The Mughal Garden: Gateway to Paradise

Author(s): James Dickie (Yaqub Zaki)

Source: Muqarnas, Vol. 3 (1985), pp. 128-137
Published by: BRILL
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 JAMES DICKIE

(Yaqub Zaki)

THE MUGHAL GARDEN: GATEWAY TO PARADISE

Properly speaking, Mughal, which means "Mongol," tion from Yeats's The Statuesmight throw some light on
is in this context a misnomer. "Mughal" refers here to the subject:
the name of the dynasty founded by Babur after the No! Greater then Pythagoras, for the men
Battle of Panipat in 1526, which endured, in attenuated That with a mallet or a chisel modelled these
form, until 1857. Queen Victoria feloniously crowned Calculations that look but casual flesh, put down
herself Empress of India in 1876, at the adroit sugges- All Asiatic vague immensities
tion of Disraeli, but the style persisted even under alien And not the banks of oars that swan upon
The many-headed form at Salamis.
rule.
Europe put off that foam when Phidias
First of the Great Mughals-the name applied to the Gave women dreams and dreams their looking-glass.
six brilliant emperors who filled the 180 years after 1526
What Yeats is doing here is to oppose the rational mind
with their glittering achievements-was Babur, who of Europe to the vague, nebulous philosophy of Hin-
was Mongol on his mother's side and Turkish on his
duism ("All Asiatic vague immensities"), and the
father's. Babur was sixth in the line of descent from reason for citing him here is because across four cen-
Tamerlane, while his mother was descended of turies his verses echo Babur's complaint about that
Chengiz: thus the blood of Asia's two greatest con-
"charmless and disorderly Hindustan," which, to
querors conmingled to produce a third, the conqueror make tolerable, he had to plant with gardens exhibiting
of India. Like his near contemporary, Mehmed II, con-
"order and symmetry." This is precisely the function
queror of Constantinople, Babur was no mere simple of art: art organizes reality; by imposing order on the
soldier but the highly complex product of a complex
undifferentiated chaos of experience it succeeds in rais-
civilization at its zenith. His Memoirs, which have been
ing it to a higher level of significance, producing in the
translated into English by Annette Beveridge, are ac-
process, beauty. What emerges from this and other
counted a literary masterpiece. Lane-Poole, in his
passages in the emperor's Memoirs is the image of Babur
biography of Babur, published in 1900, says: as muhandis (geometer/architect/engineer), Babur as
The line of Emperorswho proceed from Babur's loins is no Cartesian almost. The civilization of which Babur was
more. The very name of Mongol has lost its fame on the the vehicle was the Timurid civilization of Central Asia.
banks of Iaxartes; the Turk is the servant of the Russian he
once despised. The last Indian sovereign of Timur's race The sensational conquests of his great ancestor over a
ended his inglorious career an exile at Rangoon almost century before had brought together Central Asia,
within our own memory; a few years later the degenerate North India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia
descendants of Ghengis Khan submitted to the officers of Minor in a single empire with its capital at Samarqand,
the Tsar. The power and pomp of Babur's dynasty are and subsequently Herat. To his metropolis, Tamerlane
gone; the record of his life-the litteratascriptathat mocks at
time-remains unaltered and imperishable.1 transported artists and craftsmen from all over Asia,
and there under Arab, Persian, Central Asian, and
These Memoirs are eminently quotable: "Then" says even Chinese influence Islamic civilization assumed its
Babur, "in that charmless and disorderly Hindustan, decisive form.
plots of garden were laid out with order and symmetry, One art which flourished notably at the Timurid
with suitable borders and parterres in every corner and court was the art of landscape design. We know the
in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrange- names of the gardens which adorned Samarqand in the
ment."2 Babur is referring to his own activities as land- fifteenth century-the Bah-i-Naqsh Jehan, the Bagh-i-
scape gardener, but before touching on these a quota- Shimal, the Bagh-i-Bihist, the Bagh-i-Boland, the

