1 · POSITION
The Serai Nurmahal near Jalandhar in Punjab was built on the orders of the empress Nur Jahan under the supervision of Zakariya Khan, governor of the Doab, in 1618. It is a caravanserai commissioned by a Mughal empress and one of the few of the Mughal network still standing, in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India. [1]
2 · THE PLAN
A walled enclosure with octagonal towers at its corners held plenty of rooms, quarters for the emperor, a well and a mosque — lodging for the ordinary traveller and the royal one inside the same walls. [1]
3 · THE LAHORE GATE
Its western gate, the Lahore Gate, is a two-storeyed front of red sandstone carved with angels, lotuses, lions, elephants, peacocks and horsemen, scenes of elephants fighting and of four riders at chaugan, and an inscription over the entrance flanked by fighting animals. [1]
4 · ON THE MUGHAL ROAD
The Mughal roads that linked the empire’s commercial and political centres were lined with serais of this kind; the register holds the type under the sarai and the road under the Grand Trunk Road. [1]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ The gateway inscription gives Hijri dates of 1028 and 1030, not converted by the source; the source’s area figure of 551 square feet cannot be right for a caravanserai and is not used. The serai’s position on a named road is not stated. [1]