THE DELHI SHALIMAR BAGH 105 



it was finished in the course of four years, at a 

 cost of two lakhs of rupees." 



From which somewhat confused account it 

 appears that Akbarabadi Bibi must have meant 

 her gardens to be very resplendent; combining 

 all the various architectural beauties of the 

 Kashmir gardens of which she, or her master- 

 builder, had seen or heard ; for the Machchi 

 Bhawan, though perhaps it was built in imitation 

 of the Fish Square in the fort at Agra, suggests, 

 from its description, that the writer was referring 

 to the garden — ^now in ruins — at Bawan spring 

 in Kashmir; especially as the octagonal tank 

 which still surrounds the holy spring at Verinag 

 is mentioned just afterwards as having been the 

 model for another reservoir in the Delhi Shalimar. 



It was in these gardens that Aurungzeb was 

 hurriedly crowned after he had deposed his 

 father Shah Jahan, the formal coronation taking 

 place later in the Delhi fort. The Shalimar 

 gardens are about six miles north of the city 

 along the Grand Trunk Road. Bernier mentions 

 that the first halt was made there when, in 

 December 1664, Aurungzeb undertook a long and 

 cumbrous journey, with all his Court about him, 

 to Lahore and Kashmir. It was eighteen months 



14 



