Article written by London swaminathan

Date: 21 May 2016

Post No. 2829

Time uploaded in London :–  13-50

( Thanks for the Pictures)

DON’T REBLOG IT AT LEAST FOR A WEEK!  DON’T USE THE PICTURES; THEY ARE COPYRIGHTED BY SOMEONE.

(for old articles go to tamilandvedas.com OR swamiindology.blogspot.com)

Picture: Jahaghir Tomb in Lahore

“In old days, he who held Lahore held India, for it stands at the sluice gates through which, from the north-west – since the time of Alexander – the flood of many successive generations of India’s conquerors has swept. Into Lahore poured the first Mohammedan invaders at the end of the seventh century, and looted the great Brahminical city, of which years before, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Fo-Hian and Hiuen- Tsiang, had described the splendour. Again three centuries later, the ten thousand picked horsemen of Mahmoud of Ghazni burst, “like a foaming torrent”, through the barriers and overwhelmed Jai Pal, the Rajput king of Lahore, at Peshawur. He was carried off, with rich spoils, into captivity, but released on promising a tribute: the disgrace, however, broke his heart, and mounting a pyre, he had had constructed, he applied the torch with his own hands, and perished in the flames.

The burden of the tribute passed to his son, Anang Pal, who was true to his inherited engagements, though other subjugated Rajahs were less loyal, and the northern Sultan returned in wrath and – defeating the largest army India ever had mustered- gained a firm foot in Hindustan. He occupied Lahore, which remained the capital of Musalman Empire, until 1194, when Mohammad Ghori, or Sahabuddin, whose dominions extended from Tibet to the Caspian, transferred the Metropolis to Delhi.

In the last years of the fourteenth century Lahore fell before the invasion of the lame   Timur, and when another 140 years had elapsed, it was once again sacked and pundered by the great Babar in 1526, who pushed his invasion further, and, after the victory of Panipat, founded the Empire of Moghuls. From that time Lahore ranked one of the great capitals of the East, and Milton, no doubts basing his estimate on  Mr William Finch’s remark, “This is without doubt one of the greatest cities of the East”, coupled it with Agra – in the well-known lines –

Samarckand by Oxus, Timur’s throne

To Pekin, of Simoean kings, and then

To Agra and Lahor of Great Mogul

Down to the golden Chersonese

The Mogul emperors lived here at intervals, and four great builders of the dynasty are all represented in Lahore: Akbar by the mixed Saracenic and Hindu architecture in the Fort and walls, Jehangir and Shah Jehan by their splendid palaces and the fanatical Aurngazeb by the great mosque. Subsequently the city became the scene of perpetual pillage and loot until the establishment of Sikh Kingdom under Ranjit Singh, a magnificent figure, who welded the Sikhs, under European officers, into the strongest native power in India; he was always a faithful ally of the British, and it was not till after his death, that two great wars led to the annexation of his kingdom”( by the British).

Picture of Lahore Fort

–A H Hallam Murray, London, 1905

From his book “THE HIGH ROAD OF EMPIRE”

–Subham–