The Taj Mahal is many things. It’s a seventeenth century mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. As such, it’s often called a monument to love.

Mumtaz Mahal Begum (Exalted One of the Palace) was the Shah’s second wife, and chief consort. She died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a monument to her.

The Taj Mahal is also an outstanding example of Mughal architecture attracting over eight million visitors annually. In their eagerness to reach the monument and take pictures, visitors often walk through the gardens without realizing that they are as much a part of the monument as the white marble.

PERSIAN & ISLAMIC GARDENS of PARADISE

The garden architecture that once surrounded the Taj Mahal began with the gardens Cyrus the Great built at his palace complex at Pasargadai. These were conceived to represent the four Zoroastrian elements of sky, earth, water, and plants. The gardens were Paradise, a word that entered European languages from the Persian root word, Pardi.

The one garden is divided into four sections called the Chahār Bāgh. Other characteristics are a high surrounding wall, straight channels of water, bubbling fountains, trees for shade and fruit, and flowers. Islamic designers saw the gardens as emulating the Garden of Eden with four rivers and four quadrants representing the world.

These elements can still be seen in the Gardens of the Alhambra which was converted to a Moorish palace by the Sultan of Granada in 1333. Moorish designers planned a garden with roses, oranges, and myrtles as well as water features. The Palacio de Gereralife (Architect’s Garden) includes the Patio de la Acequia, or Court of the Water Channel, a long pool framed by flowerbeds and decorated with fountains and pavilions.

The most important features of Islamic gardens were running water and a pool to reflect the sky, trees for fruit and shade, flowers for color and fragrance, birds to fill the garden with song, and pleasant breezes.

MOGHUL GARDENS

Babur, the first Mughal emperor brought Islamic gardens to the Indian sub-content as he established his empire in the sixteenth century. The first important Islamic garden in India, still visited by tourists today, is Humayun’s Tomb. Humayun was Babur’s son. After his death in 1556, his chief consort Empress Bega Begum dedicated herself to building an appropriate memorial. Completed in 1572, it was the first Chahār Bāgh Garden in India.

The tomb stands in the center of a thirty acre Chahār Bāgh. The enclosed garden is divided by walkways and two bisecting central water channels to depicted the four rivers of Paradise. Each square is subdivided into smaller squares. These gardens and their tomb became a precursor for Shah Jahan’s design of the Taj Mahal.

TAJ MAHAL

The design for the Taj Mahal and its gardens encompasses the Yamuna River which flows behind the tomb, with a Moonlit Garden (Mahtab Bagh) on the opposite side of the river. With the inclusion of the Moonlit Garden, the Taj Mahal is in the traditional center of the garden. The picture below is the Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna River.

The formal layout has raised pathways divided into four quarters each of which was subdivided to form sixteen flowerbeds. The garden had four hundred plants including Cyprus trees symbolizing death and fruit trees representing life. Favorite trees were mango, lemon, and pomegranate. Early accounts describe roses, daffodils, hibiscus, and jasmine flowers.

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Illustrations:

Opening Photo of Taj Mahal by Author.

Mumtaz Mahal (1820 rendering). Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Cyrus the Great Relief at entrance to Pasargadae by Siamax. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Patio de la Acequia at the Alhambra by Andrew Dunn. Creative Commons Attribution. Wikimedia Commons.

Babur supervising creation of a garden. Public Domain. Wikimedia Gardens.

Grounds at Humayun’s Tomb. Photo by Author.

Taj Mahal. 1890. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Eighteenth century rendering of Taj Mahal with Moonlit Gardens. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna River. Photo by Author.

The Persian Garden. World Heritage List.

K. E. Eduljee. Persian Gardens. Heritage Institute.

The post Moghul & Persian Gardens of Paradise first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Although gardening takes place all year round, it comes to mind most readily in the spring. April is a good month for planting trees, shrubs, and annual flowering bulbs that bloom in summer. These might include dahlias and gladiolas. It’s also time to plant seeds for marigolds and zinnias. If you go to your local garden center, you’ll find all sorts of items to get your garden started, including plants, pots, seeds, soil . . . The list is exhausting.

But did you ever pause to wonder how this spring time ritual started? In many ways the man who started our desire for our own plot of grass and flowers was known as “Capability” Brown (1716-1783). The name “Capability” seems no more unusual than his given name of Lancelot Brown. He acquired the nickname because as he assessed large landholdings for their landscaping potential, he often informed his client that the land had capability for improvement.

