Pakistan, the Indus land -
Professor Dr.
Ahmad Hasan Dani
Pakistan, the Indus land, is the child of the Indus in the
same way as Egypt is the gift of Nile. The Indus has provided unity, fertility,
communication, direction and the entire landscape to the country. Its location
marks it as a great divide as well as a link between central Asia and south
Asia. But the historical movements of the people from Central Asia and South
Asia have given to it a character of its own and have established closer
relation between the people of Pakistan and those of Central Asia in the field
of culture, language, literature, food, dress, furniture and folklore. However,
it is the Arabian Sea that has opened the doors for journey beyond to the
Arabian world through the Gulf and Red Sea right into the ancient civilization
of Mesopotamia and Egypt. It is this Sea voyage that gave to the Indus Land its
earliest name of Meluhha because the Indus people were characterized as Malahha
(Sailor) in the Babylonian records. It is for this reason that the oldest
civilization of this land, called Indus Civilization, had unbreakable bonds of
culture and trade link with the Gulf States of Dubai, Abu Dabi, Sharja, Qatter,
Bahrain and right from Oman to Kuwait. While a Meluhhan village sprang up in
ancient Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq), the Indus seals, painted pottery, lapis
lazuli and many other items were exchanged for copper, tin and several other
objects from Oman and Gulf States. It is to facilitate this trade that the Indus
writing was evolved in the same proto-symbolic style as the contemporary
cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia. Much later in history it is the pursuit of
this seaward trade that introduced Islam from Arabia in to Pakistan. The twin
foundations of cultural link have helped build the stable edifice of Islamic
civilization in this country. All these cultural developments are writ-large in
the personality of the people of Pakistan.
As in many other countries of the world, man in Pakistan
began with the technology of working on old stone by using quartzite and flint
found in Rohri hills and stone pebbles found in the Soan Valley. The oldest
stone tool in the world, going back to 2.2 million years old, has been found at
Rabat, about fifteen miles away from Rawalpindi, thus breaking the African
record. The largest hand Axe has also been found in the Soan Valley. Although
man is still hiding in some corner, the Soan pebble stone age culture show a
link with the Hissar Culture in Central Asia. Later about fifty thousand B.C. at
Sangho Cave in Mardan District man improved his technology for working on Quartz
in order to chase the animal in closed valleys. Still later he worked on micro
quartz and chert or flint and produced arrows, knives, scrapers and blades and
hunted the feeling deer and ibexes with bow and arrow. Such an hunting scene is
well illustrated on several rock carvings, particularly near Chilas in the
Northern Areas of Pakistan along the Karakorum Highway - a style of rock art so
well known in the trans- Pamir region of Tajikistan and Kirghizstan. However,
the first settled life began in the eight millennium B.C. when the first village
was found at Mehergarh in the Sibi districts of Balochistan comparable with the
earliest villages of Jericho in Palestine and Jarmo in Iraq. Here their mud
houses have been excavated and agricultural land known for the cultivation of
maize and wheat. Man began to live together in settled social life and used
polished stone tools, made pots and pans, beads and other ornaments. His taste
for decoration developed and he began to paint his vessels, jars, bowls,
drinking glasses, dishes and plates. It was now that he discovered the advantage
of using metals for his tools and other objects of daily use. For the first time
in seventh millennium B.C. he learnt to use bronze. From the first revolution in
his social, cultural and economic life. He established trade relation with the
people of Turkamenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and other Arab world.
He not only specialized in painting different designs on
pottery, made varieties of pots and used cotton and wool but also made
terracotta figurines and imported precious stones from Afghanistan and Central
Asia. This early bronze age culture spread out in the country side of Sindh,
Balochistan, Punjab and North West Frontier Province.
