The Mughal Gardens of Srinagar

The Mughal relationship with Kashmir began in earnest with Emperor Akbar, who added the valley to the empire in 1586. But it was under Akbar's son Jahangir that Kashmir became the imperial refuge, the place the court retreated to during the brutal summer months of the plains. Jahangir visited Kashmir repeatedly and commissioned gardens that reflected the Persian charbagh tradition, the four-quartered formal garden oriented around a central water channel, adapted to the particular topography of the lake shore and the Zabarwan hillside. He died, reportedly, with Kashmir on his mind, having described it famously as paradise on earth. The gardens he and his successors built are the physical expression of that devotion.

Three major Mughal gardens survive in Srinagar in a state suitable for visiting: Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh, and Chashma Shahi. Each has its own character and its own best time to visit. A fourth site, Pari Mahal, sits higher on the Zabarwan hillside and offers panoramic views that complement rather than duplicate what the lakeside gardens provide. Visiting all four in a single day is possible but leaves little time for the unhurried appreciation each one deserves. A morning at one garden, afternoon at another, and a return visit during a different time of year remains the ideal approach.

Shalimar Bagh: The Garden of Love

Shalimar Bagh, built by Emperor Jahangir for his wife Nur Jahan in the early seventeenth century, is the largest and most celebrated of the Srinagar Mughal gardens. It extends along the northeastern shore of Dal Lake and climbs the hillside above in four terraced levels, each connected by a central channel that carries water from a spring above the garden down through a series of fountains, cascades, and carved stone channels.

The lowest terrace was historically a public garden; the second and third terraces were reserved for the emperor and his court, with the fourth, innermost terrace accessible only to the women of the imperial household. This hierarchical organisation of space is visible in the architecture: the pavilions become more elaborate and more private as you ascend. The black marble pavilion on the third terrace, its columns reflected in the pool below, is the most photographed element of Shalimar Bagh and genuinely worthy of the attention it receives.

The chinar trees of Shalimar Bagh were planted by the Mughals and have had four hundred years to grow into their current scale. Some of the largest specimens have circumferences that several people could not encircle with linked arms. In autumn, these trees turn shades of amber and deep red that are extraordinary even by the standards of temperate deciduous forests, and the sight of their reflection in the central pools on a calm October morning is one of the finest things Srinagar offers at any time of year.

Spring at Shalimar Bagh, when the flower beds are planted with tulips and other bulbs, and the blossom trees along the upper terraces are in flower, is the other season that draws the most visitors. Both seasons are worth seeing, though the garden in spring attracts the largest crowds and requires patience if you want to photograph it without other visitors in the frame.

Nishat Bagh: The Garden of Gladness

Nishat Bagh, built by Asaf Khan, the brother of Empress Nur Jahan, in 1633, is slightly smaller than Shalimar Bagh but has a more dramatic relationship with its setting. It climbs the Zabarwan hillside in twelve terraces corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the central channel and its fountains are fed by a stream that descends the hill with more force than the water supply at Shalimar Bagh. The view from the upper terraces of Nishat, looking out over the flower beds and the chinar trees to the flat expanse of Dal Lake and the mountains beyond, is one of the defining views of Srinagar.

Emperor Shah Jahan reportedly coveted Nishat Bagh and attempted to acquire it from Asaf Khan. When Asaf Khan refused to give it up, Shah Jahan cut off the water supply. The garden began to dry out, and the courtiers of Asaf Khan urged him to capitulate. According to the historical account, it was a court attendant who could not bear to see the garden dying who opened the sluice gate himself, allowing the water to flow again. Shah Jahan, impressed by the attendant's devotion to the garden, restored the water supply and did not pursue the matter further. The story may be apocryphal, but it captures something about the Mughal relationship with these gardens: they were understood as living things, not merely as ornamental spaces.

Nishat Bagh is generally less crowded than Shalimar Bagh, particularly on weekday mornings in the shoulder seasons of late May or early October. It also has better access to the water's edge of Dal Lake at its lower boundary, where visitors can sit on the stone ghats and watch the lake traffic, which adds a dimension to the visit that is distinct from anything the internal garden offers.

Chashma Shahi and Pari Mahal

Chashma Shahi, the smallest of the three main Mughal gardens, is built around a natural spring from which it takes its name. The garden was laid out by Shah Jahan in 1632 and is more intimate in scale than either Shalimar or Nishat Bagh. Three terraces rise from the lake shore, with the central water channel fed by the cold, clear spring at the uppermost level. The spring water of Chashma Shahi has a long reputation for quality, and local people have collected it for drinking for centuries.

The garden sits slightly higher on the hillside than Nishat Bagh, giving its upper terrace a view that encompasses much of the southern end of Dal Lake. It is often combined with a visit to Pari Mahal, which lies a short distance above it on the Zabarwan hillside. Pari Mahal, the Palace of Fairies, was originally a Buddhist monastery converted into an astronomical observatory during the reign of Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan's eldest son. The terraced ruins, set against the hillside, offer one of the most expansive views of the Kashmir Valley available from any easily accessible point, and the site itself, worn stone and old archways, has a different atmosphere from the maintained formal gardens below.

The most effective way to visit all these gardens is to arrange transport for a morning starting at Chashma Shahi, continuing to Nishat Bagh, and finishing at Shalimar Bagh before the peak afternoon heat. This sequence moves you roughly along the lake shore from south to north and allows you to finish at the most celebrated garden with enough time to explore its upper terraces without rushing. Alternatively, if you are staying on a houseboat, a shikara from your boat to the garden ghats along the lake shore is a more leisurely and atmospheric approach that avoids road traffic entirely. The experience of arriving at the gardens by water, rather than by road, is worth arranging if the logistics allow.

The Mughal gardens of Srinagar are not ruins and they are not reconstructions. They are functioning spaces that have been maintained, with varying degrees of rigour, across four centuries. The water still flows down the terraces from its original sources. The chinar trees planted by the Mughals still stand. The proportions of the formal garden design, its axes, its terraces, and its relationship to the lake and hills, still work exactly as their designers intended. Visiting them with that continuity in mind, rather than simply as a box to tick on a Srinagar itinerary, changes what you take from the experience.