Capability was the fifth child of Sir William Loraine’s land agent. His mother was in service at the main house. He worked as the head gardener’s apprentice in the kitchen gardens until he was twenty-three years old. He then joined Lord Cobham’s gardening staff at Stowe as an under-gardener, working under the direction of William Kent, founder of the English landscape garden. Tastes were changing. Formal gardens like those at Versailles had fallen into disrepair. Walls were missing. The strict geometric patterns had become a bit sloppy.

Capability’s style clicked. Three years after joining Lord Cobham’s staff, Capability was head gardener. He introduced a new approach to the land. No longer was the focus on dominating nature. Brown saw nature as a source of inspiration. His gardens were both appealing and practical. Common features included serpentine water features stocked with fish and inviting for boating. Trees at the outer edges were both aesthetic and a source of timber. Lord Cobham’s friends hired Brown to design their own landscapes.

In 1751 Brown got his first big commission. He redesigned Croome Court, a project that included remodeling the house, relocating the church, and draining marshy ground so the water could be utilized as a lake.

Brown saw his work like a sentence: “there I make a comma; and there, where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon: at another part, a parenthesis—now a full stop; and then I begin another subject.” Brown shaped the landscape to his vision. Small brooks were damned to become lakes. Valleys were dug; hills, mounded. Trees placed at appropriate intervals.

Visitors to an estate didn’t go directly from the gate to the house. They took a circuitous drive through wooded areas, open fields, lakes, and controlled wilderness. Brown also gave the landscape a theatrical touch. As the carriage rolled on its way, passengers saw a glimpse of a folly, bridge, or other feature

Among Brown’s commissions are the gardens at Chatsworth House, Blenheim Palace, and Highclere Castle – known to many Americans as the site of Downton Abbey.

At the height of his career in the 1760s Brown earned about £6000 a year (£753,000—about a million US dollars—in 2016). His ideas tricked down to smaller landowners. Everyone wanted their house surrounded by undulated green lawns with artistic clumps of trees.

Landscape fashions have changed over the centuries, but the perfect green lawn remains a goal for many gardeners.

If you have about eight minutes to spare, this aerial video of Blenheim Palace’s 2,000 acres demonstrates Capability Brown’s landscape vision of a perfectly designed natural garden.

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Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons.

Aerial View of Blenheim Palace by Blenheim Palace. Creative Commons Attribution.

Capability Brown by Nathaniel Dance. Public Domain.

Stowe Gardens by David M. Jones. Creative Commons Attribution.

Chatsworth House View by Chris Page. Creative Commons Attribution.

Chatsworth House by Rob Bendall. Creative Commons Attribution.

“How to Spot a Capability Brown Landscape at 100 yards.” The Telegraph.

Eleanor Doughty. “Everything you need to know about Capability Brown.” The Telegraph. Aug. 30, 2016.

Ambra Edwards. “Gardens: How Capability Brown Transformed this Green and Pleasant Land.” The Guardian. July 23, 2016.

Laura Latham. “Capability Brown, The Master of the English Garden.” New York Times. April 14, 2016.

Mitchell Owens. “Capability Brown is the Landscape Designer Behind England’s Most Iconic Gardens.” Architectural Digest. April 5, 2016.

Vic. Maintaining the Grounds of a Landed British Estate: Georgian Gardening. Jane Austen’s World. August 30, 2012.

The post The Landscape Gardens of Capability Brown first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The Taj Mahal wasn’t just a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal. It was a Mausoleum and Gardens, equally important parts of a whole. Designers laid out Charbagh Gardens, a style that envisioned the gardens of Paradise. Such gardens were filled with fragrant flowers, voluptuous fruits and exotic birds. There were four rivers: one of water; one of milk; one of honey, and one of wine.

Gardens at the Taj Mahal covered an area 984 feet by 984 feet. Each smaller garden within the Charbagh was divided into sixteen flowerbeds for a total of sixty-four beds. The garden held four hundred plants. These included Cyprus trees symbolizing death and fruit trees representing life. Favored Mughal fruit trees were mango, lemon, and pomegranate. Sweet smelling hibiscus and jasmine plants perfumed the air.

As the foliage grew, it masked the monument, which revealed itself slowly to visitors.

As time passed, both the monument and the gardens fell into disarray. The approach, as described by Lord Curzon, was one of “dusty wastes and squalid bazaars.”

The first British effort to restore the Taj Mahal was undertaken by Lord Minto, Governor General (1807-1813). He raised funds by selling the garden’s produce and later attached the revenue from villages attached to the Taj Mahal. But any gains were short-lived.

