WALL PAINTING IN LAHORE AS TRADITION, YES
LAHORE BOASTED PICTURES AND SCULPTURE ON ROOFTOPS

INFLUX OF RURAL MIGRANTS DESTROYED LAHORE’S LEGACY

The pictorial fancy was very much a part of the legacy of Lahore. I remember we used to admire Lions in bricks and choona on the roof tops of Lahore. This was a legacy of old times. Similarly pictures of Lions as well as other subjects adorned the walls of Lahore’s houses but there is little visual evidence left. Why? For nobody bothered to take care of that legacy. Obviously artists were there and they were either masons or attached to masons, as these kind of pictures required scaffolding on high walls of Lahore’s houses. Strangely this tradition goes back to centuries as we trace its origin to Turkey as well as Byzantine Empire.

In a city where lions were used in the Lahore Fort as watch dogs, what could be expected? Heroes were supposed to be lion hearted at all times. Even helmets had lions on them. It is no surprise that in diggings, bones of lions come up all the time. The historian Baiqui talks of lions roaming freely in the Jungle of what is now Sheikhupura or Shahdara. Incense burners with lion shapes all the time. Nowadays the legacy can be seen on truck walls in a similar way. Fine Arts became Folk Arts with time.