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Decadence, mourning andrevolution: facets of the19th‐century landscape of Lucknow,IndiaAmita Sinha aa Department of Landscape Architecture , University ofIllinois at Urbana‐Champaign , 101 Temple Hoyne Buell Hall,611 East Lorado Taft Drive, Champaign, IL, 61820, USAPublished online: 24 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: Amita Sinha (1996) Decadence, mourning and revolution: facets ofthe 19th‐century landscape of Lucknow, India, Landscape Research, 21:2, 123-136, DOI:10.1080/01426399608706481

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Landscape Research, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1996 123

Decadence, Mourning and Revolution: facets of the19th-century landscape of Lucknow, India

AMITA SINHA

ABSTRACT Gardens played a significant role in the evolution of the city of Lucknow inthe last quarter of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. In a periodof eight decades from 1775, when it became the court of Avadh province, the cityexperienced a period of efflorescence in art, architecture, and garden design unmatchedin its later history. This era was abruptly terminated by the mutiny or first war ofindependence in 1857, bringing colonial rule in its wake. Gardens in this brief period canbe seen as settings of decadence, theatres of mourning, and arenas of rebellion. The paperexplores these three themes interwoven in the landscape narrative.

KEY WORDS: gardens, Shia, Lucknow, Imambaras, mutiny, colonialism.

Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, offers an example of thetransformation in the urban landscape in India from a 'city of gardens' to anexpanding, sprawling metropolis. This article traces its episodic urban history,focusing on the gardens of the 19th century, their obliteration in some cases anda new look in others. The mythic origin of Lucknow is traced to a settlementfounded by Lakshman, brother of Rama, king of the kingdom of Ayodhya in the7th century BCE (Sharar, 1975). We next hear of the settlement as a conglomer-ation of villages on the south bank of the river Gomti and a stronghold of theShaikhs, who governed the province of Avadh under the Mughal tutelage. In1775 the city began to grow under Asaf-ud-daula, the Shia governor. Its growthsince the last quarter of the 18th century was interrupted by the mutiny or thefirst war of independence of 1857, an event which also radically changed thecharacter of its landscape.

Landscape of Decadence

Gardens of 19th-century Lucknow were pleasure settings for the nobility, andexisted as such to the exclusion of social functions and display of power of thestate. They were thus different from Mughal gardens which were derived fromthe nomadic, peripatetic court of the rulers. The appointment of a Resident bythe East India Company in Lucknow in 1775 reduced the court and Nawabs(later kings as they declared their independence from the Mughal Emperor at

Professor Amita Sinha, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign, 101 Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, 611 East Lorado Taft Drive, Champaign, IL61820, USA.

0142-6397/96/020123-14 © 1996 Landscape Research Group Ltd.

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124 A. Sinha

MUSA BAGH

BAGH

GOMTI

DAULAT KHANA;?-"r-A\ | ^ H A H

MACCHI ^ S H A H NAJAFHUSAINABAD^TfnASAFIIMAM-BARARESIDENCY n

QAISER BAGHDILKUSHA

BIBIAPUR

Miles ALAM BAGH

Figure 1. Monumental complexes in Lucknow in 1857 (after Sharar, 1975).

Delhi) to puppets (Fisher, 1987). They had resources derived from the richagricultural hinterland of the province and time freed from true responsibilitiesof administration and warfare to indulge their passions for building, hunting,and womanizing.

The first Nawab to hold his court in Lucknow was Asaf-ud-daulah whoshifted it from Faizabad in 1775 to be away from his domineering mother.Asaf-ud-daulah took up residence in Machhi Bhavan, a fort complex located ata topographically-prominent location on the south bank of the river Gomti, witha commanding view of the surroundings. During the next 80 years of Nawabirule in Lucknow, three new palace complexes were built on the banks of theriver to the east of the city—Daulat Khana, Chattar Manzil, and Qaiserbagh(Figure 1). The following description of the palace gardens and those in thesuburban villas is compiled from a number of sources (Hasan, 1990; Hilton,1934; Sharar, 1975; Pravin, 1984).

