122 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS DELHI 



green is very beautiful ; wonderfully so, as I 

 saw it that December afternoon when on the 

 platform, at one side, the King-Emperor and 

 Queen-Empress sat in open Durbar in their 

 mediaeval robes, the great jewels of their crowns 

 flashing in the sunshine, surrounded by their 

 charming Court of princely Indian children ; the 

 whole brilliant group seen against the evening 

 sky, and the apricot and amber of the gilded 

 marble walls, where Shah Jahan wrote in Sadi's 

 flowing Persian : "If there is a Paradise on 

 Earth, it is Here." 



This fairy palace of white marble, set on the 

 river edge of the dark red sandstone fortress 

 walls, was the most magnificent of all Shah 

 Jahan's great architectural works. The Shalimar 

 Gardens outside Lahore were another of his 

 vast undertakings. But the real spirit of the 

 splendour -loving Emperor seems to linger in 

 an older, smaller building. It haunts Nur-Mahal's 

 little Jasmine Tower at Agra, whence he looked 

 his last on his uncompleted vision of the Taj. 



The early Mughal Emperors were great 

 builders, and nearly all the royal gardens, whose 

 massive embankments and solid walls remain, 

 were built in the period between Babar's conquest 



