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Exterior
Shot of Fort Wall
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Construction
of the Masti Gate of Lahore Fort has been attributed to the third
Mughal ruler, Akbar, sometime around 1566, the same time that
he was rebuilding Agra Fort (Khan, 1993). The gate is an impressive
Akbari structure, and one of the few still standing in Lahore.
Once inside the Masti Gate, a large expanse opens up before the
Chihil Situn, an open multi-columned Hall of Public and
Private Audience (Diwan-i Am o Khas). The open space in
front of the hall reminds one today of a garden or park, but in
Mughal times it was a parade ground and assembly space. As for
the so-called Chihil Situn, it was poetically described as "...a
garden, every pillar of which is like a green cypress tree //
In the shade of which noble and plebian obtain repose" (Latif,
1892, 124). Professor Ebba Koch has recently compared the evolution
of these buildings and spaces in Mughal cities in her article
"Mughal Palace Gardens from Babur to Shah Jahan," Muqarnas
14 (1997): 143-65, and in another article, "Diwan-i ' Amm
and Chihil Situn: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan," Muqarnas
11 (1994): 143-65.
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If
the walled city was the social and economic center of Lahore the
fort was its dynastic and political center. The proximity of the
fort and city should not mislead one about the sharp separation
between them, created by moats and ramparts. Although the Delhi
and Lahori gate bazaars were major processionals, the royal retinue
most commonly entered via gates close to the fort. The walled city
was the social center of Lahore and the center of its regional culture,
but the fort was the political center of Lahore and at least at
times the center of its imperial Mughal culture.
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It
is not until one moves behind the Diwan-i Am o Khas and adjacent
buildings, that one enters the garden quadrangles of Lahore Fort.
At first glance, these courtyards seem to represent yet another
garden type. They have limited plantings, and one of them has
no plants at all. Some are rectangular, while others have irregular
dimensions. Spatial relationships among garden quadrangles are
enigmatic, in part due to the depredations of the occupying British
army in the nineteenth century, but also to the succession of
Mughal and Sikh projects.
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Professor
Ebba Koch has rightly emphasized that garden courtyards lined
the river–front side of Mughal ramparts. Although tightly
aligned with one another, they continued Babur's earliest conception
of the river-front garden strand at Agra. Mughal gardens were
resituated, but not radically reconceived, within palace-fortresses
beginning in Akbar's reign. This process culminated in sophistication
during the mid-seventeenth century.
Unfortunately,
no surviving Mughal texts document the development of garden quadrangles
in Lahore Fort in a manner comparable with Ottoman palace records
(cf. Necipoglu, 1991). Instead, there are only a handful of inscriptions,
wall paintings, and textual references (Khan, 1993; Koch, 1983;
Latif, 1892; Baqir, 1984).
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Detail
from the Hall of Mirrors
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As
noted above, the gardens of Lahore Fort were rebuilt with every
change in rule. The only quadrangle to survive in large measure
is one that faces the Shish Mahal (Hall of Mirrors). Built
during the reign of Shah Jahan, it is the most elaborate and beautiful
Mughal courtyard in Lahore. It is a square enclosure, open to the
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Its floor is
paved in grey, black, and yellow marble with a large shallow central
basin—a circle set within a square. Small water jets punctuated
the corners of the basin. A square platform stands in its middle,
connected by a causeway to the southern side of the pool. The courtyard
does not contain a single plant (aside from scores of truly "perennial"
pietra dura flowers inlaid on its marble columns). The low walls
that surround the Shish Mahal quadrangle today are not original,
and their relationship with the courtyard to the east is ambiguous.
Behind the Shish Mahal is a small mosque and ramp broad enough for
elephants leading down to the Alamgiri gate.
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Outside the
large Alamgiri gate, which was built by Aurangzeb on the western
side of the fort, stands a garden known today as the Hazuri
Bagh. This Sikh-period garden was built in a space that was
formerly a caravanserai between the fort and the Badshahi mosque
(built by Aurangzeb in 1673). Although not a Mughal garden per
se, the Hazuri Bagh reminds us that Ranjit Singh and other Sikhs
had a deep appreciation for the Mughal garden tradition (if not
for their marble structures or mosques).
When the mosque
was in use, the forecourt was needed for a large congregation;
but when it was closed by the Sikhs, that space was converted
to a garden in the Mughal style. In the course of time, the Hazuri
Bagh has become the forecourt for the samadhi (funerary
site) of Ranjit Singh and grave of Pakistan's great poet-philosopher
Allama Iqbal. However, there is no historical connection between
the Badshahi mosque and garden design aside from some modest but
elegant wall decorations.
Conservation
Update: The Alamgiri gate used
to be washed with lime every year, and as a result there was a
thick layer of lime wash on its walls. Now these layers of lime
have been removed and the gate is being replastered. In the case
of the Masti gate on the eastern side, in preparation for paving
the walkway, a layer of mud was removed; this action unearthed
another level of walkway. Work has been temporarily halted to
allow for further research.
A new apron has been added inside on the side of the Sikh period
wall to block rising dampness. The deteriorated wooden roof of
the rest house in the Shish Mahal Quadrangle has been replaced
with a new one. Similarly, the roof of the Kharak Singh haveli
has been replaced. The repair work on the Shish Mahal is now complete.
New electrical wiring has been done throughout the gardens to
improve the illumination of walkways and buildings.
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