Daily Times

Let me take you to another gorgeous building today and trust me I haven’t seen this kind of tile mosaic, fresco and ghalib kari in any of the monuments in Lahore. This is the Tomb of Jani Khan or Khan-e-Khanan which is located in Baghbanpura. If you visit the tomb, you will be stunned by its beauty but unfortunately the place is not that popular and therefore people barely know about its existence.

This is the dilemma with our heritage that it is so concealed and not talked about that it vanishes from our memory. But I think we need to tell these stories and make these sites popular for the new generation, in order to preserve our historical footprint and heritage.

I am blessed to be born in Lahore, a large cultural and heritage hub. It is not just Lahore’s walled city that houses famous monuments, if you take a tour of the Grand Trunk Road, Dharampura, Mughalpura, Icchra, Baghbanpura and other older settlements, you will come across hundreds of such sites which should be turned into tourist spots.

The tomb about which I am writing today has a disputed history and this case is similar to other tombs in Lahore about which I have previously written.

Today this tomb is popularly known as Jani Khan’s Tomb but if you read history books and other historic accounts you will come across several varying views. So far, there is no firm conclusion on who is buried there, but for the purpose of this piece I will refer to it as Jani Khan’s Tomb.

Let us start with the views of the renowned historian Kanhaiya Lal, who is considered an authentic source on the city’s history. In his book Tarikh-e-Lahore (history of Lahore) he states that this is the tomb of Jani Khan, officially titled ‘Intizam-ud-Daula.’ Khan was the son of Nawab Qamar-ud-Din Khan and elder brother of Moin-ul-Mulk. According to these historic accounts Qamar-ud-Din Khan, a minister of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah had died while fighting against Ahmed Shah Durrani in 1748. Following which, Jani Khan, along with his brother Moin-ul-Mulk initiated an aggressive attack and forced Ahmed Shah Durrani to retreat to Kabul. Moin-ul-Mulk then became the governor of Punjab and appointed Jani Khan the army’s commander. According to Lal, Jani Khan died in 1778 and was buried in Baghbanpura.

Now let us come to another recognised historian who was also a resident of the walled city of Lahore, Syed Muhammad Latif. There is a street by the name of Judge Muhammad Latif in the walled city.

Latif gives a similar account but the difference is that he refers to Jani Khan as Khan-i-Khanan, surnamed Yamin-ud-Daula. Latif also writes that Khan-i-Khanan came to Lahore to settle a dispute between his sister and Nawab Zakariya Khan, to whom she was married, and fell ill and died in Lahore in 1778. So, despite the differences these two authentic historians of the time refer to this tomb as Jani Khan’s Tomb.

In my opinion, as these two are considered the most credible and authentic sources on Lahore’s history, there should be no controversy that the tomb is indeed that of Jani Khan, but unfortunately, we have many other views on this, apart from those of Lal and Latif’s.

Other historians are of the view that Latif and Lal are mistaken as Intizam-ud-Daula, the eldest son of Qamar-ud-Din Khan, who was assassinated in Delhi in 1759 on the orders of Imad-ul-Mulk, and therefore Jani Khan cannot be Intizam-ud-Din.

Well, isn’t this an interesting controversy?

According to renowned historian Kanhaiya Lal, Jani Khan died in 1778 and was buried in Baghbanpura

Some historians claim that Jani Khan was the father-in-law of Moin-ul-Mulk (who was the Mughal governor of Punjab from April 1748 and died in November 1753) on account of his daughter Mughlani Begum being married to Mulk. It is said that Mughlani Begum, herself administered Lahore from 1754 to 1756 after her husband’s death. Jani Khan was married to Durdana Begum, sister of Zakariya Khan and therefore was also the brother-in-law to one of the most powerful and influential governors of Lahore.

In 1748, when Ahmed Shah Durrani invaded Lahore, Nawaz Shah escaped to Delhi and the

emperor Muhammad Shah sent Qamar-ud-Din Khan along with the Mughal crown prince Ahmed Shah to drive Durrani out of the city. Qamar-ud-Din Khan died during the battle in 1748, however, Moin-ul-Mulk (who took command after his father’s death) along with his father-in-law Jani Khan managed to defeat Durrani, The same year, Muhammad Shah died in Delhi and his son, Ahmed Shah made Moin-ul-Mulk governor of Lahore and returned to Delhi to take the throne.

According to these accounts, Jani Khan was either killed in the same battle or possibly a year after and was buried in Mir Mannu’s garden near the family graveyard of his father-in-law Abdul Samad Khan. Thus this tomb cannot be that of Jani Khan.

Despite the controversies and without caring for who is buried there, we need to look at the historic importance and beauty of the site and restore it so that it is revived to its original glory.

Historic accounts also mention that the beautiful tomb was constructed by the son of Jani Khan and the building’s architecture reflects the beauty and magnificence of the Mughal era.

The dome of the tomb is decorated with porcelain tiles of vivid blue and yellow and some parts are still intact. I was amazed to see the beautiful floral patterns similar to those seen on the tomb of Sharf-un-Nisa Begum (Cypress Tomb).

Baghbanpura was named so because it had huge gardens. As this tomb was built there, it is evident that it once stood in a garden with a beautiful gateway but no trace of them exists now. At present we do not see any Mughal era gardens inside Baghbanpura as with the passage of time people constructed their houses or other properties in the area. It is also said by the historians that the gateway was demolished in the late 1800s.

The existing structure of the tomb is hidden between houses and it rests on a small plot of land surrounded by a wall. There is a steel door at the entrance of the tomb, showing that the site is seldom visited.

The arched entrances have been closed up with metallic fence. There is no maintenance of the area and the original floor is buried under dust and debris and wild plantation. Panels of beautiful floral fresco work on the upper portions of the walls and the corner niches can still be seen, and the domed ceiling retains a good portion of its floral frescoes laid out elegantly in a geometrical patterns.

There are three graves inside but due to lack of information, it is not known which one belongs to Jani Khan.

Published in Daily Times, July 15^th 2018.