AN EROTIC ROOM OF PRINCE MASOOD GHAZNAVI AT LASHKARI BAZAAR

INSPIRATIONS CAME FROM LAHORE THE NEW CITY OF RICH CULTURE

Amazing pictorials lost in time

The historian Al-Baiqhi worked in the Court of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi and wrote a ten volume history of that reign. Only three volumes survive to his day and there is bizarre information in those volumes. One is about the SECRET ROOM of Prince Masud son of Mahmood Ghaznavi. In the construction of his palace at Lashkari Bazaar Afghanistan, he had made a secret room with EROTIC ILLUSTRATIONS. Literally a wall sexual manual of sexual positions.

We know of Sex Manuals in Islamic history. The earliest known is of Ahmad Al-Tifashi who died in 1253 AD. The famous PERFUMED GARDEN of Sheikh Nefzawi, came from Tunisia and he died after 1324 AD. But from where came the inspiration for the paintings in the SECRET BEDROOM of Prince Masood. By this time they were in touch with cities of Hindustan and they had conquered Lahore, the city of Culture. One probability can be some painter of Lahore who had not only seen the Kajaro Caves but also read the Kama Sutra. In some respects it may be conjectured that the Lahore Painter was inspired by the Kama Sutra, the Hindu guide to love, with impossible acrobatics. But Lahore was in possession of the Muslims then, from a short period of a 100 years or so. the greater possibility is of the inspiration from CHINESE SEX MANUALS. We know that painting in that period was inspired by Chinese and Central Asian models. It is much more probable that the painter or painters were Chinese themselves or were students of Chinese painters. One of the earliest dated painting of Sultan Qutb ud din Aibak has strong Chinese influences. The Secret Room probably owed its inspiration to China. The Chinese Sex Manuals were based on the experience of Chinese Emperors and were written in the earliest period as 1500 BC. The same would be in common knowledge in the period of Prince Masood Ghaznavi.

The room was cut short in its making. Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi was informed of this and reprimanded his son in very strong way. Before the Sultan could visit and see the room for himself, it was white washed and the room cleared of all the profanity. But it is a unique reference in early history of Lahore and Ghazni and the inspirations that went into it. There is no reason to doubt that China as a civilization was influencing the world.