THE MOGHUL BAGHS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20630, 20 August 1932, Page 13

THE MOGHUL BAGHS.

MEMORIAL TREES. (SPICIALI/I nSIITKN fOR TflE PKZSS.) [By Professor Arnold Wall.] "Yes, sir; yes, air, three baghs lull Old rhyme. During the spacious days of our great Elizabeth, the Moghul Emperor Akbar the Great was having spacious days of his own in another place. He vanquished and occupied Kashmir in 1587. His successors treated the happy valley as a summer resort, and established during the seventeenth century those noble pleasaunces which are known as the "Moghul Baghs"—those of them, that is, which still remain in something like their old splendour and elegance. Those which were built in Srinager itself, or in its immediate neighbourhood, though still called "Bagliß," are not anything more than parks or grt zing-grounds, but there are still many line examples, including three which are strung out along the high road which skirts the Dal Lake on its eastern and southern sides —the Shalimar Bagh, tho Nishat Bagh find Chaslimashahi, 8, 6 and 4 miles respectively from the city by this road, but a good deal less by the direct route across the lake. I will take those three in this order, and where my own powers of description fail me, I shall have recourse to the "Kashmir Guide," a little book which I stumbled upon and bought for the miserable sum of Its 1-8-0 (about 2/-), its value being, as will presently be scon, above rubies. The author is a doctor, M.B. and 8.5., and a native of the country. I may premise that "Bagh" merely means "garden,". but in this special case it means both more and less, for while the Moghul Baghs are of such extent that they might rather be called parks, they did not include flowers or flowerbeds at all in their original design, the desiderata being only high, including walls, shady trees, green turf, pavilions and running water.

General Situation. The three Baghs lie between the lake and a range of respectable mountains, about 9000 feet high and very steep. This range in its contours and gradients precisely resembles the face of Mt. Evans which flanks the Purau Valley on its eastern side, but it is a good deal higher, the summits being about 4000 feet above lake level. The lower slopes are grassy and extremely steep, and above them is a series of dark, precipitous rocks, while a few scattered pines occupy the crest. The road, skirting the lake, runs through several picturesque but smelly villages, through pretty orchards and many rice-fields. Good streams issue from the range, whose waters not only supply the Baghs, but are led through countless channels and over countless terraces 10 make the rice-cultivations. The road exhibits the inevitable ranks of numbered poplars, and is shaded here and there by fine chenars not quite so numerous as the poor pedestrian would wish, who walks ten miles along it on a June day, with the thermometer at 85 degrees in the shade. The Baghs are all open free to the public, since 1931. and there is in each a fair supply of drinking water, but no restaurant or tearoom of any sort, so that picnicparties bring their own supplies.