And this early beginning led to the concentration of
population into small towns. Such as Kot-Diji in Sindh and Rehman Dheri in Dera
Ismail Khan District. It is this social and Cultural change that led to the rise
of the famous cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappra, the largest concentration of
population including artisans, craftsman, businessmen and rulers. This
culminated in the peak of the Indus Civilization, which was primarily based on
intensive irrigated land agriculture and overseas trade and contact with Iran,
Gulf States, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Dams were built for storing river water,
land was Cultivated by means of bullock- harnessed plough - a system that still
prevails in Pakistan, granaries for food storage were built, furnace were used
for controlling temperature for making red pottery and various kinds of
ornaments, beads of carnelian, agate and terracotta were pierced through, and
above all they traded their finished goods with Central Asia and Arab world. It
is these trade divided that enriched the urban populace who developed a new
sense of moral honesty, discipline and cleanliness, and above all a social
stratification in which the priests and the mercantile class dominated the
society. The picture of high civilization can be gathered only by looking at the
city of Mohenjodaro, the first planned city in the world, in which streets are
aligned straight, parallels to each other, with a cross streets cutting at right
angles. It is through these wide streets that wheeled carriages, drawn by bulls
or asses, moved about, carrying well-adorned persons seated on them,
appreciating the closely aligned houses, made of pucca bricks, all running
straight along the streets. And then through the middle of the streets ran stone
dressed drains covered with stone slabs - a practice of keeping the streets
clean from polluted water, for the first time seen in the world.
The Indus Civilization is the first literate Civilization of
the subcontinent. The cities were centres of art and craft. Where the artisan
produced several kinds of goods that were exported to other countries. Sailing
boats sailed out from Mohenjodaro and anchored in the port of the Gulf, which
region was perhaps known as Dilmin. However, it was the city administration that
managed the urban life in strict discipline and controlled the trade in their
hands. The discipline is derived from the strict practice of meditation (yoga)
that was practiced by the elite of the city, who appear to have trimmed their
beard and hair combed and tied with golden fillets. The body was covered with a
shawl bearing trefoil designs on them. Such a noble man with a sharp nose and
long wish eyes shows a contrast with a bronze figurine of a dancing and singing
girl, plying music with her fully bang led hand, as we find today with the
Cholistan ladies having bangled hands. Obviously there were distinctive ethnic
groups of people in Mohenjodaro but the dominant class of rulers and merchants
appear to be distinctive from the rest of the population. It is these literate
people who inter- acted with the Arabian people and continued to maintain strict
discipline in the society. It is they who developed astronomy, mathematics, and
science in the country along with numerical symbols, weights and measures but
they thoroughly intermixed in the society and also believed in the local cult of
tree and tree deities and animal totems. The most prominent animals as attested
in the seals are bull, buffalo, elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, alligator and deer
and ibexes. However, Mesopotamian influences are seen in the figures of
Gilgamash, Enkidu, joint statue of the bull and man and other animals with
several heads and bodies. However, the unique local concept is that of highly
meditative man, seated in his heels, with three or four heads, and combining in
himself the power to control the animals probably with a crown of horns or some
times a tree overhead. It is this supreme deity, depicted on Seals, that draws
the serpent worshippers and overpowers the animals. A part from these there was
no concept of nature worship as we find in the Vedas of the Aryans. The ritual
consisted of offerings through the intermediary of mythological composite
animals to the tree deity. These dose not appear to have been any concept of
animals sacrifice nor worship of any idol or idols. The Indus civilization
lasted for nearly five hundred years and flourished up to 1750 B.C. when we
notice the movements of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. As a result the Asian
trade system was greatly disturbed. Consequently the trade and industry of the
Indus people greatly suffered with the result that led to the end of the
Civilization. The cities vanished, the noble lost their position. The writing
finished. The common people met with the influx of new horse-riding pastoralists
who hardly understood the system of irrigated agriculture and hence the value of
dams. Such nomadic tribes are known from the large number of graves and their
village settlements all over Swat, Dir and Bajaur right up to Taxila. In the
Northern Areas of Pakistan different group of such tribes, known as Dardic
people are known from their graves. The tribes of the plains are recognized as
different groups of the Aryans from the hilly tribes of the North- the ancestors
of the Kalash people and those who now speak Shina, Burushaski and other
Kohistani languages. They had nothing to do with the cities as we find them
building small villages nor did they know irrigation. Infect they believed in
nature gods, one of them Indra destroyed the dams and spelled disaster on the
local Dasyus who differed from them in colour, creed and language. These Aryans
conquerors developed there own religion of the Vedas, practiced animal sacrifice
and gradually built up tribal kingdoms all over the Indus Valley. The most
prominent being that of Gandhara with capitals at Pushkalavati (modern
Charsadda) and Taxila, the last having been the older capital of Takshaka, the
king of serpent worshippers. Taksha-sila (a Sanskrit word, literally translated
in to Persian Mari-Qila) survive in modern Margala. It become the strong hold of
the Aryans, whose great epic book Mahabharata was for the first time recited
here. Since that time Takshka-sila or Taxila lying on the western side of
Margala remained the capital of the Indus land, which was called Sapta- Sindhu
(the land of seven rivers) by the Aryans. It because of this central location,
en routs from Central to South Asia that the new capital of Pakistan has been
established at Islamabad on the eastern side of Margala hill , thus giving a
historical link from the most ancient to modern time and new significance to
Pakistan as a link between Central and South Asia.
