Shalimar

5
(90)

The Abode Of Love. Is said to have been a village, built by Paravarassna II. He used to stay here when on a visit to Sukhswami a saint living near Harwan. In 1619 Jehangir ordered a garden to be laid out this spot, calling it, Ferrah Bakkash (Delightful). In 1727 A.D Zaffar-Khan. A governor during the reign of Shah Jahan made an extension of it and called it Faiz Baksh (Bountiful).

There are four terraces rising one above the other and nearly of equal dimensions. Bamzai, giving the graphic description of the garden, writes: “There is a line of tanks or reservoirs along the middle of the whole length of the garden and these are connected by a canal, 18 inches deep and from 9 to 14 yards wide. The tanks and the canal with their scheme of fountains and cascades, are lined with polished limestone, resembling black marble. The water to feed these is obtained from the Haman stream behind the garden”.

The fourth terrace was the private portion of the garden. The ladies stayed there. “It contains in its centre a magnificent black stone pavilion on which is raised a platform, a little more than three feet high and sixty-five feet square. Its sloping roof is almost 20 feet high and is supported on each side by a row of six elaborately carved black marble pillars, which are polygonal-shaped and fluted”. It was used as a banquet hall.

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