A Mughal Riverfront garden in Agra has been tended back to life. Elbrun Kimmelman gives an insider’s view of the restoration.
Revealing a strikingly modern message about the power of women and the relevance of ancient technology, one of the five surviving Mughal riverfront gardens of Agra is now restored along with the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Dhaulah, and open to the public at Moti Bagh.
In earlier times both sides of the Yamuna were filled with the lush plantings and sounds of fountains from the 44 gardens that the Mughals viewed as paradise on earth. Like Babur or Jahangir, people would pitch their red tents and celebrate the sweetness of the birds’ songs with discourse, music, books and poetry. Business, politics and family agreements were resolved in the surrounding archways, making the gardens central to every aspect of life.
Though the Mughals of Central Asia were historically nomads, they took their cultural inspiration from Persia where gardens were considered as much a part of a lavish setting as buildings. Gardens were to be symmetrical and filled with trees, flowers and waterways, all of which were underpinned by invisible, inventive and sometimes complex hydrological engineering, meant to supply just the right amount of water for each type of flower no matter what the season.
This story is from the March 2019 edition of Outlook Traveller.
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This story is from the March 2019 edition of Outlook Traveller.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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