The city of Taxila began to grow from 6th century B.C. onward
when Achaemenian kings by name Cyrus and Darius joined this city by road and
postal services with their own capital at Persepolis in Iran. Here one can see
the Aryan village at Hatial mound lying above the pre-Aryan bronze age capital
of Takshakas (Serpent worshippers). One can also visit the Achaemenian city at
Bhir mound, where old bazaars and royal palace, with long covered drain, have
been discovered. Land rout trade with Iran and the west once again started with
the issue of coin currency for the first time in the Indus land. But the most
important was the great use of iron technology, which produced several kind of
iron tools, weapons and other objects of daily use as known as from the
excavations at Taxila. Above all a new writing known as Kharoshti was developed
here. At the same time the oldest University of the world was founded at Taxila,
where taught the great grammarian Panini, born at the modern village of Lahur in
Sawabi district of the Frontier Province. It is the basis of this grammar that
modern linguistics has been developed. It is in this University that Chandra
Gupta Maurya got his education, who later founded the first sub continental
empire in South Asia. He developed the Mauryan city at Bhir mound in Taxila,
where ruled his grandson, Ashoka, twice as governor. He introduced Buddhism in
Gandhara and built the first Buddhist monastery, called Dharmarajika Vihara, at
Taxila. Ashoka has left behind his Rock Edicts at two palaces, one at Mansehra
and another at Shahbazgari, written in Kharoshti.
Long before the rise of Chandra Gupta Maurya the Achaemenian
empire, that had extended from Pakistan to Greece and Egypt, had collapsed under
the onslaught of Alexander of Macedonia. He first finished with the Greek city
states, united the Greeks, and dashed forward to annex the Achaemenian empire
and hence proceeded to all those places where the Achaemenian had ruled. In this
march they come to Taxila in 326 B.C. where he was welcomed by the local king
Ambhi in his palace at Bhir mound. It is here as well as at Bhira in Jhelum
district that Alexander's remains can be seen. However, he fought the greatest
battale on the bank of the Jhelum river opposite the present village of Jalalpur
Sharif against Porus, the head of the heroic Puru tribe, whose descendents still
supply military personal to the Pakistan army. Alexander's battle place was at
Mong, where he founded a new city, called Nikea, the city of victory. The other
city which he founded was called Bucaphela after the name of his horse that died
here. However, the most captivating site is at Jalalpur Shaif, laying on the
bank of rivulet Gandaria, perhaps Sikanaria, where Alexander's monument has now
been built on the spot where he stopped for about two months before launching
his attack on Porus.
The Achaemenian and Alexander's contacts with Pakistan are
very important from the point of view of educational and Cultural history. The
Achaemenian brought the learning and science of Mesopotamia Civilization that
enriched the University of Taxila. They also introduced their administrative
system here, on the basis of which the famous book on political science, called
Arthasastra was written in Sanskrit language in Taxila by Kautilya, known as
Chanakya, the teacher of Chandra Gupta Maurya. It is this book that was adapted
for the administrative of the Mauryan empire. On the basis of Achaemenian
currency the Mauryan punch marked coins. So well known in Taxila, were produced.
It is their Aramaic writing, used by Achaemenian clerks, that led to the
development of Kharoshti in Pakistan and trade with the Semitic world that
created the Brahmi writing in India. On the other hand Alexander brought Greek
knowledge and science to Taxila and introduced Greek type of coin currency. It
is Taxila that philosophers and men of learning of the two countries met and
developed science, mathematics and astronomy. Above all Alexander left behind
large number of Greeks in Central Asia, who founded the Bactrian Greek kingdom
in mid-third century B.C. it is the descendants of these Bactrian Greeks who
later advanced in to Pakistan and built up the Greek kingdom here and built up
their own city at Sirkap in Taxila. This is the second well planned city in
Pakistan. The Greeks introduced their language, art and religion in the country
of Gandhara, where ruled thirteen Greek kings and queens. Their language lasted
more than five hundred years and their art and religion and considerable
influence on the flourish of Gandhara Civilization.
