History of gardens in India

[Simple_Guy]

Euginia W. Herbert's book Flora's Empire: British Gardens in India

It tells the story of the gardens the British created for themselves in India.

Initially, while operating from the plains and the coastal belt, the British endured terrible health in India. It has been estimated that about two million Europeans, most of them British, were buried in the subcontinent in the 300 years before Independence. It is also reported that sickness, death and sepulture followed each other, not infrequently within four and twenty hours.

Comfortable houses with attractive gardens and impressive lawns initially sprang up in Madras (now Chennai) and were replicated in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata), but the British found the low-land coastal weather pestilential, and men and women died like flies.....Higher altitudes were providentially at hand: from the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south, 80 hill stations ranging in altitude from 2,500 feet (750 metres) to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) were identified.

Bangalore, situated at an altitude of 3,000 feet (900 m) on the Deccan plateau, was acclaimed by the British as "India without its scorching sun and Europe without its snow". The plains of Mysore are described as the most beautiful habitation that nature has to offer to mankind on earth. Soon after defeating Tipu Sultan in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799, the British realised that Bangalore was a far healthier place for a military camp than the old fort at Srirangapatnam......Gardens were one of the most visible manifestations of British presence and British civilisation.

Only the Mughals matched the British in the intensity of their love of gardens. Mughal gardens were essentially male domains (one notable exception was Nur Jahan, wife of Emperor Jahangir), but with the British it was a largely female contribution.

 

[Simple_Guy]

GARDENS OF ANCIENT INDIA

There are accounts of four kinds of gardens in Ancient India: udyan, paramadodvana, vrikshavatika and nandanavana. Vatika was a small garden inside homes.

margeshu vriksha: was the practice of plating trees on the roadside for shade

Vrikshayurveda: was the science of plant life

 

[Simple_Guy]

ANCIENT TRADITIONS OF GARDENING CONTINUED BY RAJPUTS

The ancient Hindu gardens were planted in grid style, which can still be seen in Rajput forts and palaces. The Rajput rulers stoutly refused to copy the Mughal style of gardens. This photo from Amaxing India shows grid style garden of Jagmandir Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

On the Udaipur City Palace's topmost terrace, the Amar Vilas rises from natural rock foundations. At its center is a square pool, surrounded by twelve garden beds, subdivided into nine cavities. This is another display of a grid style garden in Rajput Hindu architecture.

In Rajput architecture, ghats (steps) and chattris (pavillions) were built around a lake or pond, because in Hindu tradition immersion in water is both spiritual and a body cleansing ritual. Lakes ponds are not seen in Mughal gardens, which prefer running water in channels. Because Islamic practice has washing in running water, but not immersion.