History of Landscape Architecture In India.

#By Nabanil Baruah .

#Roll Number – 13
#Class – B.Arch. ( 7th semester )
#Subject – Landscape Design .
#College – Guwahati College Of Architecture .
Serial Number : Topic :

1. Abstract .

2. Theory Of Landscape Design In India .

3. Ancient India .

4. Mauryan Garden .

5. Hindu Garden .

6. Mughal Garden .

7. Rajput Garden .

8. European Influence In India .

9. Glossary .

10. References .
 Historically, lanscape design and garden design reached their zenith when designers have included suggestions and
inputs from different disciplines of science and philosophy. Most of the western landscpae history reveals this
tendency of growth and decline.
 This very nature of landscape assumed different meanings and evoked different responses in the indian sub-
contentent. Nature has been and still is an integral part of religion and culture and it is to highlight the releations
between humans and enviroment that this book strives to achieve. Studies in indian landscapes are scant and
strewn about in various sources. Texts, inscriptions, scrolls, pictographs, reliefs and religious architecture/sculpture.
& Provides us with some information.The main objective of this book is to integerate all such information into a
comprehensive and yet brief compilation which would help the lanscape researcher and also bring to the fore our
landscape heritage and expose it to a wider audience.
 Nature is so much an integral part of indian cultures that any dissection is done only for the purpose of
understanding nature and its releationship with humans. How much did our ancestors undersatand nature and how
sensitive were they in response to the natural environment. It requires an indepth knowledge of nature in order to be
sensetive to it. Some cultures use natural landscapes and manipulate them for certain desired ends, but this
veneration of nature is still to be found in the indian subcontinent and is manifest in various prayers rituals, and
customs associated with natural landscapes.
 Though some of these rituals have been inherited from the times when humans venerated nature and is associated
with barbarics times. It is astonishing to know that the ancients were highly sensitive to nature and had a profound
understanding of the working of the mother nature and this shall remain the main theme of the publication.
 The theory of landscape architecture / design in India can be defined in terms of the following components.

 1. A study of environmental/physical features/factors

 Geology, soils, hydrology, topography, climate, vegetation, wildlife and the ecological relationship must be understood
in order to affect changes in the environment.
 2. A study of socio – cultural factors

