New Imperial Capital.—The turn of Fortune's Wheel has again made Delhi an imperial city. The transfer of the seat of government from Calcutta announced by the King Emperor at the darbár, is now being carried out. The site will probably extend from Safdar Jang's tomb to a point lying to the west of Firoz Sháh's citadel.
Lahore (31.34 N., 74.21 E.). The capital of the Panjáb lies on the east bank of the Ráví, which once flowed close to the Fort, but has moved a mile or two to the west. In high floods the waters still spread over the lowlands between the Ráví and the Fort. Lahore lies nearly halfway between Delhi and Pesháwar, being nearer to the latter than to the former.
Early History.—Practically we know nothing of its history till Mahmúd conquered the Panjáb and put a garrison in a fort at Lahore. Henceforth its history was intimately connected with Muhammadan rule in India. Whether north-western India was ruled from Ghazní or from Delhi, the chief provincial governor had his headquarters at Lahore. In the best days of Moghal rule Agra and Lahore were the two capitals of the Empire. Lahore lay on the route to Kábul and Kashmír, and it was essential both to the power and to the pleasures of the Emperors that it should be strongly held and united to Delhi and Agra by a Royal or Bádsháhí Road. The City and the Suburbs in the reign of Sháhjahán probably covered three or four times the area occupied by the town in the days of Sikh rule. All round the city are evidences of its former greatness in ruined walls and domes.
The Civil Station.—The Anárkalí gardens and the buildings near them mark the site of the first Civil Station. John Lawrence's house, now owned by the Rája of Punch, is beyond the Chauburjí on the Multán Road. The Civil Lines have stretched far to the south-east in the direction of the Cantonment, which till lately took its name from the tomb of Mian Mír, Jahangír's spiritual master. The soil is poor and arid. Formerly the roads were lined with dusty tamarisks. But of late better trees have been planted, and the Mall is now quite a fine thoroughfare. The Lawrence Hall Gardens and the grounds of Government House show what can be done to produce beauty out of a bad soil when there is no lack of water. There is little to praise in the architecture or statuary of modern Lahore. The marble canopy over Queen Victoria's statue is however a good piece of work. Of the two cathedrals the Roman Catholic is the better building. The Montgomery Hall with the smaller Lawrence Hall attached, a fine structure in a good position in the public gardens, is the centre of European social life in Lahore. Government House is close by, on the opposite side of the Mall. Its core, now a unique and beautiful dining-room with domed roof and modern oriental decoration, is the tomb of Muhammad Kásim Khán, a cousin of Akbar. Jamadár Khushál Singh, a well-known man in Ranjít Singh's reign, built a house round the tomb. After annexation, Henry Lawrence occupied it for a time, and Sir Robert Montgomery adopted it as Government House. It is now much transformed. Beyond Government House on the road to the Cantonment are the Club and the Panjáb Chiefs' College, the only successful attempt in Lahore to adapt oriental design to modern conditions.
Fig. 147. Street in Lahore.
The Indian City.—In its streets and bazárs Lahore is a truly eastern city, and far more interesting than Delhi, so far as private buildings are concerned. In public edifices it possesses some fine examples of Moghal architecture. Every visitor should drive through the town to the Fort past Wazír Khán's mosque. Under British rule the height of the city wall has been reduced by one-half and the moat filled in and converted into a garden. Wazír Khán's mosque founded in 1634 by a Panjábí minister of Sháhjahán, is a noble building profusely adorned with glazed tiles and painted panels. The Golden Mosque was constructed 120 years later about the same time as Safdar Jang's tomb at Delhi. The palace fort, built originally by Akbar, contains also the work of his three successors. The Shísh Mahal or Hall of Mirrors, which witnessed the cession of the Panjáb to the Queen of England, was begun by Sháhjahán and finished by Aurangzeb. The armoury contains a curious collection of weapons. The Bádsháhí Mosque opposite with its beautiful marble domes and four lofty minarets of red sandstone was founded in 1673 in the reign of Aurangzeb. The cupolas were so shaken by an earthquake in 1840 that they had to be removed. Mahárája Ranjít Singh used the mosque as a magazine. In the space between it and the Fort he laid out the pretty orange garden known as the Huzúrí Bágh and set in it the marble báradarí which still adorns it. Close by are his own tomb and that of Arjan Dás, the fifth Guru.
Buildings outside Lahore.—The best example of Moghal architecture is not at Lahore itself, but at Shahdara across the Ráví. Here in a fine garden is the Mausoleum of Jahángír with its noble front and four splendid towers. It enshrines an exquisite sarcophagus, which was probably once in accordance with the Emperor's wish open to the sunlight and the showers. Near by are the remains of the tombs of his beautiful and imperious consort, Nur Jahán, and of her brother Asaf Khán, father of the lady of the Táj. Another building associated with Jahángír is Anárkali's tomb beside the Civil Secretariat. The white marble sarcophagus is a beautiful piece of work placed now in most inappropriate surroundings. The tomb was reared by the Emperor to commemorate the unhappy object of his youthful love. Half-a-mile off on the Multán road is the Chauburjí, once the gateway of the Garden of Zebunnissa a learned daughter of Aurangzeb. The garden has disappeared, but the gateway, decorated with blue and green tiles, though partially ruined, is still a beautiful object. On the other side of Lahore on the road to Amritsar are the Shalimár Gardens laid out by Sháhjahán for the ladies of his court. When the paved channels are full and the fountains are playing, and the lights of earthen lamps are reflected in the water, Shalimár is still a pleasant resort.