http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/pakistan/lahore/jahangir.php Notes Jahangir died in Rajauri, as he was leaving Lahore for Kashmir.

His body was brought back to Lahore and buried in Nur Jahan's garden, on the banks of the river Ravi. The grounds of the tomb, which cover 55 acres, are laid out in the classical charbagh pattern, with bisecting perpendicular paths. Entrance is through large northern and southern gates; the southern one is faced in red Sikri sandstone and white marble inlay. The mausoleum itself is also in red sandstone and floral marble inlay, and consists of an arcaded platform, or takhgah, 84 meters square. On each corner is an octagonal minaret rising in five segments. The shaft is decorated in chevrons of pink and white marble, and a domed kiosk crowns each minaret. Openings on each of the four sides of the platform lead through long corridors to a central, octagonal crypt containing the marble cenotaph resting on a platform, the chabutra. The marble cenotaph is considered one of the finest in India. It is inlaid precious stones set in naturalistic floral patterns, and black calligraphy inscribing the date of Jahangir's death, and the ninety-nine names of God. Originally, the crypt had a second floor; a platform still exists, built on top of the large square one. Remnants of a marble screen show that it was once enclosed, and traces indicate where a second cenotaph may have stood. It is, however, believed that the second story remained unroofed: before his death, Jahangir, like his ancestor Babur, had requested that his tomb be left open to the sky. To the west of the charbagh tomb garden, there is a related, rectangular enclosure known as the Akbari Seria, which served as the forecourt, or chowk-i jilo khana, for the mausoleum. A small mosque stands at its western wall. Sources: Tillotson, G. H. R. Mughal India, 136. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1990. Latif, Syad Muhammad. Lahore: Architectural Remains: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities, With an Account of its Modern Institutions, Inhabitants, their Trade, Customs, &c., 104-107. Lahore: New Imperial Press, 1892.

Asher, Catherine. The New Cambridge History of India: Architecture of Mughal India, 172-74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Jahangir's Tomb

Aerial View of Shahdara

Shahdara, the principal entry point to Lahore from the direction of Kabul and Kashmir, lies on the right bank of the Ravi River opposite the city of Lahore (Brand, 1996). Mughal princes, princesses, and important nobles built splendid gardens there. Shahdara became a site of Mughal architectural and political activity soon after the conquest of India by Babur in 1526. In about 1527, or one year after the conquest of Hindustan, Babur's son Mirza Kamran (brother of the second Mughal emperor, Humayun) built a garden in the area. The baradari (pavilion) and some architectural features still survive to some extent. However, the name Shahdara first appeared in the Akbarnama in the mid-1590s in connection with Akbar's visit to Kashmir in 1589. It is difficult today to know the exact boundaries of the place because of the lack of early Mughalperiod textual sources. However, sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries suggest that Shahdara featured many gardens andserais (inns) built by imperial and noble patrons. The existence of a large number of garden sites at Shahdara is further confirmed from a British-period map of 1867. Shahdara served two functions in the early Mughal period. One was as a halting place for the Mughal camp after crossing the Ravi along the road from Lahore towards Kashmir, Kabul, or the hunting grounds of Sheikhupura. The other was as a recreation zone across the river from the Lahore citadel. Apart from Mirza Kamran's garden, Nur Jahan also built a splendid Dilkusha ( contentment) garden in the area. Between 1527 and 1645, Shahdara experienced an extraordinary transformation of land use, whereby its character changed from a site for pleasure gardens to a royal funerary landscape. The royal tombs of the fourth Mughal emperor, Jahangir (d.1627 at Rajauri and buried in the Dilkusha garden), his brother-in-law Asaf Khan (d. 1641), and his wife, Nur Jahan (d. 1645), were constructed within close proximity to each other. The relationship among the three tombs and serai is unique in that it is unmatched by that of other Mughal funerary complexes, where one garden usually dominates the area, and the spatial relationships among gardens are

The Marble Sarcophagus of Jahangir

Jahangir's Tomb

less evident.

Kamran's Baradari

Kamran's Baradari: Kamran's baradari stands in the midst of a formal garden built by the Mughal Prince Mirza Kamran (son of Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire) on the west bank of the River Ravi; it was built c.1527 and was the earliest Mughal garden in Lahore. With the shift of the Ravi's course, the garden site today has become an island in the river adjacent to the bridge leading from Lahore to Shahdara. The garden used to be a meeting place of Mughal princes. British travelers such as William Barr and Colonel Wade also described this garden in connection with their stay there. The garden had a number of water features, including an eight-point-star-shaped pool. Tragically, heavy-handed restoration work in later years entirely destroyed the garden's status as a historical site.

