Accounts and texts concerning the origins of Lahore have been referred to in various times throughout history. To date, there is no conclusive evidence to establish as to when it was precisely founded or the exact origins of its placename etymology. However, some sources say the name of the city derives from "Loh" or "Lava", the son of Rama in the ancient Hindu epic poem, the Ramayana. The city has been named and referred to by a variety of similar names by other geographers, historians and researchers in their works of the ancient times.
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Muslim conquest era
Turning to the Muslim period, the best authorities on the early Muslim conquests of India, are the historians of Scindh (Sindh), for it was in that quarter that the first storm of those conquests under the Khalifat burst. Fatuhul Baldun, believed to be one of the earliest Arabic Chronicles, which gives an account of the first conquests of the Arabs in Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Armenia, Transoxiana, Africa, Spain and Scindh, calls Lahore by the name of A’lahwur. The book, which is the work of Ahmad bin Yahya, surnamed Al-Biladhuri, who lived at the Court of Baghdad towards the middle of ninth century of the Christian era, in the Khalifat of Al-m’tamid-Billah, is frequently cited by Ibn-I-Haukal, Al Masudi and other ancient Arabic geographers.
Others
The great traveller Al Idrisi, of Morocco, in his work the Nuzhatulmushtak-fi-Iftikharul Afak, writing in the ninth century, calls it Lohawar. The termination "Awar" is a corruption of the Sanskrit word Awarna, meaning fort, and is affixed to many Indian place names, such as Sanawar, Bijawar, Peshawar. Lohawar would, thus, simply mean “fort of Loh,” and the name would establish its identity with the “Loh Kot” of the Hindu Puranas. ” M. Reinaud, in his Fragments, and Elliot, read it as Lauhaour, Lohaovar, Loharu and Lahor. Amir Khusrow, of Delhi, writing in the latter part of the thirteenth century, calls it Lahanur in his well-known work the Kiranus-sa’den. He says:- “From the confines of Samania to Lahanur, There is no walled (city) but Kasur.” Mr. Thornton suggests that Lahanur is a corruption of Luhanagar, nur being the Dakhani form of nagar, as appears from the names of other towns, such as Kalanore and Kananore.
Conclusion
In whatever form it may have been written by the early writers, it is manifest from the above summary that the name, Lahore, has clear reference to its mythical founder, and that founder was, in all probability, Loh, the son of Rama.
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