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 THE MUGHAL GARDEN 129

Bagh-i-Naw, the Bagh-i-Channar, the Bagh-i- one of Babur's gardens in India to survive, the Ram
Dilkusha, the Bagh-i-Dulday, and the Bagh-i-Jehan- Bagh, which still exists, albeit more than a little
numa-but not the reality, because gardening is of its disheveled, on the banks of the Jumna at Delhi. It was
very nature the most transient and evanescent of art in this garden that Babur was buried in 1530, his re-
forms. Contemporary accounts exist though, notably mains being subsequently translated to Kabul accor-
by the Spanish ambassador Clavijo. The garden type ding to his wish.
that we think of today as characteristically Islamic is in Since the Ram Bagh is not only the earliest Mughal
fact the Timurid garden. What Islamic gardens were garden extant but one of the very first ever to have been
like before Timurid times we have little means of know- constructed, despite subsequent modification we may
ing and, save for the Hispano-Arab garden, no ex- take it as prototypal. Here the paved walkways
amples. The scant evidence suffices, however, to prove (khayaban)are raised some ten feet above the level of the
that a basic pattern prevailed from the shores of the beds, and since the original planting has perished the
Atlantic to the Bay of Bengal. This tradition, in its reason for this may appear somewhat obscure. Susan
Timurid expression, bifurcated, going south to produce Jellicoe contends that the height above the flowerbeds
the Persian garden and east to produce the Mughal varied according to what was intended to be planted in
garden. The attempt to introduce the lush gardens of the garden: thus some gardens were quite shallow while
Central Asia into the dusty plains of Hindustan others, like Akbar's garden at Sikandra (plate 1), were
produced a hybrid, or mutation; and this mutation, the very deep.4 It is essential to understand that the Islamic
Indo-Islamic garden, is still a living art form, as garden was intended to be looked down upon.5 But in
evidenced by the garden Lutyens's coadjutor, W. R. the latter example steps flanking the abshars, or water
Mustoe, of the Horticultural Department, designed for chutes, down which the water cascaded from the
the Viceroy's House in New Delhi, as well as by the causeways show that the parterres were designed to be
new garden in the Lawrence Gardens (Jinnah Bagh) at generally accessible. Thus the Indo-Islamic garden
Lahore. operated simultaneously on two levels: visually, on the
The reason the Timurid garden could not be upper level, as a living carpet; and, sensually, on a
transplanted without suffering transformation is very lower plane, as a place of shade and intimacy and cool
simple. Central Asia is mountainous country, and the repose. It could only operate visually as a floral carpet
Timurid or Persian garden is laid out on a gentle slope or tactually as a refuge from the scorching heat provid-
so the water moves through gravity; alternatively, it is ed the planting was dense. The large painting on linen
disposed on a graduated series of terraces, a solution the showing an aerial view of Jehangir's garden at
Mughals were to adopt wherever feasible, as in Shahdara at Lahore, now in the library of the Royal
Kashmir. In a very penetrating passage, Wilber writes: Asiatic Society, reveals just how dense the planting was
The basic fact was that the gardens of Herat and Samar- (plate 2).6 Unfortunately our image of a Mughal garden
qand could not be transferred to the Indian plains. The today is formed by the visual cliches of India Tourist
climate was not suitable for orchardsand vineyards, which Office posters of the Taj Mahall. We forget the old
require a cold season to establish a dormant state in the photographs show it looking quite different, before
plants and trees. In the mountainous regions the fine Lord Curzon gave the neglected gardens the semblance
gardens had been the outgrowth of the bustan, or orchard, of an English lawn. As such, the cost of maintenance is
and the concept of the gulistan, or flower garden, matured
at a later date. Lacking the possibility of producing dense, prohibitive, which is why, apart from the Taj and the
productive orchards, the Indian gardens developed Shalimar and Jehangir Baghs in Lahore, no Mughal
towards great open spaces and wide expanses of water."3 garden today is properly maintained. Had we but the
sense to revert to the Mughal system of gravitational ir-
Nevertheless, certain elements were exportable: the rigation, whereby the beds are periodically flooded,
chaharbagh,or fourfold plot; the water channels and ir- then the trees and shrubbery would protect the grass
rigation system, which, linked to the fourfold plot, pro- with their shade.7 Volwahsen writes:
duces a formal geometrical grid pattern capable of in-
definite extension; also, the disposition of the garden on A modern irrigation system could only temporarily stop
terraces and disparity in level between the elements of such vast lawns being scorched by the blazing sun. A
the grid and the flowerbeds they enclose. Most of these genuine Mughal garden, forming an architectonic unit
with the mausoleum, could not be maintained today, for
components are present in what is practically the only the simple reason it would need too much water. As a