Kamran's Baradari

Jahangir's Tomb:

Jahangir's Tomb

Jahangir's Tomb

Detail from Jahangir's Tomb

Jahangir's tomb was built on the site of Bagh-i Dilkusha, a garden previously laid out by his wife, the empress Nur Jahan. The tomb was constructed on orders from Shah Jahan after his father's death in Kashmir in late 1627. It took ten years to complete the project. The name of the architect is not known, but Chandar Bhan, a historian and writer of the Char Chaman, also served as a supervisor of the site for some time. The walled tomb-garden is entered from the Akbari serai on the west side. The monumental entrance has extensive muqarnas (an architectural element with niches) executed in red sandstone. The Akbari serai has gateways on the north and south and a pre-Mughal period mosque on the west. At the center of an approximately 600-gaz-square garden lies the tomb building clad with red sandstone and inlaid with marble. The tomb rests on a high podium and is surmounted with tall minarets on all four corners. Inside, Jahangir's sarcophagus is decorated with a vegetal pietra dura design and the ninety-nine names of God. The dado on the walls inside the corridor is done with tile mosaic in floral designs. The square garden was divided into four parts (the chahar bagh pattern) with water channels. There were fountains set in pools, and water flowing over the chutes provided a dazzling effect. Water for the tomb-garden was lifted from eight wells located immediately outside the enclosure wall. The water was lifted by means of Persian wheels to aqueducts running on top of the wall, and then into terra cotta pipes feeding various fountains and tanks. The original plantation is now gone but there are fine fruit trees from colonial times. Today, it is a favorite picnic spot for the city of Lahore. Conservation Update: The master plan for the garden is under way. Repair of the stone fretwork on the southern and eastern facades is now complete and work on the north facade has begun. The brick on-edge paving on the chahar baghs south walkway leading to the southern false gate is complete. In the Akbari serai, a new water supply pipe has been laid out, and the interior and exterior facades of the main entry gate have been re-plastered. The Department of Archaeology has created a master plan in which

Detail from Jahangir's Tomb

they have requested funds for the removal of encroachments which fall within 150 feet of the perimeter wall. Asaf Khan's Tomb: Asaf Khan's Tomb Asaf Khan was Jahangir's brother-in-law and governor of the Punjab at the time of the emperor's death in 1627. When Asaf Khan died in 1641, he held the post of Commander-in-Chief under Shah Jahan, who ordered the construction of the tomb immediately to the west of the forecourt of Jahangir's tomb. The extent of Asaf Khan's square garden was set by the forecourt's 300-gaz-long western wall. It is exactly onequarter of the size of Jahangir's tomb. The octagonal tomb rests in a chahar bagh with water channels and walkways. The walls were once covered with glazed tiles and there was marble facing on the dome. The dome has an unusual profile of the sort which was used in the tomb of Hamza Ghaus in Sialkot. Conservation Update: A master plan prepared by Dr. Abdul Rehman of the University of Engineering and Technology was approved by the Global Heritage Fund as well as by the Department of Archaeology. The Global Heritage Fund has had several meetings and raised some funds for conservation. Tomb of Nur Jahan: Jahangir's widow, Nur Jahan, died in 1645. She was buried to the west of her brother Asaf Khan in a tomb she is said to have commissioned during her lifetime. The tomb structure has since been stripped of its stone cladding, and whatever has survived of the garden was irreparably damaged when the British cut a railway line late in the nineteenth century between the tombs of the two siblings. Although no major Mughal garden was constructed at Shahdara after the completion of Nur Jahan's tomb, these lovely gardens still continue to play an important role in the life of Lahore.

Asaf Khan's Tomb

Crossing the River from Shahdara to Lahore Fort: There were two main river crossings from Shahdara to Lahore. The one near Kamran's baradari followed the modern route to the Taksali and Roshnai gates of the Fort. The road from Shahdara town continued due south toward the Khizri and Masti gates of the city. It has long been supposed that a crossing existed at the Khizri gate, Khwaja Khizr being the guide for river crossings. But the symbolic connection between Khizr, the guide to the waters of immortality, and the decision to locate tomb-gardens just opposite that gate has not previously been recognized (Wensinck, 1987; Latif, 1892, p. 86).

Landscape, a Hunting Scene

Sheikhupura, on the outskirts of Lahore, derived its name from a nickname for Prince Jahangir. It was one of Jahangir's princely dominions during his father Akbar's reign. Just north of Sheikhupura town lies a hunting complex known as theHiran Minar. Hunting grounds were an important part of the physical environment of Mughal emperors, and the Hiran Minar is one of the best known and most beautiful of such sites. Its structures consist of a large, almost-square water tank with an octagonal pavilion in its center, built during the reign of Shah Jahan; a causeway with its own gateway connects the pavilion with the mainland and a 100-foot-high minar, or minaret. At the center of each side of the tank, a brick ramp slopes down to the water, providing access for royal animals and wild game. The minar itself was built by Emperor Jahangir in 1606 to honor the memory of a pet hunting antelope named Mansraj.

Emperor Jahangir with Bow and Arrow

Hiran Minar Complex

Tank complexes such as the Hiran Minar may contain some garden elements, such as the central pavilion and minar here. Unique features of this particular complex are the antelope's grave and the distinctive water collection system. At each corner of the tank (approximately 750 by 895 feet in size), is a small, square building and a subsurface water collection system which supplied the tank; only one of these water systems is extensively exposed today. Another special feature of Hiran Minar is its location and environment: the top of the minar is perhaps the best place in the province of Punjab to get a feel for the broader landscape and its relationship to a Mughal site. Looking north from the top of the minar, one can see a patch of forest which is similar to the scrub forest vegetation of Mughal times, while to the west are extensively-irrigated fields, a product of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but similar in size and appearance to the wellirrigated fields of the Mughal period.

