Analysis of Design Principles in Mughal Gardens: A Historical Overview

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of Mughal Gardens, delving into their design principles and historical significance. It explores the influence of Persian architecture, particularly the Charbagh style, and examines the key elements of Islamic gardens, such as water and shade. The essay traces the history of Mughal Gardens, from their origins in Central and South Asia to their evolution during the Mughal Empire. It also discusses the various uses of these gardens, including their role as places of relaxation, ritual events, and intellectual gatherings. Furthermore, the essay analyzes the distinct Mughal architectural style, characterized by bold repetition and symmetrical layouts. The document also considers the impact of the colonial period on Mughal Gardens, including their reinterpretation and preservation efforts. Through this analysis, the essay aims to provide a deeper understanding of the design principles and cultural importance of these historical gardens.

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 1
MESMERIZING EXPRESSION OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF MUGHAL GARDENS
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Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 2
Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens
Introduction
Mughal Gardens refers to a group of gardens that were designed and built according to the
Persian architecture style.The Persian architecture was heavily influenced by the Persian
gardens in particular. Mughal gardens were constructed in Central and South Asia in the
sixteenth through eighteenth centuries create one of the famous stages in the history
of landscape and garden arts.
These gardens mainly derive their original design from the medieval Islamic gardening. In
most cases, the Islamic gardens are viewed as a place of reflection and rest, and at the same
time, they remind their users about paradise. The most common themes in Islamic gardens
are water and shade elements. The Islamic gardens are influenced by the historic Islamic
gardens that are common in Iran, Spain, and Mughal India. These are the gardens that were
designed during Islamic civilization and continued to be a legacy of the influential era of
Islamic rulers. Nevertheless, the gardens have various cultural influences which make the
gardens to be unique from one another.
This paper is to analyze the various design principles that were employed in the design of
Mughal Gardens. The study of the principles that were employed in the design of the Mughal
Garden will involve reviewing a number of published articles, books, journals and other
publications containing information regarding the subject of study. The primary objectives of
this assignment are to find out the design principles behind the design of Mughal Gardens.

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History of Mughal Gardens
Mughal Garden heritage and history were established for future by the great construction
period during the second quarter of the seventeenth century. The creator of the Mughal
Empire, Babur, termed his preferred type of the garden as a Charbagh. In most cases, they
used the term bāgh to refer to the garden. According to Babur, this term developed a new
meaning as India needed the fast-flowing streams necessary for the Central Asian charbagh.
The Agragarden, which gave new name after Partition of India as the Ram Bagh, since it lied
in Hindu majority portion is thought to have been the first charbagh. India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh have a number of Mughal gardens which vary from their Central Asian
successors with reverence to "the highly disciplined geometry."
Initial written references about Mughal gardens are set up in the biographies and
autobiographies of the Mughal emperors, plus those of Humayun, Babur, and Akbar. Later
references are found from "the accounts of India" which are written by different European
travellers such as Bernier. The first in-depth historical research of Mughal gardens was done
by Constance Villiers-Stuart, with the title Gardens of the Great Mughals in 1913. This
research refers to the future designs of the garden in the Government House in Delhi.
Constance Villiers-Stuart was consulted by Edwin Lutyens, and that may have influenced his
choice of Mughal style for this project. Modern research work on the history of the Mughal
Gardens has been conducted under the favourable guidance of the Dumbarton Oaks which
includes Mughal Gardens; places, sources, prospects, and representations which are edited by
Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, James L. Wescoat, and Institution. Some of the Mughal
Gardens that exist include Shalimar Bagh (Srinagar) and Lalbagh Fort at Dhaka.