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130 JAMES DICKIE

Plate 1. Sikandra. Akbar's mausoleum. Mughal tombs look their best from the roof of the gateway. (Unless otherwise stated, all photographs
are by the author.)

result the harsh silhouette of the building stands in too pling, corruscating effect; in a word, the water becomes
sharp contrast to the green lawns. It was originally en- a liquid arabesque. Thus the water links dynamically
visaged that above a swirling mass of flowers, fruit trees the two levels; the upper, or tectonic; the lower, or
and fountains, situated at different levels, the white dome
of the tomb should stand forth, supported by the facades, vegetal. Jellicoe stated at the Dumbarton Oaks sym-
with their red and white casing; in this way there would be posium in 1974 that in a Mughal garden the water is
a masterly transition from the many-coloured diversity of perhaps even more important than the soil. It is difficult
the garden to the simple symbolism of the marble dome.8 to quarrel with this conclusion: the mobile qualities of
It helps if we try to imagine the Taj as it was originally water modify the different spatial relationships that ex-
intended to be seen: one would catch glimpses of the ist between the various parts of the garden, emphasiz-
dome above fronds and branches; and with the oranges ing and, at the same time, loosening the rigidity of the
hanging like globes of fire amidst the rich green foliage plan. The soil is static, as is the stonework, while the
against the peerless white dome the effect of such beauty water and the plants are kinetic, but in the garden their
must have been almost painful. relationship becomes symbiotic. Where the causeways
Transition in level in a Mughal garden is effected by intersect there can be either a pool or fountain, or both
the abshars. Since the Muslim mind apprehends reality combined, or a chabutra,a stone or brick platform. The
in terms of pattern, the surface of the water chute is in- chabutra serves to provide an elevation for the throne,
laid with chevrons to emphasize the movement of the raising its occupant above the level of common humani-
water, or carved in a fish-scale pattern to produce a rip- ty. Alternatively, it may serve as a plinth (kursi) for a

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 THE MUGHAL GARDEN 131

Plate 2. Lahore, Shahdara Bagh-i Dilkusha (funerary garden of ehangir) Eighteenth-century representation on linen.
(Photo: courtesy Royal Asiatic Society, London.)

baradari,or open-sided pavilion. Bara means twelve and within the baradari; at the precise point where they
refers here to a three-by-three module in which four cross is the spot on which the fortunate owner of such a
walls are each pierced with three doors. The lateral demesne often elects to be buried.
openings can be converted into windows by the inser- Properly to understand the notion of burial in a
tion ofjalis, perforated stone or marble screens which garden, we have to site it within an eschatological
admit light and air but temper the brilliance of the framework. Islam conceives of paradise as a garden, the
former by filtering it. As the light penetrates a jali it Koranic term being al-janna, i.e., the Garden, the
projects the same image in shadow on the floor or op- garden par excellence.Burial in a garden amounts to a
posite wall, so that, like water passing over an abshar, material anticipation of immaterial bliss, and the closer
light becomes a medium for pattern. The pavilion the garden approximates the Koranic model the more
crowns the axes triumphantly, so that the axes intersect effective is the analogy. A Mughal garden, populated

