Hiran Minar ‘tank’ (a reservoir) with pavilion and minaret in Sheikhupura (now in Pakistan) in the Punjab, about 25 miles northwest of Lahore. The lake and minaret were built in about 1606 on the orders of Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627), Akbar’s successor, as a memorial to his pet antelope Mansraj and as a place for animals of the hunt to find water; the pavilion is the work of Jahangir’s successor Shaha Jahan (r. 1628-1658). Jahangir, a keen hunter, believed firmly that humans and animals were mutually dependent, and took great care of the animals on his estates.
HAKIM Ali in the 39th year* prepared a wonderful tank,* a road within which led to a chamber. The extraordinary thing was that the water of the tank could not enter the chamber.* Men went down and endured much difficulty in examining the place, and many were so troubled that they returned when they got half-way.
Akbar went to see the spectacle and came to the chamber. He got under the water at a corner of the tank and after descending two or three steps he arrived at the room. It was much decorated and was well-lighted and there was space for ten or twelve people. There were sleeping coverlets and clothing, and there was a collation. There were some books in recesses. The air did not allow a drop of water to enter. As the king stayed there for a little, a strange feeling took possession of the men outside.*
* Akbar reigned from 1556 to 1605, making him a close contemporary of Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). His thirty-ninth year would be 1594. Hakim Ali ibn Kamal al-Din Muhammad Gilani (?-1609) was born in Gilan, Persia (modern-day Iran). It seems that Hakim Ali made two such chambers, this one in Lahore and another in Agra during the reign of Akbar’s successor Jahangir, who wrote about it in his recollections of the year 1608.
“He had made it like one he had built in Lahore during His Majesty Arsh-Ashyani’s [Akbar’s] reign. The pool is six ells square. On one side had been built a well-lit chamber. Its entrance was through the water, yet the water could not get in. Ten to twelve people could hold a conversation in it.”
An ell is a northern European measure which, like the similar cubit of the East, varies in length. English translators have customarily used it as an equivalent for the Persian cubit or guz, which was sufficiently close to a yard for guz to be used in both Hindi and Urdu as an equivalent for ‘yard’ to this day.
* A Indian (or indeed Australian) word for a reservoir.
* It seems that entry to the room was by what is known as a ‘moon pool’ or ‘wet porch’, an opening approached from beneath which, thanks to the air pressure in the room, does not allow the water to flood upwards.
* Expressed rather more strongly by Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551-1602), author of the history of Akbar’s reign titled Akbarnama: “The Spectators nearly died [of terror], but came to themselves on hearing of his welfare. I lost my senses on seeing this misplaced courage, but submitted to fate and remained silent.”
Précis
In 1594, Hakim Ali, physician to Mughal Emperor Akbar, exhibited a reservoir with a submerged room that was, he said, quite dry and habitable. A number of Akbar’s courtiers dived in to explore the chamber, though some lost their nerve, and the Emperor himself enjoyed a few minutes of sumptuously-furnished underwater living, while his nobles waited anxiously above. (57 / 60 words)
