Page 23 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

Gardens were an important feature of Mughal life and culture from the time of Babur. Mughal rulers and their wives built gardens within and outside their cities and palace complexes drawing upon ideas from Central Asian, Persian, and Indian garden traditions. Jahangir’s Shalimar Bagh (Kashmir) and Shah Jahan’s Shalimar Gardens (Lahore) are among the best known Mughal gardens. Invoking Qurʾanic images of paradise, Mughal funerary complexes such as the Taj Mahal were also set in gardens that used the chaharbagh, or four gardens intersected by water channels. The Mughals’ enthusiasm for gardens was also adopted by many of the regional courts and principalities of the Mughal period and continued to inspire garden design in South Asia and elsewhere a er Mughal demise.
Mughal painters regularly depicted rulers and members of the court in gardens undertaking ceremonies, acts of diplomacy and leisurely pursuits. Motifs associated with nature, including owers, trees, and foliage, birds and animals also permeated Mughal architecture, art and literature.
(le ) Details from a fragment of a silk velvet carpet made in Mughal India (17th century).
(opposite) Painting depicting a palace complex with gardens made in Faizabad
or Lucknow (India, ca. 1765). Attributed to Faiz Allah (d. unknown), the painting, with its telescopic perspective, depicts a series
of gardens and pavilions.
(below) Set in a lush green garden, the painting (above) made in Kishangarh, Rajasthan (India), ca. 1760, tells the story of an alleged secret meeting between the Akbar (le ) and his court poet
and musician Tansen (centre) had with Tansen’s teacher, Swami Haridas (d. 1573), a Vaishnava Hindu singer and poet (right), who refused an invitation to perform
at Akbar’s court claiming he could only sing for God and not a ruler.
mughal gardens