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132 JAMES DICKIE

with nard-anointed houris and the air balmy from the perience, odoriferous plants such as jasmine figure
perfume of too many flowers, must have approximated prominently in the overall planting scheme, as the sense
the divine archetype pretty closely. So much for the of smell is notoriously evocative, the merest suggestion
principle, but with reference to the particulars of the of a particular scent being sufficient to set in motion an
custom one could hardly do better than quote from entire train of associations.
Fergusson: Certain phrases in Fergusson's description call for
comment. Burial under collateral domes explains the
The usual procedure for the erection of these structures
is for the king or noble who intends to provide himself with ground plan of the Taj, which goes back to a Central
a tomb to enclose a garden outside the city walls, generally Asian prototype, whose lineal descendant in Persia is
with high, crenellated walls, and with one or more splen- the Hasht Bihisht palace in Isfahan. The model for the
did gateways; and in the centre of this he erects a square or
Taj was of course Humayun's tomb,1 but the plan of
octagonal building, crowned by a dome, and in the more Ictimad al-Daula's tomb, which belongs to another
splendid examples with smaller, dome-roofed apartments
on four of the sides or angles, the other four being devoted type, the tiered mausoleum, incorporates the same pro-
to entrances. This building is generally situated on a lofty vision for subsidiary burial. It is highly probable that
square terrace, from which radiate four broad alleys, such buildings were intended as dynastic mausolea, ex-
generally with marble-paved canals, ornamented with
fountains; a mosque is an essential adjunct; the angular actly like Augustus's mausoleum at Rome. The
spaces are planted with cypresses and other evergreens and reference to the economics of the garden makes an im-
fruit trees, making up one of those formal but beautiful portant point: horticulture was unknown in India
gardens so characteristicof the East. During the lifetime of before the Muslim invasion, and the funerary garden is
the founder, the central building is called a Bara-dari,
summer house or festal hall, and is used as a place of necessarily an autarchic concept, since its purpose is to
recreation and feasting by him and his friends. perpetuate a memory indefinitely. Every tomb requires a
At his death its destination is changed-the founder's mujawir, or custodian, who, with his family, lives off the
remains are interred beneath the central dome. Sometimes produce of the surrounding garden. The idea of the
his favourite wife lies with him; but more generally the
garden as something ornamental and afunctional came
family and relations are buried under the collateraldomes. in with the Renaissance; the ancient world had no con-
When once used as a place of burial its vaults never again
resound with festive mirth. The care of the building is ception of the garden as presently understood. Islam re-
handed over to priests and faquirs, who gain a scanty sub- mains faithful to the older and Roman idea of the hortus.
sistence by the sale of the fruits of the garden, or the alms At one time such gardens proliferated outside every
of those who come to visit the last resting-place of their
friend or master. Perfect silence take the place of festivity Mughal city; they stretched along the banks of the Jum-
and mirth. The beauty of the surrounding objects com- na at Agra and Delhi, while in Lahore they flanked the
bines with the repose of the place to produce an effect as banks of the Ravi and lined the Grand Trunk Road as it
graceful as it is solemn and appropriate.9 approached the walled city (plate 3). For Kashmir,
where three great royal gardens survive, sources give
Elsewhere I wrote of such places that when "a the somewhat improbable figure of 777.12 Funerary
mausoleum stands in isolation within a funerary garden gardens are also to be found at Allahabad and
the effect is incomparable: aesthetically and conceptual- Aurangabad. But perhaps the best place to see the sort
ly, it transports the beholder to the frontier of emotional of thing Fergusson is thinking of is Agra, where on the
experience."10 The funerary garden is Islam's answer
to the grim realities of death. Horace Walpole, extolling
the beauties of the mausoleum at Castle Howard, said
that it "would tempt one to be buried alive"; and of the
cemetery of the Acattolici in Rome Shelley wrote that it
"4might make one in love with death, to think that one
could be buried in so sweet a place." The latter senti-
ment is closer to the Islamic: wandering about in these
places, sense impressions proceeding from colors,
sounds, and perfumes, and even such things as the sight
of parakeets flying among the trees, crowd in upon one
and so work upon the mind that death comes to seem Plate 3. Agra. Funerary gardens lining the left bank of the Jumna.
attractive even. In a bid at a further dimension of ex- View taken from the gateway of the Taj.

