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Kallar Saydan has long been the central and cultural hub for hundreds of years and for thousands of visitor’s residents and travellers. It has developed in to a busy market place, with a wide variety of shops from modern jewellers to old darji shops, to electrical shops and many more other retailers, if I can call them that.

The town has spread and urbanized the local area in all directions. However this article is not about Kallar Saydan.

Hidden away with in the town, away from the shops and the main road is a school. Government High School Kallar Saydan. The school has been around for years but prior to that, the old palace, which sits across on the left hand side of the school, was used as a school. Due to the current state (and probably for the future) and economy of the country, there is currently no structure in place to preserve such buildings or history of the country, indeed that may be some sort of historical museum in the main cities such as Karachi or Lahore but suburban area such as Kallar Saydan have little need for such institutes. Poverty and the quality and cost of living are such that people have more important things to worry about.

Current museums in Punjab,

·Archaeological Museum Taxila, Distt. Rawalpindi 1990
·Armoury Museum, old Fort, Lahore   1928
·Mughal and Sikh Galleries in Lahore-Fort.    1928
·Archaeological Museum, Harappa, Distt: Sahiwal (Reorganized) 1965
·Allama Iqbal Museum, Javed Manzil, Lahore. 1967
·Museum-cum-Library at Iqbal Manzil, Sialkot.    1977
·Bahawalpur Museum, Bahawalpur 1977
·Faqirkhana Museum, Lahore, (Private)
·Chughatai Museum,   Lahore, (Private)
·Shakir Ali Museum,   Lahore, (Private)
·Arts & Craft Museum   Lahore, (Punjab govt.)
·Science Museum-Lahore,
·Lokvirsa Museum- Islamabad
·Natural History Museum- Islamabad

Although the above list is quite long, the organisations in no way have the means to extend and reach such areas as Kallar, nor do they have the funding. In essence places such as Sangni Killa, Rohtas killa and Bedi Palace are living historical museums which have stood the test of time. And only time will tell what the destiny will be in the coming years. Buildings such as Bedi Palace have a very interesting background and date from well before 1900’s.

The people (or families) who lived there were involved in the British Raj, Namely Baba Khem Sing Bedi, who was a spiritual leader of the Sikh movement. He was a direct descendant of Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism; the world's youngest monotheistic religion was born in a village called Talwandi in the state of Punjab, now in Pakistan. From an early age, Guru Nanak showed deep signs of spirituality of a holy nature to all who came into contact with him. As he matured, he quickly became known as a spiritually awakened youth, his father was not happy with turn of events as he wanted him to be involved in a merchant business.

Sir Baba Khem Singh Bedi was born on 21 February 1832 at Kallar. In the year 1857, Baba Khem Bedi assisted the British in suppressing a local rebellion in the Gugera district. This ultimately distinguished himself in the skirmish for which Mr Bedi received a khilat (robe of honour, khilat, Siropa, or Sirpau symbolises a physical robe worn from head to feet. It exemplifies an absolute honour. In Sikhism, Siropa is, supposedly, the highest award for one's temporal as well as celestial endeavour) Baba Bedi also received RS1000 rupees and a double barrelled rifle.

By nature Baba Khem Bedi was a humanitarian. With his help at least fifty schools for boys and girls were established in the Punjab. His generosity was such that he donated substantial sums of money for religious and charitable purposes.
Baba Khem Bedi was also appointed a magistrate in 1877 and an honorary munsif (magistrate) in 1878. He was nominated to the Viceroy's Legislative Council in 1893, and again in 1897 when the Indian council Act was extended to the Punjab. Baba Khem Singh lived in handsome style and enjoyed the admiration of hundreds of thousands of followers in Western Punjab and what later became the North-West Frontier Province. While on a tour of the latter in the spring of 1905, he suddenly fell ill. On 8 April 1905 Baba Khem Bedi left Peshawar by rail, he was ill and in a state of serious sickness, he unfortunately died at Montgomery on 10 April 1905.

Baba Bedi wears a splendid robe known as choga, made of gold brocade probably woven in Benares and made especially in Kashmir or Punjab in the traditionally wide-cut choga style. The large boteh or kalka motifs in the corners of the robe are were typical designs of North Indian at the time.

Under the choga he wears a typical plain white cotton paijama and a fantastic pair of leather slippers commonly called “Khussa” with curling toes and all. These are still in fashion today.

The below picture shows brilliant graphical location of Kallar Saydan, as it more or less stands today, life used to be really slow in Kallar but with a lot of people investing in businesses and shops the property market has rocketed as has the rental income for shops. The past ten years has seen enormous changes as the town grows and people build house on the skirts of the town.

To the far right, in the above picture, you can see the school ground which has been used as a car park by most drivers. All manor of traffic stops here and gives visitors direct access to the heart of Kallar Saydan. The town is very congested and needs strict traffic rules, but luckily none apply because nobody will abide them, even if they did have any rules the people issuing the fines normally get beaten up.

