by some accounts also a former vazeer) of the Mughal court and had fled it to avoid punishment. Ram Sunara settled in the Suleiman Mountains in the Litra hill torrent near Litra, a stronghold of Khetrans. He chose a plateau atop a north-south trending anticline for his residence which was bordered on the east and west sides by precipitous cliffs hundreds of feet down to the torrent bed.

There was only one opening in the hill to reach the top of the plateau, that being at the southern end of the anticline that gently lowered into the torrent bed. It was so narrow that a handful of guards on the top with ample ammunition supplies could ward off any serious armed threat. He built a city 1.5km east of his point of residence, which soon became a hub of trade. He fortified his city by building a wall along the banks of the torrent to strengthen his defense. He built a market on the piedmont of an adjacent hillock, where gold was traded for other necessities. He would stay on top of the hillock, having a perfect view of every direction while traders swarmed his city. In short, his became the prime-trading centre of the area in his time.

While his city prospered his future did not much so. For 17 years (by some accounts 19 years), they say, Ram Sunara lived in these hills, while his city grew larger and larger thanks to the great volume of trade it offered. Then Akbar got wind of this flourishing little town of a convict of his court. Otherwise preoccupied with the affairs of his vast domain, Akbar might not have given much thought to a convict running away to some far off land, but the news of the convict running a city -- flourishing in trade right under the nose of his empire was unbearable. Akbar needed this man back at any cost.

First effort was made at diplomacy. Akbar sent an emissary to request the Khetrans to hand him back his wanted man. The Khetrans preferred tradition to expedience, which in any case was a brave decision. A polite apology was conveyed to Akbar through his emissary. But "No" was something Akbar was not going to take lightly. So an army was sent with the orders to teach the Khetrans a lesson and get hold of Ram Sunara.

The army of Akbar first came after the Khetrans. There was a lot of bloodshed on the side of the Khetrans. The cities of Litra and Vehoa were destroyed and the Khetrans were left fleeing for their lives. Those who survived either hid somewhere or fled to Barkhan, west of Dera Ghazi Khan. With the Khetrans trampled, Akbar's army headed for Ram Sunara's city in the Suleiman Mountains. Victory seemed easy for them, but it only seemed so -- Ram Sunara's city was well-defended and the Mughal army could not force it to surrender, not even after a siege. Still, the Mughals were not to give up so easily, at least not to a convict. So, the Mughal army devised a last strategy. This one, they knew would get them in.

Feigning retreat, the Mughal army pulled back. After a few days, some 40 camels were collected and 80 crates loaded onto them. Except for the first, middle and last few crates, each crate hid a soldier, fully armed and ready for action. In the first, middle and last few crates silk cloth was loaded so as to maintain cover in case of any surprise inspection. Disguised as traders, the caravan headed for Ram Sunara's city's door. Once there, permission was sought by the impostors to enter the city. Sunara's young daughter smelt a rat and warned her father that the caravan was not of all traders. A random check ensued in which crates on camels from the beginning, middle and end were checked, all revealing silk cloth brought for trade. Once cleared in the check, Ram Sunara granted permission to the caravan to enter the city. To Ram Sunara's horror, the soldiers hidden inside the crates came out and blew their covers.

Ram Sunara's team was not prepared to cope with such a scenario, and so he could do little more than watch with his own eyes as his city was quickly taken over and its inhabitants massacred. Heartbroken, dejected and defeated, Ram Sunara took a plunge from the hilltop where he stood, falling over a 100ft to his death.

The story of his brave and daring defiance of the Mughals came to a sad end. From that day it is said, Ram Sunara's spirit is wandering about the hills, ready to take on any treasure hunter searching for his treasure.

It is also said that before his death, Ram Sunara had hid nine maunds of gold in his city for a rainy day, which he was unable to retrieve before his death. Till date nobody knew where it was hidden. It could be under the remains of his city or in any of the caves that poke the 80° slope of a sandstone cliff, rising about 50 to 150ft above the ground.