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 THE MUGHAL GARDEN 133

outskirts of the city magnificent masterpieces of Islamic

architecture crumble to decay. In one case the floor of
the pavilion has collapsed, and one can look straight
down into the vault, disclosing the burial, marked by a
taCwiz. In Agra, to a degree inconceivable in Delhi,
which was ruined by the transfer thither of the capital
from Calcutta, the visitor is particularly conscious of
departed glory: washed by the tides of history, these
waters have since receded with the result that the wrecks
of former grandeur bestrew the environs (plates 4-5).
The reason why gardens were located on the banks of
rivers is simple: water was raised to the level of the
enclosure wall by a Persian wheel standing on the bank;
thence by an aqueduct the water was conducted to the
garden, where it ran along the top of the wall in a
system of terra-cotta pipes. This procedure produced
the head of water necessary to work the fountains. Plate 5. Agra. Another ruined tomb on the outskirts of town. Col-
Over the entrance to Akbar's garden at Sikandra is lapsed floor enables one to see right into the vault, showing the
written: These are the gardens of Eden: enter them to dwell duplicative principle in burial introduced from Central Asia by the
thereineternally,which shows that Islam views history as a Mughals.
circular process of restoration. Once inside this garden,
one is aware that more than one tradition has been at
work. The basic scheme is the fourfold plot introduced irrigation of the garden under gravitational pressure
by Babur: a square or rectangular area is divided into from the raised walks. Depending on the area to be
four quadrants by two axes (or the principal axis in the enclosed the quadrant can be divided or subdivided in-
case of a rectangular area) which carry the water for the definitely so that the same module is repeated on dif-
ferent scales. Viewed in Jungian terms, this approx-
imates to a mandala, an archetype that predates Islam.
In Persian ceramics datable approximately to 4,000
B.C. the world appears as a bowl divided into
quadrants, with the Spring of Life at the center, whose
waters flow out to fertilize the four quarters of the
globe. This is the basic plan of the Islamic garden, ex-
cept that in the latter a pavilion has supplanted the
spring. This pre-Islamic, but Islamized, scheme has
much in common with another, which is Vedic: in
Aryan villages two diagonal thoroughfares intersected
at a spot marked by a tree, underneath which the elders
sat; the quarters served to separate the castes. In Hindu
mythology this tree, the Tree of Knowledge, with
Naga, the holy watersnake, coiled around its roots,
springs from a mound; the mound is the Mount of
Meru, down whose slopes, from a hidden spring, water
runs out to the four cardinal points. The same tree ap-
pears as a stone umbrella (chahtri)atop Buddhist stupas.
At Sikandra the entire garden is laid out on a cosmic
cross, with the four entrances facing the cardinal points
and the tiered tomb at the center replacing the moun-
Plate 4. Agra. A ruined tomb on the outskirts, the sole relic of a tain. 3 Other artificial mountains like Anghor Vat and
vanished funerary garden such as Fergusson describes. Borobudur are similarly oriented, but that is because

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134 JAMES DICKIE

the Buddha faced east at the moment of the enlighten-

ment: here it is because the qibla axis, the determinant
of burial in Islam, is due west (plates 1, 6).

Plate 6. Sikandra. Reverse view of Akbar's mausoleum (plate 1),

looking from one of the upper tiers of the mausoleum back toward the
gateway.

It would be a mistake to think that all Mughal

gardens were destined sooner or later to be places of
sepulture. The garden in Islam embraces living space
for the quick as well as the dead; indeed Islam conceives
of a palace only as a series of pavilions interspersed with
gardens linked to one another within an overall hor-
ticultural scheme. In an idealized, bird's-eye view of an Plate 7. Aerial view of an imaginary palace at Lucknow, painted 18th
eighteenth-century palace at Lucknow in the David century. (Photo: courtesy David Samling, Copenhagen.) Note
Collection at Copenhagen, one sees plainly the in- mausolea and mosque lining the riverbank, exactly as described on
pp. 132-33.
terlocking functions of palace and garden: each has in-
vaded the other's space; a mutual compenetration is the
result (plate 7). In the Anguri Bagh, or grape garden, in
the Fort of Agra, within each of the four parterres there A particularly attractive garden of the type under
is an intricate pattern of small interlocking beds out- discussion figures in a manuscript of the Khamsah of
lined by sandstone curbs; each bed was reserved for a Nizami, dated 1595. Laila and Majnun are shown
specific bloom, and with the curbs to control the situa- carousing in a temporary pavilion atop a Mughal fort
tion, the limit of each color appeared clearly demar- tower overlooking a chahar-bagh, with a fountain and
cated within an overall pattern of carefully calculated four dwarfed cypresses planted in confining basins and
tonalities. Thus the Anguri Bagh was in reality a floral with fruit trees trained to grow around the trunks. Tak-
carpet spread at the feet of the emperor as he sat in the ing artistic license with his subject, the artist has made
Khas Mahall and looked out over the courtyard. This the wall invisible so as to afford us a glimpse of an
garden also retains some of its original fence (in red underground pump worked by two oxen which feeds an
Mathura sandstone), the only one of its kind to external cistern. From there the water is conducted to a
survive in India, or indeed anywhere, although at one pavilion, which is the distribution point (taqsim) of the
time it was ubiquitous, as we know from Clavijo as well water system of the entire palace; the visible arrange-
as from miniatures depicting garden scenes, where the ment of tanks and channels is only part of the picture
cinnabar paling forms a conspicuous feature.14 (plate 8).