This civilization was the result of interaction of several
peoples who followed the Greeks, the Scythians, the Parthians and Kushans who
came one the other from Central Asia along the Silk Road and integrated them
selves into the local society. It is under their patronage that Buddhism evolved
here into its new Mahayana form and this become the religion of the contemporary
people in Pakistan. Under their encouragement the Buddhist monks moved along the
Silk Road freely and carried this religion to central Asia, China, Korea and
Japan. It is again the trade along the silk road that was particularly
controlled by the Kushana emperors, who built a mighty empire with Peshawar as
their Capital, the boundaries of which extended from the Aral Sea to the Arabian
Sea and from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal. It is the dividends of trade that
enriched Pakistan and led to the development of Gandhara Art, which mirrors the
social, religious and common man's life of the time. It is an art that was blend
of the Greek classical and local arts, which created the finest statues of
Buddha and Buddhisatttvas that today decorate the museums all over the world. At
the same time the sculpture depict the whole life of the Buddha in a manner that
is unsurpassed. Many Greek themes, their gods, typical toilet trays, Greek life
scenes showing musicians, drinking bouts and love making are presented in there
natural fashion. The Kushanas period was the golden age of Pakistan as the Silk
Road trade brought unparalleled prosperity to the people of the country.
The luxury items produced in the country enrich the museum at
Taxila at that show the Cultural and trends of life of the time. Gandhara art is
the high water achievement of the people of Pakistan. Mahayana Buddhism was the
inspiring ideal of the time and the Buddhist stupas and monasteries survive in
every nook and corner of the hills. It was this time that the country was known
as Kushana-shahar, the land of the Kushanas, to which came the Romanships to
carry the luxury goods in exchange for Roman Siler and Gold, that were used by
the Kushana emperors and as a result their gold currency flooded the country and
all along the Silk road. It is these Kushana kings who have gifted the national
dress of shalwar and kamiz and sherwani to Pakistan. Their dress and decorations
are deeply imprinted on the Indus land, that is now Pakistan.
Then came from Central Asia the Huns and the Turks who gave
to Pakistan the present ethnic, their Culture, Food and Adab. The Jats,
Gakkhars, Janjuas (Jouanjouan of the Chinese) and Gujars all trekked into
Pakistan and made their home here. The Rajput rose and founded the feudal system
in Punjab and Sindh in the same way the Pashtuns, who borrowed the surname of
Gul and later the title of Khan from the Mongols, their Sardari system in
Balochistan, and slowly developed the Wadera
practice in the Indus delta region of Sindh. This feudal arrangements, which was
the result of confederated tribes of the Huns, led to new administrative system
in the country and created a new form of land management that has lasted until
today. The tribes have fused into the agricultural society but their
brotherhoods have survived and they have given a permanent character to
Pakistan.
In the early eight Century A.D. the Arabs brought Islam in
Sindh and Multan built up the kingdom of Al-Mansurah in Sindh. At the same time
their east ward Sea trade introduced porcelain and called on were from China and
popularized glass were from Iran Syria- new materials that can be seen in the
excavations at Bambhore in Sindh. With the Muslims Turks came the Sufis and
Dervishes from Central Asia. Iran and Afghanistan and they spread Islam all over
the country. It is Sultan Mahamud of Ghazni who made Lahore- the city of Data
Sahib as his second capital. However, the city of Multan become famous as the
city of Saints although it lay en route the camel caravan that carried on trade
between Pakistan and Central Asia right up to Baku in Azerbaijan. It is these
cities that the famous Muslims monuments of old are to be seen. As a result of
the Saintly activity Pakistan become a land of Islamic Civilization. In several
villages and cities we now find the Dargah of these Muslims Saints. While
Shahbaz Kalandar is a well known in Sindh, Baba Farid Shakarganj resided over
Pak Pattan in Punjab, Buner Baba rules over the Frontier region, and Syed Ali
Hamdani is the real Sufi Saint in Kashmir. The capital city of Islamabad
enshrines the well known Golra Sharif and Barri Imam. It is in these Saints who
influenced the development of Sufi literature in all the languages of Pakistan
and their monumental tombs that attract the people from all the country. In the
old city of Thatta at Makli hill several tombs and Mausoleums are spread over
the place that surpass in the beauty of stone carving but much more than this
they evidence the historical evolution of architecture from 12th century A.D. to
the Mughal time.
