THE FLOWERS OF THE TAJ 73 



of Mughal decorative work, and like the parterres 

 which it naively represents — ^for the design is 

 taken directly from the oblong flower-beds, such 

 as were seen beside the canals of every palace 

 garden — ^it only reveals its full delicacy of form 

 and colour on a dull day. How delicious they 

 are, these formal flower-beds, with their blue- 

 bells, daffodils, tulips, crown -imperials, lilies, 

 and irises, which stand up swaying on their slender 

 stems by the black and white marble ripples, 

 forming a fairy circle round the tomb. Spring 

 flowers all of them, for the Rose of Persia and 

 the Lotus of the Good Law hold a truce, and 

 are missing from this gathering of the flowers. 

 Maybe the famous Kashmir gardens of the 

 Empress Nur Jahan were the artist's inspiration 

 here. In the record, which is still preserved, of 

 the craftsmen employed on the Taj, the name 

 appears of one Ram Lai Kashmiri, proving that 

 at least one Kashmir artist was employed by 

 Shah Jahan. 



Great was my delight, some months after this 

 rainy day at Agra, to forget the fatigue of the 

 long three days' drive up the Jhelum ravine, as 

 I found one by one the spring flowers of the Taj. 

 First came the tulips, high up on the slopes of 



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