 – The relationship between religion and nature

 – The relationship between people – social factors.
 – The worship of the natural elements/trees (pre buddhist)
 – A deeper understanding of nature and elology through religious practices.
 – The use of banyan tree to save crops. The multicultural dimension
 – The hindu - the buddhist – the islamic – the christian – modern,
 – The integeration of landscape in urban areas based upon socio-cultural
diversity
 – Culture and vegetation – specific cultures and their requirements.
 – A study of history – regarding the hindu / buddhist / ancient perception of our environment and its relevance to
contemporary indian urban scapes.
 – Rites and rituals pertaining to nature / and natural elements.
 – Vanamahastav - vastu shastra.
 – Vanamahotsava.
 Little is known about the gardens of India's ancient Dravidian population. The oldest stone buildings in India were
made at Harappa in the lower Indus valley but their script has not been deciphered and there is no way of knowing
whether the small outdoor courts in their cities contained plants. The Harappans arranged streets on a grid plan and
formed courtyard houses. There is less archaeological evidence of early gardens elsewhere in India but the ancient
Hindu sacred books [e.g. the Ramayana and the Kama Sutra] give a remarkably detailed account of gardens in Ancient
India. Europe has more archaeological evidence of its ancient gardens but less textual evidence.
 The fertile plains of India were forested and buildings were relatively temporary structures in timber and mud.
Circular huts with thatched roofs were built on a pattern still used for grain and fuel stores. Village dwellings
consisted of a fenced compound containing mud-built huts with thatched roofs. A distinction was made between
short-life and long-life buildings. Temporary buildings (kachha - unripe, raw) were made of mud, wood and grass.
Permanent buildings (pukka - ripe, cooked) were of stone and burnt brick. Hindu palace and garden construction was
kachha and has not survived. Hindu temples were pukka and many survive in South India. In North India they were
often destroyed by Muslim invaders.
MAURYAN GARDENS
 Mauryan civilization, under the rule of Ashoka (269-232 BC), converted to Buddhism and built religious structures in
stone. Stupas representing Buddha's tomb, were placed in fenced enclosures. The Mauryan's also built palaces and
there is a Greek description (by Megasthenes) of a palace set amongst gardens at Patna. It had open halls and wooden
columns The Hindu scriptures (shastras) set down a code for the orientation and organization of buildings in relation
to compass points, hills, water and plants. This art (vastu - Sanskrit for nature ) travelled to China, along with
Buddhism, and developed into the Chinese art of feng shui. Enclosed outdoor space, in the form of courtyards,
became intrinsic to India housing. Town dwellings (haveli), also in mud, had rooms grouped round a courtyard. No old
palace buildings survive but rock carvings (e.g. at Sanchi and Ajanta) show them to have been airy structures with
timber columns. They compares with the construction of Persepolis and there was cultural contact between the
Mauryan and Achaemenid (Persian) civilizations. The illustrations at Ajanta show plants in front of and behind the
platform and columns. Michell comments that 'outside the palaces are gardens with fruit trees inhabited by birds as
well as ponds with ducks and fish'.
HINDU GARDENS
 Temples were places of pilgrimage, not congregational worship, usually with water for ritual bathing and a pilgrimage
path to a shrine. The washing places could be stepwells, stepped ponds or riverside Ghats (as at Benares - Varanasi).
They were not domestic gardens but they clearly belong to the tradition of sacred outdoor space.
 The earliest Indian palace to have been excavated, at Vijayanagara, has stone bases for a timber columned hall. Later
Indian palaces were built within forts and had less outdoor space. A mardana pattern was used: a stone-paved
courtyard (chowk) surrounded by residential apartments. In time, and under Muslim influence, palaces became more
spacious and chowks evolved into enclosed gardens. Rajasthan, which retained independendent kingdoms under
Moghul suzerainty, has the best examples of fortified palaces with gardens.
 Later Hindu palaces were pukka - built in stone, often on dry hills and heavily fortified. This constrained opportunities
for garden making, as in medieval Italy, because space and water were both in short supply. Many were rebuilt with
Muslim influence. Gwalior, already a citadel in the 8th century, was rebuilt between the thirteenth and eighteenth
centuries. Jodhpur is a stark hilltop fortress with a chowk (courtyard) as its central feature. Daulatabad is a hilltop
citadel. Golconda is a fortified hill rising 130 metres above the plain and supplied by an elaborate water system. Bihar
has a fortified palace and town with small paved courts within the palace.
 'Hindu’ describes the civilization and religion of the Indus valley. 'India' and 'Hindu' derive from 'Indus'. Linguistic
analysis identifies its origin as Indo-European (Aryan). Hinduism is not an organized religion, like Christianity or
Islam. It is more a set of beliefs and a way of life centered on a set of sacred texts (including the Bhagavad Gita, Rig
Veda and the Upanishadas). Hinduism is also a nature-loving faith. There are references to gardens in Hindu
literature, including tanks, lotus-shaped baths and lakes, creeper pavilions and tanks. Stories about Krishna appear
to be set in a garden context, as when he stole the clothes of the gopis (cowgirls) when they were bathing and when he
enjoyed being on a swing with Radha. The diagrams, right, represent (1) a Hindu garden with a courtyard palace,
flowery grove, lotus pool (2) a Hindu temple at the confluence of two rivers. The diagrams from Tom Turner Asian
gardens: beliefs, history and design (Routledge, 2011) Several Old Books (Puranas) describe the Creator God (Brahma)
as emerging from a lotus in the navel of Lord Vishnu. See note on the Vastu Shastra Mandala. Garden pools, in
woodland, grassland and rock, are a possible origin of the stepwells ( baoli or baori) which became such a notable
characteristic of Indian settlements.

