513

513: What distinctive kind of garden associated with the Mughals is depicted in these pictures? (Not “paradise garden”, though that is another name.) This description from an account of Sir John Mandeville’s travels into the East, c. 1370 could act as an excellent clue:

“And this Paradise is enclosed all about with a wall…and in the most high place of Paradise, even in the middle place, is a well that casteth out the four floods that run by divers lands. Of the which, the first is clept Pison, or Ganges, that is all one; and it runneth throughout Ind or Emlak, in the which river be many precious stones, and much of lignum aloes and much gravel of gold. And that other river is clept Nilus or Gison, that goeth by Ethiopia and after by Egypt. And that other is clept Tigris, that runneth by Assyria and by Armenia the great. And that other is clept Euphrates, that runneth also by Media and Armenia and by Persia. And men there beyond say, that all the sweet waters of the world, above and beneath, take their beginning of the well of Paradise, and out of that well all waters come and go.”


512: Jacob’s Ladder

One thought on “513

Comments are closed.