View from the Top of the Hiran Minar Complex

Dr. Abdul Rehman Standing on the Grand Trunk Road

A network of roads linked Afghanistan and the Potowar plateau with the Punjab plains. The route between Sheikhupura and Shahdara was a part of a longer route from Delhi to Lahore and beyond to Kabul; and it was also one of the most

important routes of communication between these cities. This route was frequently used by the emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan on their way to Kabul and Kashmir. The complete route comprised various stages. Sheikhupura-Shahdara was the first stage. From there one proceeded to Hafizabad and then crossed River Chenab and reached Qadirabad in Gujrat district. From Qadirabad the road went further on to Rasul, which was a principal ferry landing for the river Jhelum. After crossing Jhelum the road proceeded to Salt Range and then to Tilla Jogian. After Rohtas, the traveler would then take the Sher Shah Suri alignment and proceed to Kabul via Attock and Peshawar. Shahdara literally means the "principal entrance," as it was the principal stopping point before entering that city and the first halting station after crossing the river Ravi. The Mughal emperors, royal ladies, and other important nobles built gardens in Shahdara, along the banks of the Ravi. The pleasure gardens of Mirza Kamran (brother of Emperor Humayun)and Nur Jahan (wife of Emperor Jahangir) were among the most famous examples of the Shahdara gardens, before the area began the transition to a royal funerary landscape after the death of Jahangir in 1627.

The Tomb of Jahangir

The City of Lahore Seen from Shahdara

Mughal Bridge

The section between Shahdara and Sheikhupura has always been a fertile plain traversed by a number of perennial streams, which bring water from Jammu and Kashmir during the monsoon season. The most important of these are Nala Dek and Nala Bhed. High water remains in these streams throughout the monsoon season, so permanent bridges were built over them using bricks and lime mortar. The most impressive among these is the one at Kot Pindi Das, which survives in very good condition. This bridge is still being used by heavy trucks. The bridges were flanked by roads paved in brick using a variety of geometrical patterns; traces of these pavements still survive. Salih Kamboh, a historian of Shah Jahan, mentioned these bridges in connection with the

Mughal Bridge

emperor's journey from Kashmir to Lahore: "There were large, torrential rains this year and all the country between Lahore and Sheikhupura was heavily flooded; the bridges constructed recently became innundated, and therefore His Majesty decided to halt a few more days in Sheikhupura." Baoli or StepWell This section of the road was supplemented with various infrastructure at expedient locations for the traveler. Trees were planted alongside the road for shade and fruit at convenient spots. Now, only palm trees are apparent at certain locations. The nearby villages provided food and other necessities, but baolis (stepwells) and mosques were also important amenities. Built during Akbar's reign, the baoli and mosque at Jandiala Sher Khan near Sheikhupura were extremely impressive; the structure of the baoli, in fact, is one of the most magnificent among all surviving baolis in Pakistan. Today, however, Jandiala Sher Khan is perhaps best known for its shrine to the poet Waris Shah, famous for his rendition of the Punjabi love story of Hir and Ranjha. The alignment of this imperial road was changed during the British period, and the historic road sank into oblivion. Today the bridges are located amidst agricultural fields and are inaccessible. Jahangir's Tomb (built 1627-37) The tomb of Jahangir is located in Shahdara, a suburb of Lahore to the northwest of the city. The area had been a favorite spot of Jahangir and his wife Nur Jahan when they resided in Lahore, and the area was commonly used as a point of departure for travels to and from Kashmir and Lahore. When Jahangir died in 1627 he may have initially been buried in Shahdara in one of its many gardens. His son, Shah Jahan, ordered that a mausoleum befitting an Emperor be built as a permanent memorial. Construction of the mausoleum lasted 10 years, from 1627 to 37, and was probably funded by the imperial treasury (though there is some evidence that Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan, may have financed the construction). It occupies a vast quadrangle measuring 600 gaz (approximately 500 meters) to a side and is subdivided into four chahar baghs (four-part gardens). A fountain occupies the center of each of the chahar baghs and the avenues in between, creating a ring of 8 fountains around the central tomb. Water for the fountains was supplied by wells outside of the garden and raised into channels atop of the walls using water wheels that are no longer extant. From there, the water flowed through terra cotta pipes and into the fountains, whereupon the water cascaded into shallow channels running throughout the garden.

