‘Hajee Ka Tau Above the Port of Bukkur’, 1838 circa (coloured lithograph)

‘Hajee Ka Tau Above the Port of Bukkur’, 1838 circa. Coloured lithograph from ‘Views in Affghaunistaun from sketches taken during the Campaigns of the Army of the Indus’, by W L Walton after Captain Sir Keith A Jackson, Bt, 4th (Queen’s Own) Light Dragoons, published by W H Allen and Co and T McLean. The port and fortress of Bukkur was on a strategically important island in the Indus River, between Rohri and Sukkur. During the 1st Afghan War (1839-1842) it was used as a depot for Sir John Keane’s Army of the Indus. In this view, Jackson has depicted the tomb of the river saint Khwaja Khizr. According to legend, the tomb was built by a Delhi merchant whose daughter had been captured by a local Hindu chieftain as they journeyed to Mecca. Khwaja Khizr helped her escape, diverting the course of the river in the process. The merchant constructed the tomb in gratitude.