Mughal Gardens are a type of gardens built by the Mughals and what is the reason to try to wipe out history by changing names?
The BJP government just changed the name of Mughal Gardens to The Amrit Udyan. The Amrit Udyan will be inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday, January 29, and will be open to the general public for two months from January 31 to March 26.
The history of Mughal Gardens
In 1911, the British administration moved its capital from Calcutta to Delhi, involving huge construction to make spaces for its top officials. Around 4,000 acres of land was acquired to construct the Viceroy’s House with Sir Edwin Lutyens being given the task of designing the building on Raisina Hill.
When it came to the construction of the Viceroy’s House, which today is known as Rashtrapati Bhavan, a large garden was one of its most grand struccturs. While the initial plans involved creating a garden with traditional British architecture, the wife of the then Viceroy wanted something in the Mughal style and urged the planners to create a garden in that style. . It is believed that the wife of the then Viceroy, who wanted Rashtrapati Bhavan to be adorned by a Mughal-style garden was inspired by the book Gardens of the Great Mughals (1913) by Constance Villiers-Stuart as well as her visits to Mughal gardens in Lahore and Srinagar.
While the layout of the Amrit Udyan was in place by 1917, the planting of flowers only began in late 1928 and the responsibility was given to Director of horticulture William Mustoe, who planted the garden and was especially skilled at growing roses and introduced more than 250 different varieties of hybrid roses gathered from every corner of the world.
Lady Beatrix Stanley, a prominent horticulturist, noted in 1931 that she had not seen better roses and the garden was intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.
Significant use of rectilinear layouts are made within the walled enclosures. Some of the typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens. Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India have a number of gardens which differ from their Central Asian predecessors with respect to “the highly disciplined geometry”.
The founder of the Mughal empire, Babur, described his favourite type of garden as a charbagh. From the beginnings of the Mughal Empire, the construction of gardens was a beloved imperial pastime. Akbar’s son, Jahangir, did not build as much, but he helped to lay out the famous Shalimar garden and was known for his great love for flowers. His trips to Kashmir are believed to have begun a fashion for naturalistic and abundant floral design.
Taj Mahal at Agra, showing its gardens as well as the Mahtab Bagh. Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan, marks the apex of Mughal garden architecture and floral design. He is famous for the construction of the Taj Mahal, a sprawling funereal paradise in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The Mughals maintained the tradition of building fourfold (chaharbagh)-symmetrical garden. Babur, however, applied the term chaharbagh in its widest sense which includes terraced gardens on mountain slopes and his extravagant rock cut garden, the Bagh-i Nilufar at Dholpur.
As for location, the Mughal emperors were much particular in selecting places of great natural beauty. Often they selected mountain slopes with gushing water to layout gardens, the finest example being Bagh-i Shalimar and Bagh-i Nishat in Kashmir.
Almost all the Mughal gardens contained buildings such as residential palaces, forts, mausoleums, and mosques. The gardens became an essential feature of almost each kind of Mughal monuments and were interrelated to these monuments which can be categorized as: gardens attached with Imperial palaces, forts and gardens which beautified private residential buildings of the noble. The principal source of water to the Mughal gardens were: (i) lakes or tanks (ii) wells or step-wells (iii) canals, harnessed from the rivers, and (iv) natural springs.
The fountain was the symbol of ‘life cycle’ which rises and merges and rises again. The vast stream is just like clouds pouring rains and opens the doors of divine mercy. Its chevron patterns (abshar) are like an institution of worship where the hearts of believers are enlightened.
The Mughals developed hydraulic system by using Persian wheel to lift the water and obtained adequate pressure necessary for gardens. The main reason behind the location of gardens on the bank of river was that water was raised to the level of the enclosure wall by Persian Wheel standing on the bank from where it was conducted through aqueduct, to the garden where it ran from the top of the wall in a terra-cotta pipe which also produced adequate pressure needed to work the fountains.[14]
Was it an act of revenge to due to the BBC documentary that the BJP changed the name of the great Mughal Garden?
The Mughal Gardens were so named neither by the Mughals nor by Nehru, but by the British.
Throwing the nearly century-old name in the dustbin of history is a fitting response to the #BBC #BBCdocumentry#MughalGarden— aSlam (@Aslam_khader) January 28, 2023
Trinamool Congress MP, Jawahar Sircar tweeted, “Renaming heritage Mughal Gardens as Amrit Udyan is just a ploy to divert attention from BBC documentary’s indictment of Modi + Hindenburg’s claim that his friend Adanadii’s empire is built on fraud. If Modi really loved the garden, he could’ve built more.”
Criticism for the change of name
Call it what you will, it remains a mughal garden, bec it was conceived & designed as one, with it's rectilinear layout of char baghs, pools, canals with running water & fountains, signature features of mughal gardens elsewhere in the country & region, inspired by Persian gardens https://t.co/p0keU9VgV5
— Siddhartha Basu (@babubasu) January 29, 2023
Indians are now asking what next will the BJP government rename, perhaps “biryani”
The Mughal Gardens are so named not for political reasons but because of the particular wonderfully geometric style of gardens that was created during the Mughal period. This descriptive term did not need to be politicised or changed. #MughalGardens pic.twitter.com/v1BxEJGjzk
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) January 29, 2023
No QR code can force you to stop calling *Mughal Gardens* #MughalGardens unless YOU choose to
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No name can be changed by 5-year caretakers in a democracy that people refuse to use pic.twitter.com/QDVMyvtVxk— Anindita (@hatefreeworldX) January 29, 2023
Somebody inform the fools, “Mughal gardens” is not merely a name, it is an architectural design influenced by the Persian gardens which the Mughals brought to India.
So, the architecture would still be called “Mughal gardens”, this move was only to fool the bhakts.#MughalGarden pic.twitter.com/uoIV1jgDBc
— Mayank Saxena (@mayank_sxn) January 29, 2023
