Indian Gardens 
WATER COURSE OK THE UPPER TERRACE AT SHAHLIMAR 
gained from the illustration of those he 
built on the embankment of the lake at 
Ajmir; but no photograph can do justice 
to the whole poetic charm of these build¬ 
ings and their surroundings. They are 
quite unique of their kind, and Indian art 
owes much to Lord Argon for their rescue 
and admirable restoration. To watch the 
sunset over the lake with these marble pavil¬ 
ions in the foreground, reflecting the glow of 
color in sky and water, gives an impression 
of beauty which not even the Taj can dimin¬ 
ish. Since the days of 
ancient Greece there 
has been little archi¬ 
tecture of such exqui¬ 
site feeling and classic 
grace as this. 
The gardens on 
either side of the great 
reservoir in this second 
terrace are four and a 
half feet below the 
reservoir and fourteen 
and a half feet below 
the first terrace. The 
plan shows the ar¬ 
rangement of the 
water-channels. On 
the east boundary wall 
of this terrace are the 
royal bathrooms. The 
gardens were in fact 
completely equipped 
for a royal residence, 
so that whenever the 
emperor visited La¬ 
hore the inconveni¬ 
ences of tents and 
camp life were avoided. 
On the north side 
of the reservoir there 
is another large pavil¬ 
ion through which the 
water passes to reach 
the third main terrace. 
Moorcroft, who visit¬ 
ed Lahore in 1820, 
gives this description 
of the pavilion: 
“ There are some open 
apartments of white 
marble of one storey 
on a level with the basin, which present in 
front a square marble chamber, with re¬ 
cesses on its sides for lamps, before which 
water may be made to fall in sheets from a 
ledge surrounding the room at the top, whilst 
streams of water spout up through holes 
in the floor. T his is called “ Sawan Bha- 
don ” as imitative of light and darkness 
with clouds and heavy showers in the season 
of the rains. 
A similar device for cooling the rooms ex¬ 
ists in an old garden pavilion at Alwar, be- 
SHAH JAHAN’s PAVILIONS ON THE LAKE AT AJMIR 
