why is Bara Market called so?

[chharoonahmad]

Hi

I was wondering why Bara Market is called so. When I was a kid I used to hear a lot about the Bara and how you can buy stuff at real cheap rates and at that time it was in reference to a market in Peshawar, I believe so. Now it seems there are different markets goes with this name in different cities. There is a place called Bara in Khyber Agency (FATA). Does it have anything to do with that place? Is that "Bara" in Bara Market mean the same as 'big' in English? If that's so, then it would stand for 'Big Market'. Thanks for your time.

Regards
Haroon

 

[Safriz]

the name caught on.
It was a market selling the afghan transit trade stuff,and smuggled stuff which made its way from where ever via afghanistan into Bara market in tribal areas.

 

[Safriz]

One funny incident i remember..
A man came in the bara market .. he looked rich as he was on a land cruiser ..he had a child with him,and apperantly they were looking for a laptop computer..I was coincidentally stood on the shop selling laptops and no prices wre displayed...but all laptops had one or other indian/english movie on..The child and the man stood there and kept looking at the laptops...and the child pointed at one laptop,saying "daah wala"...and without asking specs,the man asked the shop keeper whats the price and payed a hefty price for the lappy which wasnt worth the money..
The man visibly knew nothing about computers and the child selected it because it had a good cartoon showing on it and the shopkeeper asked the price as per the child's interest,man's ignorance and his ride.
A later talk with the shop keeper revealed that thats why they have all different sorts of movies on laptops,because the drug barons from tribal areas and from Afghanistan who come there looking for laptops know nothing about computers and buy the lappy if they like the movie being shown on it.

 

[Adios Amigo]

Yups it caught on from a market situated in Bara Khyber Agency.....near Peshawar.....The market got fame in cold war era (70s and 80s) due to its duty free(read smuggled) stuff....specially cloth, electronics and crockery etc..... The second such market which successfully replaced it ...is.... Karkhano market in Peshawar.....
People used to visit Bara in past and Karkhano now because of significant price differences and wide variety of foreign goodies, from different parts of the country, specially from Punjab.... Rest the Bara markets elsewhere in the country are just name sake..... and do not Match these two in any form.


BTW Bara is just name of the place....and doesn't mean "Big" or something else.

 

[jin]

^^^ ahaha dah wala!

I think it named for the locality in khyber agency. BAARA or BAADA market.. not big. Now wherever smuggled stuff traded, it is named baada market.