This was a period of great change in the historical
integration of the people in Pakistan when the country was brought closer to
Central Asia and the Arab world. The mixing of several tribes from both these
regions transformed the ethnic complex of the country. Just as in the period of
Kushanas of Mahayana type rose here and the Buddhist monks out from this land
along the Silk road to carry the massage of the Buddha, now it was the Arabs and
the Muslims Saints from Central Asia who came in the reverse direction and
flocked in the prosperous land of Pakistan. New trade route were opened in the
reverse direction from those countries into the Indus land. From the Huns to the
Turks the age of cavalry dominated the life scene. Many Rock carvings in Central
Punjab show men riding, even standing on horse back and brandishing their swords
and shooting arrows. Hence forward Polo game become common and sword dance was
common, as seen in the Rock carving near Chilas. The foundation of Muslims state
was firmly laid, in which the dominate position first occupied by the Arabs in
Sindh and Multan and later by the Gaznavid and Ghorid Sultans who made the Indus
country as their spring board from the onward conquest of India. A beautiful
monument in memory of sultan Ghori can be seen at Suhawa on the National
Highway. It was therefore in the fitness of things that the first missile made
in Pakistan was named after Ghori. Several Muslims kingdoms grew up in this
country. Beginning from north we find the Tarkhan ruling dynasty, who came from
trans-pamir region here and become supreme in the Gilgit area. The descendent of
Shah Mir founded the Muslims Sultanate in Kashmir maintained its independents
until the time of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The Pushtun tribes made their
movements and asserted their independence in the land watered by the western
branch of the Indus River. The Langhas and later the Arghuns become the Master
of Multan. The Sama ruling dynasty started a new era of Cultural development and
prosperity in Sindh. The Baluchis in concert with Brahuis leapt forward not only
to build their kingdom in Balochistan but also migrated eastward and northward.
Apart from these political shape of the country, there was an unparalleled
development in art and architecture, literature and music, and particularly new
social integration took place on the basis of the patronage of local languages,
such as Baluchi, Sindhi, Panjabi, Pashto, Kashmiri, Shina and Burushaski. All
these languages received literary form with the support of the Muslims rulers
and the first time their literatures began to take shape. They received
influence from Arabic and Persian and added many themes from the Folklores as
well as from those of Central Asia. Such an unusual developments transformed the
society with the stories from Shahnama and Hazar Dastan and with the Folk-tales
from Lila-Majnun, Sassi-Punnu and Hir-Ranjha. The stringed instruments, the
dholak and the dhap and also flute and trinklets gave a new tone to the life of
the people of Multan, Thatta, Marha Shrif in D.I. Khan, Swat and Kashmir, and
finally Gilgit, Hunza and Baltistan created the finest architecture of the time.
That was the period of new religious activity in the country side when Islam
become the dominant religion of the people who were directly linked in religious
ties with the people of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Arab world.
The migrant people had brought the new technology of
straining the horse from Central Asia and Iran. Were ever the horse galloped
right up the corner of Bengal and Orissa, the Turks and Afghans advanced from
Pakistan and established new empires. Here the artisans and craftsman gathered
in new centre, cities began to grow with new craft mohallas, and they began to
specialise in the products of Shawl and carpets in Kashmir, chapkan, chadar and
dopatta in Punjab and Chitral and Northern Areas, tile work in Multan, Hala and
Hyderabad, block printing in Sindh and fine carpentry in Chiniot, Bhira and Dera
Ismail Khan. As a result several families occupied themselves in traditional
crafts and passed them on to their own children.
