Shalimar Bagh

Thinking through Alfred Gell (1945-1997)’s “Art and Agency” & “Technology of Enchantment”

Shalimar Bagh, the Mughal “Abode of Love” built by Emperor Jahangir for Empress Nur Jahan, is not merely a horticultural wonder—it is a sublime expression of political love, cosmic order, and sensual enchantment. Through Alfred Gell’s anthropological lens, this garden operates not as inert landscape but as an active agent of emotional and metaphysical transmission—a medium through which the empire enacts sovereignty and harmony, while seducing the senses of both viewer and inhabitant.

At its core, Shalimar Bagh is a charbagh, or fourfold garden, derived from Persian garden typologies and representing the Quranic vision of paradise. Gell’s notion of the technology of enchantment allows us to view the garden’s symmetries, water flows, and floral rhythms not as decorative features, but as aesthetic strategies that enchant, persuade, and embed the ruler’s cosmic legitimacy into sensorial memory.

Water is the primary medium of enchantment here—falling from terrace to terrace in channeled cascades and gurgling over finely carved marble chadars (waterfalls). In Gell’s terms, water here is an index of divine flow—it participates in agency through motion, through reflection, and through sound, generating a synesthetic environment where political harmony becomes experiential. The Mughals, deeply attuned to the metaphysics of sensual perception, use the garden as a tool to shape subjectivity.

Furthermore, the garden is not just meant to be seen but traversed, echoing Gell’s concept of distributed personhood. The emperor’s presence is not limited to the physical court pavilion, but dispersed through every terrace, every jet of water, and every planting of cypress. The very structure of Shalimar distributes its agency across time and space, enabling the emperor to act remotely through architecture and garden design—a vital insight from Art and Agency.

Additionally, the Shalimar garden serves as a gift, reinforcing Gell’s theory that artworks embody intentional transactions. As a gift from Jahangir to Nur Jahan, the garden becomes a mnemonic and performative space of courtly love, inscribed with emotion, memory, and political ritual. The emperor’s romantic and imperial agencies intertwine within its landscape.