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 THE MUGHAL GARDEN 135

As observed earlier, the pleasure garden ultimately

becomes a funerary garden, with the baradari adapted
to its new function. The second type remains to be
discussed. A good example, complete with baths and
towers for the ladies of the Zenana to look out over the
countryside, is the Shalimar Bagh at Lahore. Unfor-
tunately this garden is now entered from the top instead
of the bottom, by a postern of British date giving onto
the G.T. Road. The real entrances are on the lower-
most terrace, which means that today the terraces are
visited in the reverse order and the aesthetic effect is
lost, because one is meant to walk up to an abshar, not
come upon it suddenly from above. A huge abshar con-
nects the second and third terraces, and its waters
flowed out underneath the imperial throne, cooling the
person of the monarch as they did so, for the royal pas-
sions must have been not a little inflamed by the gyra-
tions of the nautch-girls on the dancing platform. This
platform stands in the middle of the huge tank which
occupies the whole of the second terrace (plate 9). Con-
necting the second terrace with the third is a sawan
bhadun, more sensational still. This takes the form of a
waterfall falling down three sides of a roofless "room,"
which is open on the fourth side. The walls are compos-
ed of serried rows of niches in each of which, during
festivities, a candle burned behind the falling water.
The candles were camphorated so that sight, sound,
and smell bombarded one's senses simultaneously, pro-
ducing a multisensory response.
After the death of Aurangzebe in 1707 the Mughal
regime was too impoverished to command gardens on
this scale, but a century before the final debacle Qud-
siyya Begum, wife of Emperor Muhammad Shah and
mother of the unfortunate Ahmad Shah, laid out her
Plate 8. Miniature depicting domestic garden, dated 1595. (Photo:
own garden, the Qudsiyya Bagh, just outside the
by permission of the British Library.)
Kashmir gate at Delhi, in 1748. As observed before,
Mustoe designed a stunning garden, not improved, I
Such gardens are of necessity restricted by the think, by Lutyens's intervention, at the viceregal
domestic scale as well as the exigencies of urban plan- residence in New Delhi.16 On a more modest scale, a
ning, but extra muros there exist gardens of vast extent small garden has been recently laid out adjacent to the
intended for only temporary occupation. An excellent Great Mosque of Delhi for the burial of Abu'l-Kalam
little booklet by Dr. Dar, Director of the Lahore Azad, to whom the spot was endeared on account of its
Museum, entitled Some Ancient Gardens of Lahore, associations, namely the site of the execution of the ex-
distinguishes four kinds of garden: (a) gardens attached alte Sarmat. Based on the intersection of two asym-
to palaces or havelis; (b) gardens which serve as metrical axes, with two arches intersecting over the
substitute royal residences, for the emperor to put up at tomb, this garden is a modern reinterpretation of the
when on a journey; (c) funerary gardens surrounding traditional funerary garden, complete with lily pond
purpose-built mausolea; and, lastly, (d) pleasure and solemn cypresses lining the approach to the grave.
gardens with baradari in the middle, the commonest Recently in Pakistan an attractive garden in the
1 Mughal style was laid out in Lawrence Gardens at
category.

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136 JAMES DICKIE

Plate 9. Lahore. Shalimar Bagh. Photographed during the reconstruction of a Mughal fete, 1975.