Then came the Mughal emperors, descendent of Amir Timur, who,
following the Mongol ruler Changiz Khan, had embarked on building a new world
empire on the basis of organizing a new type of cavalry and making a new
disciplined army in the unites of hundred and thousand. The later still survive
in the name of Hazara both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The first Mughal
emperor, Zahiruddin Muhammad Baber, who had to come out from Farghana, brought a
new taste of poetry, baghicha and architectural forms from the natural
environment and landscape from Farghana and Samarqand, latter city reflecting
the delicious water of Zarafshan (golden) river. Baber built his first terraced
garden in Kabul and then choose the beautiful spot at Kalda or Kallar Kahar in
Chakwal district and built here Bagh-i-Safa on the very spot marked by this
throne seat. It was again terraced garden watered by a near by spring. At the
old Bhira on the bank of Jhelum he built a fort and then proceeded to Shah Dara
(the Royal pass Gate) that opened his route the city of Lahore. At Shah Dara
several garden were laid by by the Mughal noblemen but only one is preserved
inside Jahangir tomb that was built by his queen Nur Jehan who lies buried in
another mausoleums. The tomb along with the garden is now desolate. There is
also Kamran's baradari, without the garden, that still defies the flood of the
Ravi river. When the Mughal emperors followed Baber one after the other, they
choose the old Lahore on the bank of Ravi to their main Urban centres in Punjab.
It was developed as a city of gardens with numerous gardens around but the main
Mughal fortress was built in an Island, surrounded by the Ravi on the three
sides and only on the east it was joined to the city proper. Here third Mughal
emperor Akbar transferred his capital from Agra to meet the challenge of cousin
Mirza Hakim. Here he laid the foundation of a typical Mughal citadel with royal
residences, called Akbari Mahal and Jahangiri Mahal, with a prominent
Diwan-i-Aam built in the traditional Iranian style, all constructed in red sand
stone imported from Rajistan. Later Akbar's grandson Shah Jehan, the King of
architecture, transformed many buildings and renewed to his taste with white
marble. He added Diwan-i-Khas that overlooked Ravi, his palace and Turkish Bath
and still more important the Moti Masjid, the gem of monuments, with beautiful
decorative designs in precious stones set in marble.
However, his choicest building is the Shish Mahal, the Mirror
Palace that was the constructed by the side of a Char-bagh style garden with
running water channel and fountains, but later destroyed by the Sikhs, and
quadrangles remodelled. Such garden, called Mehtab, can be seen in other
quadrangles in the Fort. The Shish Mahal is the luxurious place of resort
particularly during summer months with rest rooms of a long hall at its either
end, opening on to the brilliantly dazzling Veranda that looks at the marble
paved quadrangle with a fountain in the middle side. The mirror reflects the
stars and the bedrooms presents, in its ceiling, the panorama of a star lit Sky.
On the western side there is a unique building of Bengali style, called
Naulakha, whose brilliance of precious stone outshone the natural setting of
flowers and tree leaves that decorate the walls. Alas ' the Sikh and British
soldiers have robbed many of the precious stones. Even then the Shish Mahal,
even in its changed character by the Sikhs, presents a dazzling brilliance in
its perfect creation by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan. It is the climax of
Mughal luxury surpassed nowhere in the world.
The exterior wall of the Shish Mahal one can see the
beautiful mosaic paintings that depict everyday sport of the Mughal princes for
the enjoyment of the people who used to gather below the fort not only to have a
view of the emperor sitting in the Jharokha but also to admire the brilliance of
colour on the wall. Here one can observe galloping horses, humped camels,
elephant ride, hunting scene, animal fights, horse man plying polo or chaughan,
camel fights, figures of angels, demon head sand moving clouds, horse and
elephant riders crossing Swords and verities of floral and geometrical designs.
There are three gates to enter the fort, all three of them showing different
tastes. The Masti (or correctly Masjid) Gate on the east shows Akbar's taste of
red sand stone. The Shahburj gate on the west presents the fine mosaic
decorations of the time of Janhangir. The last is the Alamgiri gate built by
Emperor Aurangzeb, showing tasteful simple entrance with multiple facetted Tower
at either end, crowned by Kiosks.
From Shish Mahal one can have a magnificent view of the
Badashahi Masjid built by Aurangzeb on a spot regained after the river Ravi
shifted further away. Its magnificent Stair way leading to the elegant red sand
stone gate way on the east is highly impressive. It is on the left side that
later the tomb of Allama Iqbal was built. The gate way, which is preserved the
relic of the Prophet and also in one of the copy of the Holy Qur'an with
brilliant calligraphy, leads into a wide open courtyard, having a washing pond
in its middle, and rows of cells on its sides. On its west is the main prayer
chamber of oblong shape marked by four tall corner towers. On its roof are three
marble dooms of bulbous shape that attract the eye from a long distance. The
interior of the mosque has chaste decoration in the mehrab chamber that opened
in to equally well decorated side aisles. It has a Verandah on the front that is
again tastefully decorated. But the most elegant are the tall towers at four
corners of the quadrangle, from the top of which one can have an unforgettable
view of the city of Lahore.
