The Nimla garden (Khogiani district, Nangarhar) was ordered to be constructed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan on the eighteenth of Sha'ban 1056 Hijri (September 1646) between the time of his coming from Delhi to Kabul, and his return to Delhi [1]. It is said to be the work of the famous architect Ali Mardan Khan, who designed many of the Mughal buildings in the Punjab.
Nimla village lies about 5 miles east of Gandamak and 30 miles from Jalalabad. Its inhabitants are Khogiani Afghans and Tajiks. Mughal emperor Jahangir hunted a female panther between the village of Nimlah and Bagh-I-Wafa (Jalalabad). "On the 24th, between the garden of Wafa and Nimlah, a hunt took place, and nearly forty red antelope were killed. A female panther (yuz) fell into our hands in this hunt. The zamindars of that place, Laghmanis and Afghan Shal, came and said that they did not remember, nor had they heard from their fathers that a panther had been seen in that region for 120 years". [2]
In 1832 the traveler Lal Mohan passed through Nimla; "25 November: On our road we passed through the beautiful garden of Nimlah, which refreshed our sight. The fine scented nargis (narcissus) abounded in this orchard." [3]
Charles Masson describes the village and garden in 1830s as, "This village is a small one of eighty houses, but the garden appears very advantageously with its tall cypress- trees. It is famed for narcissuses, posies of which are sent as presents to Kabal". [4]
 |
| Nimlah or Mimlah Bagh (Khogiani district, Nangarhar), with soldiers in the foreground, taken by John Burke in 1878. |
References
1- "Siraj al-Tawarikh", English translation, p-1604
2- Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, Henry Beveridge's translation, p-125
3- "Travels in the Panjab, Afghanistan,Turkistan, to Balk, Bokhara, and Herat", 1846 ...By Lal Mohan
4- "Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan", Vol-3, p-186
No comments:
Post a Comment