The mausoleum itself is square in plan and exactly 100 gaz to a side. Except for the four corner minarets the layout is entirely horizontal with a flat roof covering the whole of the structure. It is likely that this derived from the example set by Jahangir's grandfather, Babur, who preferred burial in a tomb open to the sky in keeping with Sunni Islam precident. Both Jahangir and Shah Jahan would have been familiar with Babur's tomb garden in Kabul in which Babur's wishes were carried out--a screen was erected around the grave site but the cenotaph was not roofed over. At Jahangir's tomb, a compromise of sorts was arrived at by raising a roof over the cenotaph but not constructing any monumental embellishments such as domes. This design was apparently not very popular as it was replicated only once for the tomb of Nur Jahan, Jahangir's wife, at her tomb garden also in Shahdara. Shah Jahan himself was buried in the Taj Mahal, a monument renowned for its use of domes as architectural elements. At the center of the mausoleum is an octagonal tomb chamber about 8 meters in diameter. It is connected to the outside of the tomb by four hallways facing the four cardinal directions. The cenotaph at the center is carved from a single slab of white marble and decorated with pietra dura inlays of the 99 attributes of God. At its foot is an inscription in Persian recording that "This is the illuminated grave of His Majesty, the Asylum of Pardon, Nooruddin Muhammad Jahangir Padshah 1037 AH". The establishment of Jahangir's tomb at Shahdara profoundly affected the character of the suburb. Whereas previously the area has been used as a place of relaxation, during Shah Jahan's time the suburb was transformed into a monument to the Mughal's imperial rule. This was only strengthened by the construction of a jilau khana (forecourt) to the west of the tomb and the subsequent construction of a tomb to Jahangir's chief minister Asaf Khan to the west. The ensemble reached its peak when Nur Jahan herself was laid to rest in a tomb slightly to the southwest of the other tombs. Today, the tomb of Jahangir holds special significance for Pakistanis as it is the only Mughal tomb located in present-day Pakistan. Its image appears on the 1,000 rupee banknote and it remains one of Lahore's most popular attractions. Site Plan Redrawn and adapted by Timothy M. Ciccone following the article "The Shahdara Gardens of Lahore" by Michael Brand within the book "Mughal Gardens", edited by James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn. Additional information for the plan derived from "Islamic Gardens and Landscapes" by D. Fairchild Ruggles.

Lahore Fort "In the time of His Majesty the fort has been built of solid bricks and lime, and as, from time to time, the seat of government was established here, lofty palaces were

built, to which additional beauty was given by luxuriant gardens." Ain-i-Akbari, v. 2, p. 317. The history of gardens in Lahore is as old as the Islamic history of the city itself. In particular, the Ghaznavid period sources of the eleventh century mentioned the fragrance, flowers, and fresh air of Lahore. Malik Ayaz, a slave of the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmood and later governor of Lahore, planned a new city near the existing one in the beginning of the eleventh century. The precise location of the site is not known. After that, the town continued to grow in all directions. During the period 1021-1526 AD, or before the coming of the Mughals, we read about six gardens in the suburbs: Bagh-i Malik Ayaz, Bagh-i Zanjani, Bagh Shah Ismail, Bagh Qutb-ud Aibak, Bagh-i Shah Kaku Chishti, and Bagh-i Daulat Abad; these all became extinct subsequent to the urbanization and urban development of Lahore. The construction and planting of gardens in and around the city started with the arrival of the Mughals on the subcontinent in 1526. The earliest Mughal gardens in Lahore were Bagh-i Mirza Kamran, in the northwest, built by the son of Babur; and Naulaka Bagh and Bibi HajTaj, both on the east side. Among the gardens, only the baradari (pavilion) of Bagh-i Mirza Kamran survives today to any extent. The construction of gardens on a large scale began with the coming of Emperor Akbar to power, and particularly between 1584-98 when he made Lahore the capital of his empire. He reconstructed the fort and fortified the city with a double defensive wall. All important nobles of the Mughal empire, serving in whatever region, built pleasure gardens and fruit gardens in all directions, in particular along major roads connecting Lahore with Delhi in the east, Multan road in the southeast, and Grand Trunk Road in the west. During Shah Jahan's time, the areas in between were filled with a variety of gardens. At Shahdara, located northwest of the city along the Kabul and Kashmir route, the Bagh-i Mirza Kamran, Bagh-i Dilkusha (built by Queen Nur Jahan and where the tomb of Jahangir was later

Flower Detail from Shahdara Garden

Exterior Wall of Lahore Fort

Shahdara

built), the garden quadrangle of Asaf Khan, Akbari Serai (the present forecourt to the tomb of Jahangir), and the probable garden around the tomb of Nur Jahan still survive today in relatively good condition. In all these gardens the planting has changed considerably. The other gardens which are mentioned in the sources on either bank of the Ravi River near Shahdara are Naulakha Bagh, Badami Bagh, Bagh-i Dil Afruz, Bagh-i Andijan, Bagh-i Nizam ud Din Ahmad, and Bagh-i Mirza Moman Ishaq Baz. The hinterland on the east along the Grand Trunk Road became a special focus of attention for the construction of gardens during the Mughal period. Contemporary Garden in the Suburbs of Lahore Few gardens existed along this route before Shah Jahan's time, but with the construction of the canal and Shalamar Garden, the interest in this area increased. The fragments of some Mughal period gardens still survive. These include: Gulabi Bagh, Bagh-i Eeshan, Pervaiz Bagh, Bagh Mahabat Khan, Anguri Bagh, Bagh Fateh Garh, the Bagh around the tomb of Nadira Begum, Bagh Abul Hasan, Bagh Ali Mardan Khan, and Bagh Mulla Shah.