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 4
Founder of Mughal Gardens
The earliest Mughal gardens were developed in Afghanistan by Mughal between 1483 and
1530 a local of Mavara un Nahar which is located in modern Uzbekistan, Emperor Babur. A
Chigezid from his mother's side and Timurid from his father's, Emperor Babur spent his
young ages in a setting with gardens laid out by the Timurids. He was an open-minded
person, a writer, a poet and a determined crusader. Gardens played a significant part in
Timurid day-to-day life, and harem ladies also took part in the building of public gardens as
well as welfare buildings and this tradition remained during Mughal times.
Emperor Babur visited the Uzbek and Timurid gardens in Kabul, Herat, and Samarkand
before coming to Hindustan. Babur left an account of Samarkand and its attractive gardens,
which most likely motivated him in creating an essential relationship between urban and
architecture landscape design. Emperor Babur's depiction of Samarkand finally offered a
model for cities upcoming along the Grand Trunk Road, Babur states.
Few towns in the whole liveable world are as enjoyable as Samarkand. The Kohik water
streams along the north of Samarkand.
The Dar-i Gham water streams along the south at a distance of some 2 miles. This is a great
swift torrent. Indeed it is like a vast river, cut off from the Kohik water. All the suburbs,
tumans, and gardens, of Samarkand, are refined along it. After defining the garden and water
features development Babur defined the building and gardens of Ulugh Beg Mirz and Timur
between 1393 and 1449, He also defined the numerous fields and gardens around Samarkand:
"In the middle of the garden Ulugh Beg built Chil Sutun.
Four towers like spires stands on its four corners, the passage up into them being via the
towers." Chil Sutun aided as an example for porches built at the center of Mughal gardens.
Babur cited another charbagh that amused a perfect association with landscape and nature
beyond. This account shows that gardens were not understood to be self-contained entities,

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 5
but somewhat as part of the neighbouring landscape. Opinions of fields were fetched in and
made part of the gardens.
Uses of the Mughal Gardens
The Mughal gardens are used to serve various functions such as open piazzas within the
boundaries of the Mughals' fort palaces, their manifestation as enjoyable retreats from the
urban settings. They were also used for hunting expeditions. The Jahangir garden which was
commissioned at Sheikhurupa in Punjab is the best example. The Mughals developed
gardens in urban Areas for both relaxation and rest and the ones in rural areas that were
served as halting-places for the royal families and their entourages.
i) Places for ritual events
Rulers celebrated their birthdays and other relevant personal events in the gardens where their
wealth was valued regarding silver and gold, and the money was dispersed among needy and
poor people. Promotions and demotions were given to the nobles and officers together with
members of the royal family.
Jashan-e-Nauroz was a meaningful ceremony for the Mughals that was commenced during
the reign of Jahangir and it was celebrated along the lines of Persian culture.
ii) Places for holding feasts
On momentous occasion’s meals were organised in gardens. Jahangir defined how Nur Jahan
organised a feast in her garden On 26 August 1617, in relation with the 14th Shaban, the day
of Nur Jahan, Shab-i-barat held a feast on the bank of a huge tank. The invitees, courtiers,
and Amirs (Lords) were served with varieties of intoxicating drinks according to the wish of
each

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 6
iii) Places for coronation
A garden was selected for a coronation ritual. After the fall of Shah Jahan, seers were
requested to fix the suitable time for the coronation. Meanwhile the time up to date they
selected was not enough for making an impressive celebration in the palaces of Shah Jahan
Abad fort, a much-shortened coronation ceremony was conducted in the Azizabad garden in
the outer of metropolis, when the prince raised to the throne of Hindustan as an ‘Alamgir'
which means seizer of the world.
iv) Houses of Sufi saints
Intellectual conferences were carried out in gardens which includes a poetry reading. Also,
Sufi saints regularly visited these gardens. Dara Shikoh has discussed in depth the different
gardens where Hazrat Mian Mir and his followers used to go and reflect. These were least
bothered during the day, and one could focus in prayer. This assisted understand that there is
many graves of Sufi saints’ around great gardens. Particularly the Sufi khanqah’s had gardens
too.
Mughal Garden style (architecture)
Mughal architecture refers to the distinct Indo-Islamic architectural style that was established
in central and northern India under the support of Mughal rulers from the 16th to the 18th
century. It is an unusually beautiful and symmetrical amalgam of Turkish, Indian and Persian
architecture style. The Mughals were also famous for generating beautiful gardens in the
Persian charbagh layout, in which the four-sided gardens were separated by flowing water or
walkways into four smaller parts (Moitra, 2012, p. 341).
The Mughal Garden style is characterised by bold repetition, and the breadth of treatment
lend, from the observations, carried out by various scholars and travellers from other parts of

