Mughal Gardens
The Mughal garden is and influential landscape types ever developed, and the surviving examples from the imperial period constitute a substantial proportion of the world’s most important designed landscapes. The basic plan, derived from the Persian charbagh of four equal parts, was introduced into the Indian subcontinent by the early Mughal emperors and adapted to the conditions of South Asia, producing a tradition that endured for roughly three centuries and that influenced the gardens of the Deccan, the Rajput courts, and the later Indo-Saracenic and colonial traditions. The principal surviving examples, including the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore and Srinagar, the Nishat Bagh in Srinagar, the gardens of the Taj Mahal, and the Hayat Baksh garden in the Red Fort, are now protected as cultural heritage sites, and several of them are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Origins in the Persian Charbagh
The Mughal garden is a direct descendant of the Persian charbagh, the four-part garden plan that was developed in the arid conditions of the Iranian plateau and that is documented from the Achaemenid period onward. The word charbagh means “four gardens” in Persian, and the basic plan divides a rectangular enclosure into four equal parts by means of water channels or walkways, with the principal building placed at the centre of the composition or at one end. The earliest documented examples of the charbagh form are found in the surviving Achaemenid garden remains at Pasargadae, and the form was developed and refined in the gardens of the Timurid and Safavid periods in Iran and Central Asia.
The Mughals brought the charbagh tradition into South Asia in the early sixteenth century, and Babur, the founder of the dynasty, recorded in his memoirs his pleasure in laying out gardens in the cities he founded. The Bagh-i-Haft Awrang and other early Mughal gardens established the basic conventions of the tradition, and these conventions were progressively elaborated in the imperial gardens of Agra, Delhi, Lahore, and Kashmir throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The formal vocabulary of the tradition, including the use of running water, the careful selection of fruit trees, flowering plants, and scented shrubs, the integration of pavilions, terraces, and viewing platforms, and the symbolism of paradise, remained remarkably consistent from Babur’s reign to the eighteenth century.
The Persian antecedents of the Mughal garden are evident in a number of features, including the formal symmetry of the plan, the use of water as a central element, the integration of the garden with a principal building, the use of tall cypresses as vertical accents, and the symbolism of the four-part division as a representation of the four rivers of paradise. The Indian adaptations of the Persian model included the more elaborate use of flowering plants, the integration of the garden with Hindu and Jain architectural forms, and the response to the monsoonal climate of the subcontinent.
Principles of Design
The Mughal garden is governed by a number of consistent design principles that give the tradition its distinctive character. The most important of these is the use of running water as a central element of the composition. Water was supplied from rivers, streams, or springs, and was distributed through a system of channels, fountains, and pools that gave the garden both a practical amenity in the hot climate and a symbolic resonance with the Islamic vision of paradise. The sound of running water, the reflection of the sky and the surrounding buildings in the pools, and the cooling effect of the evaporation were all valued features of the tradition.
The geometry of the plan is also a defining feature of the tradition. The rectangular enclosure is divided into four equal parts by means of water channels or raised walkways, with the principal building placed at the centre of the composition or at one end. The plan is rigorously axial, and the principal views are aligned with the cardinal directions. The use of geometric patterns in the paving, the parterres, and the water channels gave the gardens a mathematical rigour that complemented the more informal planting of fruit trees, flowering plants, and scented shrubs.
The planting of the Mughal garden was a particular art. The traditional plant list included a wide range of fruit trees, including citrus, mango, guava, pomegranate, and fig, along with flowering plants such as rose, jasmine, hibiscus, and marigold, and scented shrubs such as champa, mogra, and raat ki rani. The plants were typically arranged in formal patterns within the rectangular compartments of the charbagh, with the taller trees used as windbreaks, the fruit trees as productive elements, and the flowering and scented plants as decorative accents. The change of the seasons brought a succession of blooms, and the gardens were designed to be experienced as a cycle of visual and olfactory experiences.
