The Shalamar Gardens (Punjabi: شالمار باغ, romanized: Śālamār Bāġ) or Shalimar Gardens (Urdu: شالیمار باغات, romanized: Śālīmār Bāġāt) are a Mughal garden complex located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The gardens date from the period when the Mughal Empire was at its artistic and aesthetic zenith,and are now one of Pakistan’s most popular tourist destinations.
The Shalamar Gardens were laid out as a Persian paradise garden intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature. Construction of the gardens began in 1641 during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan, and was completed in 1642. In 1981 the Shalamar Gardens were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as they embody Mughal garden design at the apogee of its development.
Names
The courtiers told the Maharaja Ranjit Singh “that Shala was a Turkic word which means pleasure and the mar means the place to live in”. “The arguments of the courtiers in favour of the Turkic signification of the word failing to make any impression on Ranjit Singh, he gave his own name to the garden, and called it “Shahla Bagh” شهلا باغ, “Shahla” meaning in Persian “sweetheart” with dark gray eyes and a shade of red and “Bagh” meaning “garden.””
The courtiers present passed high eulogies on the Maharájá’s ingenuity in selecting so charming a name for the famous gardens of Láhore, and it was ordered, accordingly, that henceforward the gardens be called by that name, and written so in all public correspondence.
The gardens are however still known as the “Shalimar Gardens” nowadays. According to Muhammad Ishtiaq Khan,
The most plausible interpretation, however, seems to be that the word “Shalamar” is a corruption of original “Shalimar” […].
Location
The Shalimar Garden is located next to the Grand Trunk Road, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of the Delhi Gate of the Walled City of Lahore. Near Bhaghbanpura Lahore
Background
Lahore’s Shalimar Gardens were built by the Mughal royal family primarily as a venue for them to entertain guests, though a large portion was open to the general public. The gardens’ design was influenced by the older Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir that were built by Shah Jahan’s father, Emperor Jahangir. Unlike the gardens in Kashmir which relied on naturally sloping landscapes, the waterworks in Lahore required extensive engineering to create artificial cascades and terraces.
The Shalimar Gardens were designed as a Persian-style Charbagh “Paradise garden” – a microcosm of an earthly utopia. Though the word Bagh is translated simply as “garden”, bagh represents a harmonious existence between humans and nature, and represents a poetic connection between heaven and earth. All natural elements of the bagh are appreciated – including the sun, moon, and air. Muhammad Saleh Kamboh, historian to Shah Jahan, reported that the gardens of Kashmir inspired the design for the Shalimar Garden in Lahore, and that a wide variety of trees and flowers grew together in the garden.
The site was chosen for its stable water supply. The project was managed by Khalilullah Khan, a noble of Shah Jahan’s court, in cooperation with and Mulla Alaul Maulk Tuni. Ali Mardan Khan was responsible for most of the construction, and had a 100-mile-long canal built to bring water from the foothills of Kashmir to the site.
The site of the Shalimar Gardens originally belonged to the Arain Mian Family Baghbanpura. Mian Muhammad Yusuf, then the head of the Arain Mian family, ceded the site of Ishaq Pura to the Emperor Shah Jahan in order for the gardens to be built. In return, Shah Jahan granted the Arain Mian family governance of the Shalimar Gardens, and the gardens remained under their custodianship for over 350 years.
History
Construction of the gardens began on 12 June 1641, and took 18 months to complete. During the Sikh era, much of the garden’s marble was pillaged and used to decorate the Golden Temple and the Ram Bagh Palace in nearby Amritsar, while the gardens’ costly agate gate was stripped and sold by Lehna Singh Majithia.
In 1806 Maharaja Ranjit Singh ordered the Shalimar Gardens to be repaired.
The Gardens were nationalised in 1962 by General Ayub Khan because leading Arain Mian family members had opposed his imposition of martial law in Pakistan.
The annual Mela Chiraghan festival used to take place in the gardens until General Ayub Khan forbade it in 1958.