ON the right side of the River Ravi, across the city of Lahore, lies a complex of four Mughal period monuments, which originally must have been built in a contiguous manner. Among them is the Mausoleum of Jahangir, Akbari Serai or the Jilau Khana-e-Rauza — as called by the contemporary historians — and the Tomb of Asif Khan. They are all still joined with each other.
However, the fourth — Tomb of Nur Jahan — was separated from them due to the exigencies of the modern development during the British period.
While Jahangir’s Mausoleum stands out for its design, embellishment and a bold contrast in its dwarf building and tall minarets, the sepulchre that houses the grave of Asif Khan is known for the peculiar shape of its dome. It shows in each of its eight faces a pishtaq with a deep arched niche, which reminds one of a massive version of subsidiary tombs.
Lying on the western side of the Jilau Khana-e-Rauza — Akbari Serai — the tomb of Mirza Abul Hasan Asif Jah, or Asif Khan, occupies the central place in a typically char or chahar bagh style garden. The Mirza was the brother of Nur Jahan, and father of Arjumand Bano Begum, the beloved queen of Shahjahan’s now lying buried in the Taj Mahal at Agra.
Himself a wazir of the Emperor and known for his fabulous wealth, Asif Khan died in AD1641. His tomb was erected by Shahjahan at a cost of three lacs of rupees taking a period of four years. The spacious garden around the tomb has the usual water channels, fountains, water reservoirs, walkways etc. It is, however, very sad that only the remnants of all these features survive to speak of its past glory.
The garden of the tomb is enclosed by a high wall built in bricks and plastered with lime, the lower portion of which on the outer side had been much affected by seepage and saltpetre. Although it has been redone with original size bricks, yet it has been done without lime-plastering.
The main entrance to the Tomb garden used to be through the majestic gate, which lies in the south. It, however, had been closed long time ago and still remains so banning a proper entry to the monument. The present access, though very unpretentious, is through a cell immediately south of the mosque in the Akbari Serai on its east.
The tomb building, octagonal in plan, is wholly erected in bricks and rests on an eight-sided platform, the side walls of which were covered with red sand stone. The bulbous dome and the interior had marble facing. The encaustic or glazed tiles decorated the arched openings. The walls were embellished with inlay work using a variety of stones. The marble cenotaph is beautifully decorated with delicate pietra-dura work in floral pattern with ninety-nine attributes of Allah in naskh script. On the side of the head same type of pietra-dura work depicts appropriate line in Arabic from the Holy Quran.
The tomb is perhaps one of the most glaring examples of plunder and ruination carried out by the Sikhs during the period they held sway over Punjab. The building is now a mere wreck of its original grace and glory. Ranjit Singh stripped it off all of its marble and other stones, except the damaged cenotaph, to re-use the material in the temple at Amritsar and other buildings.
Its general devastation must not only be attributed to the Sikh period. It was perhaps left to face the elements on its own during the days of the British Raj as well, being a spacious garden in this part of the world.
After independence, the things did not seem to have changed towards the better upkeep of the monument. Leaving the main building apart, the garden gives, even today, a haunted look. Although there are seen two or three malies labouring to clear out the unwanted growth, they hardly match to the stupendous task before them.
For decades, if not centuries, the greenery and other fixtures — though now gone — like cascades, canals, fountains etc. had been deprived of water, surely for want of its availability in sufficient quantity. Some time back a turbine to supply water to this area alone was fixed in the southeastern corner of the garden. It can today be seen, not only lying idle but also giving a look of neglect on a visit.
The Officer-in-Charge very generously told that the electric transformer put up by Wapda on the outer side of the garden had been stolen some time back and could not be replaced because of a ‘row’ with the electric supply company.
A few years back the approach to this complex of monuments was through the slums or very dirty areas of the ‘gowalas’ — milkmen who tend herds of cows and buffaloes. It was also very common to stand at the railway crossings and wait for the trains to pass so as to approach the monuments. Such an approach was not only time-consuming but also very much annoying in this dirty setting.
With the providing of an underpass towards the western side it was thought that the visitors would face no problem in reaching the complex. It is, however, very strange that no proper direction boards are in view to guide the tourists and visitors to this highly acknowledged heritage of the nation. A first-time visitor, and there must be many of them, is virtually lost in the jungle of mixed and haphazard traffic on the service lane along the main G.T. Road, from where the approach-road to these monuments branch off.
In the absence of a proper direction board even the tiny access road to the Nur Jahan’s Tomb is certainly missed easily because of the dominating underpass in its very close vicinity.
ON the right side of the River Ravi, across the city of Lahore, lies a complex of four Mughal period monuments, which originally must have been built in a contiguous manner. Among them is the Mausoleum of Jahangir, Akbari Serai or the Jilau Khana-e-Rauza — as called by the contemporary historians — and the Tomb of Asif Khan. They are all still joined with each other.
