Mughal Madness!
May 5th 2006 07:48
Mughal Madness! A little History on Mughal Gardens
On a recent trip to India, I was witness to the spectacular Shalimar Gardens of Kashmir. Looking back on it has inspired me to write a bit about the history of how we humans have gardened the landscape, often in quite spectacular fashion.
The Shalimar Gardens are part of the Mughal Gardens of India. The Mughals reigned in parts of India (then known as Hindustan), Afghanistan, and Persia, between 1526, and 1707.
A man named Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire, and he chronicles his interest for gardens in the 'Babur-nama'. He was influenced by the Persian-influenced gardens of the great Turco-Mongol warlord Timur when he was a young man living in Samarkand. A garden in the city of Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) is thought to have been built by Babur, and this in turn influenced the Shalimar Gardens built by Emperor Jahangir in the capital of Kashmir, known as Srinagar.
The Shalimar gardens of Kashmir are comprised of four terraces, linking the mountains to the beautiful Dal Lake. Snow melts in the spring and is chanelled through the axis of the garden, and into Dal Lake. Quite a concept, linking the mountain to the mountain lake through a splendid series of terraces. Upon completion, the Emporer was reported as saying "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this." I tend to agree.
The other Shalimar Garden is located in Lahore, Pakistan. It was built between 1641 and 1642AD by the Emperor Shah Jahan. These gardens are a damn sight more sepctacular (dammit I should have gone to Pakistan!), and were listed as a piece of World Heritage under a UNESCO convention in 1972. It measures 658 metres north to south, and 258 metres east to west (gulp!), and to irrigate the gardens a canal was diverted from Rajpot (present day Madpur in India) a distance of over 161 kilometres. (That's like half-way from Canberra to Sydney, for all the Aussies out there!). The canal was named Hansti Canal, which means Laughing Canal. I certainly would be laughing too if I pulled that one off.
You can learn more about Mughal Gardens, and many more tittilating wonders at Wikipedia, which I have thank for the source of this artcile.
On a recent trip to India, I was witness to the spectacular Shalimar Gardens of Kashmir. Looking back on it has inspired me to write a bit about the history of how we humans have gardened the landscape, often in quite spectacular fashion.
The Shalimar Gardens are part of the Mughal Gardens of India. The Mughals reigned in parts of India (then known as Hindustan), Afghanistan, and Persia, between 1526, and 1707.
A man named Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire, and he chronicles his interest for gardens in the 'Babur-nama'. He was influenced by the Persian-influenced gardens of the great Turco-Mongol warlord Timur when he was a young man living in Samarkand. A garden in the city of Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) is thought to have been built by Babur, and this in turn influenced the Shalimar Gardens built by Emperor Jahangir in the capital of Kashmir, known as Srinagar.
Shalimar Garden - Kashmir
The Shalimar gardens of Kashmir are comprised of four terraces, linking the mountains to the beautiful Dal Lake. Snow melts in the spring and is chanelled through the axis of the garden, and into Dal Lake. Quite a concept, linking the mountain to the mountain lake through a splendid series of terraces. Upon completion, the Emporer was reported as saying "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this." I tend to agree.
The other Shalimar Garden is located in Lahore, Pakistan. It was built between 1641 and 1642AD by the Emperor Shah Jahan. These gardens are a damn sight more sepctacular (dammit I should have gone to Pakistan!), and were listed as a piece of World Heritage under a UNESCO convention in 1972. It measures 658 metres north to south, and 258 metres east to west (gulp!), and to irrigate the gardens a canal was diverted from Rajpot (present day Madpur in India) a distance of over 161 kilometres. (That's like half-way from Canberra to Sydney, for all the Aussies out there!). The canal was named Hansti Canal, which means Laughing Canal. I certainly would be laughing too if I pulled that one off.
Shalimar Garden - Lahore
You can learn more about Mughal Gardens, and many more tittilating wonders at Wikipedia, which I have thank for the source of this artcile.
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