The pavilions, terraces, and viewing platforms of the Mughal garden were an integral part of the design. The principal building, whether a tomb, a palace, or a simple summer pavilion, was placed at the centre of the composition or at one end, and the view from the building through the garden to the surrounding landscape was a major consideration in the design. The terraces, kiosks, and pavilions along the edges of the garden provided vantage points from which the visitor could appreciate the overall geometry of the plan, and the smaller structures within the garden provided resting places and viewing points.
The Shalimar Gardens of Lahore
The Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, located on the outskirts of the city, are among the most celebrated surviving examples of the Mughal garden tradition. The gardens were commissioned by the emperor Shah Jahan in 1641, on a site that had earlier hosted a garden of the Mughal prince Khurram, and they were completed in 1642. The complex consists of three terraces, each of which represents a distinct element of the design, and the whole complex extends for about six hundred and fifty metres from north to south.
The upper terrace of the Shalimar Gardens, also called the Diwan-i-Khas, was reserved for the imperial household and contained the principal pavilion, the Sawan Bhadon, a white marble structure decorated with pietra dura inlay. The middle terrace, or Diwan-i-Aam, was the venue for the public audience and contained the principal public pavilion, the Hath Paon. The lower terrace, originally the Bagh-i-Faiz Bakhsh, contained the principal water features, including the great tank that gave the gardens their popular name. The three terraces were connected by a system of water channels and cascades, and the hydraulic engineering of the complex, which drew water from a nearby canal and distributed it through the terraces, was one of the technical achievements of the tradition.
The Shalimar Gardens were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981 as part of the “Fort and Shalamar Gardens, Lahore” inscription, and they have been the subject of extensive restoration and conservation work in the post-Independence period. The gardens remain a major public amenity in Lahore and a central element of the cultural identity of the city.
The Gardens of Kashmir
The Mughal emperors, particularly Jahangir and his consort Nur Jahan, were passionately attached to the gardens of Kashmir, and a series of imperial gardens in the Srinagar valley constitute some of the finest surviving examples of the tradition. The most important of these are the Shalimar Bagh, the Nishat Bagh, the Chashme Shahi, and the Pari Mahal, each of which is located on the shore of the Dal Lake or in the surrounding hills.
The Shalimar Bagh of Srinagar, built by the emperor Jahangir in 1619, follows the standard charbagh plan, with four terraces, a series of pavilions, and the use of the natural spring water of the area as the source of the irrigation system. The garden, which was the venue for the famous royal entertainment described in contemporary chronicles, is somewhat smaller than its Lahore namesake but follows the same general principles of design.
The Nishat Bagh, or “Garden of Joy,” was built by Asaf Khan, the brother of Nur Jahan, in 1633, and it is laid out on a grander scale than the Shalimar Bagh. The garden is built on a series of terraces that descend toward the Dal Lake, and the design takes advantage of the natural slope of the site to create a series of cascades and water channels that are particularly effective. The views from the upper terraces of the Nishat Bagh across the lake and toward the mountains beyond are among the most celebrated in South Asia.
The Chashme Shahi, or “Royal Spring,” is a smaller garden built around a natural spring, traditionally associated with the emperor Shah Jahan. The garden is laid out on the charbagh plan, with the principal pavilion placed at the centre of the composition, and it follows the same conventions of design as the larger imperial gardens. The Pari Mahal, or “Palace of the Fairies,” is a garden-terrace complex built by the prince Dara Shikoh in the hills above the Dal Lake, and it combines elements of the garden tradition with a series of pavilions and terraces that take advantage of the dramatic site.
The Gardens of Agra and Delhi
The imperial capital at Agra contained a number of important gardens, of which the most famous is the garden of the Taj Mahal. The Taj garden, which surrounds the mausoleum on a rectangular plan, follows the standard charbagh convention, with four equal parts divided by raised walkways and water channels. The garden is aligned with the four iwan arches of the mausoleum, and the central water channel, lined with fountains and cypress trees, draws the eye from the gateway to the tomb. The use of the lotus motif in the inlay, the symbolism of the four rivers of paradise, and the careful integration of the building with the surrounding landscape make the Taj garden one of the most refined examples of the tradition.