In the late nineteenth century, British visitors enjoyed picnicking on the grounds. When lunch was finished, they sauntered over to the monument with the chisels and dug out the precious stones and minerals that still remained. The mosque flanking the Taj Mahal and a guesthouse were rented out as honeymoon cottages. Fashionable society attended balls with music by a military band arranged on the platform.

Such pastimes stopped when Lord Curzon became Viceroy of India. Curzon was said to be an arrogant man. A parody of his days at Oxford depicted the young scion introducing himself: “My name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior person.”

Nevertheless, Lord Curzon cared deeply about Indian monumental architecture, particularly the Taj Mahal which he visited annually. He believed the massive buildings testified to India’s ancient status and the British role as their guardian and preserver. In short, Curzon was on a civilizing mission. He was the first restorer to look at the gardens, and he was horrified.

Lord Curzon ordered the trees removed. In common with most British in India, he believed gardens should be flat and formal, paving the way to the monument. Gardens provided vistas, not texture. The flowers had to go too. Simple grass accented the waterways.

At the dedication of the restored Taj Mahal in 1909 Lord Curzon waxed poetic on his accomplishment. There was now a beautiful park, “and the group of mosques and tombs, the arcaded streets and grassy courts that precede the main building are once more as nearly as possible what they were when completed by the masons of Shah Jehan.” Lord Curzon might be forgiven if he thought the gardens even better than those of the Shah Jehan.

Lord Curzon personally funded parts of the Restoration. “Since I came to India we have spent upon repairs at Agra alone of sum of £40,000. Every rupee has been an offering of reverence to the past and a gift of recovered beauty of the future.”

In particular, Lord Curzon personally donated two chandeliers. When the Jats of Bharatapur invaded Agra in the eighteenth century, they took two chandeliers, one silver and one agate, from above the royal cenotaphs. Lord Curzon took it upon himself to procure replacements.

On his way home, Lord Curzon stopped in Cairo to procure a properly Saracenic lamp to hang in the tomb chamber. The bronze lamp, modeled after one that once hung from Sultan Baibars II’s mosque, is inlaid with gold and silver. Inscribed in a script that matched that of the original calligraphers, the engraving proclaims “Presented to the Tomb of Mumtaz Mahal by Lord Curzon, Viceroy 1906.”

The second chandelier, weighing one hundred thirty-two pounds, was placed in the Royal Gate, the entrance through which tourists pass into the grounds. Last August, the chandelier fell. No one was injured.

Acknowledgements:
Featured Image: Photo of Taj Mahal taken by Francis Frith in 1874. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Francis Frith (1822-1898) was a successful commercial photographer who noted that armchair travelers would purchase photographs taken away from the European tourist routes.

BBC. Taj Mahal Chandelier Crash Investigation Ordered. Aug 22, 2015. Here.

http://www.tajmahal.org.uk/history.html

“Garden’s in Agra’s Taj Mahal still feel British.”Economic Times. Here.

“When Taj was Green.” The Pioneer. May 26, 2013. Here.

Eugenia W. Herbert. Flora’s Empire: British Gardens in India. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011.

Annabel Lopez. “Taj Mahal’s history of repair and restoration.” July 3, 2007. Here.

Rajaram Panda. Taj Mahal. New Delhi: Mittal Publication. N.D.

The post TAJ MAHAL GARDENS & LORD CURZON first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Some gardens have official gardeners. Lucky plants. These professionals know their herbaceous clients and give them just what they need when they need it. They keep the lawns mowed, the underbrush cleared, the trees in good health. I think they have something magic in their green fingers. Many of these gardeners work in large public and private gardens. They keep the flowers blooming at Oxford University. They keep Mrs. Jennie Butchart’s dream alive at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. Butchart Gardens has a lovely image gallery at http://www.butchartgardens.com/the-gardens/image-gallery/image-gallery.html Just looking at the images is relaxing.

Happily, there are beautiful gardens in Hawai`i – one of these is part of the Honolulu Museum of Art.   Spalding House sits in a quiet neighborhood on Makiki Heights. Anna Rice Cooke, founder of the museum, built the house and began the gardens in 1924. The structure is a delightful example of the simple, but elegant, lifestyle of territorial Hawai`i. The gardens are a sanctuary above the city with a view of Diamond Head. The Museum has added outdoor art — a woven horse here, a sculpture there. Peaceful serenity – a place for creative play. More information on Spalding House at the Honolulu Museum of Art website http://honolulumuseum.org/11981-contemporary_museum_spalding_house I took a few pictures – hope they bring a bright note to your day.

The post On Gardens first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.