Nishat Bagh

• 1. Introduction

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  Nishat Bagh sits on the eastern bank of Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains rising behind it and the Pir Panjal range reflected in the water below. Its name, drawn from Urdu, means "Garden of Joy." Built in 1633 by Asif Khan, elder brother of Nur Jahan, it is the second-largest Mughal garden in the Kashmir Valley. Yet this garden of joy very nearly became a garden of silence. The question the story of Nishat Bagh raises is not simply how a great garden is made. It is how a great garden survives the envy of an emperor.

• 2. The Emperor's Envy

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  When Shah Jahan first saw the completed garden in 1633, he expressed his admiration three times to Asif Khan, his father-in-law. The repetition was a hint. Each expression of delight carried an unspoken expectation that Asif Khan would offer the garden as a gift. Asif Khan gave no such offer. Piqued by this silence, Shah Jahan ordered the water supply to the garden cut off. Without water, the fountains fell quiet and the cascades dried. The garden was deserted.

  Asif Khan, described as desolate and heartbroken, withdrew into the stillness of one of the terraces. While he rested in the shade of a tree, a servant made a bold decision. The servant turned on the water supply, drawing it from the nearby Shalimar Bagh. When Asif Khan heard the sound of water and the fountains suddenly alive again, he was startled. He immediately ordered the supply disconnected, fearing the worst from the Emperor for this act of disobedience.

  Shah Jahan, hearing of the incident, was not disturbed. He approved of the servant's loyalty to his master and ordered the full restoration of water rights to Asif Khan, who held the title of Prime Minister. The garden was alive again, and the anecdote passed into the record as a study in court politics, imperial pride, and the courage of a single unnamed servant.

• 3. Persian Roots, Kashmir Soil

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  Asif Khan designed the garden on the conceptual model of the Persian garden, but the site demanded changes. The traditional Persian Chahar Bagh used a central layout with four arms radiating outward in a square, suited to flat countryside. The hillside above Dal Lake required a different logic entirely. The design was shifted to an axial stream-flow plan, with water originating at the top of the hill and descending through the garden.

  This shift from square to rectangular changed the proportions of the whole garden. The east-west length was set at 548 metres, the width at 338 metres. The long side arms of the Persian square were dispensed with. What remained was a clean, directed corridor of water, terraces, and plantings that worked with the hill's gradient rather than against it.

• 4. Twelve Terraces, Two Gardens

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  Rising from the shore of Dal Lake, Nishat Bagh climbs through twelve terraces, each one representing one of the twelve Zodiacal signs. The lowest terrace once connected directly to the lake; in recent years it has merged with the approach road. The topmost terrace is the Zenana garden, a private space enclosed behind a wall 5.5 metres high, its facade made up of blind arches with a single opening into the garden. Two small octagonal towers on either side of the retaining walls give views down over the lower terraces. A two-storey pavilion stands within this upper garden.

  The division between public and private was a matter of rank. Nishat Bagh has only two sections, a public garden and a private Zanana, or harem. The Shalimar Bagh, by contrast, has four sections, a difference explained by the fact that the Shalimar Bagh served the Emperor himself, while Nishat Bagh belonged to a nobleman of the court. The central canal running through the garden is 4 metres wide and carries water to a depth of just 20 centimetres. Water passes from terrace to terrace over stone ramps that catch the light as the flow breaks over them.

• 5. The Architecture of Water

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  Marble and stone thrones are placed at the head of almost every waterfall in the garden. Fountains and pools appear at every terrace. The ninth terrace alone holds nine fountains in its pool. The eleventh terrace is considered the most dramatic, with twenty-five fountains in a single pool, reached by engraved paths. The second terrace, however, is called the most impressive of all.

  Behind the cascade on the second terrace, an arched recess contains twenty-three niches. Originally, lighted lamps were placed in these niches, so that at night the water fell in front of a wall of small flames. Persian lilacs and pansies grow in abundance on that terrace, alongside the sparkling cascade. The water source feeding the entire garden is a spring called the Gopi Thirst, which supplies clear water from the hill above.

  The third terrace once held a baradari, a two-storey pavilion, that has since been dismantled. In its place the terrace retains a square chamber with five fountains, and a water chute flanked by five arched open niches at the front and matching niches on the sides. Benches are placed at channel crossings throughout the garden, and avenues of chinar and cypress trees line the broad cascade from the lakeshore to the artificial facade at the top.

• 6. A Royal Burial

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  Mughal Princess Zuhra Begum is buried in the garden. She was the daughter of Emperor Alamgir II and the granddaughter of Emperor Jahandar Shah. Her presence in the garden, recorded among its facts, places Nishat Bagh within the longer sweep of Mughal dynastic history, connecting the garden built in 1633 to the court descendants who came after Asif Khan's time. A few old Mughal period buildings remain in the vicinity of the Bagh today.