 Harappan civilization flourished in the Indus valley c2000 BCE (e.g. at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa). They built in
stone but little is known of their beliefs. Early Buddhist buildings was made of wood and later of stone. It is not
known whether these buildings were influenced by Persia and Mesopotamia but Buddhism certainly influenced
construction of the oldest Hindu temples (after c100 CE). In Hinduism, the earth itself is worshiped as the mother
goddess Devi (the name means 'goddess'). She is incarnate in rivers which give fertility to the soil. Garlands thrown in
the water honour her. The other two great gods in the Hindu trinity are Shiva ('the destroyer') and Vishnu ('the
creator'). Each has many avatars and temples were built as places to honour and worship gods, with the guidance of
Brahmins.
 Kauṭilya (also known as Vishnugupta and Chanakya) was an advisor to King Chandragupta Maurya (r 321 – 297 BCE)
who unified north and south west India into a single state. His treatise on government states that ‘In areas lacking
water,he should construct wells, reservoirs, and springs, as well as flower gardens and fruit orchards’ (Penguin edn.,
translation by L.N Rangarajan). Cities were planned for security. 'Demarcation of the ground inside the fort shall be
made first by opening three royal roads from west to east and three from south to north. The fort shall contain twelve
gates, provided with both a land and water-way kept secret. Chariot-roads, royal roads, and roads leading to
drónamukha, stháníya, country parts, and pasture grounds shall each be four dandas (24 ft.) in width. Roads leading
to sayóníya, military stations (vyúha), burial or cremation grounds, and to villages shall be eight dandas in width.
Roads to gardens, groves, and forests shall be four dandas. Roads leading to elephant forests shall be two dandas.
Roads for chariots shall be five aratnis (7½ ft.). Roads for cattle shall measure four aratnis; and roads for minor
quadrupeds and men two aratnis. Royal buildings shall be constructed on strong grounds. In the midst of the houses
of the people of all the four castes and to the north from the centre of the ground inside the fort, the king’s palace,
facing either the north or the east shall, as described elsewhere, be constructed occupying one-ninth of the whole site
inside the fort. Royal teachers, priests, sacrificial place, water-reservoir and ministers shall occupy sites east by north
to the palace. Royal kitchen, elephant stables, and the store-house shall be situated on sites east by south. On the
eastern side, merchants trading in scents, garlands, grains, and liquids, together with expert artisans and the people
of Kshatriya caste shall have their habitations.' (translation by R. Shamasastry).

 A mandala is a 2-dimensional representation of the cosmos with the god and his palace at the centre. Hindu temples
are 3-dimensional mandalas. They are rectangular enclosures with a sanctuary at the centre, a tall structure to
represent Mount Meru (the centre of the universe). In her study of The Hindu Temple (1946) Stella Kramrisch noted
that 'The gods always play where groves are near rivers, mountains and springs, and in towns with pleasure gardens'.
Temples are therefore sited in relation to rivers and groves. They are places of pilgrimage, not places of congretational
worship. Though associated with Buddhism, the mandala idea is Hindu in origin.
 Nelson Wu, in Chinese and Indian Architecture: the City of Man, the Mountain of God and the Realm of the
Immortals, 1963) sees the circle as a symbol of Indian civilization. He contrasts the 'Indian world of holy places' [the
Mountain of God] with the square as a symbol of Chinese civilization [the 'Chinese world of walled cities' - the City of
Man]. Buddhist and Hindu design ideas grew together.
 Sadly, there is little visual evidence for the design and character of gardens in ancient India. There however a number
of textual references to gardens in the Ramayana and other old books.
There Champac and As'oka flowers
Hung glorious o'er the summer bowers,
And mid the waving verdure rose
Gold, silver, ivory porticoes.
Through all the months in ceaseless store
The trees both fruit and blossom bore.
With many a lake the grounds were graced;
Seats gold and silver, here were placed;
Here every viand wooed the taste,
It was a garden meet to vie
E'en with the home of Gods on high.
Mughal Gardens
 From the 12th century onwards India was progressively occupied by Arabs, Turks and Mongols. They came from the
west and north bringing knowledge of a new religion (Islam), new weapons and new building techniques. They used
mortar to make stone arches, hitherto unknown in India. When the Muslims became conquerors, forts were required
to protect the rulers' elegant stone palaces, as at Delhi and Agra . Both have lost the mud buildings which comprised
the servants quarters within the fortifications. They are described as Mughal, which is an Indian version of Mongol.
 Muslim kings also introduced a new building type to India: royal tombs of the kind built for Timur in Samarkand.
Tombs were not part of the Hindu tradition, because life and death are seen as part of an endless cycle of rebirth.
Arabic Islam had discouraged elaborate tomb building as a type of self-glorification, contrary to the principle that all
men are equal before God. Nor had the Mongols built tombs in their nomadic centuries. The practice of tomb-building
may have been inspired by Buddhist stupas or, more probably, by China. Chinese emperors had long built tombs in
protective enclosures.
 In India, the practice of building ornate tombs in walled enclosures became highly developed. The Mughal innovation
was to treat the enclosed outdoor space as a garden. The words over the entrance to Akbar's tomb at Sikandra explain
the reasoning: 'These are the gardens of Eden: enter them to dwell therein eternally'. The tomb garden became a
microcosm of the world. The three types of garden made by the Mughals were:
 tomb gardens (e.g. Humayun's Tomb and the Taj Mahal)

