In our college days we loved rowing on the River Ravi and relaxing on the island near Shahdara, and on a hot day dozing off in the baradari of Kamran Mirza. There is much more to this ‘baradari’ than meets the eye.

In this piece let us look into the story of the ‘baradari’ and the man who built it. For starters this was the very first Mughal era structure built in Lahore, much before Akbar his nephew rebuilt the Lahore Fort and ‘walled’ the expanded the old city of Lahore.

Let us concentrate on the man who was Kamran Mirza. He was the son of the founder of the Mughal Empire the Emperor Babar. He was the second son of Babar and was born in Kabul in 1512, thus being the half brother of Humayun, the second Mughal emperor. When Babar set off to conquer India he left Kamran in Kandahar to protect the ‘left’ flank. When Babar died in 1530, Kamran Mirza was the ruler of the northern portion of the new Mughal Empire. So in that sense Kamran, the brother of Humayun, was very much in power in the critical portion of the Mughal Empire. Eight years after Babar died, Kamran in 1538 for the first time crossed into the Indian sub-continent. He had an army of 12,000 cavalry soldiers, all of them highly trained and able to move at a rapid pace. This was a time period in which Humayun was fighting in Bengal to the east, leaving the entire middle of India empty of Mughal rule.

Abu’l Fazl writes that “Kamran was summoned to crush a rebellion by his brother Hindal against him”. Amazingly Kamran stood still which in a way was a refusal to help Humayun.This was the time when the Pathan general Sher Shah of the Suri tribe had revolted and at Chaunsa, near Behar, in June 1539, defeated Humayun. Sher Shah was assisted by many Rajput rulers. One estimate is that the combined forces of Sher Shah were over 200,000, against an estimated 75,000 of the Mughals. Plus the Sher Shah forces were all mobile and highly trained and equipped. Amazingly, Kamran did not let his army come under the command of Humayun but made aggressive moves to take over Mughal power. Seeing the strength of Sher Shah, who refused to communicate with any Mughal, Kamran Mirza retreated to Lahore and took over power. He declared himself the ruler of the Mughal. After the defeat at Chaunsa, Humayun reorganised and met Sher Shah at Kannauj in May 1540. Sher Shah defeated Humayun and ordered that he return to Kabul. At this point Kamran Mirza refused to hand over Kabul to Humayun and discussed with Sher Shah that he be given rule of the Punjab, with him remaining the ruler of Lahore. Sher Shah refused the offer and at this point Humayun put into action a plan to murder his brother Kamran.

In 1543, the emperor Humayun crossed the River Indus and to his shock Kamran refused him entry. Rather he sent his brother Askari to arrest Humayun and bring him to Kabul to be executed. Humayun got word of this plan and escaped to the court of Shah Tahmaseb of Iran. Kamran urged the Shah to hand over Humayun, which the Shah refused. Instead Humayun was offered troops to defeat Kamran at Kabul. A vicious battle took place in November 1545 in which Kamran was defeated. But repeated battles took place and twice Kamran was able to retake Kabul. But Humayun kept defeating his brother who set off to meet the Suri ruler of India to help him defeat Humayun. The Suris refused to help him, instead arrested Kamran and set about handing him over to Humayun. The court of Humayun pressurised him to put the rebellious Kamran to death, but the emperor always reminded him that their father Babar had advised never to harm their brothers. But the maximum he agreed not do was to blind Kamran and send him off to Mecca to stay there forever. In 1557 Kamran Mirza died a blind man. His sons were all arrested and imprisoned in the Attock Fort. So it was that the ambitions of Kamran Mirza were put to rest. While he was the ruler of Lahore we see Kamran Mirza calling in the finest architects and marble builders to construct the very first ‘baradari’ of the Mughal era. It was initially planned on the western bank of the River Ravi, and around this resting place a beautiful garden was put in place, Kamran Mirza enjoyed this ‘regal’ structure for a short period, but then as explained about had to move on as the forces of Sher Shah forced their way in.

On the other hand, Humayun was forced to move to Sindh, where at Amarkot was born the future emperor Akbar.

The ’baradari’ was a beautiful sight on the river, but then over time the natural process of meandering saw the river move westwards and the place where stood the ‘baradari’ became an island. A smaller version of that island exists today. Its size remains the same because the water flow had almost disappeared because of the Indus Water Treaty with India. These days two major activities take place there. One, boatsmen used this to transport tourists, who enjoy this unique experience. Secondly, to one side exist a number of drug addicts, who after having a dose or two sleep there. But the number of tourists still move about, and increasingly their numbers grow.T here has been some work undertaken by an official organisation to improve the garden and also the structure. There is a need to further improve the ‘baradari’ to ensure it does not collapse. Amazingly like the ‘baradari’ between the Badshahi Mosque and the Fort, both has a second storey. Both have collapsed. There is a need for architects to advise whether the two second storeys can be rebuilt. It would be an interesting addition to Lahore’s culture.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024