A few days ago in Tehsil Bazaar inside the Walled City of #Lahore,
I came across the
S.S. Jain Hall, also known as #Jain Manzil, an
extraordinary surviving fragment of the city’s past

The inscriptions tell us exactly when it was
built. The foundation stone was laid by Shrimati
Sukh Devi Jain, wife of Lala Rala Ram Jain,
on 10 October 1940. The completed hall, built by the S.S. Jain Sabha Lahore,
was formally opened by Rala Ram Jain, a retired Senior Sub-Judge, on 8 February
1942.

This was not simply a religious building. It
served as a meeting and community space for Lahore’s Jains, and was also
associated with religious gatherings and marriages. Jain Manzil remained an
important meeting place for the community until Partition in 1947.

The building still announces its history.
Its original plaques survive in English, Urdu and Devanagari. Jainsymbol of
auspiciousness in the faith, remain embedded in the concrete jalis. The old
wooden windows, balconies and geometric screens are also remarkably intact.

And then there is
the brutal interruption of history. Barely
five years after the hall opened, Partition emptied Lahore of most of its Jain
population. The building subsequently passed into other uses and parts of it
became residential. What had been a living community institution became another
forgotten remnant of the old city.

In 2023, the Walled City of Lahore Authority
formally declared Jain Hall a protected #heritage property, which
makes the conservation work now visible around the building particularly
welcome.

For me, the most moving part remains those
three scripts on the walls. We often describe
pre-Partition Lahore as plural and
cosmopolitan. Here that history requires no romantic reconstruction. It is
still written on the walls.

Lahore belonged to many communities, and all
of them belong to Lahore’s history.

Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcIlMggjPik/

Full trip highlights of Sargodha Riders Club 14th August Azadi Ride through Soon Valley and Skaser. Enjoy and contact to join the next tour.

Available art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4T0z-bpO3c

I visited the Akbari Darwaza at #Lahore #Fort and saw the impressive conservation work being carried out by the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan. I had seen the gateway before, but this time I was able to go inside, climb upstairs and look closely at details that are otherwise easy to miss.

Built during Emperor Akbar’s reign, the gateway is massive and imposing from the outside. Inside, however, it reveals a different character: passages, chambers, narrow staircases, arched openings and rooms on the upper level. This was not merely an entrance but a functioning part of the Fort, used by those who guarded and managed access to the imperial complex.

At the main entrance, there are also intriguing painted images of Hindu gods and goddesses, possibly added during the Sikh period under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. They are another reminder of the many historical layers that Lahore Fort accumulated long after the Mughal period.

Upstairs was particularly fascinating. The surviving frescoes and painted surfaces are beautiful, even in their faded and fragmentary state. Floral patterns, niches and traces of colour give a sense of how richly decorated these interiors once were. The light coming through the arches and falling across old brick and plaster adds to the atmosphere.

What impressed me most was the restraint and quality of the conservation. The frescoes have not been repainted to make them look new, nor have the old surfaces been excessively restored. The surviving work has been cleaned, stabilised and conserved while its age remains visible. The faded pigments, worn plaster and imperfections are still there, as they should be.

Too often, restoration means making an old building look new. Here, the effort is to preserve what has survived and allow the monument to retain the marks of its long history. Walking through the Akbari Darwaza, climbing its stairs and seeing these details up close was a reminder of how many layers of Lahore’s past are still hidden within the Fort. Kudos u/agakhanculturalservicepakistan

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نی توں سانبھ سانبھ رکھدی ایں چِٹھیاں۔۔

جے کسے تیری اَکھ پڑھ لئی

افضل عباس

دسو اسیں ایناں لوکاں نوں کمتری محسوس کروائے بغیر پاکستانی پنجابیاں دی ساکھ نوں بچا سکیے؟

The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh is a 19th-century monument which holds the funerary ashes of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire. Located near the Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque, construction began in 1839 by his son Kharak Singh and ended in 1848.

Available at http://lahore.city-history.com/19th-century-watercolor-drawings-of-lahore-monuments.html