Contemporary Garden in the Suburbs of Lahore

Contemporary Garden in the Suburbs of Lahore

A series of gardens was also built along the Multan road on the south side of the city. The most famous among these were Bagh Wazir Khan, Bagh-i Anarkali, and Chauburji garden or Nawan Kot garden (around the so-called tomb of Zeb un Nisa). These gardens had a variety of landscape features. Some were orchards, others were attached to mansions. Some were walled and had elaborate gateways, walkways, water features, and elaborate plantations. By the end of Shah Jahan's rule, Lahore became the "city of gardens." The garden suburbs extended in every direction for several miles. These gardens were built for the pursuit of pleasure, the extension of residences, as fruit orchards, or were built around tombs. A number of them survived till the middle of the nineteenth century and fulfilled a variety of functions, such as ceremonial centers, official business, pleasure gardens, poetry reading, and meditation. They also served as transit stations during processional journeys. Also with streams of water, wells, mosques, tombs, and mansions, they dominated the land-

use plan of the city. The tradition of constructing gardens continues even to this day, and one can find modern gardens spread throughout every part of the city.

The Remains of a Haveli Garden in Lahore

Haveli Garden

The walled city has changed as dramatically as the suburbs of Lahore since Mughal times. When Akbar rebuilt the walls of the city in the sixteenth century, it is likely that he extended them to include areas less densely settled in the eastern part of the city (Lahore Development Authority, 1982; Dar, 1993; Quraeshi, 1988). And those areas may have had gardens. Subsequent development and redevelopment have obscured the open spaces and Mughal period gardens of the walled city and its immediate surroundings. We have little more than textual references to haveli gardens, which, it should be noted, represent a distinct residential garden type with interior courtyard wells, vines, and potted plants.

Delhi Gate Exterior Wall

Following the processional approach, it is useful to begin at a spot just outside the city walls, near the Delhi gate, and to move in towards the center of the Mughal city. The suburbs immediately east of Delhi Gate had Mughal gardens built from the time of Mirza (Prince) Kamran in the early sixteenth century to that of Prince Dara Shikoh in the mid-seventeenth century. Kamran probably built his earliest gardens in the Naulakha area, just east of the walled city; the area was later extensively developed by Asaf Khan and expanded by Dara Shikoh, from whom a part of it acquired the name Mohalla Dara Shikoh (Parihar, 1984). Although it is well known that many structures were torn down for bricks, the remains of at least one Mughal hammam (bath) remain below ground in Mohalla Dara Shikoh.

Wazir Khan's Mosque

Delhi gate was rebuilt by the British and restored again in the 1990s, as were the Mughal baths just inside the gate. As was common in Mughal town planning, baths figured prominently immediately within and outside the city walls. A narrow lane of shops line the bazaar from Delhi gate to thechowk (crossing) of Wazir Khan's mosque (built in 1634). Although no gardens are recorded along this particular path, some were recorded in nearby havelis. Haveli Mian Khan near Rang Mahal, for example, had extensive courtyards and fountains. It also allegedly had an underground tunnel connecting it to the fort. Proceeding above ground from Wazir Khan's mosque toward the fort, there are two old Mughal period havelis that had large garden courtyards in the Chuna Mandi area. These havelis have a long record of modification from Sikh times to the 1990s, the most recent restoration being completed in 1993. A new garden has been added in front of the main haveli, but no excavations have been made in either of the interior garden courtyards. There is some speculation that these havelis belonged to Asaf Khan, but no concrete evidence has been produced to date.

Detail from the Wazir Khan Mosque

Wazir Khan's Mosque

Mosque of Maryam Zamani

Detail from Mosque of Maryam Zamani

Just beyond the Chuna Mandi haveli is the mosque of Maryam Zamani, also known as the Begum Shahi mosque. Maryam Zamani was the sister of Raja Bhagwan Das and the mother of the fourth Mughal ruler, Jahangir. Her mosque, completed in 1614, is the oldest surviving mosque of the Mughal period in Lahore. It is compared with paradise in an inscription on its northern gateway (Latif, 1892, 131). Like other Mughal mosques in Lahore, it has no garden courtyard, but it does have fine floral fresco decorations that remind one of the vegetal

imagery associated with paradise and paradise gardens. These days, shoe shops block one's view back up the hill toward the haveli gardens, and iron wheel shops block one's view in the opposite direction to the Masti (Masjidi) gate on the east side of Lahore Fort. A few trees remain in haveli and mosque courtyards, but the principal garden remnants now lie eith

Mosque of Maryam Zamani

Exterior Shot of Fort Wall

Construction of the Masti Gate of Lahore Fort has been attributed to the third Mughal ruler, Akbar, sometime around 1566, the same time that he was rebuilding Agra Fort (Khan, 1993). The gate is an impressive Akbari structure, and one of the few still standing in Lahore. Once inside the Masti Gate, a large expanse opens up before the Chihil Situn, an open multi-columned Hall of Public and Private Audience (Diwan-i Am o Khas). The open space in front of the hall reminds one today of a garden or park, but in Mughal times it was a parade ground and assembly space. As for the so-called Chihil Situn, it was poetically described as "...a garden, every pillar of which is like a green cypress tree // In the shade of which noble and plebian obtain repose" (Latif, 1892, 124). Professor Ebba Koch has recently compared the evolution of these buildings and spaces in Mughal cities in her article "Mughal Palace Gardens from Babur to Shah Jahan," Muqarnas 14 (1997): 143-65, and in another article, "Diwan-i ' Amm and Chihil Situn: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan," Muqarnas 11 (1994): 143-65.

