Agra Fort Grape Garden Anguri Bagh

CHAPTER IV THE AGRA GRAPE GARDEN

But still a Ruby kindles in the Vine, And many a Garden by the Water blows.

RUBAIYAT OMAR KHAYYAM.

THE royal palace within the fort at Agra, like every other Indian house or palace, once contained several open squares laid out in gardens. 'All these palaces (Delhi, Agra, Lahore) are full of gardens with running water, which flows in channels into reservoirs of stone, jasper, and marble. In all the rooms and halls of these palaces there are ordinarily fountains or reservoirs of the same stone and of proportionate size. In the gardens of these palaces there are always flowers according to the season. There are no large fruit trees of any sort, in order not to hinder the delight of an open view. In these palaces are seats and private rooms, some of which are in the midst of running water. In the water are many fish for delight.' This description of Niccolao Manucci's, in his Storia do Mogor, gives a vivid impression of what the Machchi Bhawan (the Fish Square) and the Anguri Bagh, two of the principal squares in the palace at Agra, looked like before their spoliation. Now, alas! what between the Jats of Bharatpur, who carried off the marble fountains and tanks to the palace of Suraj Mal at Deeg, and Lord William Bentinck, who sold what was left of the mosaic and marble fret-work, there is nothing left in the garden of the sacred fish from which to realise its former magnificence.