The Ram Bagh of Agra, also known as the Bagh-i-Nur Afshan or “Garden of Light Scattering,” is one of the earliest surviving Mughal gardens in India, traditionally attributed to the emperor Babur and later modified by Jahangir. The garden follows the charbagh plan, with the principal pavilion placed at the centre, and it is supplied with water from the river Yamuna by means of a system of channels and lifts. The garden is the site of the first attempt to introduce the Persian garden tradition into the Indian subcontinent, and it retains a number of features that link it to the earlier Central Asian prototypes.
The Hayat Baksh garden in the Red Fort of Delhi is the principal surviving example of the garden tradition within the imperial palace complex. The garden follows the standard charbagh plan, with a central marble pavilion and the integration of the garden with the surrounding pavilions and the Nahr-i-Bihisht water channel. The garden has been extensively restored in the post-Independence period, and it represents one of the most accessible examples of the imperial garden tradition.
The gardens of the older Delhi capitals, including the tomb-gardens of the Lodi and pre-Mughal periods, also represent important elements of the wider tradition. The Lodi Gardens in modern Delhi, although predating the Mughal period in its original construction, were substantially modified under the Mughals and incorporate elements of the imperial garden vocabulary.
Provincial and Later Mughal Gardens
Beyond the imperial capitals, the Mughal garden tradition was widely imitated in the provincial courts and the successor states. The Pinjore Gardens in what is now Himachal Pradesh, sometimes known as the Jaid-e-Shahi or “Garden of the Emperor,” were laid out in the seventeenth century as a summer retreat and they represent a particularly fine example of the tradition outside the imperial capitals. The gardens, built on a series of terraces that descend from the Shivalik hills toward the valley, follow the charbagh plan and combine the formal geometry of the design with the natural setting of the site.
The provincial Mughal gardens of Hyderabad, Lucknow, Murshidabad, and the Rajput courts continued to deploy the charbagh vocabulary well into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, often combining the Mughal forms with local decorative traditions. The gardens of the Bagh-e-Baharat and the other Hyderabadi gardens, the gardens of the Lucknow residency, and the Rajput gardens at Udaipur, Jaipur, and other centres all represent later developments of the tradition, sometimes with the integration of European elements introduced through the colonial encounter.
Symbolism and Meaning
The Mughal garden was understood by its patrons and its visitors as a representation of the Islamic vision of paradise. The four-part division, the use of water as a representation of the four rivers of paradise, the selection of plants drawn from the Quranic and literary tradition, and the integration of the garden with the principal building all supported this symbolic reading. The Persian and Arabic literary traditions provided an extensive vocabulary of garden imagery, and the Mughal garden was designed to be experienced as a sensory equivalent of the textual descriptions of paradise.
The garden was also understood as a representation of imperial authority. The geometric rigour of the plan, the engineering of the water supply, the labour required to maintain the planting, and the integration of the garden with the imperial residence all contributed to the symbolic value of the garden as a manifestation of imperial order and abundance. The gardens of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort are particularly clear examples of this symbolic programme, and the tradition was widely imitated by the provincial governors and the mansabdari nobility.
Decline and Preservation
The decline of the Mughal garden tradition followed the general political and economic decline of the empire, and the major gardens fell into various states of disrepair from the eighteenth century onward. The British colonial authorities, when they took over the management of the major gardens, generally restored them in a manner that reflected the Victorian taste for formal bedding and lawns rather than the Mughal tradition. The restoration of the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, the Taj garden, and the Hayat Baksh garden in the post-Independence period has sought to recapture the original Mughal character of these landscapes, although the results have been mixed.
The major surviving Mughal gardens are now protected as cultural heritage sites, and several of them are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, the gardens of the Taj Mahal, the gardens of the Red Fort, and the gardens of Kashmir. The conservation of these landscapes has involved a balance between the preservation of the original design and the maintenance of the gardens as living landscapes.
For the broader context of the imperial building tradition, the Mughal architecture overview pillar offers a synthetic account. The cluster pages on the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Fatehpur Sikri, and the Mughal tombs treat the related themes in greater depth.
Sources
- Elizabeth B. Moynihan, Paradise as a Garden in Persia and Mughal India (Scolar Press, 1979).