Purdah gave a special poetry to Indian architecture. The desire to conceal women from view produced the inner courtyards, the verandahs, the intricate lattices and shutters of that private world. It was a domain unto itself, and some harem festivities were of a heart-stopping beauty. On the Night of the Full Moon in the pure white Pritam Niwas courtyard of Jaipur’s City Palace there was dancing. All the women wore pink. There was absolute silence, no lights, only the moonlight washing the walls and glinting off their jewellery and gossamer veils. The fulfilment of every sense was considered an art at the Mughal court. The blending of scents and perfumes and the discovery of the legendary attar of roses is credited to the Mughal Empress Nur Jahan. This elegant and beautiful Empress always bathed in a marble pool filled with the petals of a thousand roses. It is said that one evening when she was in her bath she noticed an oil-like substance floating on the water and, lowering her head, was intoxicated by the heady essence of roses. She commanded the oil to be collected and the precious fragrance-always compounded from a thousand roses-became the most sought after perfume in India. Scents were blended to suit mood and season and were believed to complement the colour of clothing. In the summer heat the green scents of vetiver and lemon and other light fragrances such as sandalwood were worn with gossamer garments dyed in the palest of hues. The spicy fragrances of musk and attar of roses and patchouli were used with the rich colours of winter silks. Dyers and washerwomen daubed freshly laundered clothing with the preferred scents of the owner, and sticks of incense were burned in wardrobes to retain scent. 

Since the Indian garden was best enjoyed after sunset, when the heat of the day had passed, the harem gardens were planted with flowers to perfume the night. Frangipani, jasmine, queen of the night (Raat ki Raani), and narcissi flourished between pleasure pavilions and lotus pools, their perfume heightened by the fragrances worn by the ladies of the harem. And on a terrace sat the begum queen of the harem, tranquilly smoking her hookah as she watched a dancer agilely balance flasks of perfume, while waves of the scents contained in the fragile glass bottles already wafted from gardens and attendants and garments, filling the night with fragrance.