Each palace complex consisted of a number of buildings with a series ofenclosed courtyards containing the gardens. The walled enclosures with theirelaborate gateways demarcated the royal domain, inside which were buildings,pavilions, and passageways, connected by open spaces. The structures housednot only the Nawab and his family but also distant relatives, a retinue ofservants and bodyguards, and artisans. A palace complex would also act as amagnet for the population living outside its walls, bringing court officials andpetitioners every day, and causing bazaars to spring up next to its walls.

The Macchi Bhavan complex, at its zenith between 1775-82 though con-structed prior to the arrival of the Nawabs, was the only defensive structure everbuilt in Lucknow. Mostly destroyed now, it consisted of six garden courtyards.A surviving structure in the second courtyard is the baoli consisting of rooms inseveral storeys around a large water well in the centre. This was used by theNawab and his visitors during the hot summer. Other garden courts accommo-dated the durbar (the court in an arcaded hall), and the zenana (harem) with a

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 125

number of palaces (Sheesh Mahal, Khurd Mahal, and Rang Mahal) withhigh walls and small latticed windows. The innermost courtyard of MacchiBhavan, Husain Bagh, was a flower garden at the river's edge. Inside thecomplex was an unusual building, Aina Khana or Mirror House which housedAsaf-ud-daulah's large collection of curios with an aviary of uncommon speciesof birds and a menagerie which included serpents.

The next palace complex to be built—Daulat Khana—has been completelydemolished except for one palace, Asafi Kothi, which was originally approachedthrough a garden and an arcaded verandah. The Daulat Khana was also a seriesof buildings interspersed with gardens and water tanks. At least one tank,connected to the river Gomti, was large enough to have pavilions built in thewater. It was in the architecture of Daulat Khana that a European influencebegins to appear in the form of buildings in Palladian style.

It was in a building designed by Claude Martin, a French adventurer turnedmerchant who served both the Nawab and the East India Company, that thethird palace complex developed. This, the Farhad Baksh, was the principalNawabi residence, inhabited between 1803 and 1850. It was a defensible man-sion with one side on the river and the other three surrounded by a moat. Thetwo lower storeys were built in the river in the manner of grottoes and could beinhabited during the hottest months until the rising river forced the residents tomove to the great hall on the ground floor. After Farhad Baksh was bought fromClaude Martin by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan, two large buildings were added: theGreater and Lesser Chattar Manzils. These derived their names from gilt chattar(umbrellas) at the top of the buildings. The Greater Chattar Manzil is aseven-storeyed structure (five storeys above ground level), cooled by the lappingwaters of the Gomti, while the Lesser Chattar Manzil (now destroyed) was adouble-storeyed building. Both palaces were the residence of the wives ofNawabs. These buildings, constructed by three Nawabs—Saadat Ali Khan,Ghaziuddin Haidar, and Nasiruddin Haidar—were in the European traditionbut an oriental look was achieved through gateways, gardens, pavilions, andmarble water tanks. Between the two palaces was a garden containing a largemarble water tank with a small island in the centre. The palace complex alsocontained an enormous hammam or Turkish bath in white marble. Other build-ings included Darshan-Bilas (Pleasure to the Sight) and Gulistan-i-Eram (Heav-enly Garden) facing a garden called Paiyan Bagh. Darshan Bilas was also knownas Chaurakhi Kothi because its four facades were copies of other European stylebuildings in Lucknow. Lai Baradari, originally used by Saadat Ali Khan forholding a court, was used as a coronation hall when later Nawabs assumed thetitle of king. The focus of this jumble of buildings was the large central gardenbetween the Manzils, in a quadrangle surrounded by columned cloisters.

Qaiserbagh, the most ornately lavish palace complex, was built between1848 and 1850 by the last Nawab, Wahjid Ali Shah, to the southeast of ChattarManzil complex. It consisted of three main squares, incorporating existingbuildings like the tombs of Saadat Ali Khan and his wife to the east, the mansionof Roshan-ud-daula (a minister) to the south-west and Chaulakhi palace to thesouth-east. Two main gateways led to the largest court, one called LakhiDarwaza, because its construction had cost one hundred thousand lakh (rupees).A vast rectangular pleasure garden with fountains and pavilions was enclosedby the palace building in which resided the wives of Wajid Ali Shah. Inside thenorth-eastern gate was a big quadrangle for the assembly of royal processions,

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126 A. Sinha

faced by Jilokhana (front hall). Beyond were two gardens, the second oneentered through Jalpari, the Mermaid Gate. The second garden, Hazratbagh,contained a pavilion called Chandiwali baradari (a building with 12 archways),the ceiling of which was covered with silver.