Lahore. Some might argue that the time and energy ex- threat than at any time since Ranjit Singh. Across the
pended might have been better used to restore one of frontier in India the situation is no better. A few years
the ruined historical gardens in which that city ago an expert on Japanese garden design, one Mr.
abounds. In Mughal times there were some fifty Mori, was called in by the federal government to advise
gardens in Lahore, of which one was the largest garden on a suitable site in the nation's capital for a Japanese
in the world.17 This was the circular (gol) garden at the garden. Unbelievably, the site settled on was an already
foot of the city walls. Probably no more than a dozen of existing garden, the Roshanara Bagh, the work of
these sites can be traced today and only Aurangzebe's favorite sister, Roshanara Begum. Plans
two-Jehangir's garden and the Shalimar Bagh-are allow for the construction of a restaurant on an island, a
relatively intact. The gardens, and particularly the Gol pond, waterfalls, brooks, shelters, rockwork and
Bagh, which encompassed the town with a five-mile belt Japanese-style landscaping-all on a Mughal site! Con-
of greenery, were the lungs through which the city servationists do not get much of a hearing in Third
breathed, for Lahore, unlike other Indo-Islamic cities, World countries; and it is only by ventilating the issues
never knew the courtyard house and in Shah Jehan's the problems of conservation raise in publications such
time the city must have been a healthier place than it is as this that timely steps can be taken to avert tragedy
today. The Chauburji garden, second in size only to the such as that which threatens to overwhelm the
Shalimar-the Gol Bagh being sui generis-is still Roshanara Bagh.
restorable, the site being yet unbuilt upon, unlike the
Gol Bagh, which existed as late as 1947. London, England
What hopes can be entertained for the future of the
NOTES
Mughal garden, both for the survival of the art form
and the conservation or restoration of historic ex-
1. Stanley Lane-Poole, Babar(Oxford, 1899), pp. 15-16.
amples? Today, as a result of overpopulation and urban 2. The Babur-nama in English, trans. Annette P. Beveridge (Lon-
development policies, whose rationale is sometimes dif- don, 1912-22), fasc. 3., p. 532.
ficult to fathom, it would perhaps be no exaggeration to 3. Donald Wilber, Persian Gardensand Garden Pavilions (Tokyo and
say that the monuments of Lahore are under greater Rutland, Vt., 1964), p. 76.

