The lush valley of Kashmir is about 90
miles long. Extant gardens illustrate how
the abundance of mountain streams and
springs were exploited by the emphatic use
of water in Mughal gardens. On these sloping
grounds, water fl owed with great pomp
along a central axis. No longer confi ned
to still pools and narrow rills, water fell in
sheets over chini-kanas and down chadars.
A chini-kana is a low wall with niches, like
a dovecote; a chadar is a sloped surface
with patterns carved in relief. In addition,
raised platforms, called chabutras, provided
cool resting spots at the intersections
of the water channels.