The Mughal Gardens at Pinjore

Tucked away in the Panchkula district of Haryana is a Mughal garden that was central to a cunning plot hatched by a local king to keep the Mughal lords out of his lair! The spectacular Pinjore Gardens will take your breath away but the story behind it is just as interesting!

When finally complete, the Pinjore Gardens rivalled the other famous Mughal gardens strewn across the old royal cities. However, the man who created it didn't get a chance to enjoy it for long. The garden was abandoned just seven years after it was built, for a very unusual reason.

In those days, all along the foothills of the Himalayas, cases of goitre were often reported because of the very low levels of iodine in the salt consumed by the people. The local raja used this to his advantage. He collected all the people suffering from goitre and made them appear as local inhabitants of the area when the governor and his family visited. In fact, people suffering from goitre were even placed as palace staff, gardeners and women carrying fruits and flowers to the zenana (women’s quarters), to drive the point home. And, guess what, it worked!

The women of the harem, already terrified of contracting the disease, were made to believe that the air and water of Pinjore were contaminated and this is why the disease was so common. This eventually created such a panic among the petrified women of the zenana that they refused to stay in Pinjore! Fadai Khan was forced to move out of Pinjore and rarely came back to visit the lovely gardens that he had so painstakingly planned.

Quite literally, Pinjore and its palaces served as a holiday home for the Maharajas of Patiala, especially Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, who used to host lavish parties here. Later, after India gained independence, his son, Maharaja Yadavinder Singh donated the Pinjore Gardens to the nation. Today, they are known as the Yadavinder Gardens and are open to the public. But most people who head there miss the stories that make these gardens so special!