Mughal Garden

Mughal Garden

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Mughal Garden

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Ri t es h S harm a

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1605013

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s e m - 8 th

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De p t. o f Ar ch ite ctu r e

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NIT P atna

Mughal Garden

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EVOLUTION & HISTORY Mughal gardens are a type of gardens built by the Mughals. This style was influenced by the Persian gardens particularly the Charbagh structure, which is intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.

The Mongol conquest of Persia led to their adoption of Persian culture, including its religion, art, architecture, script and language. The gardens of the Islamic world drew upon Persian and Christian sources, which themselves drew from the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia..

• Babur, the first Mughal conqueror-king, had gardens built in Lahore and Dholpur.

• Humayun, his son, does not seem to have had much time for building—he was busy reclaiming and increasing the realm—but he is known to have spent a great deal of time at his father’s gardens.

• Akbar built several gardens first in Delhi, then in Agra, Akbar’s new capital. These tended to be riverfront gardens rather than the fortress gardens that his predecessors built. Building riverfront rather than fortress gardens influenced later Mughal garden architecture considerably.

• Akbar’s son, Jahangir, did not build as much, but he helped to lay out the famous Shalimar garden • Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan, marks the apex of Mughal garden architecture and floral design. He is famous for the construction of the Taj Mahal. He is also responsible for the Red Fort at Delhi which contains the Mahtab Bagh, a night garden that was filled with night-blooming jasmine and other pale flowers.

Mughal Garden 1398

Timur sacks Delhi, builds gardens outside Samarqand; gardem described by Ruy Gonzales Clavijo, 1403-06

1483

Babur born in Ferghana (in modern Uzbekistan)

1497

Babur besieges Samarqand from its garden suburbs

1506

Babar travels to Herat and visits gardens; builds igardens in kabul

1526

Babar conquers Delhi and Agra, builds gardens along the Yamuna river

1530

Babar dies and is buried temporarily in Bagh-i-Zar Afshan in Agra; later buried in terraced garden in Kabul. Accession of Humayun

1540

Exile of Humayun in Persia; Sher Shah Suri implements administrative reforms conquest of Kashmir by Haider Dughlat

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1555/6 Reconquest of Lahore and Delhi; Humayun soon dies in Delhi.

1565

Akbar reconstructs Agra citadel

1571

Akbar found Fatehpur sikri

1586

Mughal reconquest of Kashmir

1605

Akbar dies; jahangir succeeds to throne

1611

Jahangir marries Nur jahan

1620

initial construction of Shalamar garden, kashmir

1622

Nur Jahan’s father, the I’timad-ud Daula, dies and is buried in Agra tomb-garden

1627

Jahangir dies while returning from Kashmir, buried in Lahore; accession of Shah Jahan

1631

Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal dies and is later reburied and memorialized at the Taj Mahal

1641/2 Shah Jahan orders Shalamar garden, Lahore; Asaf khan dies in Lahore 1645

Nur Jahan dies in Lahore

1658

Aurangzeb forces the abdication of Shah Jahan, who dies in 1666

1707

Aurangzeb dies and is buried in a simple grave

1754

Tomb-garden of Safdar jang in Delhi

1858

Last mughal emperor deposed from delhi

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CONCEPT & PHILOSOPHY

There are six major themes in the interpretation Mughal gardens: two of which are symbolic; two functional; and two aesthetic.

Paradise Symbolism. Gardens are earthly copies of a cosmographic and religious archetype. Walled enclosures mark the garden as sacred enclave within a profane universe. Fourfold partitioning of the chahar bagh has parallels in ancient urban and architectural patterns symbolizing the quartering of the universe by four sacred rivers that radiate out from a central tank, tomb, mountain, or pavilion.

Planting echo ancient tree cults and the aesthetic accountrements of paradise.

Political Symbolism. Mughal gardens also had two type of political significance; on the one hand, they symbolized dynastic claims; and on the other hand, territorial claims. Dynastic symbolism is most clearly expressed in tomb-gardens and palace-gardens. Tomb gardens link the paradisiacal theme.

