LAHORE: A library has been set up at the Haveli Kharak Singh in the Lahore Fort, called Shahi Qilla by the locals, with a magnificent collection of about nine million documents, about 100,000 photographs (negatives) 20,000 rare books and 4,000 glass plates (the technology used before modern photography).

The biggest collection is of manuscripts dating at least more than two centuries back in the Mughal Period.

“It was a library of the archaeology department from the times before the Partition, which was limited to department use and general readers could not access it. It remained in the possession of the department until 2023,” says Talha Shafiq, the assistant director historic research at the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) that set up the library.

The collection

According to Shafiq, the library has got the books from 1800 onwards but the manuscripts date back to the later Mughal period. They are in Persian, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi, Urdu and English languages. The subjects of rare books include history, art, architecture, anthropology, deltiology, musicology, archaeology and biographies. An interesting collection is that of 4,000 glass plates, a technology that was discarded after development of modern photography.

“This technology was used from 1850 to 1920. It continued in India until 1940 while it stopped being used in the world in 1920. The collection has photographs in the negative form from the colonial era as well as postcolonial era.”

Shafiq adds that the WCLA own library has been transferred here as well to make all books available at one place. It has no general books as it’s a research and reference library.

Giving further details about the facility, he says, “We have a good collection of magazines and journals from the colonial era. We have Asiatic Society of Bengal records, The Indian Antiquary, Punjab Notes and Theories on whose basis RC Temple and (Denzil) Ibbetson etc who wrote books like Punjab Castes etc. We have copies of Illustrated London News and research journals even printed from Hyderabad. We have Archaeological Survey of India, which had the record of any work done on any monument in India or museum starting from 1901 until the Partition in 1947.”

The library has Bengal Asiatic Society archives from 1870 until 1947 and original reports of all initial censuses of India like those done in 1901, 1914 and 1924, the district gazetteers and records of unpublished information used in government reports.

Talha Shafiq says that the books as well as archives were in bad shape when the library received them from the archives department and they were treated in a professional manner.

Regarding nine million documents, he says that each document was sorted, cleaned, identified and catalogued.

“When we received the documents, they were just stacked without any sequence or record. We have got documents of archeological field work. The record of whatever excavation was done or the work done on monuments in the whole India from 1901 onwards is available in the archives, including the excavations at Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Mehrgarh.”

Not only this, the library has the record of different phases of establishment of the museums in Calcutta (Kolkata), Benares, Lahore before the Partition and National Museum of Karachi after the Partition.

Lahore corner

According to Talha a Lahore corner is being set up in the library with expensive and rare books on Lahore.

“We have already got the first edition of the very first book written on Lahore in 1864, Tehqeeqat-i- Chishti first edition. Then we have first editions of Kanhaiya Lal’s Tareekh-e-Lahore, published in 1884, SM Latif’s book on Lahore printed in 1892 and other seminal works.”

It has sections of regional history too as well as dictionaries of Hindi and Sanskrit and old encyclopaedias of Persian art and Islamic art, rare editions of books like Ain-i-Akbari in various languages like Persian, Urdu and English at one place and first edition of Akbar Nama and publications of Fort Williams College. There is a collection of literature translated from Sanskrit in early British rule while books and manuscripts written in Bengali and Sanskrit were being identified and catalogued

Not a traditional library

Shafiq says it’s not a traditional library as the WCLA never wanted to make it traditional archives just like Punjab Archives because of their lengthy and complicated procedure for scholars.

“We have a policy of no hurdle. When a researcher comes to us, they write on a paper telling us the topic of their research for record. If they get a membership, they can access the archival data too.”

“As we don’t want to make it a traditional library, we have three conference rooms to promote archival research and invite scholars from different disciplines and make our archives available to them to lead the researchers on how to use archival data.”

The library has three types of membership, annual membership for Rs2,000, lifetime membership for Rs25,000 and short-term membership in which the researcher can use the library and archives for a week or on a short-term basis for paying Rs500.

“We welcome independent researchers even if they are not connected with any institute or don’t have any degrees.”

Shafiq says that there are no doors between sections so that the visitors might find it welcoming and enter without any hurdle.

The building

This building which houses the library was the storeroom of the archaeology department which had offices on the upper floor. The books were uncatalogued, they were organised and addition of more books was made.

“We have established an archive and named it Akbari Mahal Library and Archives because the building is the Akbari Quadrangle. According to a common misconception, people call it Jahangir Quadrangle because of the sleeping chamber of Jahangir but the dalaan on left and right are from the times of Akbar. If you go out and see the building on the left, it’s Daulat Khana that was built by Akbar who built more rooms in 1587 also when he made Lahore capital of India but a fire burnt most of them in 1597. Later on, some rooms were removed while Jahangir also made some additions. These rooms are the leftover of Akbar’s era.”

Talha Shafiq says the building is called Kharak Singh Haveli but the reference G.P. Mobile gave in 1906 to 1916 disclosed that it was more related to Sher Singh, a general of Khalsa army, but it’s not clear why it was attributed to Kharak Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

The artifacts found in old building were used for decoration while the wood that was found here has been utilised in making benches. The artifacts were identified by the stones used in them like red sandstones showing Akbar’s era and white marble Shahjahan’s era, says Shafiq.

He shares an interesting fact that during the Partition, the museums were also distributed. “The criterion set for that was that the artifacts excavated would go to the museum nearest to the excavation site; however India did not follow it. India took a big share. It has got our artifacts even today.” There was an exhibition going on in the Royal Academy, England and a big chunk from Lahore artifacts had gone there. The exhibition was planned in 1946 and started in 1947. India got them back from England.

According to Talha during the British era, there were two circles of archaeology, southern and northern. Northern was based in Lahore and all its information was stored here now.

Shafiq says the library has got a good response from scholars and researchers who have become the library’s members. They include Phd scholars and students from archaeology, history, art history and literature disciplines.

About the future of the library, he says that once an archival repository is established, it can’t be rolled back, it can only be merged. “One thing is sure, the books and manuscripts won’t be stored just before,” he asserts. The library maintains a certain temperature to keep the ancient collection intact.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025