Place · Mughal hunting ensemble · Pakistan
Hirān Mīnār, Sheikhupura
A thirty-metre brick tower, a great octagonal water tank and a pavilion reached by a causeway, laid out by Jahāngīr in 1606 at a hunting ground near Sheikhupura. The tower is a grave marker: it stands over the burial of Mansrāj, an antelope the emperor had tamed, and an inscription records the fact. Ramps cut into the corners of the tank let game walk down to drink, which is what the whole ensemble was designed around — a reservoir arranged for the convenience of animals.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 31.743, 73.955
Worth knowing
An emperor built a thirty-metre minaret over a pet antelope and had the reason carved on it, which makes Hirān Mīnār the grandest pet memorial in the subcontinent.
Connections (2)
- Patronage networkLahore Fort & Shalimar
Hirān Mīnār at Sheikhupura and the Shalimar gardens at Lahore are both the Mughal court arranging water and ground for its own pleasure within a day of the capital, and Jahāngīr laid out the first in 1606. The tank at Hirān Mīnār has ramps cut into its corners so that game could walk down and drink, which is the same instinct as a garden terrace and a channel: a landscape engineered to deliver an experience. The difference is that this one was built around a tame antelope's grave.
- Patronage networkShahdara
Jahāngīr built one of these and lies in the other. Hirān Mīnār of 1606 is a thirty-metre tower over the grave of Mansrāj, an antelope he had tamed, with a tank arranged so that game could walk down and drink — the emperor's own taste, recorded in the Tuzuk. The tomb at Shahdara, finished under Shāh Jahān in 1637, is what was built for him. The two together are the fullest statement of Jahāngīr's Punjab: a pleasure landscape for animals, and a mausoleum with no dome.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hiran Minar”. Punjab archaeology department records; Jahāngīr, Tuzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, on Mansrāj.
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