Entrance to Fort

If the walled city was the social and economic center of Lahore the fort was its dynastic and political center. The proximity of the fort and city should not mislead one about the sharp separation between them, created by moats and ramparts. Although the Delhi and Lahori gate bazaars were major processionals, the royal retinue most commonly entered via gates close to the fort. The walled city was the social center of Lahore and the center of its regional culture, but the fort was the political center of Lahore and at least at times the center of its imperial Mughal culture. It is not until one moves behind the Diwan-i Am o Khas and adjacent buildings, that one enters the garden quadrangles of Lahore Fort. At first glance, these courtyards seem to represent yet another garden type. They have limited plantings, and one of them has no plants at all. Some are rectangular, while others have irregular dimensions. Spatial relationships among garden quadrangles are enigmatic, in part due to the depredations of the occupying British army in the nineteenth century, but also to the succession of Mughal and Sikh projects. Professor Ebba Koch has rightly emphasized that garden courtyards lined the riverfront side of Mughal ramparts. Although tightly aligned with one another, they continued Babur's earliest conception of the river-front garden strand at Agra. Mughal gardens were resituated, but not radically reconceived, within palace-fortresses beginning in Akbar's reign. This process culminated in sophistication during the midseventeenth century. Unfortunately, no surviving Mughal texts document the development of garden quadrangles in Lahore Fort in a manner comparable with Ottoman palace records (cf. Necipoglu, 1991). Instead, there are only a handful of inscriptions, wall paintings, and textual references (Khan, 1993; Koch, 1983; Latif, 1892; Baqir, 1984).

Garden Quadrangle

River-Front Garden

Detail from the Hall of Mirrors

As noted above, the gardens of Lahore Fort were rebuilt with every change in rule. The only

quadrangle to survive in large measure is one that faces the Shish Mahal (Hall of Mirrors). Built during the reign of Shah Jahan, it is the most elaborate and beautiful Mughal courtyard in Lahore. It is a square enclosure, open to the sky.

Shish Mahal Pool

Its floor is paved in grey, black, and yellow marble with a large shallow central basina circle set within a square. Small water jets punctuated the corners of the basin. A square platform stands in its middle, connected by a causeway to the southern side of the pool. The courtyard does not contain a single plant (aside from scores of truly "perennial" pietra dura flowers inlaid on its marble columns). The low walls that surround the Shish Mahal quadrangle today are not original, and their relationship with the courtyard to the east is ambiguous. Behind the Shish Mahal is a small mosque and ramp broad enough for elephants leading down to the Alamgiri gate. Outside the large Alamgiri gate, which was built by Aurangzeb on the western side of the fort, stands a garden known today as the Hazuri Bagh. This Sikh-period garden was built in a space that was formerly a caravanserai between the fort and the Badshahi mosque (built by Aurangzeb in 1673). Although not a Mughal garden per se, the Hazuri Bagh reminds us that Ranjit Singh and other Sikhs had a deep appreciation for the Mughal garden tradition (if not for their marble structures or mosques).

Entrance to the Badshahi Mosque

The Badshahi Mosque When the mosque was in use, the forecourt was needed for a large congregation; but when it was closed by the Sikhs, that space was converted to a garden in the Mughal style. In the course of time, the Hazuri Bagh has become the forecourt for the samadhi (funerary site) of Ranjit Singh and grave of Pakistan's great poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal. However, there is no historical connection between the Badshahi mosque and garden design aside from some modest but

Interior of the Badshahi Mosque

elegant wall decorations. Conservation Update: The Alamgiri gate used to be washed with lime every year, and as a result there was a thick layer of lime wash on its walls. Now these layers of lime have been removed and the gate is being replastered. In the case of the Masti gate on the eastern side, in preparation for paving the walkway, a layer of mud was removed; this action unearthed another level of walkway. Work has been temporarily halted to allow for further research. A new apron has been added inside on the side of the Sikh period wall to block rising dampness. The deteriorated wooden roof of the rest house in the Shish Mahal Quadrangle has been replaced with a new one. Similarly, the roof of the Kharak Singh haveli has been replaced. The repair work on the Shish Mahal is now complete. New electrical wiring has been done throughout the gardens to improve the illumination of walkways and buildings.

Hazuri Bagh Garden

A Wall of Lahore Fort

Standing on the ramparts of Lahore Fort, one can see out over the city in many directions. Despite the density of modern urban settlement, one can imagine the web of routes that led out in Mughal times toward Multan in the south and Delhi in the east. Today the citizens of Lahore recall these Mughal connections when they speak of the tunnels that ran from Lahore Fort to gardens in all directions (Wescoat, Brand, and Mir, 1991). The most common tunnel story links the fort, Shalamar, and Delhi a path that reflects the form and pattern of Lahore in the mid-seventeenth century, at the pinnacle of its development.

