Minaret of Jahangir’s Tomb

The Federal Archeology Department has completed the restoration and conservation work on the minaret of Jahangir’s Tomb which had been in precarious condition for decades and tilted outside, Shahdra Complex of Monuments Project Director Naeem Iqbal told Dawn on Tuesday, reports Dawn.

“The minaret has now been conserved and restored by the Federal Archeology Department and each step of the conservation was handled carefully fulfilling all technical requirements,” he said.

He said Shahdra Complex of Monuments was working on three monuments: Jahangir’s Tomb, Akbari Sarai and Asif Khan’s tomb.

Up to Rs461 million was approved in March 2010 for the restoration and conservation of the complex which is a seven year project, he added. Mr Iqbal said the tilted minaret of Jahangir Tomb was placed on the priority list of the project because it had bulged out to a dangerous extent. The tilt in the north-west minaret was first detected in 1970 and a tilto meter was fixed on the top story of the minaret. The instrument, however, observed no sign of tilting.

He said that surprisingly the base of the minaret had constantly been showing cracks and fissures that put it at bulging. In 2008, a thorough study of the minaret that is 100 feet high from the ground level was conducted and in the light of the study, restoration work was started.

Mr Iqbal said, “The minaret has been restored to its original shape and new stone pieces have been fixed according to the original layout and design.”

Department officials say that most of the original decorative features of Jahangir’s mausoleum and other monuments at Shahdara were plundered during political anarchy that stemmed from the decline of the Mughal rule, especially when the Punjab came under the domination of the Sikhs. Also, adverse effects of weather changes, temperature variations, periodical floods, earthquakes, rains, winds and other natural hazards contributed to the degeneration of the mausoleum.

The tomb, a single storey structure, is square in plan with 267 feet sides and built in red sand stone richly inlayed with white marble decorative motifs. It stands in an immense garden of 58.77 acres, divided into 16 sub-quarters by means of walkways and water channels. The principal effect in the embellishment of the tomb is obtained through applied colour decorations in the form of richly decorated fresco paintings and mosaic tiles in addition to the delicate pietra dura and marble intarsia of various colours. The idea of white marble motifs incised in red sand stone such as ewer, fruit dish and rose water sprinkler appears to have been taken from Persian miniature paintings.

While the low height of the building appears to be an architectural shortcoming, the four corner minarets crowned with white marble cupolas and rising up in five stages to a height of nearly 100 feet above ground, not only make good this drawback but also add to its magnificence and grace. These minarets are decorated with variegated marble in zigzag pattern and are the fore-runners of the refined and octagonal minarets of the imperial Mughal style.