The Taj Garden

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A green carpet shaped garden, which is used in theTaj Mahal is borrowed from Persian garden model. These kinds of gardens were introduced to India by Babur, the first Mughal ruler, who also brought with him the Persian passion with flowers and fruit, birds and leaves, balance and slenderness. Persian garden was synthetically contrived, unabashedly man-made, based on geometric preparations of nature without any attempt at a"natural" look.

Following the model of Persian gardeners, landscape, artists at the Taj Mahal tried to translate the perfection of heaven into terrestrial terms by subsequent certain formulas. It is believed in Islam that four is the holiest of all numbers. Believing in this philosophy, most arrangements of the Taj Mahal are based on that number or its multiples - and the gardens were thus laid out in the quadrate diagram. Two marble canals studded with fountains and lined with cypress trees (symbolizing death) are drafted in the centre of the garden dividing it into four equal squares. Each of the four squares of the garden has been sub-divided into 16 flower beds by stone-paved raised pathways. A raised marble lotus-tank with a cusped border is set at the centre of the garden, halfway between the tomb and the gateway, stands. A tank has been prearranged to perfectly reflect the Taj in its waters. A visitor can get an unobstructed view of the mausoleum from any point of the garden. Fountains and grave rows of cypress trees only embellish the north-south water canal, lest the attention of the spectator would be diverted to the sides. This illustrates how cautiously the artistic effect of the water plans and the garden were intended. The yawning green cypress trees with their slight growing shapes and curving topmost crests are mirrored in the water while between their dark reflections excels the beauty of the eternal Taj Mahal.