de of Lahore on the
road to Amritsar are the Shalimar Gardens laid out by Shahjahan for the
ladies of his court. When the paved channels are full and the fountains
are playing, and the lights of earthen lamps are reflected in the water,
Shalimar is still a pleasant resort.

[Illustration: Fig. 148. Shahdara.]

The Museum in Anarkali contains much of interest to Indians and
Europeans. The "house of wonders" is very popular with the former. It
includes a very valuable collection of Buddhist sculptures. Opposite the
museum is the famous Zamzama gun (page 187).

~Growth of Lahore.~ As the headquarters of an important Government and of
a great railway system Lahore has prospered. Owing to the influx of
workers the population has risen rapidly from 157,287 in 1881 to 228,687
in 1911. The railway alone affords support to 30,000 people, of whom
8000 are employed in the workshops.

~Amritsar~ (31.38 N., 74.53 E.) is a modern town founded in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century by the fourth Guru, Ram Das, on a site
granted to him by Akbar. Here he dug the Amrita Saras or Pool of
Immortality, leaving a small platform in the middle as the site of that
Har Mandar, which rebuilt is to-day, under the name of the Darbar Sahib,
the centre of Sikh devotion. The fifth Guru, Arjan Das, completed the
Har Mandar. Early in the eighteenth century Amritsar became without any
rival the Mecca of the Sikhs, who had now assumed an attitude of warlike
resistance to their Muhammadan rulers. Once and again they were driven
out, but after the victory at Sirhind in 1763 they established
themselves securely in Amritsar, and rebuilt the temple which Ahmad Shah
had burned. Ranjit Singh covered the Darbar Sahib with a copper gilt
roof, whence Englishmen commonly call it the Golden Temple. He laid out
the Ram Bagh, still a beautiful garden, and constructed the strong fort
of Govindgarh outside the walls.

~Trade and Manufactures.~--Amritsar lies in a hollow close to a branch of
the Upper Bari Doab Canal. Waterlogging is a great evil and accounts for
the terrible epidemics of fever, which have occurred from time to time.
The population has fluctuated violently, and at the last census was
152,756, or little larger than in 1881. Long before annexation the shawl
industry was famous. The caprice of fashion a good many years ago
decreed its ruin, but carpet weaving, for which Amritsar is still
famous, fortunately did something to fill the gap. Amritsar