The Shalimar Bagh. This, in Bong and story, is the most famous of the Baghs—-'''Pale hands I loved," etc. —and was buiJt early in the seventeenth century by Jehangir, tbe successor to Akbar, for his Queen Noordjahan. It is a rectilinealenclosure, about 200 yards each wav, close to the lake, surrounded by vefy solid old walls about eight feet high, constructed partly of sun-dried brick, partly of boulders set in cement, and topped, by a coping covered "with earth which supports a good crop of grass, weeds and wild iris. Within, these walls are richly draped with climbing roses, jasmine and honeysuckle. Tho design is, as usual, very formal and stiff. The water is led down a straight central channel with square pools at intervals in which fountains play, illuminated at night by electric Rights. At the entrance, at the top, in the middle and at the s'des are pavilions or summer-housed, eight in all. Those are built of stonework below, very ancient and handsome, and of painted woodwork ab<jve, most of it much faded and not very old. The roofs are of shingles, and in the central pavilion, the most pretentious of all, the roof is in three tiers, something like a pagoda. Tho verandahs of this pavilion are supported by twelve pillars of black marble, beautifully carved at their bases, and of these my guide remarks that those "pillcrs" are "a puzzle for the onlookers as where from and how these have been carried to this place. The eeilings and walls 1 within are elaborately painted in the Hindu style, in two blues and two reds, with flowers and conventional designs of thin flowinn lines, the dominant patterns being one like a fat buttoohook and one Wee a Paisley pattern. To the right and left of the water-channel are the lawns, flower-beds and great trees, principally chenars, the lovely Kashmir planes, but there are also cypresses, deodars and manv fruit trees—cherry, pear, apple ami walnut. The turf is brilliantly green, well-mown, well kept, and green all through tho summer. It consists of "English" lawn-grasses, with hosts or daisies, yarrow and many weeds, among which the bright little yellow Oxalis is conspicuous, the same species winch is so common, as an indigenous plant, everywhere in New Zealand • I suppose it is a citizen of the. world. There are many flowering shrubs, lilac privet and pomegranate trees with their showy scarlet flowers. The Btiff square or oblong flower-beds are full of oldfashioned flowers, roses, pansies, holly hocks, sweet peas, sweet stocks, nasturtiums, carnations and cannas. The roses are chiefiypmkand white, all old ' sorts, mostly , sweet scented and in no great variety. The State keeps up these Bnghs, and there are hosts of gardeners, the -visitor is always complimented by one or other of these with the "gift" of . 'ose But the great glory of the Bagbs he chenar, a truly noble tree, tall, \\ith bulky and shapely bole and thick foliage, the leaf being extremely handsome with much deeper and sharper indentations than that of the tamilmr plane of the London squares and of our gardens and streets. The biggest o these chenars are evidently the original trees planted three hundred years ago Uy the luxurious Moghul Emperors, who probably would not approve ot the brilliant modern flower display. Here these old potentates disported themselves at their ease and whiled away tbe ' sultry hours in listening to the murmur of tha waters, the trickling ot the fountains, aDd to music and song and story, in watching dances and in silken dalliance. If the Shalimar Bagh has a fault it is that it is rather too flat; it rises in four terraces indeed, but these are very shallowest) that from the highest point the vista down the central waterway, over the Dal Lake

to the lofty snow-clad peaks of h Pir Panjal, is not as impressive as it might be. Outside the main gateway an avenue of fine chenars adorns the long, narrow waterway icaUS from the lake to the Bagh. The Nishat Bagh. This Bagh was made by Asaf Khan Prime Minister and to Jehangir. It is of about the same dimensions as the Shalimar a» structed in exactly the same fashion, with the high walls, the gr _ » the lovely turf, the summer-houses the running water and the flowe - But the Nishat has certain great advantages, and it is easily e attractive of the three. It « laid out upon steeply rising ground, as ' twelve terraces are constructed . tho uppermost must be nbou " .. above the lake, and the view o® down the central water.vay to the: laKe and the mountains is glorious, ia a better supply of water, . , this is led over two or three artificial falls, like those which _ adorn t e famous villa gardens ot these people did not think ° Italian device of a cascade of hair from alongside tho water, terrace to terrace you go by extreme y high and steep'flights of steps; a e way down the central channe ier - are fountains which play on Sundays and are illuminated by searchlight. The garden is very popular, sinrl on line Sundays is crowded with visitors, is this paradise on earth," saj 8 my guide (bless him!) "where ladies and gents, dressed in their superlative finary, muster on Sundays in summer seasons to see and to be seen ana thus double the natural beauty of this earthly paradise." Personally, I prefer it on a quiet day, but the good doctor is enchanted by its Sunday aspect: "The world tired old chose to retire to the farthest _ corner of the secluded plots to ruminate on their whims. .. . The middle-aged men with their wives aud children chose a place a little centre to it. and are seen busy in having their picnics, and teaching their children botany and other natural subjects or listening to gramophone records. The youth lodge at the edge of the central plot, to play on cards, to ogle r. nd to take careful notes of the up and down passing show, and thus while away their time in sweet doing nothing/. . . Occasionally one sees the photographers busy with their cameras and artists depicting the nature in their water colour picture, a niachanies fK°t that?] admires the spirit of old engineering and a theologist wonders at the mystery of God who creates such men who planned su<di grand designes." To my mind (he chic!' beauty of the Nishat Bagh lies in the topmost terrace. Here .are no flower-beds, but about twenty-four gigantic old chenars, some of them as much as thirty feet in circumference, crowding thickly and shading the soft mossy turf. One supposes that this scene approximates to the ideal of the old landscape gardeners; in any case it is now supremely beautiful. Many of the ancient chenars are hollow and doomed, but both here and in the Shalimar young trees are planted to replace them when their time comes. Before I leave the Nishat Bagh I will let my doctor have tho last word. Tie ends his account on a note of indignation: "One can not but express his complaint against the confectioner, who keeping only the rat,es in view supplies bad stuff for the good money. Without competition, he is the sole monarch of all what he surveys, prepares Tag or rubber like puris [no one can tell me what these are] which spoil the enjoyment r>f the whole trip, and causes'derangement in the stomach, and God only knows when this defect is to be rectified." There spnl-re the medical man, M.8., B.S.

