Sialkot

"Sialkot has many historical, religious and romantic associations with the past According to popular legends the city was founded by Raja Sala, the uncle of the Pandavas and re-founded, in the time of Vikramaditya, by Raja Salivahan who built the fort and the city on their present sites Puran Bhagat, the saint and hero of popular romances, who refused the incestuous advances of his step-mother and was made to undergo horrible tortures, was the son of this Sahvahan The well in which he was thrown by the order of the wicked Rant lies a few miles from Sialkot and, until its desecration and partial demolition by the Muslims in August 1947, used to be a place of pilgrimage There 1s a Sikh shrine dedicated to Guru Nanak and near it Darbar Baoh Sahib, a covered well, built by a Rayput disciple of Baba Nanak Both places are held in great veneration by the Sikh community. During the Moghul times, Sialkot became the headquarters of a fiscal district and has renamed so to the present day The Emperor Jahangir passed through the district on his way to Kashmir and recorded in his diary that he found the surroundings delightful."