CHAPTER III.

LAHORE.

LYING on the highroad from Afghánistán, Lahore has occupied an unfortunate position, immediately in the path of every invader from the West. It early became the focus of attack and defence; the rallying point of confederated Hindu forces in their endeavor to stem the ever increasing tide of Muhammadan invasion, and the objective of every foreign army bent on the subjugation of Hindustán. It has passed through periods of extremely fluctuating fortunes, through splendor as the capital of the Ghazní dynasty and the metropolis of the Mughals; through decay and depopulation in the time of the devastating Duráni, to the condition-to quote the Imperial Gazetteer— of "a municipal city, capital of the Punjab, headquarters of the Lieutenant-Governor and the Punjab Government, the seat of an Episcopal See, and headquarters of a district of the same name."

Tradition ascribes the founding of Lahore to the son of Rámá, the semi-mythical national hero. As it is not mentioned by any of the writers who recorded the details of Alexander's expedition, the presumption is that it was not a place of much

importance at that time, and that it offered no resistance to the Macedonian march.

Lahore is mentioned in the "Itinerary" of Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, as a Bráhmanical city of importance; and that is its first definite appearance in history.

When the Muhammadans first invaded the country, Lahore was in the hands of a Chohan chief of the Ajmír family. For the next hundred years its native rulers contrived to hold the place against the attacks of the Musalmáns; but towards the end of the tenth century Subuktigín took the city, and Jai Pál, its defeated ruler, committed johur. Later the sons of these two fought, with a similar result, and Lahore remained in the hands of one or another representative of a Muhammadan dynasty until the rise of the Sikhs. When, at the beginning of the twelfth century, the Seljuks expelled the Ghazní Sultán from their country, he settled in his Indian dominions, and made Lahore the capital of his line, and so it remained until Muhammad Ghorí transferred the metropolis to Delhi in 1160.

When Timúr swept through the Punjab, Lahore fell to one of his generals. It was sacked by Bábar; but he and his successors made it a royal residence, and many are the works of its Mughal masters that survive to proclaim their love of architectural display.

Those were the days of Lahore's glory; but they were followed by a terrible transformation when

Ahmad Shah Duráni and his Afghán successors began their inroads. Lahore was pillaged and reduced to ruins. Its population fled, and it became as a city of the desert, until Ranjit Singh revived its fallen for

tunes.

Modern Lahore stands within a level plain, but upon a considerable mound created by the débris of ages. It partially covers the site of the old city, whose remains lie scattered around its walls. In 1849, when the British assumed possession of the place, its environs still remained a mere expanse of crumbling ruins, and the houses of the first European residents clustered round the old cantonment to the south of the town. Gradually, however, the station spread eastward, and now the new town covers a large part of the area formerly given over to ruins and jungle.

The present city covers six hundred and forty acres, surrounded by a brick wall which originally rose to thirty feet, but has been lowered to a uniform height of sixteen feet. The moat has been filled in and converted into flower-beds, running round all but the north side.

From the Delhi Gate, one of the thirteen entrances to the city, the Mayo Road runs out to Mían Mír cantonment, which has the unenviable distinction of being one of the "graveyards" of India. The place takes its name from a saint whose shrine bears the date 1635 in Persian characters. In his rough-and

ready fashion, Ranjít robbed the tomb of as much of the marble as he needed for his barádari-the only one of his additions to Lahore which has any pretensions to beauty-but made some amends by decorating the interior.

On the road to the city, which is more than five miles from the cantonment-the distances at Lahore are wearisome-is a village containing a number of more or less ruined tombs, in a grove of very old trees. By the Muhammadans this is deemed the most sacred spot in the district. It is the burial place of the "Chaste Ladies," who lie under whitewashed brick, in different enclosures.

They were sisters, and step-nieces of the Prophetdaughters of a younger brother. The eldest, Rakujah Khanum, who died in Lahore at the age of ninety, appears to have been the only one canonized. After the massacre at Karbelá they fled to Baghdad, and eventually made their way to India. As the resting place of immediate members of the family of Muhammad, the place is held in the greatest reverence by the Moslem population, and all who enter the precincts are required to remove their shoes.

The tomb of a less saintly, but more celebrated, lady is one of the principal show-places of Lahore, and gives its name to the suburb in which it lies to the south of the city. Anar Kali, the "Pomegranate Blossom," was a Persian beauty and one of the chief ornaments of the harem which Akbar recruited from every available

nationality. As the story goes, she excited the jealousy of the Great Mughal by smiling upon the young Prince Salím whose amours occasioned

trouble with his father on more than one occasionand paid the penalty of her indiscretion by being buried alive. Part of the story at least seems to be borne out by an inscription upon the cenotaph, which reads, "The profoundly enamored Salím, son of Akbar." The dates are a little perplexing. One of them corresponds to 1599 of our era, which would be six years before the death of Akbar; there is another corresponding to 1615 A.D. This leaves us the choice. of two equally pretty hypotheses. Either the tomb is an evidence of the remorse of Akbar, or it was erected by Jahángír in remembrance of his love of twenty years before.

The little mausoleum, graceful in its lines, but rather commonplace in its plaster casing, was at one time used as the station church, and is now occupied by offices. The exquisitely lovely cenotaph has been removed from its central position to the wall, in order to make room for prosaic furniture. It is of flawless white marble-a perfect gem of carving and ornamentation. Upon it, in relief, are inscribed ninetynine versions of the name of Allah, the reference to Salím already mentioned, and some verses in Persian.

Lahore Museum will always be associated with the name of John Lockwood Kipling [the genial curator who exchanged spectacles for pen-case with Kim's

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