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 7
the parts world the gardens are beautiful fascinations, serene, a peaceful and a grand dignity
to the Indian art of gardens. The gardens are every day when bereaved, as most of them are
made of trees, water and flowers, boundaries of their raised platforms and stone walks left
hard-casting and sharp long continuous shadows in the blazing sunshine- easily perverts into
a soulless formality, tiresome, a tedious repetition of simple lines (Raven, 2014, p. 56). The
actual lines which, as Ruskin points out, when partially clothed, by their difference from the
most excellent foil to the beauty of natural curves in foliage, plant and heighten the pleasure
of the wild thriving vegetation the fast growth which sprouts up after the first summer rains
the, sway of the coloured foam and dancing of the flowering branches of the creepers as they
drop in cascades down the trees. That boredom is the distinct danger of the Mughal as of
other classic styles, is known by its designers and in abundant char-baghs-literally four
gardens-like Shah-Dara the four critical partitions of the grounds are usually laid out
differentmannerly. Amid other forgotten charms of Indian garden-craft is the custom of
whole gardens, consecrating separate squares even to the worship of some rare flower. For
example the Tulip-fields, which created such a magnificent glow of colour round Samarkand
in spring; Babars Violet Garden, near Kabul; or the Rose Garden at Lahore, with the slogan
heading on its entrance gate. Poor Rose Garden, its pergolas, and beds, it’s very walls are
gone; only its high, tiled gateway stands, The Mughals with their Tartar culture are great
tomb constructors other than gardeners. To search facts of their passion in this reverence
around Lahore is a fascinating occupation-key on the justification of the diverse samples one
comes upon of Nakkashi work which is, ornamented tiles so mainly used in their
beautification (Rehman, 2011, p. 173).

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 8
Mughal Gardens: the colonial period
Garden historian John Dixon Hunt has wan attention to the significance of the ongoing
reinterpretation and reception of gardens long time after their construction, in this case
through a century of late Mughal political decline (that however witnessed some outstanding
local garden projects), one and half-century of colonial rule.
This positively relates to Mughal gardens, that the British travellers started to accept as part of
the growing economic and political territory of the East India Company. Different European
businesspersons converted tombs into churches, residences, libraries, and clinics regarding upon their
distinct comforts. In each situation the garden prepared for healthy recreation and
surroundings particularly for the British who had by then established complex theories of
garden history at home (Moore, 2012, p. 45). Ancient monument and Agro-horticultural
protection societies were formed to encourage related benefits in the colonies. Viceroy
George Nathaniel Curzon made early interferences at the Taj Mahal. However, a later viceroy
raised the question of how much might be made by trading the Taj Mahal for it saves the
value. In one of the first art historical writings on gardens in India, E. B. Havell in 1904
complained the fast deterioration of those gardens, which he recognised to the damage of
native expertise and the growing mimicking of western garden fashion.
It was an accustomed romantic colonial cry that contributed in insignificant means to the maintenance
of native gardeners and the occurrence of Mughal garden history. The first groundbreaking
book on Mughal gardens was written in 1913 by the spouse of a British officer based in India,
Constance Mary Villiers-Stuart (Moitra, 2012, p. 492).
She expected that it to influence the landscape design for the original colonial capital in New
Delhi. Thoughtful management of garden conservation and history were obstacles.

