Sarai Amanat Khan: Forgotten Mughal inn that once connected Agra to Lahore

In the recent India-Pakistan hostility, the savage brunt of our adversary nation’s assault was most severely felt in border areas. While Amritsar – together with various other places close to the border – was a prime target, there is a little-known place even closer to the border than Amritsar whose inhabitants also spent tense nights.

From the outside, Sarai Amanat Khan looks like a mediaeval fort, and a rather small one at that. Within its fortified walls is a thriving community in a state of agrarian prosperity, similar to other places in Punjab. But no other place in the state has people living permanently in a fort, so a visitor ponders this peculiarity. It is certainly not on account of being close to the international border. To know the answer, a dive into history is needed.

In the Mughal era, this place lay on the road that connected Lahore with Delhi, Agra and beyond. The route saw continuous movement of merchant caravans, marching armies and even the imperial family. The long road was punctuated by caravan sarais, meant for weary travellers to spend a night in. Sleeping in the open was fraught with danger, and wealthy merchants paid a toll to spend a night within the guarded confines of a caravan sarai. Here, apart from safety, they got refreshment and feed for their pack animals and were able to resume their journey the next day.

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Given the volume of traffic on these Mughal highways and the consequent revenue potential of the caravan sarais, ownership rights to a sarai were a phenomenal source of wealth for those in charge. In the middle of the 17th century CE, rights to a sarai at this site – a short distance from Lahore – were given to a person called Amanat Khan.

Born under the name of Abd-al-Haq in Shiraz town of Persia (now Iran), Amanat Khan had made his reputation as an expert calligrapher. His work is seen on Quranic verses carved on the gateway of Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra and in a caravan sarai in Agra. His greatest claim to glory came when he became the calligrapher of the Taj Mahal, literally carving his name into history at the greatest Mughal monument of all time.

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The rewards that followed were in proportion to his work – the title of ‘Amanat Khan’, which translates into ‘like an heirloom’, along with a jagir and rights to the caravan sarai on a key highway route. The title rubbed off on the sarai as well, and thus ‘Sarai Amanat Khan’ came into being.

Built like a regular sarai, the structure has two gateways, allowing merchant caravans to enter through one and leave from the other. What looks like a fort from the outside had cells within for travellers to stay, as well as a stepwell, some regular wells and a mosque. However, a caravan sarai owned by the calligrapher of the Taj could not be pedestrian. Both its gateways still bear signs of elaborate tile work, floral and geometric patterns and, most significantly, calligraphy. As per some accounts, some of the glazed tiled calligraphy seen here was personally designed by the master himself.

Historians also say that the caravan sarai held special significance for Amanat Khan. The reason for this is attributed to his emotional state following the death of his beloved brother Afzal Khan in 1640. Apparently, Amanat Khan put his heart and soul into the design and embellishment of the caravan sarai which bore his name. It was the last flicker of his brilliant candle, and he himself passed away in 1644-45 at the sarai and was buried there itself. Around the same time, Amanat Khan also built his brother’s tomb in Agra, the exquisite Chini-ka-Rauza, on the banks of the Yamuna.

Sarai Amanat Khan remained an important place as long as the Mughal empire itself was powerful. As the empire ebbed – a process which began after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 – so did its capability to hold territory and extract revenue. By the 19th century CE, the sarai had lost its importance and began to see people moving into its precincts, perhaps hoping that its fortified walls would form a layer of protection against marauders. There is also a report stating that a communal situation developed here in 1926, leading to Hindus and Sikhs staying on one side of the sarai and Muslims on the other side. Partition led to the Muslims leaving and people from West Punjab seeking refuge here. The drawing of an international border that put Lahore in a separate country knocked out the last vestige of economic relevance from this sarai.

The sarai today is gently crumbling. Most of the cells where merchants once stayed have been built upon and converted into houses, including double-storey structures, complete with split air conditioning protruding from the sarai walls. The mosque within the sarai, also bearing Amanat Khan’s signature calligraphy on glazed tiles, is ‘protected’. However, construction with the sarai has now raised the level of all structures, with the mosque being lower. It is believed that the tomb of Amanat Khan too was here but is now lost. The proud gateways still stand, though the stone lattice work within has begun to fall. On the Delhi Gate, one of the cupolas mounted on the side towers has long since fallen off. And today, it is no longer merchant caravans that come from the direction of Lahore, but missiles.

The author is a heritage explorer with a penchant for seeking obscure sites. A brand consultant by profession, he tweets @HiddenHeritage. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.