Tomb of Shamsher Khan

The Tomb of Shamsher Khan stands in Batala, near the palace of Sher Singh. Built around 1589-90 under Akbar, it is the most important Mughal building in the town. The tomb is eight-sided and about 10.4 metres high, with a low dome on top. It stands on a platform of about 39 by 34 metres, with a small domed turret at each corner. Each face has two levels of pointed recesses. Inside, a stair in the wall leads to a narrow corridor that runs round the upper level. Its best feature is the painted decoration. The inside is still intact, while the outside keeps only traces. A band of swastika patterns circles the base of the dome, with flower, vase and cypress-tree panels above it. A pigeon in flight can still faintly be seen on the front. Parihar found no other Akbar-period animal motif in this region. The colours are limited to bluish green and Indian red. A sandstone slab over the entrance says that a tank, a mosque and a garden were begun in January 1589 and finished in July 1590. It does not mention the tomb. Parihar thinks the tomb was first a garden pleasure house and was meant to become Shamsher Khan’s grave later, so he gives it the same date. The large tank lies to the north, about 238 by 218 metres. It is one of only two Mughal tanks left in East Punjab, the other being at Raja Taal. Maharaja Sher Singh later added the pavilion in its middle. Little is known about Shamsher Khan. The writer Sujan Rai Bhandari calls him Akbar’s revenue collector at Batala. Most of the buildings he made in the town are gone, and Banda Singh Bahadur destroyed some in 1711. The Government of India declared the tomb a protected monument in 1920. Charles Rodgers saw it in 1891 as a two-storeyed building in need of repair, with Hindu temples on two sides of the tank and the old garden turned into a graveyard. The Maharaja’s palace beside the tank is now the administrative block of Baring Union Christian College. Source: Parihar, Subhash, Some Aspects of Indo-Islamic Architecture (Abhinav Publications, 1999), ch. 6; Rodgers, C.J., Revised List of Objects of Archaeological Interest in the Punjab (1891)