Gardens played an essential role in the development of palace complexes inwhich space flowed easily from interior to exterior. Gardens united the variousstructures that made up the complex. Their design was a local adaptation of thechaharbagh gardens of the Mughals, which were based upon a pattern of foursquares divided by axial walkways or channels of water (Chatterji, 1957). Thecentre of the garden, accentuated by either a pavilion or a marble water tank,marked the intersection of walkways. The archetype of the chaharbagh (foursquare garden) which is really a cross within a square, reproduced in Islamicgardens world-wide and perfected in Persia, is derived from the Qu'ranicdescription of paradise. Its flowing water channels, shaded groves of fruit treesand summer pavilions show natural plenitude ordered in a symmetricallygeometric layout. In a Mughal garden, the image of paradise in the Qu'ran wasadapted to serve the functions of not only a pleasure setting but also one whichdisplayed the hierarchy and authority of the Mughal court. The visual promi-nence of the Mughal Emperor's durbar halls for conducting business of statetogether with spatially well-defined gradients of privacy in a terraced layoutspoke of authority. In comparison, formal activities of the court formed a verysmall segment of use in the Nawabi gardens of Lucknow.

Besides the gardens in the palace complexes, the Nawabs also built anumber of walled gardens on the banks of the river and along major routes tothe city. Vilaiyati Bagh, walled on three sides, had steps leading down to theriver on its fourth side. It was built by Nawab Ghaziuddin Haider for hisEuropean wife and consisted of a pavilion and smaller kiosks. The Nawabs camehere for hunting birds and boating in the river. On the northern bank of theGomti was Badshah Bagh, built by Nasiruddin Haider, with two entry gatewaysand a pavilion in the center with a canal running in front of it. Sikandar Bagh,with an ornate gateway and a mosque, was built by Wajid Ali Shah. Othergardens, on roads entering Lucknow, included Aish Bagh, Char Bagh, MusaBagh, Alam Bagh, and Amlas Bagh. Char Bagh was a four-garden complex,marking the southern fringe of the city during Asaf-ud-daulah's reign. AishBagh, an enclosed garden with gates on all four sides was also built byAsaf-ud-daulah and opened to the public for an annual fair held during themonsoon period. Alam Bagh was the creation of Wajid Ali Shah on the roadfrom Kanpur and was named after one of his wives, Alamara. The exact datesof constructions of these gardens cannot be ascertained. They were all builtbetween 1775 and 1850 in the reigns of the respective Nawabs.

Hazari Bagh was a park on the other side of the river facing two mansions—Mubarak Manzil and Shah Manzil, part of the Moti Mahal palace complex builtby Ghaziuddin Haider. In the semi-wilderness of the park were staged fightsbetween animals such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and tigers, watched by royaltyfrom the safety of their marquees on palace terraces. Partridge, cock, and quailfighting were also popular amusements in the court of Avadh.

The Nawabs also built country houses surrounded by gardens in theEuropean style, away from the city. These were used for hunting and entertain-ing European guests. Dilkusha, built about 1800 by the British Resident, GoreOusley, and acquired by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan, is an almost exact replica

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 127

of Seaton Delaval in Northumberland, a plan of which appeared in VitruviusBrittanicus in 1721. The plan lacked an Indian-style courtyard and the cornerswere adorned with towers with spiral staircases in them. The open windows inthese towers were used for hunting animals and birds in the menagerie on thegrounds and wild beasts on the other bank of the river. Birds were shot over anearby large, shallow lake. Saadat Ali Khan also built the house at Musa Bagh3 miles due west of Lucknow in 1803/4, based on a plan by Claude Martin. ThisEuropean-style manor did contain Indian elements such as a large, sunkencourtyard and octagonal kiosks on the roof. Oval holes cut in the high wallencircling the garden offered vantage-points for watching wild animals fight onthe river-bank.

