Pari Mahal
Pari Mahal is also located west of the city centre of Srinagar, near Chasma Shahi, on the slopes of the Zebanwan mountains. Prince Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan, built the gardens around 1650. It was built at the site of the ruins of a Buddhist Monastery and as a residential School of Sufiism at the instance of his revered spiritual tutor Mullah Shah Badakhshi. It is believed that Pari Mahal was constructed for astronomical observations and teachings or astrological calculations under the Mughals. Dara Shukoh named it after his wife Nadira Begum, supposed to be known as Pari Begum, the daughter of Prince Parviz, a son of Jahangir.
Mughals
The Pari Mahal was built by Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh in the mid-1600s. It served as a library and an abode for him. Dara Shikoh was said to have lived in this area in the years 1640, 1645, and 1654. It was further used as an observatory, useful for teaching astrology and astronomy.
It is five-minute drive from Cheshmashahi Garden.
The gardens are said to have been watered by a nearby spring. There are water tanks on the terraces, but unlike most Mughal Gardens in Kashmir, the garden contains no water channels and cascades (chadars) that feed the water tanks. Instead water is supplied through a system of underground pipes.
On News
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has started preparing a dossier on the six Mughal Gardens in the Kashmir Valley in a bid to empanel them in the list of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) mandated world heritage sites.
Locals are expecting that this consideration will boost tourism in the Kashmir Valley.