A Garden Quadrangle

There are indeed extensive interconnected underground chambers beneath the garden

quadrangles of the fort, but none is known to extend beyond the walls of the fort. There are also alleged tunnels in haveli gardens of the walled city. Almost every blocked arch in a basement chamber is said to have been linked with prominent gardens and with the fort. Tunnel stories are common in many if not most parts of the world. Stafford (1984) explores early modern scientific queries about underground caves and tunnels. Subterranean tales have found expression in science fiction, occult mysteries, lost worlds, and imaginary passages encircling the world. The more modest network of tunnel stories about Lahore and South Asia reminds us of the historical connections between the city and outlying places, and the enduring social need for connectivity and coherence in the urban landscape.

View Past the Walls of the Fort

The Dai Anga Tomb One fact is certain: two routes led east from the walled city of Lahore toward Delhi. An early road ran from the walled city's Delhi Gate southeast through the village of Mian Mir, named after a prominent Sufi saint, toward Delhi. Another local road led northeast, paralleling the old river terrace through the villages of Begumpura and Baghbanpura, past Shalamar garden, and ultimately rejoining the old road to Delhi. With the construction of Shalamar garden, this northern route became the new alignment of the Grand Trunk Road, and it continues to serve that function today. Extensive residences, villages, shrines, and tomb-gardens began to line the new alignment of the Grand Trunk Road in the mid-seventeenth centuryvillages like Kot Khwaja Saeed, Bhogiwal, and Begumpura (Woman's Town). Begumpura is the most interesting village, in

terms of Mughal gardens, to survive along the Grand Trunk Road between Lahore Fort and Shalamar garden.

Gulabi Bagh Entrance

The sites of Begumpura developed over a hundred-year period from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. They include tombs, gardens, gates, walls, wells, mosques, shrines, and residential havelis. The principal garden site surrounds a tomb attributed to Sharf un-Nisa (d. 1671), or Dai Anga, wet nurse to Shah Jahan. She was a great patron of architecture in her own right and is known for a mosque she built in Lahore. Her tomb-garden is known as the Gulabi Bagh (rosewater garden). You enter the Gulabi Bagh from a beautiful tiledecorated gate located, as is the convention for Muslim tomb-gardens, on its southern side. Inscriptions on the gateway compare the garden with paradise. The numerical value of the garden name gives its date as 1066 AH, or 1655 AD (Latif, 1892, 134; Schimmel, 1993). However, the tomb of Dai Anga dates to 1671, which suggests that a residential garden was probably converted to the tomb-garden after her death. The garden was originally square, with the tomb placed in the center. The square measured 250 Mughal yards (gaz) on a side, slightly smaller than the tomb-garden of Asaf Khan in Shahdara, but larger than those of the great nobles Ali Mardan Khan and Mahabat Khan which lie to the south and east along the Grand Trunk Road. These dimensions indicate Dai Anga's social prominence and wealth. Although the proportions of her tomb, dome, and chattris are somewhat awkward, they retain vestiges of beautiful blue and yellow glazed tile-work on the exterior, and the most beautiful surviving floral wall paintings in Lahore inside.

Gulabi Bagh Entrance

Dai Anga Tomb Interior Detail

The Cypress Tomb

The Cypress Tomb

Exactly on axis with the tomb, to the north, lies the so-called Sarvwala Maqbara (Cypress Tomb), named after the tile decoration on its upper story. It is an unusual elevated structure said to be a place of meditation (chilla) and ultimately entombment for the sister of Nawab Zakaria Khan (Khokhar, 1982; Latif, 1892, 136). There is only one other place like this in Lahore, located in the village of Kot Khwaja Saeed and called by local residents Mai Dai, which suggests it too was associated with a prominent woman in Lahore. The Sarvwala Maqbara dates to the early or mid-eighteenth century and was originally surrounded by a garden, which is rapidly being filled in by urban settlement. Just west of Sarvwala Maqbara lies the village (abadi) of Begumpura. Its gateways, buildings, architectural details, and brickwork date to no earlier than 1700 (Baqir, 1984; Latif, 1892). Surviving structures include a mosque with abangla (Bengali)-style roof and yellow tile-work, a small serai, and a gateway with Sikh-styled plaster-work and brick details.

Tomb of Hazrat Eishan

Ali Mardan Khan's Tomb-Garden

West of the mosque lies the tomb of Khwaja Mahmud, known as Hazrat Eishan, a religious leader from Bukhara. According to Latif (139), Hazrat Eishan laid out a beautiful garden. Today, his tomb has a mosque and small graveyard nearby but no garden. To the northwest is the Sufi chilla place of Shah Badr Diwan, which does have a small garden around it. Due south from the tomb of Hazrat Eishan at a distance of several hundred yards lies the tomb-garden of Ali Mardan Khan (d. 1657), the great Persian canal and garden builder under Shah Jahan. His octagonal tomb was set within a garden some 160 to 200 gaz on a side. Begumpura reminds us that throughout the Mughal period, garden sites were built in relationship to one another; and that large areas of the suburban landscape had an orderly spatial organization. These points hold (albeit in a different way) at the next village east along the Grand Trunk Road, known as Baghbanpura (Village of Gardeners).

