Gardens of the Great Mughals

C.M. Villiers-Stuart (1877-1966) was an English author and water-colour painter. She married Patrick Villiers-Stuart in 1908 and moved to India, allowing her to collect material for her pioneering book, Gardens of the Great Mughals which launched the historical study of Mughal Gardens. Chapter XII, on ‘Some garden contrasts and a dream’ urges respect for Indian design traditions. The ‘dream’ in the chapter title concerns the design of New Delhi. Her conversations with Edwin Lutyens and his reading of her book, had given him a sympathy for garden design and the result was the famous Mughal Garden of what is now Rashtrapati Bhavan (the official home of the Indian President). She was a pioneer in the study if Indian gardens and argued for a greater attention to Mughal gardens from all in the East and the West “who love their gardens”. She argued among scholars and art historians that the Mughal gardens had limited appeal for the English readers, and that gardens were neglected vis-à-vis other aspects of Indian art even though “the Mughal Paradise Garden supplied the leading motive in Mughal decorative art, and still underlines the whole artistic world of the Indian craftsman and builder”. The book is beautifully illustrated, some with her own water-colour paintings.