The Mehtab Bagh

My article for February 4, 2000 was about the garden of the Taj Mahal. In that article I said that "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."

I subscribe to Discover magazine and I was fascinated by an article in the July 2000 issue. This article, which is now online, is about the excavation of the Mehtab Bagh, the garden which was on the site where it was believed that the black marble tomb was going to be built. I have found additional information about the excavations at the Rediff.com website. Those two articles have been my only sources of information about the Mehtab Bagh. Everything else that I have found just repeats the information in the Discovery magazine article.

The excavations have not revealed any evidence that construction of a black marble tomb was ever begun, but they do explain the unusual location of the Taj Mahal. The tomb of Mumtaz Mahal was located exactly halfway between the entrance to the garden of the Taj Mahal and the wall of the Mehtab Bagh which is furthest from the river. This shows that the Mehtab Bagh was an intrinsic part of the garden of the Taj Mahal.

I haven't seen a map of the Mehtab Bagh, but both articles describe the layout as a typical four quartered Moghul garden, covering an area of 25 acres. This garden had four paths of white plaster which met in the center. The article in Discovery magazine says that there was a rectangular pond at the point where the paths met. At the southern end of the garden there was an octagonal pool more than 100 feet wide.

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