THE TREE OF AGES 47 



In early ages the tree on the mount was replaced 

 by a temple ; in Buddhist times the stone chhat- 

 travali or umbrellas, the symbols of the sacred 

 tree and its branches, crowned the building ; the 

 idea was carried on by the Hindu temples, and 

 with the coming of the Mohammedans the temple 

 on the mount is replaced by the tomb or baradari 

 on a central platform from which the four water- 

 ways still flow. 



Back to such simple pieties we are led by the 

 Hindu custom prescribing the laying out of a 

 garden, "the purest of human pleasures," as a 

 religious function, of which the distinctive rite is 

 the formal marriage of the fruit trees with the 

 garden well, two of the finest young trees being 

 planted beside the conduit head. After which the 

 dakshina (right-hand-going) is performed, the 

 garden being perambulated by its planters. This 

 marriage of the fruit trees is a favourite motive 

 with Hindu craftsmen, and the well-known per- 

 forated stone windows in the mosque of Sidi 

 Sayyid at Ahmedabad are among the most 

 exquisite examples of its use. 



Sikandrah is laid out on this plan of the 

 cosmic cross, in a huge square enclosure with 

 high battlemented walls. In the midst, raised 



