Share Our Heritage with the World

---

The Sindhi legend of "Noori Jam Tamachi" took place around the Keenjhar Lake. The rule of Sultan Rukunuddin Shah Jam Tamachi in 1389-1392 A.D. Started a second time. The folklore "Noori- Jam Tamachi" is connected with this kind ruler. "Tabaqat-i-Akbari" and "Firsishta" do not mention his rule a second time. Tuhfat-ul-Karam is a first source of this legend Noori- Jam Tamachi", which gives account of this chronicle. According to "Tuhfat-ul-Karam", "the grave of Jam Tamachi (and Noori too) is towards the south of the grave of Sheikh Hammad, and enclosed in a dome." But it is fact that Jam Tamachi had built a wonderful palace for Noori on the bank of Keenjhar, but there is no sign of this palace also. According to one popular tradition, Jam Tamchi and the fisherwomen Noori, whom he made his queen, are laid in two old tombs at that end of Makli Hill. Noori belonged to the Gundra sub caste of Mohana tribe. Therefore, a well-known historian M.H. Panhwar asserts that, this makes the said grave of Noori, now in the keenjhar Lake and preserved as a monument by the Irrigation Department, an archaeological forgery of later times. Now, there has been a shrine in the middle of the Keenjhar lake, marking Noori's grave. Everyday hundreds of devotees erroneously visit the shrine. However, it is also known that, another ancient building in ruins is the Mari, or house of Jam Tamachi, the fourth sovereign of the Samma dynasty in Sindh, who flourished about A.D. 1380. These ruins are situated on a hill at the northern end of the Sonahri dhandhs (or lake) near Helaya, in the Thatta taluka, and command a fine view. Captain John Wood of the Indian Navy visited this place in 1837 and had written about it. It is stated that, on the road between Helaya and the lake when they passed a small and venerable looking square enclosure of plain flintone, their guide informed them, that was the tomb of Jam Tamachi, the vicar of Indus fishermen."

[Source: Text and Photographs: Thatta A Historical Reflection by District Government Thatta | Coordinates: EFT]

Open in Google Map: 24.9362531,68.0449119

---

---