Martina Zahornacka

Shalimar Garden in Jammu &Kashmir,India

Lake Dal

Arial photo of Shalimar Bagh in Kashmir

1 Public Garden

2 Emperor’s Garden

3 Zenana Garden 4 Black Pavilion

Genius Loci

History

• Place of annual summer pilgrimage of Mughal emperors

• Conquered by Akbar in 1586, who relaxed here after 6 weeks journey from Agra, went water-fowling on Lake Dal, watched shaffron harvest in autumn, called it his private garden

• His son Salim (Jahangir) inherited an obsessive love for Kashmir and built no less than 700 superlative gardens around Lake Dal, made his permanent summer homes

Genius Loci•Mountains of Himalayas form a stunning, dramatic backdrop (Mahadeo with snowcap)

•Height of 1,730 metres above sea level creates ideal climate to elevated Jahangir’s asthma in summer

•Lake Dal is shallow, edged with thick beds of reeds, lotuses – floating gardens

•Constant torrent of water from hills supplies channel, pools and powers fountain jets

Agra

Lahore

Genius Loci• Lush meadows, sound of water, rivers, springs, lakes and rice paddies dominated in the valley of Kashmir – Jahangir calls it a garden of eternal spring

• Abundance of water inspired the layout of local gardens - narrow watercourses were widened to shallow canals and central axis elongated, the heart of garden shifted to the uphill end

FirmitasZenana garden (Bagh-I-Faiz Bakhsh):

• Upper terrace built by Jahangir in 1619-20

Emperors garden (Bagh-I-Farah Bakhsh):

• Middle terrace built by Shah Jahan around 1630

Black marble pavilion (built by Shah Jahan)

Entrance to Zenana (ladies’) garden

Hall of Private Audiance (Diwan- i- Khas) destroyed

Public Garden:• The lowest terrace; now cut by road and shortened

Hall of Public Audience (Diwan-i-Am)

Canal leads to Lake Dal

FirmitasCentral channel:• Central axis of the garden

• 6 meters wide

• Polished stone

• Cross-axial channel on the uppermost terrace take on classical Persian chahar bagh form

• Water from mountain stream dammed up

• Square pools below pavilions recall the broadening of rivers into lakes

Water jets and cascades:• Gravitation

• Jets used to have solid plumes of water

• Cascades of smooth sheet of water falling from retaining walls

• Black pavilion is sourrounded by 3 cascades

• Now water runs only in spring (deforestation lowered water table)

Pathways:• Slightly offset from channel on

both sides

• Stepping stones to reach Diwan-I-Am with a shaded marble throne of emperor in the center of canal above cascade

• Causeways to reach Diwan-I-Khas

• Narrow stones bridges among fountains reach Black Pavilion

Firmitas

Now: • Regular avenues

of chinar trees (Platanus orientalis) 25 meters tall shading the walks and 19th century bedding plants

• Irrigated meadows in charbaghs– grass, flowers, fruit trees in more informal way

Firmitas - Planting design:

Originally:

•1665 Francois Bernier describes fruit trees, regular trellised walks, surrounded by the large-leafed aspen (Populus tremuloides) in interval of 2 feet

•Cherry, apricot, apple, plum

•Meadows were geometrical

FirmitasPavilions:

• Stone, marble, mortar

• Used the talar and ivan (arched talar)

• Originally flat-roofed

• Native wooden Kashmiri roofs were added in later centuries

• Recesses (chini kanas) under cascades are filled with flowers on special occasions or oil lamps at night

• Abode of Love – gift to Jahangir’s wife Nur-Jahan

• One of many paradise or pleasure gardens

• Ideal background for self-indulgent Jahangir suffering from alcoholism and opium dependancy

Utilitas

•Place for contemplation, perfect peace, sitting cross-legged on carpets by the waterside or on a low stone bench astride one of cascades

Utilitas• Function of each section of garden changes with ascending level from 1) public

through 2) courtly to 3) private zone

• The Zenana Garden could be accessed only by Emperor and used by his court ladies

Utilitas• Shalimar Bagh recalls Mughal’s annual

pilgrimage to Kashmir:• approached from outside world by

boat shikara from Lake Dal full of pink lotuses

• the crossing into an enclosed domain of fields and flowers, fruit trees

• the ascent to a cool refuge by the water and …the eventual return to the lowlands of their capitals

Venustas & Belief• Jahangir’s talents

directed towards arts – inspired by Akbar and Babur and helped by wife Nur Jahan

• Diaries illustrated by artists with pictures of plants, animals, natural world

• Supported portraiture of Mughal school of painting

Venustas & Belief

•Garden designer from times as a prince, ordered to built over 700 gardens in Vale of Kashmir,

•Nur Jahan continued to build her gardens and buried husband in one of them

• His son Shah Jahan perfected Shalimar Bagh and showed his genius for architecture in Agra – back to Persian tradition of chahar bagh

• Islam – way of life guided by Quran

• Garden (Bagh) = Paradise

• Citated 30-times; ‘Gardens underneath which rivers flow’

• Fruit trees, water and rich pavilions with a shade for friends to relax in private enclosure

• Image of garden = a reflection of God ; used by poets

• All artists used references to gardens

Belief

Belief

Mughal design

Muslim ideologyHindu craftsmenship

Indo-islamic art

Persian chahar bagh transformed, adapted to local landscape and tradition with water as a unifying element

Hinduism

• Idealism, visionary, abstract, enclosed mystic temple with a secred chamber, irregular, symbiotic, social system

Islam

• Realism, material, concrete, clarity of mosque, open-air courts, mathematical, continuous decoration, writing as an art

Arches, pilasters, perforated marble screens, pavilions with arabesques, inscriptions, flowers in relief or inlay of Kashmir , turquoise, white marble of Gujarat, fonatains and expanded canals

Literature:

• Moore, Mitchell, Turnbull – The poetics of gardens, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1993.

• Ruggles, F. – Islamic gardens and landscapes, University of pennsylvania Press, 2008.

• Moynihan, E.B.- Paradise as a garden in Persia and Mughal India, Scolar Press, London, 1979.

• Brooks, J. – Gardens of paradise, London, 1987.

• www.flickr.com