The Shalimar Bagh, from Shah-il-imirat,
'royal gardens,' is perhaps the most interesting place on the lake; for it was the
best loved abode of the Great Moguls when visiting the Valley, and under its
roof many a pleasant day was spent by the Shah Jehan and his wife, the fair
lady of the Taj at Agra: are not its glories most glowingly described in the
pages of Lala Rookh? Built by the. Emperor Jehangir, the Shalimar itself is a
building placed at the upper end of a large garden, walled in, and fully half a
mile long, and nearly a quarter of a mile broad.
This
garden is connected with the lake by a wide canal, on whose sides are broad
paths extending for nearly a mile before entering the Shalimar gardens proper,
through which it is continued, or rather joined, on a smaller scale beyond in
the shape of a line of tanks or reservoirs leading down in cascades and level
runs alternately, connected by a watercourse of varying width. This with the
tank is lined with polished limestone and crowded with fountains. The tanks and
watercourse lead down the middle of the length of the garden, which is arranged
in four low terraces of nearly equal size. On each side of the canal and tanks
is a broad causeway or walk, overshadowed by chinar and other trees, with a few
smaller walks branching off into the shrubberies-at the present day nothing but
a wild and ragged undergrowth. On the uppermost or fourth terrace stands the
building, a magnificent pavilion of polished black marble, raised upon a
platform in the center of a square reservoir, which contains in its
circumference one hundred and forty fountains, and is filled by the water of a
stream issuing from the mountains that tower behind the garden.
The roof
of the pavilion, which is open, is flat, and supported on each side by a range
of six pillars of the same material as the rest of the building. On two of its
sides there is an open corridor, and in the center a passage, right and left of
which are two rooms, the private apartments of the royal family being built
against the boundary wall on either ,side of the terrace on which the pavilion
stands. This was used not so much as a place of abode, but as a
banqueting-hall, a favourite place for entertainments of various kinds. And for
this purpose it was well suited ; and when at night the fountains were playing,
and the canal and its cascades, the pavilions and garden, were lit up with various
coloured lamps, shedding their light upon the throng of gaudily and
jewel-bedecked guests, the effect must have been beautiful indeed in those days
of pomp and show.
In a
minor degree we were so fortunate as to see it in its greatest perfection, even
if shorn of some of its former elegance, as we were bidden to a fete within its
walls, given by the Maharajah in honour of the launching of a small
steam-vessel upon the lake. This event, and the subsequent festivities at the
Shalimar, were very diverting to us, and, by way of concluding the description
of the Dal lake, a short sketch of that memorable day in the history of Kashmir
may very well here find a place. A memorable day indeed it was to the
inhabitants of the Valley, and long talked of both before and after; for steam
power was a mystery to them, and never before had the mountains surrounding
their homes echoed back the sound of the whistle, the shrill scream of that
invention which proves wherever it is introduced the most civilizing agent, and
the most potent up rooter of old ideas
and prejudice as known to man. At an early hour of the day which was to mark
the first step of the onward march of progress in Kashmir, the city was full of
people, and the river crowded with boats of every size and description.
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Essence of past -It is All about Kashmir