Harking Back: Khizri Gate, its harbour … and fate of its lions

Of the 13 gates of old Lahore, the least known is the harbour that the city once had at Khizri Gate, which was much later to be known as Sheranwala Gate … or the gateway of the lions. So what happened to the harbour?

While researching the placement of various cities in the sub-continent - the idea being to understand commonalities - it did not come as a surprise that all of them had a river or the sea, an ancient fort and a British-era cantonment. But then all of them also had a harbour. This got me thinking. Just why did Lahore not have a harbour? On further research it emerged that Lahore certainly did have one and a pretty impressive one at that.

The harbour of Lahore, as mentioned by Khushwant Singh, was where Maharajah Ranjit Singh loaded his famous Zamzama Cannon onto a huge river boat when he set off to conquer Multan. Once the Ravi moved away in a process called ‘meandering’, river trade shifted to a small harbour just off Karim Park at the point where a boat bridge existed. Remains of that bridge and the small harbour can still be seen in the form of a few remaining pillars and platforms.

But then the Grand Trunk Road was effectively being used as road transport improved, especially since the river meandered to its present position. By that time Maharajah Ranjit Singh had introduced a horse-carriage service between Lahore and Amritsar, which left at regular times from the ‘coach station’ that once functioned where today stands the old gymnasium of Government College Lahore. But before I get my teeth into exploring the old harbour of Lahore, let me dwell on the outline of other sub-continental cities.

In this regard I am using a rare ‘Imperial Gazetteer of India’ Atlas version printed originally in 1909, which has linguistic contributions by Dr G.A. Grierson. It also has ethnological maps by Sir Herbert Risley and four historical maps of 1765 when the Diwani Grant was introduced right up to the ‘end-result’ after by 1857 Mutiny, or our First War of Independence. Mind you this rare Atlas was extensively used, right down to its last detail, when the Partition lines were drawn and presented by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a Welsh-born Law Lord, to the British House of Commons for approval. It is amazing how the Atlas has the map of Pakistan was clearly marked out in 1919 in its depictions of religious and ethnic demarcations.

But back to the cities. Calcutta, since renamed Kolkata, is on the river Hooghly with its Fort William at the river edge and surrounded by a huge garden. To its south are two docks which meet and re-merge back to the river thanks to an exit canal. Across the river the famous Howrah railway station had come up.

Then there is Bombay, since rename Mumbai, with its huge harbour on the Indian Ocean. The British built a fort there called Fort George. Its cantonment area is called Navy Nagar. In the same way Madras, now called Chennai, has its Fort St. George, and a cantonment at St. Thomas’s Mount, where one of the 12 apostles of Jesus was martyred. Delhi, located on the River Jumna, has its Mughal-era Red Fort with a cantonment built in 1914. Agra, located on the River Jumna, has its Mughal-era fort, built in 1638, and its cantonment. All of them have harbours.

So all the major cities of the sub-continent have one thing in common, that being that they are either located on a river, or by the sea, they all have cantonments thanks to the British, they all have a fort, mostly Mughal-era or in some cases even older like Lahore, and they all have harbours, both large and small. The harbour that once Lahore had is the topic on which very little has been written, or explored.

Before the highways were used for ‘long-distance’ trade, their primary purpose was to help armies to move from one major city to another, or then traders moved in large groups to avoid being harassed by local dacoits. But the ‘thugs’ were a different proposition and they moved in groups over long distance posing as traders. They struck, invariably fatally, when circumstances allowed. The presence of such characters strictly restricted trade movement. That is why river trade was an essential part of the economy of a city.

Lahore’s harbour existed at the Khizri Gate, now renamed Sheranwala Gate. The new name came about when Maharajah Ranjit Singh built a cage at the gate with two lions. He also built a small jail nearby, the remnants of which still exist. Local legend has it that condemned prisoners were thrown to the lions, though there is no historic proof of such a happening. Probably his objective was to impress visitors arriving by boat. Rulers love to associate themselves with lions. The children living inside Khizri Gate used to harass the poor animals, which the account by Khushwant Singh claims killed them. The ruler replaced them with stone lions, which the British removed and rebuilt the gateway with two lions engraved on the main front.

The original name Khizri was taken from the patron saint of the waters. There is a ‘Gumbat-e-Khizra’ on the Temple of the Mount in Jerusalem, a monument respected by Muslims, Christians and Jews, for ‘Al-Khizr’ advised the Prophet Moses. Even today all superstitious sailors and fishermen acknowledge him as the ‘Master of the Waters’. But then the legend of Khawaja Khizr is also seen in ancient Zoroastrian scripts as ‘Pir-e-Sabz’ who they visit at Yazd in Iran. For that matter the dome of the monument in Jerusalem is green.

There is a Greek tradition where Khizr is known as a dragon slayers, as also in Kurd tradition as having ‘Ilm-a-Ladoon’. The Quran mentions him extensively in Surah Al-Kahf (18/65-82) and refers to him extensively. But the closest is a Bukhari ‘hadith’ which states on the authority of Ahmad ibn Hanbal that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) stated that Hazrat Alijah and Hazrat Khizr spend the month of Ramazan in Jerusalem. Another Bukhari ‘hadith’ states that Hazrat Ali stated at the funeral of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that the sudden appearance of a weeping old man was Hazrat Khizr.

So it was not out of place when the harbour of Lahore was named Khizri Darwaza. When the Mughal emperor Akbar rebuilt the walls of Lahore in burnt brick, the harbour, which was at some distance from the city, was incorporated into the walled city. Sketches of the gate show it as having a sloping road sliding towards the river.

Inside the gateway there are ‘galis’ and ‘kuchas’ named after various boat-building trades like ‘chappuwali gali’ (oar street) or Mohallah Kashtiban (sailor’s precinct) and numerous other such related names. They all point to an era that passed away once the division of the city of nine distinct quarters with 27 ‘guzars’ got a new administrative structure with 13 gates. Khizri Gate was one of them, which changed its name thanks to the Sikh ruler who tied his lions at the gateway of the ‘Saint of the Waters’.