A History of Agriculture in India v2.c68.s1: Gardens at Agra
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c68.s1
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Gardens at Agra
v2.c68.s1.1
On settling down at Agra, Babur’s first concern was to raise a garden where he could take refuge from heat and dust. He was disgusted with the disagreeable aspect of the country, the flat monotonous dusty plains of Agra. He not only laid a garden for himself but also encouraged his nobles to follow his example. He thus describes in his memoirs how he set about laying the garden on the bank of the Jumna, now called *Ram-bagh*.
v2.c68.s1.2
‘It always appears to me that one of the chief defects of Hindustan is the want of artificial water-courses. I had intended, wherever I might fix my residence, to construct water-wheels, to produce an artificial stream, and to lay out an elegant and regularly planned pleasure-ground. Shortly after coming to Agra, I passed the Jumna with this object in view, and examined the country, to pitch upon a fit spot for a garden. The whole was so ugly and detestable that I repassed the river quite repulsed and disgusted. In consequence of the want of beauty, and of the disagreeable aspect of the country, I gave up my intention of making a *char-bagh*; but as no better situation presented itself near Agra, I was finally compelled to make the best of this same spot. I first of all began to sink the large well which supplies the baths with water; I next fell to work on that piece of ground on which are the *ambli* (or Indian tamarind) trees, and the octangular tank; I then proceeded to form the large tank and its enclosure; and afterwards the tank and *talar* (or grand hall of audience) that are in front of the stone palace. I next finished the garden of the private apartments, and the apartments themselves, after which I completed the baths. In this way, going on without neatness and without order, in the Hindu fashion, I, however, produced edifices and gardens which possessed considerable regularity. In every corner I planted suitable gardens; in every garden I sowed roses and narcissuses regularly, and in beds corresponding to each other.
v2.c68.s1.3
'Khalifeh, Sheikh Zen, Yunis Ali, and several others who procured situations on the banks of the river, made regular and elegant gardens and tanks, and constructed wheels after the fashion of Lahore and Debalpur, by means of which they procured a supply of water. The men of Hind, who had never before seen places formed on such a plan, or laid out with so much elegance, gave the name of Kabul to the side of the Jumna on which these palaces were built.'¹
v2.c68.s1.4
¹ *Memoirs of Zehir-ud-din Muhammed Babur*, Vol. II, pp. 257-258