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A History of Agriculture in India v2.c82: Chapter 30. Shah Jahan

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c82

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English

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Chapter 30. Shah Jahan

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A.D. 1628-1658 THE AGE OF GRANDEUR CONSTRUCTION OF RED FORT, JAMA MASJID AND THE CITY OF SHAHJAHANABAD GARDENS IN KASHMIR AND PUNJAB DIGGING OF WEST JAMUNA AND HASLI CANALS

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SHAH JAHAN succeeded Jahangir as the Emperor of India in January 1628. He was a handsome man with sharp features and a pointed trimmed beard. In a contemporary portrait he is depicted standing on a marble throne amidst flowering shrubs (Fig. 54). Shah Jahan was fond of good life and delighted in gardens, palaces and women. The Mughal empire had become stable and prosperous. Shan Jahan raised a number of monumental buildings. Describing some of the buildings Mufazzal Khan states, ‘Such a magnificent and beautiful fort of red stone was built on the banks of the Jamuna that no building like it was ever constructed by any of the kings who had ruled in India. Besides other magnificent works, the Peacock throne was made by this monarch, which was set with all kinds of precious stones. It was prepared at the expense of nine krors, nine lacs and one thousand rupees. The Mosque of Jama Jahan-numa was built near the fort under the superintendence of Sadu-lla Khan, at the expence of ten lacs of rupees.’¹ Shahi mosque, as it is known, is a work of elegance and grandeur.

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¹ Mufazzal Khan, *Tarikh-i Mufazzali*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. VII, p. 142

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Shah Jahan’s expensive tastes in buildings demanded so much money that there was a severe pressure on the tax-payers.

Shahjahanabad

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The present city of Old Delhi owes its existence to Shah Jahan and was named Shahjahanabad after him. It was built on a regular plan, far surpassing the earlier one in magnificence. There were three wide streets. One, known as Chandni Chowk, was of great length. It was ornamented by a canal and rows of trees, and was composed of houses rising over a line of shops under arcades. On the Jamuna stood the Red Fort, a fortified palace with spacious courts, marble halls, golden domes and a magnificent garden irrigated by a canal. Water flowed through a channel lined by marble. Over the channel is a carved marble screen of great beauty bearing a representation of scales of justice.

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The city of Shahjahanabad was more like a camp, as the vast majority of the population consisted of officials, soldiers and their hangers-on, who followed the Emperor when he was travelling to different parts of the Empire. On such occasions, the city appeared empty, and very much like New Delhi during summer under the British rule, when the Secretariat moved to Simla.

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The French traveller, Francois Bernier, a doctor by profession, who lived in Delhi as an employee of a Mughal noble, Danishmand Khan, has left a vivid description of the city. He writes, ‘There are five streets, not so long nor so straight as the two principal ones, but resembling them in every other respect. Of the numberless streets which cross each other, many have arcades; but having been built at different periods by individuals who paid no regard to symmetry, very few are so well built, so wide, or so straight as those I have described.

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‘Amid these streets are dispersed the habitations of Mansebdars, or petty Omrahs, officers of justice, rich merchants, and others, many of which have a tolerable appearance. Very few are built entirely of brick or stone, and several are made only of clay and straw, yet they are airy and pleasant, most of them having courts and gardens, being commodious inside and containing good furniture. The thatched roof is supported by a layer of long, handsome and strong canes, and the clay walls are covered with a fine white lime.

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‘Intermixed with these different houses is an immense number of small ones, built of mud and thatched with straw, in which lodge the common troopers, and all that vast multitude of servants and camp-followers who follow the court and the army. It is owing to these thatched cottages that Delhi is subject to such frequent conflagrations. More than sixty thousand roofs were consumed this last year by three fires, during the prevalence of certain impetuous winds which blow generally in summer.

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‘It is because of these wretched mud and thatch houses that I always represent to myself Delhi as a collection of many villages, or as a military encampment with a few more conveniences than are usually found in such places.’²

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² Bernier, F. Travels in the Mughal Empire, p. 346

Gardens in Kashmir and Punjab

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Like his father, Shah Jahan paid several visits to Kashmir and admired its lakes, rivers and mountains. He added a beautiful black marble pavilion to the top-most terrace of the Shalimar garden. Surrounded with cascades and lamps twinkling in the recesses behind the waterfalls, the pavilion appeared charming at night.

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Zafar Khan, his Governor of Kashmir, introduced improved varieties of cherry, peach, plum and grapes from Persia and Afghanistan. His next Governor, Ali Mardan Khan, a Persian, had great engineering skill. He built a network of roads in the valley and planted avenues of poplars along them. It was he who built the small but elegant garden of Chashma Shahi overlooking the Dal lake. The architecture of the garden pavilion is in harmony with the pyramidal peaks of the rugged mountains which provide the background. Its roof repeats the conical beauty of the mountain in a striking manner. The pavilion enshrines the spring, whose water is relished for its purity and digestive qualities. The garden in front of the building is divided into two terraces and a chute leads the water to the second terrace. In the centre of the second terrace is a tank with five jet fountains. The entrance gate and the boundary walls are green with a thick cover of the tenacious creeper *Ficus pumila* (*F. repens*). Chashma Shahi garden, though built on a small scale, has all the elements in its design which lend charm to a Mughal garden.

Shalimar, Lahore

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The most delightful creation of Shah Jahan was the Shalimar garden of Lahore. It was built in 1634 under the direction of Ali Mardan Khan, who was responsible for the Chashma Shahi garden. It was laid out in seven divisions, symbolic of seven stages of paradise according to Islamic concept. Of these, four have been destroyed and only three remain, which cover about 39 acres (15.78 ha). In the second terrace towards the east are the royal bathrooms which consist of four arched chambers with beautiful reservoirs which were heated by firewood from outside.

