The Hindu Arama was then a cool woodland place, full of thick foliaged trees and shrubs gay with brilliant, perfumed flowers. The shady alleys were kept cleared and swept. Evergreens were clipped and trained to form aromatic scented bowers over platforms paved with fine mosaic. Creepers wreathed the white garden-houses, whose inner walls were covered with frescoes. The heroines of old did not disdain to plant and water their favourite trees with their own hands. Indeed it was held that the asoka- sorrow allaying-tree, whose splendid orange-red flowers are sacred to the Lord Siva, never flowered to perfection unless its roots had first been pressed by the foot of a beautiful young girl. This ceremony, a charming allegory of spring, is a frequent motive with the poets and temple carvers. These woodland gardens were full of lotus ponds, but as far as I know there is no mention of the old symbolic four-went waterways, although the references to fountains would suggest that the water must have been running. But the artificial 'Pleasure Hill,' as it was called, placed in the centre of the ground, definitely connects the Hindu garden, like that of Central Asia, with the ancient symbolism of the Holy Mount, the Tree, and the Snake.