Llewellyn-Jones (1985) has looked closely at the influence of Europeanarchitecture on the buildings of Nawabs which created an architectural styleunique to Lucknow. The inordinate amount of time and money spent in thesepursuits of leisure gave rise to the reputation of moral decay of the court in theeyes of Europeans. She has pointed out that the attempts by the Nawabs toembellish their buildings with European ornamentation evoked disdain andridicule from the British who did not understand that this brought an exotictouch to Nawabi architecture just as Chinoiserie did to English buildings. Theresulting pastiche should be taken for what it is, evidence of dilettantism ofrulers who needed to be constantly amused.

As exercise of power passed into the hands of the East India Company, theNawabs began to be increasingly self-indulgent and acquired the reputation ofdebauchery. A resident of Lucknow1 has the following observation about the lastNawab, Wajid Ali Shah:

Amjad Ali could not prevent the natural inclination of his son, heir tothe throne, from being turned towards sensuality and the pursuit ofpleasure and amusement. On his father's insistence he had received agood education, but music was still uppermost in his thoughts. As heirapparent, because of his natural desires and contrary to his father'sdesigns, he was a patron of singers and musicians and learned to singand play. His association with dissolute women, singers and dancers,continued to increase. (Sharar, 1975, p. 62)

Lucknow's palaces and gardens constituted a landscape of decadence, givenover to excessive indulgence in pleasure. In the privacy of the walled enclosures,the Nawabs and their begums (wives) enjoyed the sensuality of nature orderedin gardens. Cooling breezes from the river, coloured fountains in the watertanks, and fragrance of flowers were enjoyed from dainty, ephemeral-lookingpavilions and summer houses. These were sites for entertainment gatheringswhich featured dances by courtesans, musical events, poetry recitations, etc.There were swings and walkways for the ladies of the Nawab's harem. Thegardens sometimes extended into parkgrounds for hunting.

Landscape of Mourning

The landscape of pleasure existed alongside, and in some cases commingledwith a sacred landscape activated by ritual ceremonies of religious mourningevery year during the Islamic month of Muharram. This facet of the Lucknowlandscape, reflecting the beliefs of the Shia community, was constituted by

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128 A. Sinha

enclosed complexes of Imambaras2 entered through very elaborate gateways.Connected to the palaces or adjacent to them, these monuments were a part ofthe royal private domain, their architectural magnificence in a grandiose land-scape setting becoming the chief symbol of a Nawab's reign. Though theirarchitectural and landscape vocabulary was shared with residential palaces,their meaning was quite different.

For the Shia sect in Islam, the martyrdom of Hussein (son of AH and Fatima,daughter of the Prophet Muhammad) and his people at the battle of Kerbala inIraq has to be commemorated annually in the Muharram celebrations lasting over10 days. In the mourning assemblies held at the Imambaras are recited the livesand sufferings of Imams and their families, particularly their travails at thebattlefield, followed by loud enactment of grief. On the last day of Muharram, thedeath of Hussein is commemorated in a funeral procession attended by the vastmajority of the Shia population in Lucknow, in which taziyas, replicas of Hasan'sand Hussein's tomb, are carried, to be finally buried in a graveyard known asKerbala, after the site of the battle in Iraq (Ali, 1974; Parks, 1975).

Muharram was the most important religious ceremony in Lucknow duringthe'Nawabi rule, involving Sunni Muslims and Hindus as well. Not only theImambaras but the larger urban landscape became activated as the taziyaprocessions wound their way across the city, symbolic of Hussain's finaljourney. The destination of the annual Muharram procession is the Kerbala wherethe taziyas are ceremoniously buried. The largest Kerbala in Lucknow is atTalkatora, approached through a European-style gateway which leads into anenclosure containing a square domed building. This represents the tomb ofHussein and was built about 1800 by Mir Khuda Baksh Khan, an official in thecourt of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan. Other structures in the complex include amosque and Imambara, qatlgah (place of assassination) and a graveyard for theburial of taziyas. This kind of complex is an example of landscape transferencefrom the holy site in Iraq to Avadh, the settings fostering the continuity ofreligious traditions in the Shia community.