As you walk through the narrow galliyan in the cool shade, the hustle of the town dies down behind you. As walk on the man made brick galliyan the town turns into a residential area with houses in all shapes and sizes. I can guarantee that you are walking on historic ground. The entrance is via the school ground and as soon as you step through the small door of the large wrought iron gates, the narrow entrance suddenly widen in what is called the “school ground”. It is quite a large area and barely resembles a school as we know them here in the UK. You will set eyes on a very old, large multi storey building, this is Bedi Palace! The structure is enormous, it’s only a house, and a very big one!

Upon entering the palace, you realise that it was not a normal house. The wooden doors and windows were hand made from some of the finest wood and carved intricate designs finished with copper studs, some of the most beautiful art work I have ever seen, it is still visible today. The photos I took don’t do justice, they have captured the detail but I advise to see it in flesh, so to speak. The designs are consistence and were made by hand by some of the finest craftsmen of the era. The first door leads to the main entrance of the building. this in turn leads to another entrance of similar granduer. You can see the threshold of the door in the bottom right of the picture here.

Just the design of the bay windows and the brick work are fantastic and were probably way ahead of their time. The bay windows and carved grills above the doors are a clue as to the type of craftsman who worked on this magnificent project. Although used as a school it retains much of the original features. Needless to say much of the precious artwork has been destroyed and some minor repair has defaced some of the interior of the building. The main central court of the palace has an open top roof and this is a unique feature. A lot of the beautiful artwork is still visible on the main walls and they are in colour.

I have been told that there was an exquisite painting of the golden temple of Amritsar on one of the internal walls. Sadly, it was painted over some years ago, I somehow found this really sad and upsetting. Maybe it’s my love for history or heritage, or that i saw it as a loss, or the feeling I get from visiting such historical places. Maybe it would’ve been nice to have seen the picture painted by hands that were once alive. Places such as this palace, are literal time machines that hold the essence of the very people that once inhabited this area, Picture of the golden temple to the left.

What ever people do in their lives, they are shaped by society of those times. What they do and write and draw remains in history for generation to come, this palace, in my opinion is a fine example of history for our area. It’s a great shame that it cannot be used or repaired. Yet it remains as a great testament to time and yesteryears of Pakistanis ancestral glory, still standing proud as a gentle reminder of what was and what will become. The future seems very bleak for this palace as nobody wants to invest any finance in the project to rebuild or reuse it. If it was recovered it could have numerous uses, such as special arts school, advanced IT College, the ideas are endless.

When I originally visited, some two and half years ago, it really was worth the time and effort to take the photos. The photos were taken at the time for personal use and I wanted to capture the soul of the building as it stood. When walking on the ground floor in the large halls, which leads round the whole floor, I got this feeling of a very faint presence of something or someone. It was not obvious but thinking back now but I know it was there.

During the partition, this subject was bound to come up at some point, it was said that many local people of Kallar sought refuge in the palace until they were either killed or ran for there lives. They most probably got protection and shelter. After Baba Khem Bedi passed away in 1905, I have been unable to find any information as to who lived there up until the partition. I did have a conversation with Bhai Naseer and he was actually contacted by the relatives or descendants of Khem Bedi Singh, which is amazing.

The remainder of the building is made up of various rooms and to be honest it’s got so many rooms I lost count how many exactly. There are original fire places still in place. The view from the top floors is great, you can see all round the town and into the distance, it is a truly wonderful view, see pictures. There is, what I though was evidence of s separate living area for the ladies of the house, that section of the house has a mini balcony and some very pretty decorative doors.

From here on, the future is unclear for this building, as are many other things in Pakistan. The very soil this palace sits on is bewildered. It has many other unfinished stories which have no endings, for which there is no light at the end of the tunnel. It has many more orphans and it has had many martyrs to its name who have left many familys and legacies.

This is a building, its purpose is now unclear, day by day it is losing its identity, it is in fact lost, hence my title, the lost palace.

Following e-mail was received for further information

Greetings!

I wish to clarify a few anomalies which I am sure you will be able to rectify regard Sir Baba Khem Singh. Firstly his elder son was granted the title of Raja, so his name should be Raja Baba Sir Gurbaksh Singh Bedi, he died on 22 Nov 1947, his eldest son Tikka Baba Surinder Singh Bedi, died on 19 Feb 1988, his eldest son Brig Baba Avininder Singh Bedi Born 1917AD, died 11 Oct 1962, his eldest son Lt Col Tikka Baba Gajinder Singh Bedi (yours truly)born 3 Apr 1945 and his son Tarun Bahadur Singh Bedi. Also I wish to add that the Gaddi of Baba Bishan Singh i.e Baba Sir Khem Singh Bedi's grand father is in Kallar where as the gaddi of Baba Bikrama Singh is in Una, Himachal Pradesh.

There has been an error in the Mahan Kosh written by Bhai Kan Singh where its mentioned that the eldest son of Baba Dharam Chand was Baba Mehar Chand whereas it is Baba Manak Chand.

Request if you could make these amendments.

I was very happy to see the invaluable information you give in your web site. God be with you in your gallant efforts.

With best wishes and sincere regards

Baba Gajinder Singh Bedi