Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/224

LAHORE

After the opening of the Bari Doab canal, the water-level in wells of village lands on both sides of the canal was permanently raised, in some cases as much as 12 feet. The Lahore district has 107 miles of metalled roads and 688 miles unmetalled, 97 miles of railway, and 104 miles of navigable rivers.

Lahore City lies in 31 34 N. lat. and 74 21 E. long., on the left bank of the river Rávi, about 900 feet above the sea-level. It is a walled town, about 1¼ miles in length from west to east, and about ¾ mile in breadth from north to south. The intramural population is 98,924; with the suburbs Anarkali, Muzang, and Ichra, the number is 128,441. The city walls, rebuilt in the time of Akbar, towards the end of the 16th century, were of great height, in some parts upwards of 36 feet, and higher at the gate ways and parts adjoining, Ranjít Singh added a deep ditch, with a broad faussebraie (rauní) between the ditch and the walls, and large outworks, shielding with a massive defence each of the city gates. The fort or citadel, in which was the palace, is on high ground on the north face of the city, and has three gates, one direct to the open plain on the north, and one on each side, east and west, into the city. Only the north gate of the fort is now open. The city gate next the fort on the west, called the Roshnái or bright gate, leads into the small enclosure, called the Huzúri Bagh or Court Garden, from which on the one side rises the great flight of steps to the terrace of the imperial mosque, and on the other the ascent through a fine gateway (now closed) to the palace in the fort. The fort and palace, with the conspicuous Saman Burj (properly musamman, octagonal tower; it is a half octagon), present a striking appearance viewed from the open plain on the north.

Plan of Lahore.

The site of the present city has been occupied from early times, and much of it stands high above the level of the country outside, raised on the remains of many successive series of former habitations. Some of the old buildings, which have been preserved when changes were going on around, stand now below the surface of the ground about them. This is well seen in the mosque now called Masjid Níwín (or sunken), built 1560, the mosque of Mullah Rahmat, 7 feet below, and the Shivála (Hindu temple), a very old building near the revenue office, about 12 feet below the surrounding ground. The houses are of brick, irregular in construction, three and more stories in height, many of them with projecting balconies and lattice windows ornamented with varieties of carved woodwork. Thestreets, narrow and winding, were, under the Sikh Government, and at the time of the first British occupation of the city in 1846, extremely unregulated and dirty. The water supply, from numerous wells throughout the city, was for the most part exceedingly impure. A cleansing and draining of the streets had to be taken in hand at once, when the city was held by British troops. The governor-general of India, Lord Hardinge, having, after the defeat of the Sikh army at Sabráon, advanced to Lahore and concluded a treaty with the Sikh Government, a British force was left, to hold Lahore for that year (1846), the fort being reserved for the maharaja. But the occupation of Lahore was prolonged. A British resident was appointed, and barracks were built for the troops in the Anarkali suburb. After the annexation of the Panjáb in 1849 the government of the country was placed in the hands of a board of administration. The fort was held by the British troops, the rest of the force assigned to Lahore being quartered outside the city in the cantonment of Anarkali. Subsequently a site for a permanent cantonment was selected at Mián Mír, about five miles south-east of the city; and all the troops, British and native, are now quartered there, except the small garrison of the fort.

In 1852 the lofty walls, which greatly impeded the free airing of the interior of the city, were reduced to a height of from 14 to 20 feet, and the whole of the massive outworks were removed. In 1863 the ditch was filled in and the faussebraie levelled; and on this broad strip of new land immediately outside the city walls public gardens were laid out, and supplied with a watercourse from the Bári Doáb canal. This work of improvement was carried out under the immediate direction of the native gentlemen of the Lahore municipal committee.

The municipality now includes within its limits the greater part of the civil station of Lahore, which covers, in addition to the ground occupied by the old Anarkali cantonment, a large area south and south-east of the city. All new public buildings have been erected in this civil station outside the walls. The principal of these are the deputy commissioner's court-house, the Government college, the Mayo hospital, the senate hall of the Punjab University College (the gift of the nawáb of Bahawalpúr). The Lahore Industrial and Antiquarian Museum is in the building erected for the "Punjab Exhibition" of 1864. A building for the school of art in connexion with the museum is in progress. The medical school, at first held in a disused barrack of the Anarkali cantonment, and then in hired houses, is now about to be provided with a suitable building at the Mayo hospital. The block of buildings erected for the British residency and offices, and used for this purpose up to the time of annexation, is now occupied by the chief court, the Government secretariat offices, civil and military, and the offices of the financial commissioner of the Punjab, and of the commissioner of the Lahore division. A new building for the chief court is about to be erected. A large building for the Government telegraph department has lately been finished. The post-office occupies one of the barracks of the old cantonment, and others of them continue to be occupied by the offices of various Government departments – public works, public instruction, prisons, &c. The central jail stands on the site of the British camp of 1846; and in the large public grounds which contain the botanical and zoological gardens stand the John Lawrence Hall and the Montgomery Hall, erected in honour of the first two lieutenant-governors of the Punjab. Of native buildings applied to new purposes there are, in the palace (1630-1640) the Diwán-i-ám (or hall of audience), serving as a barrack for the fort garrison; the two buildings called Khwáb-gah (or sleeping apartments), used as the Protestant and Roman Catholic places of worship for the troops in the fort; the vaults of the Kála Burj and Lal Burj (black and red towers) used as commissariat store-rooms; the Móti Masjid (pearl mosque), which Ranjit Singh made his treasury, still used for the same purpose. The armoury, in an adjoining building, contains an interesting collection of arms and armour of the Mughal and Sikh times.

In the city, the mansion of Raja Dhyan Singh, Ranjit's prime minister (which was the British artillery mess house in 1846), contains the Government district school, the Oriental college, and the hall of the Anjuman-i-Panjab, an active literary and educational society. The quadrangle of the Huzúri Bagh (or royal garden) contains the Government normal school. In the Rang Mahal is the large high school of the American Presbyterian mission.

Outside the city, half way between the civil and military