The Difference between Chahar Bagh and river front garden

Chahar bagh gardens

Chahar bagh gardens can be scaled to fit any space, from a small courtyard to vast palace complexes, and can be found from Moorish Spain and North Africa in the west to the Middle East, Iran, and Iraq in the east.

The most famous examples of this style are the Chahrbagh-e Abbasi (or Charbagh Avenue) in Isfahan, Iran, built by Shah Abbas the Great in 1596, and the garden of the Taj Mahal in India. Each of the four sections of the Taj Mahal's Charbagh contains sixteen flower beds.

In India, the Char Bagh concept in imperial mausoleums can be seen on a monumental scale in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi.

Humayan's father was the Central Asian conqueror Babur, who established the Mughal dynasty in the Indian Subcontinent and became the first Mughal emperor. The Mughals brought the tradition of paradise gardens to India, which can be found at Babur's tomb, Bagh-e Babur, in Kabul.

River Front Garden

During Shah Jahan's early reign in Agra, nobility built their homes near the Yamuna River, and the chahar baghs built here were also known as river front chahar baghs because the homes were built on the edge of the garden, near the river, rather than in the centre of the garden.

Traces of pleasure gardens designed by the Mughals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can be found along the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra. A recently signed international bilateral partnership between the World Monuments Fund and the Archaeological Survey of India is working tirelessly to restore the glory of two of these gardens: Mehtab Bagh and I'timad-ud-Daulah. The two riverfront gardens are diametrically opposed in terms of spatial layout and design, as well as the approach that would be required to restore them. One has a jewel-like mausoleum in its char bagh (quadrilateral garden), and the other is said to have a moonlit night reflection of the pristine Taj Mahal in its octagonal pool, hence its name, Mehtab Bagh, the "Moonlight Garden."

The Difference between both terms

Babur is credited with creating char bagh designs, which included four gardens (char bagh) divided into symmetrical quarters. Artificial water channels were to divide each quarter. Shahjahan is credited with creating riverfront designs that involved nobility controlling access to the river.

Charbagh

1. Char bagh is basically designed in 4  symmetrical squares.
2. Those 4 squares are connected with one center point.

River front

1. Riverfront gardens are usually created in front of a monument.
2. river front garden does not connect any point.