260 MOONLIGHT GARDENS 



palace builders, foremost among whom was the 

 Suraj Mai, Raja of Bharatpur, builder of Deeg. 

 Commenced about the year 1725, this beautiful 

 palace, unlike most of the Rajput palace-for- 

 tresses, is built on a perfectly level site. Water 

 and the surrounding flat country, which was 

 once a morass, formed the principal defences of 

 Deeg. Its large pavilions and gardens are laid 

 out, as Fergusson remarks, " with a regularity 

 which would satisfy the most fastidious Renais- 

 sance architect." The whole garden-palace was 

 to consist of an enclosure twice the length of its 

 breadth, surrounded with buildings and divided 

 into two parts by a broad terrace intended to 

 carry the central pavilion and its fountains. 

 Only one of these rectangles has been completed, 

 measuring about 700 feet square. 



The gardens, which are rich in sculptured 

 fountains, watercourses, parterres, and other 

 fine architectural ornaments, were meant to rival 

 those of the Imperial Palace at Agra, which the 

 Jats of Bharatpur captured and looted in 1765, 

 two years after Suraj Mai's death. Indeed some 

 of the chabutras and marble thrones at Deeg are 

 actually those taken from the Mughals. One 

 wonders if the lovely white marble swing (Plate 