Area of the Anguri and Inayat Gardens

Traveling east along the present alignment of the Grand Trunk, beyond Begumpura lies the village of Baghbanpura, the "Village of Gardeners." Baghbanpura is the settlement most clearly associated with, and dependent upon, a Mughal garden. It served Shah Jahan's Farah Bakhsh and Faiz Bakhsh gardens, which later came to be known asShalamar. This village of gardeners was presumably made up of families of malis (gardeners) and other site attendants, traders, and artisans. They initially served Shalamar garden, but subsequently worked around other gardens that were built in the area, including the Anguri (grape) and Inayat(providence) gardens, fragments of which survive just south of the Grand Trunk Road today. This village was not located in a prime horticultural area, from the standpoint of soils or vegetation. Instead, it lay at the best site for a Mughal garden in Lahore: a sharp escarpment created by the scouring of the Ravi River at some point in the sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

The Shrine of Shah Abdul Ghani

Along that terrace lie tombs, graves, and gardens from the village of Kot Khwaja Saeed to Bhogiwal, Bhagbanpura, and beyond. Kot Khwaja Saeed has a tomb-garden attributed variously to Dara Shikoh, Prince Parvez, or to the sons of Parvez. Bhogiwal has the tomb-garden of Mian Khan (d. 1671), later known as the Raja Bagh after Raja Sochet Singh, which is distinguished by the unusual black marble cladding on its plinth. To the east is the shrine of Shah Abdul Ghani, the original construction of which was attributed to Dara Shikoh but which has been rebuilt many times since. Other prominent Mughal period monuments in the area include the mosque of Khwaja Ayaz and

The Shrine of Madho Lal Hussain

the shrine of Madho Lal Hussain. Hussain is renowned for his Punjabi mystical love poems.

Original Main Entry to Shalamar Garden

At the base of this river terrace, northeast of Madho Lal Hussain, runs the old road that served as the main entry to Shalamar garden. Although metropolitan Lahore has expanded far beyond this road and suburban garden outpost of Mughal times, the exuberance of bazaars, shrines, and schools in Baghbanpura today gives a sense of at least some aspects of this historic "Village of Gardeners."

A Mali (Gardener)

Today only a few dozen gardeners tend the plots that were once manicured by hundreds of malis (gardeners) who lived in Baghbanpura. Although they remember some stories about the descendents of the malis of Shalamar, none of the gardeners employed there today is said to be related to the gardeners of Mughal times.

Mian Mir Burial Site

After the construction of Shahjahanabad, Shah Jahan's new capital at Delhi, and the consequent eclipse of Lahore, traffic along the Grand Trunk road returned to its earlier southeasterly alignment from the Delhi Gate of the Walled City. This southeastward alignment, marked in Mughal times by kos minars (distancemarkers), persisted until the Sikh conquest of Punjab, which made the northeasterly route to and from Lahore to the holy city of Amritsar important again

Dara Shikoh with One of the key settlements along this southeasterly Mian Mir and Mulla alignment, in the farthest suburbs of Lahore, was a Shah community known as Mian Mir, named for the famous Sufi saint buried there in 1635. The Mian Mir area

acquired special spiritual significance for the Mughal dynasty during the governorship of Prince Dara Shikoh, who sought advice from Mulla Shah, a disciple of Mian Mir. Over time, the sites established in the Mian Mir area achieved a remarkable synthesis of Mughal and Sufi tradition.

Devotees at Mian Mir Site

The central site in this area is naturally the shrine of Mian Mir. The shrine is square in shape, green in color, and elevated above the stone courtyard. On Thursday evenings and the `urs (death-day anniversary) of Mian Mir it has hundreds of devotees, qawwali singers, drummers, and harmonium players. The courtyard has entrances to the north and south with a mosque on its western side. To the east, within the courtyard, lie graves of close relatives and disciples, while an expansive graveyard extends to the south and west outside. Further east, on axis, is the tank and tomb of Nadira Begum. Despite numerous traditions to the contrary, Nadira Begum was a wife of Dara Shikoh. She was buried in a tank-pavilion which resembles a garden in some respects and the Hiran Minar in others. Today the tomb appears to be set within a garden, but it was originally situated in a tank much like that at the Hiran Minar in Sheikhupura. The tank was exactly 200 by 200 Mughal gaz in size. The "tomb" has the form of a central square pavilion which faces due west toward the shrine of Mian Mir. As at Nur Jahan's tomb, Nadira Begum's pavilion has an open character and may have been converted to a tomb after her death. Mulla Shah also built the famous Pari Mahal school-garden in Kashmir. To the south of the shrine of Mian Mir is a large graveyard (qabristan) with diverse notables including one Nateh Shah, who had special powers with respect to weather and meteorological phenomena (e.g., rain). Of great relevance to the subject of Mughal garden history is the shrine-garden of Mulla Shah, further to the west. Mulla Shah was a disciple of Mian Mir and spiritual preceptor of Prince Dara Shikoh, who built the tomb-garden for this saint in what constitutes a very rare example of synthesis between Sufi and Mughal

Tomb of Nadira Begum

Graveyard near Mian Mir

tomb-garden design. Conservation Update: Several quadrants of the Nadira Begum complex have been landscaped. Although the plantings were not based on archaeological sources, the population of Lahore enjoys the shade, flowering shrubs, and grass lawns at the site. The Mian Mir tomb complex is well-maintained on account of its spiritual significance, as is the Mullah Shah tomb-garden. A marble apron has been added around the tomb, and the ablution area has been finished with glazed tiles.
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