Harking back: The first master builder of British-era Lahore

Of the four outstanding builders of the British-era Lahore, Bhai Ram Singh the amazing architect, and Ganga Ram the engineer, seem best known. However, John Lockwood Kipling and Kanhiya Lal lesser so.

In this piece let us dwell on the first PWD engineer of Lahore, and the man who built, or better still, led the team that built most of the finest buildings on The Mall and elsewhere in Lahore. His contribution is grossly under-estimated, yet on paper and in reality he probably leads the field. Added to his outstanding engineering skills, he was an intellectual who preferred to follow a low profile, and ended his brief three years in retirement with a book ‘Tareekh-e-Lahore’, which is still highly regarded as a classic.

Rai Bahadar Kanhiya Lal, the engineer was born in Jaisalmir in June 1830. At that time Maharajah Ranjit Singh was in power in Lahore and the Punjab. He obtained a degree in engineering from the Rookree Engineering College and in June 1850, a year after the East India Company had taken over and a new Public Works Department (PWD) had been created, he joined as an assistant engineer then aged merely 21 years.

He rose to the post of superintendent engineer and retired in 1885 aged 55 years. Till 1885 he was Ganga Ram’s boss and supervised most buildings in Lahore with Ganga Ram. Three years after retirement he passed away in Lahore, where he had also acquired fame as a poet and writer and historian.

The two major contributions of Kanhiya Lal as an engineer are the building of the Government College Lahore and the Montgomery Hall. Mind you construction and design were his strong points, and all the work that he completed even today stands out for its quality.

While at the Engineering College in Rookree, he won prizes for Mathematics, Engineering and Surveying. So he had a keen eye for detail, and that stood out in his lifetime work. He was second in the PWD under the Civil Engineer of the Punjab, Lt-Col. Napier. As his scholarship was highly regarded, he was the man who assisted in the setting up of Lahore’s Engineering School, now known as the Engineering University.

His first major research and survey work were the walls and gateways of the old walled city, where he lived and loved, and wrote so much about. But then two major undertakings really established him as an engineer to be reckoned with. Firstly, was the repair and redecoration of the Governor House, then known as Government House. The quality of that work is still there to be seen.

Next as the new cantonment was chosen at Mian Meer, he converted a large building into a huge church, which still stands out. By that time the Indian Railways was pushing towards Lahore and the first railway bridge design had his hand in it. Every time you cross the River Ravi, to the north is the old railway bridge. That was his contribution to modernising Lahore, a city he loved so much.

Then came the time when the British rulers decided that the city needed good educational institutions. Once the design of Government College, Lahore, was finalised he worked day and night to complete what turned out to be a classic Gothic creation. His eye for design detail can very well be seen even today.

Another health institution that is the largest still in Lahore is the Mayo Hospital, in whose design he assisted the team of architects and built the hospital with great vigour. This is a contribution that is forgotten. Many years later Ganga Ram supervised the much smaller Albert Victor Ward of the hospital.

After the events of 1857, the British needed a huge prison in Lahore, as well as a mental health hospital. The design of this was left to Kanhiya Lal, who in a practical manner worked with architects to finalise the plans. Once complete he worked hard and within record time completed this project, which can still be seen on Lahore’s Jail Road.

But his most beautiful structure he built was the Lawrence and Montgomery Halls in the now Jinnah Gardens opposite the Governor’s House. He skilfully joined and raised them on a pedestal. Once complete the then Company Bagh was renamed Lawrence Garden, and after 1947 renamed Jinnah Garden.

The list of buildings and structures completed by Rai Bahadar Kanhiya Lal are long. For example, he built the Montgomery (now Sahiwal) railways station, the Telegraph Office on The Mall, and assisted in the construction of the Lahore Waterworks at Chuna Mandi. The city’s drainage and water flow was undertaken by Ganga Ram, for that was his speciality.

On the cultural side, Kanhiya Lal on joining the PWD took a personal interest in restoring the crumbling structure of the mosque of Dai Anga. He got it approved and what we see today is thanks to the work of this amazing engineer. It reflected his love for history and culture.

Next on his list was Buddhu da Aawa, and the nearby mausoleum known as Saruwala Maqbara, an 18th century tomb of Sharfunnisa Begum, the sister of Nawab Zakaria Khan, the Governor of Lahore. Built in 1735, it is so named because of its height and its decorations. It is probably the finest post-Aurangzeb structure in Lahore. The Sikhs plundered the tomb looking for treasures, which were never there. Kanhiya Lal took a special interest in this structure and restored it to its original glory.

But to my mind his greatest contribution are the scores of booklets and instruction manuals he wrote on engineering techniques and drawings of how to build traditional structures. These books are still in use in most educational institutions.

But once he retired in 1885, he devoted his life to researching and writing the history of Lahore, as well as composing poetry under the name of Kanhiya Lal Hindi. His book on Lahore’s history can today be found in any good bookshop under the title ‘Tarikh-e-Lahore’, and he is most often quoted by researchers interested in the subject.

Of the two engineers of the first 50 years of the British period in Lahore, Kanhiya Lal and Ganga Ram, most experts would rate Kanhiya Lal as technically more astute. Ganga Ram’s fame and wealth derived from his agricultural pursuits is very different from the pure technical expertise and engineering skill of Kanhiya Lal. After all he was the Master Builder of the New British-era Lahore.