 palace gardens (e.g. at Delhi and Agra)

 encampment gardens (e.g. the Shalimar Bagh gardens at Srinagar, Lahore and Delhi)

Each type was conceived, in an Islamic context, as the making of an earthly paradise.
 The Rajputs, a warrior class, retained much of their power during periods of Mughal and European influence. The
style of their palaces and gardens became partly Hindu and partly foreign-influenced, their form relating to the classic
Indian townhouse and farmhouse (haveli): rooms opening onto a courtyard (chowk) with a wall to give protection from
the outside world. Palace forts had immensely strong fortifications and specialized chowks for men, women, relatives,
guests, cooking, horses etc. Under Muslim influence, and with increased prosperity, chowks developed into paradise
gardens. This was a progressive development with garden design playing an increasingly significant part in palace
layout.

 Orchha, on a fortified island in the River Betwa, has several palaces within its walls, some with gardens. Chittor has a
great fortress, on a ridge, with roof terraces and balconies overlooking the surrounding landscape. Udaipur is a vast
composition of palace, garden courts, artificial lake, island gardens, forests and hunting lodges. Mandu –The ‘City of
Joy’ - has a spectacular site and a garden palace (Jahaz Mahal) built between two lakes. Amber has an island garden
outside its fortifications, internal garden courts and an old mardana with a central chowk. Jaipur is an integrated
palace and city design. Deeg is protected by moats and fortifications but the palace buildings are located on the axes
of a chahar bagh type garden.
 As European influence on India became significant, several factors contributed to a new wave of palace building. First
there was more security than during the last 150 years of Mughal rule. Second, there was more wealth as new
technology and trading opportunities benefitted the Indian economy. Third, the Mughal law requiring the transfer of
wealth and property to the imperial treasury after a man died had discouraged private palace building. For all these
reasons there was a building boom from the eighteenth century onwards led by Indian princes. Portuguese and
French influence was strong in South India. Not seeing themselves as colonists, the British built few large estates for
their own use but British architects were active in India.

 To begin with, the new palaces were built style was a blend of Mughal and Rajput. As the nineteenth century
progressed European influence became stronger but was rarely dominant. Indian buildings and gardens remained
distinctively Indian, including the government complex in Delhi designed by Edwin Lutyens. Hyderabad has an
extensive walled compound (the Chau Mahalla - Four Halls) with buildings composed with formal gardens and water
tanks. At Baroda the Lakshmi Vilas is arranged round three courtyards (for the public, for the maharaja and for the
women) and is set in a large landscape park. At Jodhpur a new palace was designed, by a British architect and 3 km
from the old fortress, to draw upon Indian motifs..
 Dravidian: the people who inhabited India before the Aryan invasion of the sub-continent. Their language influence is
strongest in South India (Tamil Nadu) which remained outside the Mughal Empire
 Aryan: the word means 'noble' and is used for the Sanskrit-speaking Indo-European people who settled Europe and
North India. (Hitler used the word Aryan to describe people with fair skin and blue eyes).
 Hindu: the people, culture, religion and way of life developed by Aryan people in the Indus Valley and then throughout
India
 Timurid: derived from Timur Tamerlane, the word is used for the gardens of Timur's capital (Samarkand in
Uzbekistan)
 Mughal: the Indian word for Mongol (the people from Mongolia)

 Rajah: Hindu for king

 Maharjah: a great king (maha means great)

 Raj: a British adaption of Rajah, used to mean ruler

 Rajput: 'son of a king' and thus a member of the Hindu warrior caste claiming descent from Kshatriyas, to which
Hindu Kings belonged).
 www.Wikipedia.com
 www.gardenvisit.com
 www.academia.edu