A History of Agriculture in India v2.c82.s6: Hasli or Lahore Canal (Bari Doab Canal)
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c82.s6
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Hasli or Lahore Canal (Bari Doab Canal)
v2.c82.s6.1
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.
v2.c82.s6.2
⁴ Abdu-l Hamid Lahori, *Badshah-nama*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India...*, Vol. VII, pp. 67, 68