INDIAN GARDENS—III 
THE GARDENS OF THE TAJ MAHAL 
By E. B. Havell 
OF THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF ART AT CALCUTTA 
T HE famous Taj Mahal at Agra was 
commenced by Shah Jahan in 1632, as a 
memorial to his beloved wife, the Empress 
Mumtaza Mahal. The earliest existing plan 
of the Tai gardens was made in 1828 by 
Colonel Hodgson, Surveyor-General of India, 
and probably shows the original lay-out of the 
beds, though not the original planting of 
the trees. The gardens have since been 
considerably Europeanised; and, as attempts 
are now being made to restore them on Indian 
lines, it will be very opportune to take them 
as an example in discussing the question: 
How were the Mogul gardens 
planned and planted ? 1 hey 
are so essentially a part of 
the whole great architectural 
conception of the Moguls, 
that their restoration is a 
matter of much artistic im¬ 
portance. 
The plan shown by Colo¬ 
nel Hodgson is very simple. 
It is a square subdivided into 
four smaller squares (the 
“four-fold field-plot’’ as 
Babar called it), by two main 
avenues crossing each other 
in the centre. One avenue 
forms the main approach to 
the Mausoleum; the other 
leads up to two large pavilions 
on the east and west sides of 
the garden. Each of the 
squares formed by these ave¬ 
nues is similarly subdivided 
by branch avenues into four 
compartments, and smaller 
pathways again divide each 
of the latter into yet other 
four. The monotony of the 
squares is varied by the 
entrance gateway, the central 
platform and the corners of 
the pavilions breaking into 
the angles of those adjacent to them. A 
water channel containing a row of fountains 
runs through the middle of the two main 
avenues, which, with the platform in the 
centre of the garden form a Greek cross; 
only the arm nearest to the Mausoleum is 
slightly longer than the others. On either 
side of the water channels are long parallel 
strips of earth panelled into geometric shapes 
with stone borders. These shapes have 
always been treated as flower beds, until 
recently they were filled in with grass and 
planted with a continuous row of cypress- 
colonel hodgson’s plan 
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