Dai Anga Mosque 2.1

Dai Anga Mosque is a mosque situated to southeast of the Lahore Railway Station, in the city of Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province. The mosque is said to have been built in 1635 in honour of the wetnurse of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Dai Anga.BackgroundBorn as Zeb-un-Nisa, Dai Anga, was well respected in the royal family, and the mosque was said to be commissioned by her, and built prior her departure for the Hajj. Her family was closely associated with the Mughal empire. Her husband Murad Khan served Emperor Jahangir as Magistrate of Bikaner, and her son Muhammad Rashid Khan, was the best archers in the kingdom, and died fighting in the service of Shah Jahan's eldest son Dara Shikoh. The Tomb of Dai Anga is known as the "Gulabi Bagh," and is also located in Lahore.HistoryThe mosque was said to have been built in 1635, however, the inscription in the mosque is said to date it to 1649 Under Sikh rule, the mosque was used as a military magazine under the rule of Ranjit Singh. During the British Raj, the mosque was converted into railway administration offices.ArchitectureThe mosque was designed on a scaled down version of larger Mughal mosques, such as the nearby Badshahi Mosque. The mosque is fronted by a 84 foot wide courtyard, while the building itself is divided into three section. The central section is the largest and is topped by a 19-foot dome. This is flanked by two smaller sections with 16 foot domes. The central portion of the mosque is elaborately decorated with predominantly blue, orange, and yellow qashani tile work. The interior also displayed fine frescoes previously, unfortunately these have largely been replaced by modern tiles.