Begampura 2.74

Once the abode of the grand nobility of Lahore, the village of Begampura today is a far cry from the grand palaces and mosques that once dotted its landscape. The village lies east of the University of Engineering the Technology, just north of Grand Trunk Road.The graveyard and the grand buildings and mosques adjoining it belonged to Nawab Zakariya Khan, Governor of Lahore during the reign of Muhammed Shah. Located just next to Mughalpura, where the rich and famous of the Shah Jahan era lived, the entire complex was supposed to be the grandest in Mughal India. The investment made by the governor ran into hundreds of thousands of rupees in those days.BegampuraIts gateways, buildings, architectural details, and brickwork date to no earlier than the year 1700 AD. The surviving structures include a mosque with yellow tile-work and a gateway with Sikh-styled plaster-work and brick details. The place was in the height of its splendour in the time of Zakariya Khan, who lived here with his family and adorned it with grand palaces, elegant gardens, mosques and tanks. Its magnificence and splendour can be formed from the fact that the nawab, after realizing the weakness of the Court of Delhi has assumed the power of a satrap, and the whole wealth of the Punjab flowed into the palaces of Begampura for the period of 21 years (1717 - 1738 AD).The tragedies that Begampura endured once the Mughal era ended weave the saddest of tales. After the Afghan rulers plundered Lahore, there came the advent and rise of Sikh power. Every Sikh ruler who came to power started dismantling the structures and selling off the bricks and the expensive marble and tiles. During the Triumvirate of Sikh rulers of Lehna Singh, Ganda Singh and Gujjar Singh, this area came under the sphere of influence of Gujjar Singh, who completely destroyed the place and built Qila Gujjar Singh with its bricks.