There are two other beauties in the city of which the
greatest monumental gems of Lahore. The first is the most chaste fully painted
mosque of Wazir Khan, which was once the centre of religious and educational
activities during the Mughals period. In its original design the mosque was
fronted by an open maidan that presented from a distance a marvellous view of
the mosque. It was built by Ilmuddin Ansari, hailing from the old trading city
of Chiniot, but later he gave rise to the city of Wazirabad. He was raised to
the high post of governor by Shah Jehan for his devoted service and great skill
of Hikmat. But of greater importance in his taste of decorative architecture
which he has translated into this mosque. The mosque plan, which is typical
Mughals style but for its squat domes has tall minarets crowned by tasteful
Chhatris. The most attractive is the mosaic ornamentation of the facade, the
minars, and particularly the mihrab, which remains unsurpassed in its setting
and choice of decorations and calligraphic work. In its charging decoration the
mosque symbolises high sense of taste and marks a magnificent attraction in
Lahore, to which both Shah Jehan as well as his officials gave a new face of
colour and charm.
And yet the greatest jewel of the city of Lahore is the
Shalimar Bagh, the unique pleasure resort that has been gifted to the world by
the Mughal emperors. With paying a visit to this garden one can hardly
understand the Mughal love for pleasances. In its creation what a real pleasure
they have bestowed to the people of Lahore. The garden sumbolises the elixir of
life that the Mughals alone could imagine. They had long left Farghana but the
beauteous charm of its terraced fields lingered behind that has been recaptured
in the Char bagh style of the garden in Shalimar, as Taj Mahal in Agra is the
symbol of unforgettable love of emperor Shah Jehan, in the form of unique
architectural creation, for the beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal, so is the Shalimar,
the epitome, of Shala (fire of love), the embodiment of the highest playful joy
in life that the emperor and empress could have in this world. The garden is a
combination of Char baghs, water channels, fountains, Cascades, water falls and
bathing hall in three different terraces, each terrace headed by beautiful
pavilions for a pause of pleasurable enjoyment and then to pass on the other
ponds of joy, inset with showering fountains, each terrace presenting varieties
in scenic complex. Starting from a elaborate gate way in the south , with a
water fountain in its middle chamber, we enter the open space, surrounded on
right and left, by residential quarters, having long walkways, in the middle of
either side of a channel marked by fountain, that join together on the four
sides on a watery platform. And then we pass to the first pavilion that looks at
a square pond remarkable sitting a cascade of a water falling down below the
pavilion, series of fountains around a central seat for musicians and dancers
and smaller pavilions at the four corners. From the top pavilion the elite
royalties draw their pleasure from the scenic panorama in front and from the
corner pavilions guests could roll in pleasance and enjoy the music of the
running fountains coupled with the music of the singers and dancers. The next
lower terrace begin with a rare bathing hall in the middle with water fountains
lower down and lighted lamps in the arched niches of the walls. Here one could
cool the legs during summer months- a novel way of cooling the atmosphere in the
days when there were no electricity and air conditioners. And thus we find here
a thrilling atmosphere where natural art has been channelised in the service of
man. What a creation of charming loveliness that is combined with cooling water
in various forms to soothe the evening of warm Lahore.
That is not all of Mughal architecture. If one likes to see
the Mughal fondness for hunting, one can go to Sheikhupura, not far from Lahore
, and admire the construction of Hiran Minar by Emperor Jahangir on the spot
where his dearly loved deer died. That minar stands by the side of a tank which
has in its middle a three storied pavilion for a general view around. If one is
interested to see the defence arrangements of the Mughals, one can go to Attock
on the bank of the Indus River, where Akbar built a magnificent fort, made
arrangements for crossing the river by boat-bridge and laid a new road south of
the Kabul river leading to Peshawar through the Khyber pass to Kabul. And then
come to Attock the empress Nur Jahan, who constructed here a caravan serai,
known as Begum Ki Serai, with a platform at its four corners and living rooms
cooled by the Indus breeze. It is from one of the top platform that one could
look at the magnificent expanse of the Indus River, full of flowing life and
natural beauty, that perhaps will remain as the lasting memory of the Indus
land, that is Pakistan
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