Heavenly Paradise and Earthly Reconciliation: The Creation of the Mughal Gardens at Agra

About the Lecture

The Mughal emperors once ruled over the greatest of all Muslim empires. Agra, their capital from 1556 to 1658, had a population of almost 700,000, dwarfing the largest cities of the West. It was created to resemble an earthly paradise, with fragrant gardens along a lazy bend of the Yamuna River. Dalrymple will lead us on a journey through Mughal Agra, where World Monuments Fund is currently collaborating on the restoration of two surviving gardens. View this video lecture.

The Speaker

William Dalrymple is the author of nine books about India and the Islamic world, including most recently Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, he has lived in India since 1989. He writes regularly for the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the Guardian, and is co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literary Festival. In 2012 he curated the exhibition Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707–1857 at Asia Society in New York.

Anand Family Lecture

Thanks to the generous support of Nanda and Vijay Anand, WMF is inaugurating the Anand Family Lecture as part of the organization’s 50th Anniversary celebrations to highlight World Monuments Fund’s activities in India. The lectures will share the remarkable architectural heritage of India and inspire support of its preservation for the enjoyment of future generations.

WMF supporters at the $100+ levels are invited to attend this lecture.

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William Dalrymple has contributed to the forthcoming Rizzoli book World Monuments: 50 Irreplaceable Places to Discover, Explore, and Champion, which commemorates WMF’s 50th anniversary.

The book and anniversary celebrations are generously supported by American Express.

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation is the inaugural supporter of WMF’s restoration of two Mughal gardens in Agra.