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The Garden of the Taj Mahal

© Kirk Johnson

This article is intended to compliment Alia Hasan's excellent article The Taj Mahal: A Multicultural Synthesis, in which she writes about the tomb which Shah Jahan built for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631 while giving birth to her fourteenth child.

Most of the people who visit her tomb are probably so overwhelmed by the beauty of the architecture that they don't pay much attention to the garden.

Tombs created for Moghul Emperors always featured gardens. Tombs were often begun soon after a new emperor ascended the throne and the emperors enjoyed the gardens during their lifetimes. This wasn't really morbid; these gardens were always closely connected with the idea of paradise because the Koran describes paradise as a beautiful pleasure garden.

The garden of the Taj Mahal is different from all other Moghul tomb gardens. All of the other Moghul tombs are set in the center of gardens which were directly inspired by the gardens of Persia. Pavilions in Persian gardens were traditionally placed at the intersection of four straight walks or waterchannels, which divided up rectangular gardens into four equal parts. In Moghul tomb gardens, the tombs functioned as garden pavilions. The tomb of Mumtaz Mahal deviates from this tradition by having the tomb placed on a raised terrace overlooking the Jumna River, while the garden stretches away from the river. The reason for this unusual garden plan may have been because Shah Jahan planned to build himself a tomb of black marble on the opposite bank of the river; the plan seems to have been for the river to function like a grand canal between two very grand garden pavilions. Apparently the tombs would have been linked by a bridge which would span the river. Shah Jahan's tomb was never built; nor was the bridge. Shah Jahan is buried in the Taj Mahal with his beloved wife.

The map on the right is from Saumya Laskari's superb website The Majestic Mahal. The black area at the bottom of the map represents the large gatehouse which is 150 feet (50 meters) wide. While the emperor and his entourage could visit the garden by boat and enter the compound from the river, this gate has always been the main entrance to the walled garden. Engraved on the outside of this gate are the words "No one shall enter the garden of God unless he is pure of heart".

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