The Taj Mahal

 

The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal
by Elizabeth B. Moynihan
Book Description: For 350 years, the Taj Mahal in Agra has reigned luminous and splendid as perhaps the most admired monument in the world. Visitors who gazed across the Yamuna River from the Taj pavilions have viewed what appears to be little more than farmers' fields and barren ground. But historical references as well as paintings from the time of Shahjahan (r. 1628-58) reveal that it was once densely covered by rectangular walled enclosures and lush vegetation. The Mughal emperor Babur built gardens here as a way of evoking the characteristic delights of the homeland he had abandoned when he moved from Central Asia into India in 1526. Eventually, as the Mughal Empire grew more powerful, the riverbank became lined with gardens belonging not only to the imperial family but also to important nobles. 

This definitive volume describes the discoveries of an international project documenting the surface remains of a long-abandoned Mughal garden, spectacularly located directly across the river from the Taj Mahal. The book is illustrated with new photographs of the Taj Mahal and the garden--now identified as the Mahtab Bagh, or Moonlight Garden--as well as with paintings from Shahjahan's era. 

Modeled after the Persian concept of earthly paradise, the pleasure gardens of 17th-century Mughal emperors exhibited elaborate renditions of cut-stone architecture, water chutes, standing pools, flowing fountains, and plantings intended to stimulate the senses. Well-ordered oases in an otherwise hot, dusty, and chaotic environment, these gardens were places of respite and enjoyment. The authors show that in plan, proportion, and directional alignment, the Moonlight Garden is indeed an integral part of the design of the gardens at the Taj Mahal, presenting an expansive new interpretation of one of the most famous buildings in the world.
Paperback: 100 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.41 x 11.27 x 7.77
Publisher: University of Washington Press; ; (March )
ISBN: 0295980346

The Taj Mahal
by Jean-Louis Nou (Photographer), Amina Okada, M. C. Joshi (Contributor)
Hardcover: 232 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.25 x 12.00 x 10.75
Publisher: Abbeville Press, Inc.; ;
ISBN: 1558596178

The Taj Mahal (Great Buildings)
by Christine Moorcroft, Christine Moorcraft
from Raintree/Steck Vaughn

The King of the World: The Padshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle
by Ebba Koch, translated by Wheeler Thackston
Book Description First publication ever of this treasured manuscript from Windsor Castle. The Padshahnama ("King of the World") has long been recognized as one of the greatest works made for the Mughal Emperor, Shah-Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal. The volume, which is now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, documents the first ten years of the Emperor's rule and contains works by some of the finest imperial artists of the time. Among the events recorded in the paintings are court ceremonies, hunting scenes, fortresses under siege, and the attack on the Portuguese near Calcutta in 1631. During the eighteenth century the manuscript entered the collection of the nawabs of Oudh. The Padshahnama was eventually given by a reigning nawab to the King of England, and it remains today one of the most treasured items in the collections of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Padshahnama has seldom been exhibited, and even then only a single opening could be seen at any one time. A recent conservation project, however, means that the manuscript is now unbound, and the Royal Library has made all the pages available for an exhibition that coincides with the celebration in 1997 of the fiftieth anniversary of the Independence of India. This book accompanies the exhibition and illustrates all the paintings and illuminations in full color. The events, personalities, and settings depicted are identified and discussed with the help of enlarged details, comparative photographs, and drawings. Milo Beach, Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, provides a history of the volume and its context in Mughal painting. Ebba Koch, a leading authority on Mughal architecture from the University of Vienna, comments on the subject matter and analyzes the different modes of Mughal painting. Wheeler Thackston of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University has translated the original text and other documents.
Hardcover: 248 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.12 x 13.89 x 9.87
Publisher: Sackler Art Gallery; ; (April )
ISBN: 0500974489

In the Land of the Taj Mahal: The World of the Fabulous Mughals
by Ed Rothfarb
Listed under Ancient India
 

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