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Shalimar is a garden of great beauty characterized by balance and symmetry. The central terrace consists of a large raised tank with marble pavilions on three sides. In the centre is a platform reached by narrow stone cause-ways (Fig. 55). A canal discharges in the middle terrace into a large marble basin. From the basin and the canal rise four hundred and fifty jet fountains which fill the air with gentle spray. Pavilions and summer houses of marble and red stone are scattered about in the garden. In summer the garden is delightful. The green foliage, white marble and flowing water create coolness.

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Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori, in his excellent work, *Badshah-nama*, gives the following account of the first state visit of the Emperor to these gardens. ‘It having been represented to His Majesty that the gardens, the management of which had been entrusted to Khalilullah Khan, had been finished, the royal astrologers were ordered to fix an auspicious hour for the visit of the august sovereign. Accordingly the 7th of Shaban 1052 A.H. was fixed as the date of the royal visit. His Majesty honored the gardens with a visit on that day, and was highly pleased with the scene he witnessed. The omerahs and grandees of State offered their congratulations, while all joined in prayers for the duration of the Imperial grandeur. Multitudes of intelligent and wise men who were present before His Imperial Majesty and who had seen Rum, Irak and Mawar-un-Nahar, represented to him that a garden such as this had never to this date been constructed, or seen or even talked of by anybody.' 'So many edifices,' adds Abdul Hamid, 'were constructed in this garden that, whenever it pleases the Emperor to pay a visit to it with the Royal Harem, who remain with him at Lahore, the capital, the necessity of pitching tents is avoided.' Shalimar suffered considerable damage in the last quarter of the eighteenth century when the Mughal power collapsed.

Taj Mahal

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In 1631, Shah Jahan suffered the greatest sorrow of his life, when his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth. In the following year he started work on the world's noblest mausoleum in her memory, the Taj Mahal at Agra. It was completed in 1647 at a cost of 41 million rupees. Shah Jahan created a great garden around the Taj Mahal. The garden is a *Char-bagh*, a four-fold field plot, with a tank of white marble in the centre. The irrigation canal which contains fountains is flanked by cypresses whose columns harmonise with the four minarets.

Restoration of Firoz Shah's Canal

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Though his primary interest was in architecture and buildings, Shah Jahan also improved irrigation facilities in northern India. He restored the West Jamuna Canal, which had been dug by Firoz Shah, and brought a channel from it to Shahjahanabad. 'Inayat Khan, author of *Shah Jahan-nama*, thus describes how it happened.

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'The canal that Sultan Firoz Shah Khilji, during the time he reigned at Dehli, had made to branch off from the river Jamuna, in the vicinity of *pargana* Khizrabad, whence he brought it in a channel 30 Imperial *kos* long to the confines of *pargana* Safidun, which was his hunting-seat, and had only a scanty supply of water, had, after the Sultan's death, become in the course of time ruinous. Whilst Shahabu-d din Ahmad Khan held the government of Dehli, during the reign of the Emperor Akbar, he put it in repair and set it flowing again,. . .to fertilize the places in his *jagir*, and hence it was called Nahr-i Shahab; but for want of repairs, however, it again stopped flowing. At the time when the sublime attention was turned to the building of this fort and palace, it was commanded that the aforesaid canal from Khizrabad to Safidun should be repaired, and a new channel excavated from the latter spot to the regal residence, which also is a distance of 30 Imperial *kos*. After it was thus prolonged, it was designated the Nahr-i Bihisht.'³

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³ Inayat Khan, *Shah Jahan-nama*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. VII, p. 86

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FIG. 55. The Shalimar Garden, Lahore.

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FIG. 56. Tobacco crop was introduced into Andhra before 1600 and had become a significant crop in that region by 1620.

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FIG. 57. By the middle of the eighteenth century pineapple cultivation spread in Bengal.

Hasli or Lahore Canal (Bari Doab Canal)

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Another canal for which credit goes to Shah Jahan is the Hasli or Lahore canal. It was dug at the initiative of Ali Mardan Khan, who was Governor of Lahore from 1637 to 1644. According to Abdu-l Hamid Lahori, ‘Ali Mardan Khan represented to His Majesty that one of his followers was an adept in the forming of canals, and would undertake to construct a canal from the place where the river Ravi descends from the hills into the plains, and to conduct the waters to Lahore, benefiting the cultivation of the country through which it should pass. The Emperor gave to the Khan one *lac* of rupees, a sum at which experts estimated the expense, and the Khan then entrusted its formation to one of his trusted servants.’⁴ The canal was 110 miles (177 km) in length and came to be known as the Hasli Canal. It was about 30 ft (9.1 m) wide and carried a discharge of nearly 500 cusec. A small branch of this canal was later dug to carry water to the Golden Temple, the sacred shrine of the Sikhs, at Amritsar.

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⁴ Abdu-l Hamid Lahori, *Badshah-nama*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India...*, Vol. VII, pp. 67, 68

References

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Bernier, F. *Travels in the Mughal Empire*, London, 1891 Elliot, Sir H. M. and Dowson, J. *The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians*, Vol. VII (Indian reprint), Allahabad, 1964 Elphinstone, Hon. M. *The History of India, the Hindu and Mahometan Periods*, London, 1889 Lane-Poole, S. *Mediaeval India—Under Mohammedan Rule, A.D. 712-1764*, Vol. II. (Indian reprint), 1951

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