House and Garden 
THE TAJ GARDENS IN 1 875 
In the flowering time the sprays of snow- 
white bloom, emblems of life and purity, 
will echo the silver whiteness of the Taj 
itself and contrast beautifully with the 
deep green tones of the solemn cypresses, 
emblems of death and eternity. Through 
the branches of the plum-trees anyone walk¬ 
ing down the avenue will get beautiful vistas 
of the Taj, which would be entirely blocked 
out by continuous lines of cypresses. If we 
followed Babar’s plan and filled up the 
flowerbeds with roses and narcissus “alter¬ 
nately and in beds corresponding to each 
other” the Great Mogul himself might say, 
“indeed, the garden is charmingly laid out.” 
The most fatal objection to the latest 
laying out of the Taj gardens is that all the 
poetry and religious feeling of Oriental art 
are lost in the pretty formality of its grass- 
plots and unbroken lines of cypresses. We 
have seen in a previous article how Shah 
Jahan, even in his pleasure ground at Lahore, 
suggested the symbolic idea of the cypresses 
and flowering-tree by alternating plane-trees 
with the tall and slender aspen. Certainly 
then, in the Taj gardens, which all Indian 
historians compared to the Gardens of Para¬ 
dise, the art of the Moguls would not have 
lost its religious significance. 
Indian art never was and never is detached 
from the inner spiritual and religious life 
in the same way as our cold, modern eclectic 
art. If we recognised this we should never 
teach Indian art-workmen to place Hindu 
symbols upon our sugar-basins and teapots, 
and to carve the sacred incarnations of 
Vishnu upon sideboards and dining-room 
screens. We should be terribly shocked at 
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