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Landscape & Ecology

Dheenul Ferdous.R Janani Shanker Janani Shanmugam

Reflection of Paradise:

For the Mughals, gardens were like a glimpse of heaven and they drew inspiration from the Quran, modifying and adapting established designs to shape their paradise on earth. A Mughal garden or charbagh was a perfectly balanced formal composition of space, vegetation and architecture, texture and colour, light and shade, designed to address and delight all the senses.

Reflecting pool

Water cascade separates the middle and the lower terrace

Exploring Mughal Garden

Maple tree ablaze with autumn colours

Inspiration The mughal gardens of India :: were


inspired by the PERSIAN GARDENS of the Islamic
world. Barbur brought some of the nicest things of art and culture from persia,of which gardening was one.

Universal values::
Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. Development of monumental arts,town planning & landscape design. Bear a unique or a at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition.

Taj mahal
Perfect monument of mughal architecture . Part of a large garden complex, with the river Yamuna behind it. The char-bagh(garden) is almost a square, 987 x 800 The garden has broad causeways from the centre of each side , intersecting in the middle to form a reflecting pond. Whole complex is rectangular in layout, the garden square with central causeways subdividing it into squares. The plots are further subdivided into smaller plots, by walkways and water channels. Examples of tomb gardens of mughal in India

Location : Agra

Vegetation Aesthetic and utilitarian values Mainly as avenue trees along the walkways. Flowering shrubs in parterrers and beds. Trees : Shrubs: cypres iris orange daffodils citron varieties narcissus pomegranates roses almonds jasmine date palms Newly introduced: mangoes coconuts bananas mulberries LANDSCAPE Guayas.

Water As an integral part of spational organization of the whole. As ornamentations and varied features. Canals drawn from the Yamuna provided a more dependable water supply. Water courses studded with fountains. Ponds at the junction of water courses.

ELEMENTS

HUMAYUNS TOMB
Humayun was the son of Babur, India's the first Mughal emperor, and was himself the first to be buried in a tomb with a garden setting. It was thus an excellent choice for the first major garden restoration project in India. The only criticisms to be made of the project are: the planting design is not like the original planting the European-style stone seats introduce a foreign note to the composition Humayun's tomb with a very well chosen rich red gravel used for the paths

Spatial organisations

HUMAYUNS TOMB

Garden Plan

Humayun's Tomb Garden has a symmetrical plan. Because the word chahar bagh means 'four garden

seems unlikely that the old Persian, Timurid and Afgan gardens which inspired this pattern were themselves symmetrical.

HUMAYUNS TOMB
character of the planting is unhistorical. It should be filled with fruit and flowers of the kind so much appreciated by the Mughal emperors.

A chadar (water sheet) cascading


into a pool.

European-style backless seats, of a type never used in Mughal days

A delightful fountain, water flowing in the stone-edged channels and planting rising from below the walkway to above the walkway, as it should.

MUGHAL GARDENS
Mughal Gardens are a group of garden designs which originate from the Islamic Mughal Empire. The style was influenced by Persian Gardens and Timurid gardens. Significant use is made of recrtilinear layouts within walled enclosures. Typical features include pools, fountains and canals. The founder of the Mughal empire, Babur or Timur described his favoured type of garden as a charbagh. This word developed a new meaning in India because, as Babur explains, India lacked the fast-flowing streams required for the Central Asian charbagh. The Agra garden, now known as the Ram Bagh, is thought to have been the first charbagh. India and Pakistan have a number of Mughal gardens which differ from their Central Asian predecessors in their highly disciplined geometry

Early textual references to Mughal gardens are found in the memoirs and biographies of the Mughal emperors, including Babur, Humayun and Akbar. Later references are found in the accounts of India written by European travellers, like Bernier. The first serious historical study of Mughal gardens was written by Constance Villiers-Stuart, with the title Gardens of the Great Mughals (1913). Her husband was a Colonel in Britain's Indian army. This gave her a good network of contacts and an opportunity to travel. During their residence at Pinjore Gardens Mrs Villiers-Stuart also had the opportunity to direct the maintenance of an important Mughal garden. Her book makes reference to the forthcoming design of a garden for the Government House in New Delhi (now Rashtrapati Bhavan).

She was consulted by Edwin Lutyens and may have influenced his choice of the Mughal style for this project. Examples of Mughal gardens India Humayun's Tomb- Delhi Taj Mahal - Agra Shalimar Gardens (Kashmir)- Kashmir Safdarjung's Tomb Nishat Gardens - Kashmir Yadvindra Gardens- Pinjore Pakistan Chauburji (The Gate to the Mughal Gardens) Lahore Fort Tomb of Jahangir Shalimar Gardens (Lahore)

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