The search has been on since then and has not ended yet. When Saadullah tried to enter a cave and fell down, he unwittingly deposited his mobile set in another cave, only to have it retrieved some days later.

A fascinating story it is. All my attempts to arrive at some conclusive evidence regarding its factuality have failed. The Mughals in their histories make no mention of any such occurrence, while the Baloch versions of the story are mere repetitions of what is common talk. The Gazetteer of Dera Ismail Khan District (1883-1884) makes a passing reference to the event, showing that it is not a new creation. However, the reason for the disjoint presence of Khetrans in Vehoa and Barkhan is now generally accepted amongst all and sundry to be due to Akbar's attack.

Located some 10 kilometres from the present town of Litra, in the Suleiman Mountain Range aside a meander in the Litra Hill Torrent bed are the remains of what is now believed to be Ram Sunara's once prosperous city. At a little distance to the west are the remains of his abode. Ram Sunara's abode, Ram Sunara da Thalla, is a plateau measuring little more than two acres in size.

Unfortunately, most signs of construction on the plateau have now been lost to mindless vandals who have dug under every rock of a large size in search of the treasure, in this process totally destroying the look and feel of the place. The only remaining sign that human life ever existed there are shards of pottery littered all over the place. At the base of the plateau bearing anticline there are two more ruinous remains in the torrent bed, one east of the climb to the top and the other to its west. At both places rock foundations can still be discerned and pottery shards are still to be found, protected from the ravaging torrent by a pure stand of Babul (Acacia jacquemontii). If one goes by the fable, they probably mark sites of outposts, the first line of defense of Ram Sunara's abode.

A kilometre and a half towards east lies whatever remains of what is purportedly Ram Sunara's city. The site of the city's ruins is marked by a nearby heavy growth of timeless pilus (Salvadora oleoides); rare reminder of what would have been the climax vegetation of the whole land for many a millennia. Trenches have been dug up under nearly every pilu of a considerable age, as also under large rocks and foundations in search of the gold treasure. Sprawling over an area no less than 14 acres (a sizeable mountain city for any time), the ruins of the city consist of heaps of rocks of various shapes and sizes, sometimes neatly arranged into foundations and pathways, at other times merely scattered about randomly. A nearby graveyard, some arable farmland and the aging pilu trees have encroached upon the true extent of the city.

The fact that the place was once inhabited by the human race is dutifully conveyed by the abundance of pottery shards and numerous fragments of bones, both now scattered all over the place. Could these be signs of a general massacre by the victorious forces, the kind mentioned in the fable? I could not be sure, but probably yes.

West of the ruins stands Ram Sunara di Pahari, the same place where Saadullah fell, also the hill from where Ram Sunara purportedly took a plunge. At the southern end, stone circles of the kind mentioned by Salman Rashid in his book Sea Monsters and the Sun God: Travels in Pakistan are to be found. They are much the same in construction and made of rocks, except that they are complete circles no more, for some rocks have been eaten away by sediment with time and others have been plucked out to be used as gravestones for the adjacent graveyard. Are they prehistoric, or from the Mughal era, it is hard to say, but of the same age of those mentioned by Salman, it is very probable.

Without any independent way of confirming the age and origin of the ruins, it is hard to say anything significant about their importance. Factual or fictional, Ram Sunara has lived through the minds of the people of Vehoa for ages. The ruins in the Litra Torrent bed, most probably much the same and equally mysterious as others in the Suleiman Mountains in the meanwhile have their own associated fable, which has stood the test of time. They will remain Ram Sunara's city for the people of Vehoa.

For people like Saadullah, the nine maund treasure of gold is somewhere there, buried beneath some stone or pathway, or hidden underneath some mysterious tree or in some spirit infested cave. For them, it is just a matter of time before somebody finds the treasure. And it will be so, as has been for at least a few centuries, till Ram Sunara's tale is either confirmed true or false, or the ruins are dated by the Archaeological Department of Punjab, both the jobs of which are out of the scope of a layman traveller like me, who can probably do little more than report what he sees.