High up in a hollow of the mountains which overlook the lotus fields of the Dal Lake is the Chasma Shahi, the little Garden of the Royal Spring. Very few of these smaller pleasure-grounds have survived, but the Chasma Shahi Bagh shows that a Mughal garden need not necessarily be large to prove attractive.
The enclosure, small as it is, has all the charm and shows the same Mughal feeling for sensation, as its great rivals round the lake. The copious spring round which it is built bubbles up in a large stone vase in the hall of the upper pavilion. The garden in front of this building is an oblong of about an acre divided into two terraces. A stone chabutra with a shallow carved fountain basin, something after the fashion of those at Hazrat Bal, is the feature of the upper terrace. A tiny carved water-chute brings the narrow canal rippling down three feet to the second terrace, in the centre of which is a tank with a single fountain jet ; the water running on through another pavilion at the end of the garden. These buildings are characteristic Afghan structures on older stone foundations. Walking through the hall to the arched openings overlooking the Dal, where the wall is bounded by a black marble rail, a relic of Mughal times, the lower garden comes as a complete surprise. The narrow water -chute slopes sharply down eighteen or more feet to a second enclosure, about half the size of the upper garden. In the centre is a reservoir with five fountain jets. Round its edges are the outlines of a continuous flower parterre, and the sides of the garden are still filled with lilac and fruit trees.
There is a famous old garden saying which may be translated :
Morning in the Shadow of the Nishat Bagh,
Evening in the Breezes of the Nisim,
Shalimar and its Tulip Fields,
these are the Places of Pleasure in Kashmir and none else.
But I would add the little Chasma Shahi, with its spring, and its marvellous view, seen across
the fragrant foreground of the lilac thicket.
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From C.M. Villiers Stuart’s ‘Gardens of the Great Mughals’ (1913)
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About the photograph: Children playing in the ice-cold waters of the Chasma at the Chasma Shahi Garden. Captured by me in June 2008.