Courtly Function. Gardens served as contexts for certain type of action in Mughal society. They were sites for major rituals from birthdays, marriages, and coronations, to entombment. Garden design wa driven by the internal and external requirement of courtly life.

Environmental Function. Environmental interpretations portray gardens as places of relief from torrid, dusty, disorderly landscape. Open pavailion and subterranean rooms are seen as adaptation to a hot, humid climate- maximizing the circulation of breezes, the enjoyment of mansoon rains, and insulation against summer heat.

Subjective Aesthetic. The romantic or subjective aesthetic that appears often in travel accounts is based upon direct personal experience. It conjoins personal sensibilities and sensitivities, especially to the natural qualities and appearence of a place.

Formal Aesthetic. A design vocabulary and grammar of form, line, mass, texture, space, balance etc, is used to discern and articulate the beauty of Mughal gardens. Garden characteristics that confirm with this vocabulary include formal simplicity, symmetry, and fuction. Formal analysis of garden shape, paving patterns, and ornament stands in contrast with the romamtic and subjective approches described above.

Mughal Garden

Garden court, Lahore Fort

Jahagir’s tomb garden, Lahore

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Mughal gardens are generally devided into 4 different section depending upon their planning, • • • •

Rectangular pearl garden Long butterfly garden Circular garden Terraced garden

Elements of the garden • Pools • Water channels • Fountains

Waterwoks on the middle terrace of Shalimar garden, Lahore

Ali Qapu Palace, 1609, Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, Isfahan, Iran

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FEATURE • Flowers of different species were used for beautification of gardens, the flower are chosen according to their depiction and belief of life and death.

• Grass, usually growing wild under the trees.

• Birds to fill the garden with song • Running water (perhaps the most important element) and a pool reflects the beauties of sky and garden.

• The garden might include a raised hillock at the centre, reminiscent of the mountain at the centre of the universe in cosmological descriptions, and often surmounted by a pavilion or palace.

Bagh-i Irani, Tehran, Iran

Bagh-i Eram, 1795, Shiraz, Iran

Hasht Behesht, 1670, Isfahan, Iran

Chihil Sutun, 1647, Isfahan, Iran

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DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

A qanat or kariz is a gently sloping underground channel to transport water from an aquifer or water well to surface for irrigation and drinking, acting as an underground aqueduct. This is an old system of water supply from a deep well with a series of vertical access shafts.

Qanat system

Mughal Garden

Plan of Bagh-i Takht, 17th century, Shiraz, Iran example of terrace garden

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Mughal Garden

Jahangir’s tomb in Shahdara

The garden at Taj Mahal, Agra

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Mughal Garden

Shalimar Bagh

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Mughal Garden

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (Charbagh)

Site plan for a Charbagh

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Mughal Garden

Square and octogonal motifs for canal systems

Inserting a canal in site plan

Motifs for ornamenting the ends of canals

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A possible arrangement of canal systems in a site plan

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Mughal Garden

Borders

Interaction of borders

A possible arrangement of borders in a site plan

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Canal system generation process

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Parameterizing the corners of square to allow for inflections

The complete Char-Bagh

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HUMAYUN’S TOMB

• While the main tomb took over eight year to build, it was also placed in centre of a 30-acre (120,000 sqm) Char bagh Garden which was the first of its kind in the South Asia in such a scale.

• The highly gemotrical and enclosed Pardise garden is divided into four squares by paved walkways (Khiyabans) and two bisecting central water channels, reflecting the four rivers that flow in jannat, the islamic concept of paradise.

• The central water channel appear to be disappering beneath the tomb structure and reappearing on the other side in a straight line, suggesting the Quranic varse, which talks of rivers flowing beneath the ‘Garden of Paradise’.

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The garden is divided into 36 squares by a grid of water channel and paths.

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Mughal Garden

Reflection of the tomb

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Mughal Garden

Fountain at the centre axis

Water channel

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Mughal Garden Bibliography Conan. Perspectives on Garden Histories, Washington, D.C., 1999 https://whc.unesco.org/ Wescoat, Bulmahn. Mughal Garden (sources, places, representation and prospects). Washington, D.C..

Harvard University. 1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_gardens https://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/garden_landscape_design_articles/west_asia/mughal_garden_moghul_mogul

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