182 SUMMER GARDENS OF KASHMIR 



of the chenars overhanging the stream, stand out 

 grandly against the piled -up mountain back- 

 ground ; and once, when the stone-edged terraces 

 stepped delicately down on either hand, and the 

 water from the canals fell clear over the carved 

 cascades to join the swift broad Jhelum, Dara's 

 garden must have had as fine a setting as any 

 of those built by his father Shah Jahan. 



Dara Shukoh, it wiU be remembered, was 

 the eldest of four brothers, and the one who 

 inherited his father's artistic, splendour-loving 

 temperament ; but unfortunately for himself 

 and India, he failed in the more important 

 quality of administrative abihty. Dara, generous 

 but conceited, proud of his intellectual gifts, and 

 intolerant of advice or contradiction, fell an easy 

 prey to the wiles of his brother Aurungzeb. In 

 1659 he was finally captured and beheaded ; and 

 the large mosque at Lahore was built with the 

 funds derived from his confiscated estates. 



At the age of twenty he had been married 

 to his cousin, the Princess Nadira, to whom he 

 remained devotedly attached, and to whom he 

 gave the album of Mughal miniatures which still 

 goes by his name, and forms one of the chief 

 treasures of the India Office library. His taste 



