File:Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon (1891) (14747313926).jpg

Identifier: indikacountrypeo00hursuoft (find matches)
Title: Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher), 1834-1903
Subjects: Sri Lanka India
Publisher: New York, Harper
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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rywhere. Four centuries ago, Abul Fazldeclared of it that it was the resort of all nations. Shirazand Isfahan were famous in the days of the undisputed sway ofthe Moguls, and yet a proverb of the day ran in this wise: IfShiraz and Isfahan were united, they would not make one La-hor. Its fame had reached across both continents, and Miltonfound it in the old books, and so made wise use of it in his verse. Ptolemy, in his geography (about a.d. 150), mentions a cityalong the banks of the Ravi, which is identified as Lahor, anidentification the more striking because of the recent discoveryof Aurakatis, also mentioned by him, about twenty miles fromthe present Lahor. Lahor, as we see it to-day, is about the size of Cincinnati. Itswonderful architecture is of Mogul origin, and therefore com-paratively recent. It was a great imperial city, and then guardedwell the pathway from Afghanistan down into the valley ofthe Ganges. It is the Nuremberg of India. The great walls o - I m H d > 2! -3 O
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LAUOR—TIIE PANJAB CAPITAL. 667 still surround it, and bristle with reminders of the great battleswhich were fought to their bitterest end on the historical plainof the Ravi. The tomb of Anar Kali, Pomegranate Blossom, is a beauti-ful memorial of the great Akbars reign. It was erected inmemory of the favorite woman of his court, and is remarkable forthe magnificence of its sarcophagus. The English seldom changea Hindu ruin to other purposes. But here is an exception.They have actually converted this magnificent tomb into a littlechurch, and banished to a dark closet, frequented by bats, thesarcophagus, whose exquisitely formed words surpass anythingof the kind in India. On the face and sides of the sarcophagusare inscribed ninety-nine names of God. The Shalamar Gardens. One night the Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, had a dream of agarden like that of Paradise. He summoned his artists, repeatedhis dream of rare flowers, rich fruits, marble fountains, and coolpavilions; and ordered his visi

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