The Nishat Garden is the biggest of the Mughal gardens. It is credited to Asaf Khan, the elder brother of Nur Jahan. Conceived on a terraced pattern with a central canal and water foundations, it is vast and majestic in its appearance. But it lacked the royal or Nur Jahani touch. It appears that it was planned in the later days of Jehangir’s rule and the ill-health of Jehangir and the preoccupation of Nur Jahan in the affairs of the empire did not provide any time for Nishat Bagh.
Like Shalimar, the Nishat Bagh was also divided in two parts – Aam and Khas bagh or pleasure garden and zenana enclosure. The main attraction of the garden is the central water course. It has been treated here with a series of canals, each travelling by a cascade to the next terrace down below. Each pond is dotted with fountains and the terrace with cascades and flights of steps.
Originally there were varieties of plants and massive chinar trees. Except for the massive chinars, most of the best segments of zenana enclosure and baradaries have gone into oblivion1.
1 R.C Agrawal, Kashmir and its Monumental Glory (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1998), 182 - 184.