Hiran Minar (Sheikhupura)
Hiran Minar (Sheikhupura)
About Hiran minar
Those who take their chance to cross the River Ravi from Saghian Bridge to go to Sheikhupura in the suburbs of Lahore have to pass through the flower nurseries. Also, along the road has come up a Flower Market near Saghian Bridge. After turning on Sheikhupura-Sargodha Road from the Chowk where a beautiful replica of Hiran Minar (The Deer Tower) has been made, you drive along the bumpy two-way road lined up on both sides with smoke emitting factories of different kinds: fabrics, chemicals, glass, and paper pulp. At places the pungent whiff reminds as if one is driving on Grand Trunk Road near Kala Shah Kaku. Wall chalking, religious and or commercial slogans – is another thing that one notices all along the road to Sheikhupura.
Jehangir Abad turned Sheikhupura is situated in Ravi-Chenab corridor and fast turning from a market agricultural town to an industrial city. Adjacent to Lahore, the town is surrounded by old places like Sangla Hill (old Sakala), Nankana Saheb (birth place of Baba Guru Nanak) and Jandiala Sher Khan (last resting place of Waris Shah).
Hunting grounds were an important part of the physical environment of Moghal emperors. The place where the town stands today was one of Jahangir’s (Prince Salim) princely dominions during his father Akbar’s reign. The town was founded by Jehangir, near village Sahu Malli, during his rule in 1607. The king declared the barren jungles adjoining the place as royal hunting ground. After the death of king’s darling deer Mans Raj, this hunting ground was changed into a protected sanctuary and hunting was prohibited. In the memory of his favourite antelope, the king also constructed an octagonal tower in 1607 at the foot of the grave of the deer. In 1620, a square lake like pond and Baradari was added to the monument. A causeway with its own gateway connects the pavilion with the mainland and minaret. At the centre of each side of the tank, a brick ramp slopes down to the water that used to provide access for royal animals and wild game. Later he conferred the entire area upon Sikandar Moin.
[b]Special Features:-
A special feature of Hiran Minar is its location and environment: the top of the Minar is perhaps the best place in the province of Punjab to get a feel for the broader landscape and its relationship to a Moghal site. Looking north from the top of the Minar, one can see a patch of forest which is similar to the scrub forest vegetation of Moghal times, while to the west are extensively-irrigated fields, a product of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but similar in size and appearance to the well-irrigated fields of the Moghal period. The Lower Chenab Canal has turned the land into one of the most fertile area in the country now.
In eighteenth century, Nadir shah and Ahmed shah Abdali passed through Jehangir Abad once they came to attack India. Punjabi poet Syed Waris Shah had composed some pointing details of the attacks and conditions of the society of the time in his classic folk romance Heer Ranjha. Sikh came to the power in the later half of eighteenth century when Moghal authority weakened after the death of Aurangzeb Alamgir. It is during Sikh rule that the name of the town was changed from Jehangir Abad to Sheikhupura.
About Hiran minar
Those who take their chance to cross the River Ravi from Saghian Bridge to go to Sheikhupura in the suburbs of Lahore have to pass through the flower nurseries. Also, along the road has come up a Flower Market near Saghian Bridge. After turning on Sheikhupura-Sargodha Road from the Chowk where a beautiful replica of Hiran Minar (The Deer Tower) has been made, you drive along the bumpy two-way road lined up on both sides with smoke emitting factories of different kinds: fabrics, chemicals, glass, and paper pulp. At places the pungent whiff reminds as if one is driving on Grand Trunk Road near Kala Shah Kaku. Wall chalking, religious and or commercial slogans – is another thing that one notices all along the road to Sheikhupura.
Jehangir Abad turned Sheikhupura is situated in Ravi-Chenab corridor and fast turning from a market agricultural town to an industrial city. Adjacent to Lahore, the town is surrounded by old places like Sangla Hill (old Sakala), Nankana Saheb (birth place of Baba Guru Nanak) and Jandiala Sher Khan (last resting place of Waris Shah).
Hunting grounds were an important part of the physical environment of Moghal emperors. The place where the town stands today was one of Jahangir’s (Prince Salim) princely dominions during his father Akbar’s reign. The town was founded by Jehangir, near village Sahu Malli, during his rule in 1607. The king declared the barren jungles adjoining the place as royal hunting ground. After the death of king’s darling deer Mans Raj, this hunting ground was changed into a protected sanctuary and hunting was prohibited. In the memory of his favourite antelope, the king also constructed an octagonal tower in 1607 at the foot of the grave of the deer. In 1620, a square lake like pond and Baradari was added to the monument. A causeway with its own gateway connects the pavilion with the mainland and minaret. At the centre of each side of the tank, a brick ramp slopes down to the water that used to provide access for royal animals and wild game. Later he conferred the entire area upon Sikandar Moin.
[b]Special Features:-
A special feature of Hiran Minar is its location and environment: the top of the Minar is perhaps the best place in the province of Punjab to get a feel for the broader landscape and its relationship to a Moghal site. Looking north from the top of the Minar, one can see a patch of forest which is similar to the scrub forest vegetation of Moghal times, while to the west are extensively-irrigated fields, a product of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but similar in size and appearance to the well-irrigated fields of the Moghal period. The Lower Chenab Canal has turned the land into one of the most fertile area in the country now.
In eighteenth century, Nadir shah and Ahmed shah Abdali passed through Jehangir Abad once they came to attack India. Punjabi poet Syed Waris Shah had composed some pointing details of the attacks and conditions of the society of the time in his classic folk romance Heer Ranjha. Sikh came to the power in the later half of eighteenth century when Moghal authority weakened after the death of Aurangzeb Alamgir. It is during Sikh rule that the name of the town was changed from Jehangir Abad to Sheikhupura.
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