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 THE MUGHAL GARDEN 137

4. This was the response to a point raised by the present writer at ("... and this orchard is very big, and in it there were many
the Dumbarton Oaks Symposium on Islamic gardens, fruit trees as well as others producing shade..."). See le
Washington, D.C., April 1974. For Susan Jellicoe's paper, see Strange, Embassyto Tamerlane,pp. 216 and 227.
"The Development of the Mughal Garden," in Elizabeth Mac- 8. Volwahsen, LivingArchitecture, pp. 93-94. For a fuller account of
Dougall and Richard Ettinghausen, eds., The Islamic Garden the frame of reference within which the funerary garden
(Washington, D.C., 1976), pp. 107-29. operates, s.v. "Rauda" in Dictionaryof theMiddleAges (in press).
5. This much was clear to Clavijo when visiting a garden near 9. James Fergusson, Historyof OrientalArchitecture (London, 1910),
Samarqand in the fifteenth century "... e por medio destas 2:289-90.
calles y arboles ibam unos andenes que travesaban toda la 10. "Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas and Tombs," in
huerta; y en medio desta dicha huerta estaba un cerro alto de George Michell, ed., Architecture of the Islamic World(London,
tierra que fue echada a mano alli en deredor de vergas de 1978), p. 47.
madera; y destas calles iban otras muy comarcadas que se 11. Volwahsen also points out (LivingArchitecture, pp. 83-84) Khan
podrian bien andar por ellas e mirar toda la huerta...." ("... Khanam's tomb in Delhi.
and among these causeways and trees were pathways which 12. See ImperialGazetteerof India, vol. 15 (Oxford, 1908), p. 93.
crossed the entire orchard; and in the center was a high hill 13. I hasten to disclaim any originality for these comparisons,
composed of earth thrown up by hand within a palisade of which are almost all to be found on pp. 45-46 of Constance
wooden stakes; and linked to these walkways were others, lined Villiers Stuart's Gardensof the GreatMughals(London, 1913).
with trees, from which the whole orchardwas visible .. . "). For the Mrs. Stuart, whose pioneer work in this field is beyond praise,
purposes of this study, I have made my own translations from would seem to have got many of these ideas from the Maji
Clavijo using the Madrid edition of 1943, Rodriguez Gonzalez Sahiba of Bharatpur, to whom she acknowledges her in-
de Clavijo, Embajada a Tamorlan, ed. Francisco Lopez Estrada debtedness in the preface (p. xi).
(Madrid, 1943); Eng. trans. by Guy le Strange, Embassy to 14. Clavijo, Embajadaa Tamorlan,p. 163; le Strange, Embassyto
Tamerlane, 1403-1406 (Broadway Travellers Series, Cassell: Tamerlane,p. 227.
London, 1928). Le Strange (p. 216), working on the St. 15. S. F. Dar, SomeAncientGardensof Lahore(Lahore, 1976), p. 6.
Petersburg edition of 1893, has produced a somewhat different 16. This garden is the object of an as yet unpublished study by Dr.
version of this passage. Vivian Rich of Victoria, B.C., Canada (personal communica-
6. A well-researched paper by J. P. Thompson, "The Tomb of tion). There is, however, a feature ("This Stupendous Crea-
the Emperor Jahangir," Archaeological Survey of India Annual tion") published with lavish illustrations in House and Garden
Report, 1910-1911, pp. 12-30, establishes clearly what was on (British edition), March, 1985, pp. 144-47.
the second story ofJehangir's tomb: a simple platform enclosed 17. Lest this be deemed a notional figure, begotten of exaggeration
byjalis, with a cenotaph, or duplicate tomb, in the middle. On and a partial imagination, I subjoin a list lifted from Dr. Dar's
the RAS painting the area in question is covered by a label booklet:
reading "Maqbarat-i-Badshah Jehangir" (burial place of Pre-MughalGardens:Bagh-i-Malik Ayyaz; Bagh-i-Zanjani, Bagh
EmperorJehangir). If this label could be removed there is little Shah Ismacil; Bagh-i-Qutb al-Din Aibak; Bagh-i-Shah
doubt that it would disclose a taCwiz, thereby vindicating Kakuchisti, Bagh-i-Daulatabad.
Thompson's hypothesis. This brilliant piece of research is not Mughal Gardens:(i) Babur and Humayun period: Naulakha
nearly so well know as it deserves to be, witness the visual Bagh; Bagh-i-Kamran. (ii) Akbar period: Bagh Dilafroze;
blunder perpetrated by Volwahsen on p. 85 of Living Architec- Bagh-i-Khan-i-Azam; Bagh-i-Andjan; Raju Bagh; Bagh Malik
ture: Islamic Indian (London, 1970). The painting is presumably Ali Kotnal; Bagh Mirza Nizam al-Din Ahmad; Bagh Zain
of the Ranjit Singh period, as it was donated to the society on Khan Kokaltash. (iii) Jehangir period: Bagh Mirza Mu'min
November 17, 1849 by General Sir Claude Martin Wade, who Ishaq Baz; Bagh Shams al-Din; Bagh-i-Anarkali; Bagh-i-
had been in Lahore from 1823. Dilkusha (funerary garden of Jehangir). (iv) Shah Jehan
7. We must rely for evidence not only on paintings and the period: Fa'id Bagh; Bagh Bilanal Shah, Shalimar Bagh; Bagh
miniatures, which are a more reliable guide to how these Hoshiar Khan; Bagh-i-Badr al-Din Shah 'Alam Bukhari;
gardens looked in their prime than is any extant garden, but on Bagh-i-Hadrat Sayyid Mahmud; Chauburji Bagh; Bagh-i-Asaf
carpets. Garden carpets from Persia show a chenar (Oriental Jah; Bagh-i-Nur Jehan; Parviz Bagh; Mushki Mahall
plane) planted in each corner so that it might protect the more (funerary garden of Nawab Mian Khan); Bagh Abu'l-Hasan;
delicate plants with its plenteous shade. Thus four chenars, one Bagh Khwaja Ayyaz; Bagh Nusrat Jang Bahadur; Bagh-i-
to each corner, would account for a significant area of each Ishan; Bagh 'Ali Mardan Khan. (v) Aurangzebe period:
flowerbed, the more so since the corners were often finished off Gulabi Bagh; Bagh-i-Mahhabat Khan; Bagh Shah Chiragh;
diagonally. It is probably to these trees that Clavijo (p. 154) Bagh Mullah Shah Badakshi. (vi) Late Mughal period: Bagh
alludes with the phrase, ". . . e avia unos arboles grandes e may Begum Jan: Badami Bagh; Bagh Pir Muhammad Adalti; Bagh
altos que hacian muy grand sombra...." ("... and there were Mir Manno (or Bagh Nawab Jani); Bagh Sayyid CAbdAllah
some large and very tall trees which produced very great Khan; Gol Bagh. (vii) Other Mughal gardens: Bagh-i-
shade..."). Also, referring to yet another garden, Clavijo (p. Dilkusha; Bagh-i-Dilaram; Bagh-i-Dilamiz; Anguri Bagh;
163) says: ". . e esta huerta es grande mucho, e en ella abia Anar Bagh (Dar, AncientGardensof Lahore,p. 6.).
muchos arboles frutales e de ofros que hacian sombra...."

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