NOOR Jahan, Mughal emperor Jahangir’s wife, loved Lahore and in one of her Persian couplets has passionately expressed her endearment:
This can roughly be translated as:
I have bought Lahore by paying for it with my life, I have given away life and have bought another kind of paradise!
True to her words, she died in Lahore and was buried in the paradise she bought so dearly.
What kind of charm does Lahore have that bewitches everyone even today? Is it the intellectual atmosphere, the literary aura, the historical buildings, the gardens, the centuries-old traditions? Is it its people or the cultural ambience? Perhaps all these put together create a magical effect that can steal one’s heart. But Noor Jahan was not alone to be mesmerised by Lahore’s lethal charms and there have been others too who in latter times sang of Lahore passionately.
One such lover of Lahore was Kanhaiya Lal Hindi. In his book Tareekh-i-Lahore, or the history of Lahore, Kanhaiya Lal has not only recorded Lahore’s history with a flare but has also expressed his dismay over the calamities that had befallen on Lahore in different eras of its history. Tareekh-i-Lahore was first published in 1884 and since then has been reproduced many times by different publishers. An edition published by Lahore’s Majlis-i-Taraqqi-i-Adab (MTA) has an added value because of the preface that Kalb-e-Ali Khan Faiq wrote. The MTA has recently reprinted Tareekh-i-Lahore with a fresh mechanical calligraphy.
The book has four parts and each is subdivided in to different portions according to topics. The first part narrates who inhabited Lahore in which era and what historical events took place. In this portion he tells about 13 great tragedies that befell on Lahore in different eras. It also gives details about the 12 historic gates that Lahore has. Then he gives the accounts of Lahore’s printing presses, calligraphers, scholars, prostitutes, poets, hakeems (physicians that practised traditional medicine) and other professionals.
The second part describes different neighbourhoods in Lahore. The third one is about Lahore’s famous and old houses, mosques, shrines, tombs, mausoleums and gardens. The fourth part presents Lahore’s large houses and the details this portion gives sound more of an architectural natural than historical.
While describing the Mughal-era historical monuments and tombs of Lahore, he laments how they were ruined especially during the Sikh reign when precious stones and marble carvings were removed and were either sold or used in building some Sikh monuments. Many old buildings were stolen brick by brick and people used them in constructing their own houses. Many gardens either totally disappeared were simply encroached upon bit by bit, including Shalimar Gardens.
The preface by Kalb-e-Ali Khan Faiq proffers important information about the book as well as its author. According to Faiq, Kanhaiya Lal was born in June 1830 in the town of Jaisalmer into a Kayasth Mathur family. He learnt Urdu, Persian and English and composed poetry in Urdu and Persian, taking ‘Hindi’ as penname. Kanhaiya Lal Hindi obtained a degree in engineering from Roorkee Engineering College and in June 1850 was posted as Assistant Engineer at Lahore. Here he rose to the position of Superintendent Engineer and retired from the services in 1885. He also took part in some construction works of some buildings in Lahore that now have historic value, such as Government College building and Montgomery Hall.
Entrusted with the repair works of Lahore’s historical buildings, he developed a taste for history. Settled in Lahore, his liking for Punjab and Lahore turned into a lifelong love affair and he wrote a book in Urdu on Punjab’s history. Published in 1876, it was titled Tareekh-i-Punjab and became popular. Then he wrote Lahore’s history and named it Tareekh-i-Lahore. In this book, as put by Faiq, Kanhaiya Lal seems to be an unbiased historian and while describing the Muslim-era buildings and gardens in a sympathetic way he laments the ruination of these buildings and mosques.
Kanhaiya Lal’s poetical Persian works include Gulzar-i-Hindi, Bandagi Nama and Yadgar-i-Hindi. He translated Punjabi’s famous folklore ‘Heer Ranjha’ into versified Persian and named it Nigareen Nama. Ranjeet Nama, also known as Zafar Nama, is his Persian work on Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Punjab. His Urdu poetical work is Munajat-i-Hindi, says Faiq. As mention in Nuqoosh (Lahore Number), Kanhaiya Lal Hindi died in Lahore on February 23, 1888.
Tareekh-i-Lahore is a fascinating read for those with interest in history or Lahore or both. A detailed list of contents makes it easy for the reader to find the subdivisions of different parts. One has a feeling that the giant-sized special issue on Lahore published by Nuqoosh and named Lahore Number might have been inspired by this book. At least it must have served as a guideline for that monumental issue of Nuqoosh that is a treasure-trove of cultural and literary history of Lahore and has become a part of Lahore’s history in itself.
Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020
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