SAND-BURIED GARDENS 37 



all along his route from Kashmir to his head- 

 quarters at Khotan. At Yarkand, the garden 

 reserved for him, the Chini Bagh, " proved quite 

 a summer palace within a large walled-in garden." 

 And again, " When alone in my temporary man- 

 sion, I felt the reality of the charms which such 

 an abode offers even more than I had in the old 

 Mughal and Sikh garden-residences, once my 

 favourite haunts in the campagna of Lahore." 



Tanks filled with the sacred lotus flowers 

 figured largely in many of the fresco paintings 

 uncovered among the ruined cities north of 

 Khotan, and adjoining one of the buried houses 

 the outlines of an ancient garden were distinctly 

 traceable. House and garden had lain buried 

 under the drifting sand for nearly 1600 years 

 when Sir Aurel Stein first discovered them. 

 " The trunks of the poplars, which still rise 

 eight to ten feet from the original surface, and 

 are thus clearly visible above the sand-drift, 

 are grouped in the same little squares, and 

 enclosing rectangular avenues which can be 

 seen in every well-kept Bostan (orchard) from 

 Kashgar to Keriya." 



Babar, after his final conquest of Northern 

 India in the year 1526, fixed on his new capital 



