This wall painting on Bundi’s Phool Mahal in Garh palace puzzled me when I first saw it. Seemed at first glance like a board game.
Closer study made me realise that it
seems to be of a garden based on a chahar bagh pattern. Figures of nobles can be seen sitting on the edges.
Paradise as described in the Quran will have rivers of milk and honey and gardens with trees in it. In fact, the word ‘jannat’ (or paradise) means a garden set with trees, surrounded by eight principal gates.
It’s on this pattern that we see Humayun ‘s tomb the first paradisiacal tomb in India built on the chahar or char bagh pattern.
The Char bagh is a quadrilateral garden divided into parts by water channels.
The first yo be built on this pattern is Pasargadae built for Cyrus (or Cambyses) the Great’s palace garden at Pasargadae c550 BC.
It was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559–530 BCE).
It is one of Iran’s #UNESCO World Heritage Sites some 90 km from the city of Shiraz.
#garden #charbagh #iran #bundi @rajasthan_tourism #phoolmahal #garhpalace #gardens #jannat