The Imambara complexes are thus theatres of mourning rituals, magnificentstage sets for yearly histrionic lamentation of ritual mourners. There are hun-dreds of them in the city, some being parts of residences, existing as privateshrines so that the women in purdah can use them. The Imambaras are adjacentto pleasure palaces and in the homes of ordinary people, part of the house. Assuch they share a design vocabulary with the secular landscape though theirfunctions are different. The Imambaras are based upon the form of pleasuregarden pavilions though they are much larger enclosed buildings with domesand minarets (Das, 1991).

Imambaras are also museums of religious paraphernalia. Well decorated withbrightly-lit chandeliers, they house the more precious taziyas made of silver andivory and their walls are adorned with calligraphy on sacred themes, mirrors and

" portraits of the Nawabs and other donors. They also become mausoleums of theirbuilders. In the four best-known Imambaras of Lucknow—Asafi, Husainabad,Shah Najaf, and Hazratgunj—are buried Nawabs Asaf-ud-daula, Muhammad AliShah, Ghazi-ud-din Haider, and Amjad Ali Shah respectively.

The gardens in these religious complexes are similar to the palace gardens.They are laid out in the quadrangle formed by the Imambara, mosque andancillary structures. The Imambara, forming the focus of the complex, is orientedalong the north-south axis (as Kerbala lay to the south of Mecca) while the

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 129

Figure 2. Garden in Asafi Imambara.

mosque, facing Mecca towards the west, creates a secondary axis in the compo-sition. The complex is entered through a series of enclosures, each punctuated bya gateway. Asafi Imambara, for example, is approached through three successivecourtyards. The first courtyard, entered through the famous gateway known asRumi Darwaza, is surrounded by arcaded battlements and leads to the entrycourt whose gateway frames the Imambara. The main courtyard, flanked by amosque and baoli (building surrounding the stepped water well) contains thegardens (Figure 2). The Asafi Imambara, designed by Kifaitullah, was built in1783-87 by Nawab Asaf-ud-daulah. The building contains a famous labyrinthwhich enabled the construction below of the huge, vaulted hall without iron orwooden supports. In the Husainabad Imambara, the inner courtyard is flankedby the mausoleums of Muhammad Ali Shah's daughter and son-in-law. Thecentre of the garden in the court is a linear raised tank, its edges once borderedby cypress trees (Figure 3). Shah Najaf Imambara was modelled on themausoleum of Hazrat Ali, located at Najaf in Iraq. It too is entered through twogateways, and contains a mosque in the premises.

Landscape of Mutiny

The landscapes of pleasure and the sacred theatre of mourning acquired yetanother layer of significance with the unfolding events in 1857. The pitched

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Figure 3. Main court in Hussainabad Imambara.

battles between Indian forces under Begum Hazrat Mahal (wife of exiled WajidAli Shah) and the East India Company were fought in the gardens, turning theminto bloody battlefields. The labyrinthine character of the rest of the city allowedlittle space for large-scale skirmishes to occur elsewhere. The palaces thusbecame strongholds of rebels, scenes of sieges and sorties.

The uprising of 1857 began in Musa Bagh when the sepoys of the 7th AvadhIrregular Cavalry stationed there refused to bite the greased cartridges. TheMarion cantonment on the north bank of the Gomti was set on fire by therebellious sepoys on the night of 30 May 1857 and the Residency containing atotal of 6,938 people was besieged for a protracted period. Disease and firingfrom the surrounding settlement took its toll on nearly 2,000 European men,women, and children who were buried in the compound. The Chattar Manzilpalaces were strongholds of the rebels while the soldiers of the East IndiaCompany set up their cannon on the premises of Asafi Imambara. Four battleswere fought in Alam Bagh in October and December of 1857 and in January andFebruary of 1858 as Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857) used itsoctagonal towers to communicate with the besieged Residency. Sikandar Baghwas occupied by Indian rebel forces, about 2,000 of whom were killed when theBritish recaptured the garden in November 1857. In March 1858 Begum HazratMahal with her force of 9,000 men made Musa Bagh her headquarters where thelast battle of the Mutiny, resulting in the defeat of rebel forces, was fought (Hay,1939).