Chasmashabi. This mouthful of a name means "The Royal Fountain," and in pronounced Cbrishmashy, with the stresses on the first and last syllables, sounding rather like "Hush, my child." Unlike the other two Baghs, it is not close to the lake, but a mile and a half away up a side valley. It is a perfect little gem of a garden, only a miniature affair. It consists of two little courtyards, one above the other with a steep flight of steps between. There is room only for one or two chenars, and there are fruit trees and flower-beds and two pavilions. "The green, well-mowed grass," says the doctor, "affords a natural carpet to the visitors." But tho real distinction of this garden is the formation which gives it its name. It rises through a black marble funnel in the upper pavilion, ity cold and of great repute as an appetiser,- This little garden was constructed, like the Shalimar, by Jebangir, "the great moghal emporer." (K.G.) And I borrow my guide in farewell: "The eternal fountain bubbles, bubbles and seems to say: Man may come and man may go. bnt I go on for ever."

Mr Hugh Walpole very handsomely makes amends for a foolish disparagement of Shaw, to whose "Dramatic Essays and Opinions" he has returned with a profit which might be sought by many worshippers of contemporary drama :

Some time ago 1 made the foolish remark that l Shaw was already out of date. Other silly people made the same silly remark. For the. last six months Constable have been publishing a new cheap edition of Shaw—beautiful, strong, excellently printed volumes at six shillings a volume. I was sent the other day the Dramatic Notices that he wrote during the '9os reissued in thiß edition. I shall never again make any propheoies about Shaw. Nothing dies, in general, so swiftly as Dramatic Notices. When men like Archer and Agate have reprinted their efforts in volume form they have been found to be a sort of dramatic octoplasm, pathetically eloquent of: the bogus medium. And Archer was a brilliant man. Agate is a clever one. . Shaw's two volumes are enchanting. to say that they are fresh and lively is nierely to libel them. Written as journalism, Time has re-created them into Literature. Head his account of Duse's blush in ' of Daly's production of "As You Like it, of Mrs Campbell's performance in abe Notorious Mrs Ebbsmitli." You will realise then both the poverty of all present dramatic criticism and the greatness of the theatre when it is served by genius. These volumes are given dramatic coherence by the fact that that throughout those years Shaw was fighting a very vigorous battle. He wanted then the serious dramatist: lie complains again and again that nobody save Ibsen mentions real life in the theatre and now, forty years later, wo are saying the same thing save that "there is no Ibson—Shaw revivals «re the nearest thing to real thinking that loe present theatre cares to offer us and, listening to "Heartbreak House" a few minutes ago, I wondered why more young men were not seeing that, while the whole field of the novel is now overcrowded with eager competitors. tho field of the theatre is empty. Jlaugham, Lonsdale, Coward are entertainers and refuse to bo anything more —for tbe present at any rate.

Messrs J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., announce that they have made rangements with the firm of Martin Seeker. Ltd., to co-operate in the "Nw Adolphi Library." The library wi.l henceforth have the advantage or the Dents' joint selling organisation, and Dents' first four titles, to be published this autumn, will be "Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, "A Traveller Little Things" by W. IT. Hudson, 'The Rebel Generation" by Jo van AmmersKuller, and "Blindness" by Henry Green. Martin Seeker will issue four new titles at the same tune: D. H. Lawrence's ' 'Assorted Articles,'' Comptou Mackenzie's "Extraordinary Women, Phoebe Fenwick Gaye's "Vivandiere, and Frank Swinnerton's "Tokeneld Papers." •• A memorial to Lewis Carroll is to be erected at Rugby School, where he was educated.