"I am grieved to learn that people are running away from the west Punjab, and I am told that Lahore is being evacuated by the non-Muslims. I must say that this is what it should not be. If you think Lahore is dead or is dying do not run away from it, but die with what you think is the dying Lahore."

"The gutters of Lahore were running red with blood. The beautiful Paris of the Orient was a vista of desolation and destruction. Whole streets of Hindu homes were ablaze while Moslem police and troops stood by watching. At night, the sounds of looters ransacking those homes seemed to Atkins like the crunch of termites boring into logs."

"Beyond the fact of its Rajput origin, hardly anything can be recorded with certainty of the history or even of the existence of Lahore until the period of the Muhammadan invasion. A far less dubious mention of Lahore is found, as pointed out by Major-General Cunningham, in the itinerary of Hwan Thsang, the Chinese traveller, who visited the Punjab A. D. 630. He speaks of a large city, containing many thousands of families, chiefly Brahmans, situated on the eastern frontier of the kingdom of Cheka, which, he says, extended from the Indus to the Byas. From this city he proceeded eastward to China Pati, and thence to Jalandhara, the modern Jullundur. Now Jullundur is situated almost due east of Lahore, and midway between the two cities is a village called Patti to this day. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the great Brahmanical city of Hwan Thsang was the city of Lahore. It is probable that at Lahore, as in most Eastern States, there were frequent changes of dynasty. The earliest princes were perhaps Rajputs from Ayodha, of the same family as those who reigned in Guzerat and Mewar. Subsequently—but when, it is impossible to say—the sceptre seems to have passed into the hands of Rajputs of other tribes, such as the Solankhis and the Bhatis. At the period of the first appearance of the Muhammadan, Lahore was in the hands of a " Chauhan prince of the family of Ajmer," and during the latter invasions of the tenth century the reigning family is Brahmanical."