TEMPLE GARDENS 247 



Although the Central Asian garden had many 

 symbolic and traditional characteristics, and was 

 so closely interwoven with Mughal architecture, 

 the bostand (orchard) was the only practical 

 necessity to a Mohammedan, and the gulistand 

 (flower garden) may be looked on more in the 

 light of a charming luxury, gracing with its 

 pretty poetic fancies the stern material Moslem 

 point of view, like the rose sprays waving over 

 the sharp stone edges of the raised garden paths. 

 With Hindus, on the other hand, a flower garden 

 is essential, as flowering shrubs and trees are the 

 first requirement in the proper performance of 

 daily worship. Every temple and private house 

 has its garden, for flowers and leaves are con- 

 sidered worthless as offerings unless they are 

 picked in the giver's own domain. No wild or 

 jungle flowers may be used. Manucci was much 

 struck by the old temple gardens, and says in his 

 Storia do Mogor : "At every temple of their 

 idols (called pagodas) there is usually an annexed 

 flower-garden, just as in our parish churches in 

 Europe, without comparing the two, there are 

 graveyards. This garden is not less worthy of 

 veneration and respect by these peoples, for 

 every day the officiating priests told off for the 



