Overview of Islamic Gardens Part III: MUGHAL INDIA


The other garden, the Anguri Bagh (Garden of the Grapes) did not reform the chahar bagh layout as drastically as Chasma Shahi. In plan form the Anguri Bagh, also built by Shah Jahan, looks similar to a quartered garden . In the center of intersecting pathways is the marble central tank and in each quarter was at one time brightly colored flowers. The central tank is linked to another tank in front of the Khas Mahal building by the use of marble cascading, again showing an acknowledgement of the central axis used in many of the Mughal gardens of Kashmir.

Shah Jahan like his father, Jahangir, was a major patron of gardens and built many more gardens besides the two already mentioned. One of his largest and most famous is the Shalimar Garden (Abode of Bliss), completed in 1642-3 CE, located at Lahore. The basic scheme is two quartered gardens (chahar bagh types) bordering a central waterway with a third terrace in the middle. Water came from the Ravi river by way of a linking canal. This supplied the water to the large tank located in the terrace within which are over one hundred fountains. The whole garden is sloped through the use of terraces with the highest being the most private and with the lowest being where visitors enter. This use of terraces and general slope of the garden in addition to the central axis is characteristic of many of these Mughal gardens and is perhaps what gives these gardens more of an emphasis on linearity and one directionality rather than on four equal parts. The chahar bagh scheme seemed to be part of a larger linear scheme in the Shalimar Garden rather than the main scheme. So it seems that in Mughal gardens in general the chahar bagh scheme was used as either just the basis for a garden design (as in Anguri Bagh) or as a part of a broader scheme.

CONCLUSION TO THREE ARTICLES:

It would seem that looking at the development of Islamic gardens in the three countries discussed suggests that Persia played an important role. In both Spain and India some elements of the Islamic garden came down from Persia so what was considered to be Islamic contributions is more correctly pre-Islamic Persian contributions. As mentioned before Muslims had little in the way of architecture and garden tradition so they borrowed heavily from what

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