After the Mutiny was over, all that remained of the buildings in theResidency complex were ruins. The site was converted into a memorial gardenwith trees, grassy lawns and perforated shells of buildings. Plaques and tabletsdot the landscape and one of the restored buildings now houses a museum.The Indian revolutionaries were hanged on the gateways of Alam Bagh andQaiserbagh.

Looting and destruction were the aftermath of mutiny. A 200-metres-wideswathe of land was cleared along the banks of the river Gomti. The private

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 131

AREA OF DEMOLITION.RIVER GOMTI

RESIDENCYIMAMBARA^ /

MACCHIBHAVANQAISER

SHAH NAJAFWINGFIELD PARK

RAILWAY STATION

Figure 4. Lucknow in 1858 (after Oldenburg, 1984).

pleasure grounds of the Nawabi era were transformed by this cataclysmic event.As the British took over the administration and planning of the city, the changesin the urban landscape were far-reaching (Oldenburg, 1984). The properties ofthe Nawab and the leaders of the mutiny were confiscated and turned over topublic use. Robert Napier, a military engineer who had built Darjeeling and hadconstructed a new cantonment in Ambala, was given the charge of replanningLucknow after the mutiny and making it rebellion-proof. He did this by openingup the city through the construction of broad streets so that troops could moveefficiently and quickly to any spot of insurgency. Three major roads, 50 metreswide, emerge from Macchi Bhavan and cut through the maze of neighbour-hoods. The streets also cut through the palace complexes, opening up thebuildings in the interior, as they became new centres of administration, to publicgaze (Figure 4).

Certain cleared areas were reserved for parks and gardens, seen as necess-ary antidotes to the perceived dirt and squalor of the indigenous city. SikanderBagh was bisected by the construction of a wide road and a large part of itconverted into a botanical garden (Figure 5). In front of the chowk (the nucleusof traditional settlement) a park was built as a memorial to the East IndiaCompany and a bronze statue of Queen Victoria was erected there in her jubileeyear. One of the walled gardens called Benarasi Bagh was converted into amemorial to Sir Charles Wingfield, a chief commissioner. Its marble baradari(pavilion) and statues were removed from Qaiserbagh palace complex. The parkwas later turned into a zoological garden to commemorate the visit of the Princeof Wales to Lucknow (Figure 6). Muhammad Bagh was converted into pologrounds and a club and Presbyterian Church were erected in its premises whichbecame part of the cantonment (Figure 7). Char Bagh was covered by thebuildings of the railway station.

The transformation from private pleasure gardens to public parks was oneof the many changes in the urban landscape of Lucknow effected by the Mutiny.It marked the end of the Nawabi era and the reputation of decadent opulencethat its court had acquired. The gardens had fostered many of the activities for

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132 A. Sinha

Figure 5. Greenhouse in Botanical Gardens.

which the Avadh had become notorious. Their disappearance marked the loss ofthe royal culture of Lucknow. The mutiny changed some of the areas of the cityinto memorial landscapes commemorating battles, death, victory, and defeat.Other structural changes in the urban realm included the birth of the colonialcity centre with its twin foci of cantonment and civil lines and their new type ofpublic spaces. Its evolution based upon European ideas of strategic militaryplanning, sanitation, and moral order has been admirably traced by Oldenburg(1984).

Conclusion

The three themes of decadence, mourning and revolution convey the characterof the cultural landscape. Lucknow developed into a city of gardens in thecourse of less than a century, evolving as the Nawabs built in proximity to theriver and along the routes to the city. The gardens on which its reputationrested, being far more ephemeral than architecture, could not survive thedisappearance of royal patronage. The surviving few became part of the publicdomain, reshaped in a new image.

The principal actors in this narrative were the Nawabs and the Britishadministrators. Their relationship soured from being symbiotic to a game of

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 133

Figure 6. Plan of Zoological Gardens.

conquest in which the defeated were exiled and vanquished in their final act ofrebellion. This had consequences for the shape of the landscape because itreflected different views of how nature should be ordered in gardens. Thegardens of the Nawabs were a local variation of the more elaborate Mughalgardens, which reified the power of the court. Since the court of Avadh lackedreal power, gardens became places for pure pleasure, and symbolic of a slideinto decadence.

