Housing history through the ages

The Lahore Museum, built in 1894, is home to unique artefacts, including the famous fasting Buddha.

Lahore has long been considered a centre of culture in the subcontinent — it was the traditional capital of the Punjab for over a 1,000 years and is today the second largest city in Pakistan.

Lahore lies on the Grand Trunk Road (Shahrah-e-Azam) which once connected Kabul (Afghanistan) and Calcutta (Kolkata, in India) and was built by the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century.

Its position on this main trade route also meant that Lahore was subjected to a myriad of cultural influences although it was the Mughal period that left the deepest imprint in its identity. It was during this era that the city was beautified with the construction of numerous mosques, gardens and palaces.

Lahore has been host to a number of eminent artists, poets and intellectuals — one of the greatest Urdu poets, Faiz, dedicated a poem to this city, 'The City of Lights.' Lahore has also been home to some of the oldest educational institutes in the region.

This 2,000-year-old city has a lot to tell and one way to view its story is at the Lahore Museum, one of the major museums of South Asia and Pakistan's largest.

Lahore's reputation as a cultural melting pot continued during British rule and the building that now houses the Lahore Museum — built during this period, in 1894, with the foundation stone laid by Prince Albert — is a reflection of this. The building was designed by Rudyard Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling and the Vice-Principal of Mayo School, Bhai Ram Singh.

Lockwood was also among the first curators of the museum. Just outside the museum stands the cannon that Rudyard immortalised in his novel Kim and which has now come to be known as Kim's Gun (the other name being Zamzama).

The Lahore Museum is located on the main and very picturesque road that runs through the city, known popularly as the Mall (renamed Shahrah-e-Quaid-e Azam).

The museum building also faces the century-old Allama Iqbal campus of South Asia's famous Punjab University.

What one notices immediately on entering the museum is the white marble portico that frames the main entrance and the deep cool shade that envelops the visitor on stepping into the building.

Sadequain, one of Pakistan's most celebrated artists, was commissioned to paint the museum ceiling. Sadequain based his painting around the verses of the poet-philosopher of the east, Allama Iqbal, whose ideology was one of inducing the human spirit to better itself and to reach a higher goal.

The artist completed this assignment in 1973 while living in the building for about six months and it is an impressive piece of work indeed.

Lahore Museum contains 20 galleries that display various collections showcasing fine Mughal and Sikh woodwork specimens as well as galleries that display paintings from the Mughal, Sikh and British eras. The gallery housing Mughal miniature paintings is fascinating and one of the finest collections of its kind in South Asia.

One of the most fascinating areas in the museum though, is the one that highlights the Indus Civilisation. Although this was one of the first human civilisations and the largest of its age, little is known about it. The language that was used has, unlike Egyptian hieroglyphics, remained indecipherable and so there are many secrets that have remained silent from this most ancient part of the region's history. The bits of pottery and jewellery may be insignificant when viewed individually, but against the backdrop of archaeological knowledge they reveal a very interesting, intricate and delicate pattern of human history, as difficult as it was to unwind as it was a pleasure to get to know.

One fact cannot be disputed. The people of the Indus were remarkably prosperous and knowledgeable — and quite unlike any other human society before or since as it was a civilisation without an army to protect it. There was no use for weapons and there seems to have been little differentiation in terms of social class. From all archaeological finds one can only conclude that the 'people of the Roaring River' (as they were referred to centuries later in the first Hindu scriptures) were prosperous, peace loving and that they had attained the closest approximation to utopia that was possible in human history.

Looking at the displays that try to mirror fragments of the lives these people must have lived, one wonders at their spiritual strength. It is impossible that they never considered the baser human qualities that lead to war — their highly skilled agricultural knowledge and the advanced architectural designs shrug off the idea of weaponry and ideology of war.

They channelled the aggressiveness of human nature to cultivate the better and more positive attributes that advanced the well being of their race.

Although this civilisation was larger in area than that of Ancient Egypt, it has long been treated with little interest. One reason may well be that the remains of this civilisation and these people are not as glamorous as the mummified remains of the Pharaohs and there have been no gold sarcophagi at the Indus sites. There were no graves that were better decorated than others, no houses much grander than others — in fact all tell tale signs of a stratified society are missing.

Most of what is said in history is based on speculative theory — and this is no less the case with the Indus Civilisation. Still, this absence of hierarchy is a deeply interesting part of the puzzle of this civilisation.

A display that this writer always found difficult to turn away from is the exquisitely sculpted bronze statue of the fasting Buddha. The depiction of veins and the ribcage, the folds of skin, are so artistically and realistically sculpted that it is quite literally breathtaking. This was spiritually the highest point of the Buddha's earthly journey — his fast that lasted years and that elevated his soul. For this reason this statue is of great value to the throngs of Japanese tourists who visit the museum.

The Gandhara gallery which houses this statue also showcases Mahayana Buddhist religious sculptures. This branch of Buddhism originated and flourished during the first five centuries of the Christian era in the northern areas of the country. This gallery captures the life story of the Buddha in the form of frieze panels and statues. Gandhara art has a particular importance for it introduced the image of Buddha which was then developed and has influenced Buddhist religious art everywhere.

The visitors' eye is also likely to stop and observe at length the towering bronze statue depicting Queen Victoria. The details are so exquisitely carved that the ruffles and folds of the dress are almost life like. This was cast on the occasion of the Queen's diamond jubilee year in 1897 and once occupied a central position in front of what is now the Punjab Assembly before being moved to the museum.

Millions of Sikhs visit Pakistan every year as there are some very important sites in the country that have a religious connotation for this chivalrous race. Lahore was once ruled by the Sikhs, so there is a gallery dedicated to this time frame of the city's history, in the museum. It contains an antique Granth Sahib painting, a priceless replica of the Golden Temple as well as a number of valuable paintings.

Of course, there is far more to the museum and its collection of historical artefacts than can be captured in a few hundred words. Suffice it to say that the museum is home to a collection that brings together very different eras in the region's history, making it worth a visit.