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 9
Nevertheless, by the quick treatment of the topic in the archaeologist Sir John Marshall’s else
enduring Conservation Manual of 1927.
Most pleasure and public gardens were lost because of land pressures, but even fortress
garden courts and tomb-gardens were intensely changed in part due to the horticultural
division of the Archaeological Survey of India becameprimarily a main-tenancy operation
primarily.
Postcolonial Mughal gardens
With liberation in 1947 and the separation of Pakistan and India, numerous Mughal forts and
gardens were converted to refugee camps on both sides of the border. With time, they
developed slightly different meanings in the two countries, as a demonstration of national
cultural heritage in India and the Islamic garden in Pakistan. In both situations, nevertheless,
Mughal gardens have been openly understood mostly as places to walk, picnic and relax with friends
and family. As old gardens remain to be reconstructed and encroached upon, nonetheless,
“new Mughal gardens” are being developed for South Asian spread communities in the
luxury homes and of new moguls (Michell, 2017, p. 56).
Although the field of Mughal garden past developed gradually during the 1960s and 1970s, it
progressed considerably during the late twentieth century when garden archaeology projects
in Delhi, Agra, Kabul, and Nagpur, lit new light on garden technology and history.
The Nizamuddin project painting presented at the start of this paper going still further by relating cultural
heritage maintenance of Humayun’s tomb-garden with the urban ecological design at an extensive arboretum
immediately north of the tomb-complex, and the socioeconomic growth of the populated
Muslim community in the Nizamuddin Basti neighbourhood in south Delhi. The arboretum
helps visitors to comprehend the adapted and native vegetation and their small environments
that have influenced their architectural designs and human settlements in New Delhi
(Lehrman, 2012, p. 260).

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 10
The Nizamuddin Basti plans include educational curriculums in l ocal schools for
which the building is a learning aid.it was done so, the more magnificent Nizamuddin project
drew upon the full depth of Mughal garden history, from its precursors in Sultanate Delhi and
Central Asia to its pivotal role in the expansion of hereditary symbolic and territory meaning, its
despair for the last Mughal rulers, and its waves of conservation and reuse to the current
times. In each of these situations, the different cultural spaces of Mughal gardens have an
outer, a dynamic and an inner dimension which have shaped the personality of a region and
the growth of an art form.
Application of design principles in the design of the Mughal Gardens
i) Axial geometry
One of the main elements of a Mughal garden is its extremely structural geometry. Regarding
the axis is the basic rule for applying a Charbagh geometry. All the Mughal gardens are
divided into four equal parts with the use of walkways or water features that is one of the
primary vital principles which is seen in most of the Mughal gardens. The figure below is an
illustration of the axial geometry.
ii) Availability of a focal point

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 11
Once the intersection of the garden axes was established the next step which was involved in
the design of the Mughal Gardens was to come up with a focal point. In most cases, they
looked for decorative pieces such as
Marbled sculptures that complement other elements of the garden. The Shalimar Bagh
Garden has a summer pavilion, and also the Taj gardens contain the Taj Mahal. Some of the
gardens have opted for a raised quadrate platform having outdoor seating or wooden gazebo.
The figure below is an excellent example of garden containing a focal point.
iii) Availability of pools or running water
Pools and flowing water is a vital character of the Mughal gardens . The
Flowing water and the pools are referenced to the four rivers that ran through the Garden of
Eden. The combination of reflection of trees and the sky in a stream of water or pool is
representative of everything man appreciates in nature, a symbol of life. Mughal gardens
contain pools and canals along the axes, along with waterfalls and fountains (Boults, 2012, p.
384).
The Mughal gardens incorporate a water feature, like a Koi pond or small fountain along the
axes. A maintainable option they used was to add birdbaths along the axis footpaths. This

Mesmerizing Expression of Design Principles of Mughal Gardens 12
added small pools of water to the garden at the same time attracting animals that are
explanatory of life. The figure below shows an example of a Mughal garden with the water
feature.
iv) Ornamental detailing
The Mughal gardens comprise of symbolic detailing of ornaments which is inspired from the
family history and The Quran, contrasted with more earthly references like numerology, local
craftsmanship, and zodiac symbols. The figure below shows the ornamental detailing of the
Mughal gardens (Rehman, 2011, p. 71).
v) Colourful flower beds
The first visual tie you find with the Mughal Gardens is a spread of vibrant flowers. The
Mughal gardens are also scattered with trees of fruit as a symbol of life. At the same time
some Mughal gardens grow flowers in beds which are planned to complement the four-part
system, conventionally the flowers were allowed to grow wild and bloom.