Gardens also beautified the courtyards of the religious complexes of theImambaras, setting off their monumental architecture. Thus their purposeranged from being a setting of sensual pleasure to one of scenic stage drop to thebuildings. A unique historical event made them into battlefields for a year in1857, leaving destruction and ruin in its aftermath. A different cultural under-standing of the order in nature and of recreational pastimes brought about atransformation in the landscape. The transition from private spaces of court-yards and walled gardens to public spaces of botanical gardens, zoos, andmemorial gardens had begun.

In comparison to the formal geometry of the Persian-influenced gardens ofthe Nawabs, the open spaces in the colonial landscape were designed inimitation of the naturalistic English landscape style, then prevalent in VictorianEngland. Newly-added areas in the Botanical and Zoological Gardens (previ-ously Sikander Bagh and Benarasi Bagh respectively) contained irregular, curv-ing walkways, trees planted in clusters, and greenhouses constructed withproducts of industrial technology. New forms of recreational activities weresupported by the new landscape. As King (1976) has shown in colonial NewDelhi, equestrian activities played a major role in shaping the landscape: the'Imperial Horse Show', 'All-India Polo Tournament' and the daily activity ofriding required open grounds and tree-lined avenues. The case in colonialLucknow was similar, especially in the cantonment area with its polo andrace-course grounds. The private half-to-two hectare bungalow compounds

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Figure 7. Church in Cantonment.

supported outdoor forms of leisure and socializing in garden parties, afternoonteas, and receptions. This exclusive colonial landscape was 'public' only for theEuropean community, though not walled like the pleasure grounds of theNawabs. The open spaces in the colonial landscape were suitable for activerecreation in games of cricket, polo and golf, very different from the passiverecreational activities such as listening to poetry and music that the indigenousgardens had supported. Their extroverted openness and naturalistic designvocabulary expressed colonial power, inhibiting use by the indigenous popu-lation at large.

Hjortshoj (1979) analyses the schizophrenic urban structure of Lucknow,contrasting the 'private' and 'backstage' traditional city with the 'public' and'front stage' nature of colonial urban spaces. He finds the labyrinth in AsafiImambara to be an apt metaphor for the involuted, confusing (to the non-natives) nature of old city, basically a series of enclosures. In contrast to it wasthe extroverted openness of parks and malls within which bungalows andinstitutional buildings of colonial administration were located. The contrastbetween introverted and extroverted forms enhances the division between thetraditional and colonial city but has also contributed to the idea of the traditionalcity as congested and lacking open spaces. As this historical narrative shows,Lucknow's reputation as a 'city of gardens' was merited. An involuted urbanstructure makes for a porous settlement where open spaces fall in the private

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Lucknow's 19th-century Landscape 135

Figure 8. Residency Memorial Garden.

rather than in the public realm. Post-independence development of new housingand commercial complexes is largely based upon the colonial model. Openspaces in the public domain, though desperately needed as 'lungs' of the dense,congested city do not appear to be heavily and uniformly used, perhaps becauseof lack of recreational facilities.

This garden narrative has implications for those involved in the preser-vation of the cultural heritage of Lucknow. Of the few pleasure gardens thatremain, some like Vilaiyati Bagh are in ruinous state of abandonment. Otherslike Sikander Bagh, Dilkusha and gardens in the Imambara complexes arerelatively well-kept. The memorial garden at the old Residency with its smallmuseum draws a large number of visitors (Figure 8). All three facets ofLucknow's cultural landscape—decadence, mourning, and revolution—need tobe preserved and communicated. The meanings have to be interpreted—they arenot directly evident to a casual observer. What is clearly visible is the juxtapo-sition and, in some cases, amalgamation of indigenous and colonial styles inboth architecture and garden design. In learning to read this landscape, one alsoacquires a vivid sense of history.

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Board, University ofIllinois at Urbana Champaign in funding travel for this study. I also extend mythanks to R.P. Sinha, Rajat Kant, Jyotsana Agarwal, and Neeraj Kushwaha forhelping me in the course of research. All sketches and photographs are by theauthor.

Notes

1. Abdul Halim Sharar wrote about 19th-century Lucknow in a series of articles which appearedin the literary journal Dil Gudaz, edited by him and published in the 1920s.

2. The word 'Imambara' means 'place of Imam'.

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