Fig. 148. Sháhdara.
The Museum in Anárkalí contains much of interest to Indians and Europeans. The "house of wonders" is very popular with the former. It includes a very valuable collection of Buddhist sculptures. Opposite the museum is the famous Zamzama gun (page [187]).
Growth of Lahore. As the headquarters of an important Government and of a great railway system Lahore has prospered. Owing to the influx of workers the population has risen rapidly from 157,287 in 1881 to 228,687 in 1911. The railway alone affords support to 30,000 people, of whom 8000 are employed in the workshops.
Amritsar (31.38 N., 74.53 E.) is a modern town founded in the last quarter of the sixteenth century by the fourth Guru, Rám Dás, on a site granted to him by Akbar. Here he dug the Amrita Saras or Pool of Immortality, leaving a small platform in the middle as the site of that Har Mandar, which rebuilt is to-day, under the name of the Darbár Sáhib, the centre of Sikh devotion. The fifth Guru, Arjan Dás, completed the Har Mandar. Early in the eighteenth century Amritsar became without any rival the Mecca of the Sikhs, who had now assumed an attitude of warlike resistance to their Muhammadan rulers. Once and again they were driven out, but after the victory at Sirhind in 1763 they established themselves securely in Amritsar, and rebuilt the temple which Ahmad Sháh had burned. Ranjít Singh covered the Darbár Sáhib with a copper gilt roof, whence Englishmen commonly call it the Golden Temple. He laid out the Rám Bágh, still a beautiful garden, and constructed the strong fort of Govindgarh outside the walls.
Trade and Manufactures.—Amritsar lies in a hollow close to a branch of the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal. Waterlogging is a great evil and accounts for the terrible epidemics of fever, which have occurred from time to time. The population has fluctuated violently, and at the last census was 152,756, or little larger than in 1881. Long before annexation the shawl industry was famous. The caprice of fashion a good many years ago decreed its ruin, but carpet weaving, for which Amritsar is still famous, fortunately did something to fill the gap. Amritsar has also been an entrepôt of trade with other Asiatic countries. It has imported raw silk from Bokhára, and later from China, and woven it into cloth. It has dealt in China tea, but that is a decreasing trade, in opium from Afghánistán, and in charas from Central Asia. There is a considerable export of foreign piece goods to Kashmír and the N. W. F. Province.
Multán (30.1 N., 71.3 E.), though now the smallest of the four great towns of the Panjáb, is probably the most ancient. It is very doubtful whether it is the fortress of the Malloi, in storming which Alexander was wounded. But when Hiuen Tsang visited it in 741 A.D. it was a well-known place with a famous temple of the Sun God. Muhammad Kásim conquered it in 712 A.D. (page [166]). It was not till the savage Karmatian heretics seized Multán towards the end of the tenth century that the temple, which stood in the fort, was destroyed. It was afterwards rebuilt, but was finally demolished by order of Aurangzeb, who set up in its place a mosque. Under the Moghals Multán was an important town, through which the trade with Persia passed. Its later history has already been noticed (pages 183 and 186).
The Fort contains the celebrated Prahládpurí temple, much damaged during the siege in 1848, but since rebuilt. Its proximity to the tomb of Baháwal Hakk, a very holy place in the eyes of the Muhammadans of the S.W. Panjáb and Sindh, has at times been a cause of anxiety to the authorities. Baháwal Hakk and Bába Faríd, the two great saints of the S.W. Panjáb, were contemporaries and friends. They flourished in the thirteenth century, and it probably would be true to ascribe largely to their influence the conversion of the south-west Panjáb to Islám, which was so complete and of which we know so little. The tomb of Baháwal Hakk was much injured during the siege, but afterwards repaired. Outside is a small monument marking the resting place of the brave old Nawáb Muzaffar Khán. Another conspicuous object is the tomb of Rukn ud dín 'Alam, grandson of Baháwal Hakk. An obelisk in the fort commemorates the deaths of the two British officers who were murdered on the outbreak of the revolt. A simpler epitaph would have befitted men who died in the execution of their duty.
Trade and Manufactures.—Though heat and dust make the climate of Multán trying, it is a very healthy place. The population rose steadily from 68,674 in 1881 to 99,243 in 1911. The chief local industries are silk and cotton weaving and the making of shoes. Multán has also some reputation for carpets, glazed pottery and enamel, and of late for tin boxes. A special feature of its commerce is the exchange of piece goods, shoes, and sugar for the raw silk, fruits, spices, and drugs brought in by Afghán traders. The Civil Lines lie to the south of the city and connect it with the Cantonment, which is an important military station.
Pesháwar (34.1 N., 71.35 E.) is 276 miles from Lahore and 190 from Kábul. There is little doubt that the old name was Purushapura, the town of Purusha, though Abu Rihan (Albiruni), a famous Arab geographer, who lived in the early part of the eleventh century, calls it Parsháwar, which Akbar corrupted into Pesháwar, or the frontier fort. As the capital of King Kanishka it was in the second century of the Christian era a great centre of Buddhism (page [164]). Its possession of Buddha's alms bowl and of yet more precious relics of the Master deposited by Kanishka in a great stupa (page [203]) made it the first place to be visited by the Chinese pilgrims who came to India between 400 and 630 A.D. Hiuen Tsang tells us the town covered 40 li or 6¾ miles. Its position on the road to Kábul made it a place of importance under the Moghal Empire. On its decline Pesháwar became part of the dominions of the Durání rulers of Kábul, and finally fell into the hands of Ranjít Singh. His Italian general Avitabile ruled it with an iron rod. In 1901 it became the capital of the new N. W. F. Province.