Baugh-e-Begum (Garden of Maqbara)

 Baugh-e-Begum (Garden of Maqbara)

 

Mughals had prioritized the use of architectural ideologies to manipulate the setting and background and to create pleasing environments i.e. site, layout, garden and watering mechanisms. The Persian art of Paradise Gardens known as 'Chahar Baugh' was dexterously applied while raising the garden of the Maqbara at Aurangabad.[1]The Maqbara was probably the first specimen in the Deccan designed on the principles of Chahar Baugh. Paradise gardens were always primarily included in all constructions. The plan of the garden was worked out in a regular arrangement of four squares often subdivided into smaller square-shaped plots, with a lily pond a lotus pool or a pleasure pavilion in the centre.[2] This was called the Char-Baugh in Urdu from the Persian word Chahar-Baugh.[3]

Genghis Khan's followers invaded Persia in the thirteenth century after they came to know about the civilization which existed for 2000 years. Persia had endured wars and invasions by the Greeks, Byzantines and Turks. In 642 AD, Persia was annexed by Arabs to become a part of the great Muslim empire.[4] Despite the turbulence, the recognizable Persian tradition of art and living survived.

An enduring part of Persian art and tradition was the “Paradise Park” or the “Paradise Garden”, a concept that goes far back into history and which was linked with the earliest of times with deep love for trees and flowers.

Khusrau II in 590 AD made a paradise garden dating back to the end of the Umayyad dynasty.[5] Though the paradise garden is not a unique Persian idea, it was developed there more fruitfully than anywhere else.

It became a tradition. The Crusaders brought back the idea of the Paradise Garden to France and England. In their medieval gardens, a well and a tank were placed at the centre of the crossing paths which divided the paradise garden into four quarters.[6] Persian art and tradition of Paradise Garden or Chahar Baugh is skilfully used at the garden of Safavid Shah Abbas of Isfahan, Iran.[7]

A vivid offshoot of Persian art can be seen in the Moorish gardens of southern Spain, which came to perfection under Arab rule.[8] But the greatest offshoot of all and the one most closely influenced by Persia herself was the garden tradition of the Great Mughals. The ebb and flow of tides of nomads from across Persia were relevant in many ways to the development of the Mughal Art in India during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the central Asian invaders of India passed first through Persia and brought with them some resonances of Iranian culture into India.[9]

Babar was fully conversant with the Chahar Baugh traditions of gardening. The famous gardens which he erected in Kabul were Bagh-i-Banafsha, Bagh-i-Padshahi and Bagh-i-Chinar.[10] The Paradise Garden tradition was introduced in India by Babar in the most magnificent way by raising gardens, Baugh-e-Nilufar at Dholpur and Baugh-e-Bihisht at Agra.[11] The garden craft Babar founded in India was based on the fundamental principles of Chahar-Baugh with modifications of placing residential palaces or tombs in the centre. The Rumbaugh at Agra is the only garden that has survived out of all the gardens raised by Babar in India.[12] Humayun's tomb in Delhi is one of the best examples of Char-Baugh gardens built in India.

Akbar raised many gardens while constructing several palaces at Fatehpur Sikri and the Fort of Agra. His own tomb at Sikandara near Agra is based on Persian traditions. The world-famous Shalimar Garden in Kashmir was founded by Jahangir who made much praised the beauty of the garden in his memoirs Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri in 1620 AD.

Shah Jahan, the great builder of the world, brought glory to the Persian Chahar-Baugh tradition. He introduced an innovation in the system by blending it with the Indian system.

The Chashma Shahi (Royal Spring) in Kashmir, Shalimar Baugh in Delhi, Shalimar Baugh in Lahore, the gardens in Lahore Fort, the Red Fort at Delhi and the Red Fort at Agra are some of the specimens of this tradition.

The gardens of the Taj Mahal at Agra are one of the best specimens of the art of Chahar Baugh developed in the new Indo-Iranian traditions.[13]

Young Aurangzeb inherited the taste of his forefathers. He was equally fond of gardens. He is the first Mughal Emperor who introduced the Chahar-Baugh tradition in the Deccan by raising the garden at the Bibi-ka-Maqbara. Prince Aurangzeb was very fond of grapes, mangoes, apples and flowers and hence he used to order the Daroga Khwaja Muharram Khan to develop gardens in various places.[14]

The garden popularly known as Bagh-e-Begum is one of the specimens of his taste for gardens.

The Mughal garden at the Maqbara of Rabiya Daurani is known as Bagh-e-Begum as referred to by Asif Jah I. [15]  The original name of the garden could not be traced.

The Mughal Garden at the Maqbara of Rabiya Daurani is based on the Chahar Baugh system raised on the banks of a big lake and beside hillocks.[16] The Garden is divided into eight quarters and the mausoleum of Rabiya Daurani occupies the central position. The length of the garden measures 500 yards (1500 feet) from North to South and 300 yards (900 feet)[17] from East to West surrounded by a boundary wall and watch towers or umbrellas at all four corners of the battlement to keep the surrounding area safe from unwanted elements. The similarity of the patterns designed on this boundary wall can be compared with the boundary wall of the garden at the Taj Mahal. Each crenulation is inlaid in a floral pattern in white marble at the Taj Mahal,[18] whereas white Choona (lime) plaster is used at the Maqbara.[19]

The positions of the water channels, ponds, cascades and fountains are gorgeously set on all eight sides of the garden.[20] The basic design of this Chahar-Baugh or Paradise Garden is very simple. It also has an idealized form of the pattern of irrigation, in which the water channels cross each other in the centre of the garden dividing the rectangular area into four equal quarters and sub-quarters.

The three cisterns raised at the three sides of the main platform of the tomb are supplied with water directly through earthen pipes from the source.[21] The water cisterns are raised above the level of the surrounding garden area of the Maqbara to serve the purpose of irrigation on each side of the garden. The water channels form across by the intersection of the water channels which has been the symbol of the meeting of humanity and God in many religions and water itself is a symbol as well as a necessity of life.[22] Thus this design seems to be symbolic. The water channels are supplied with water from the main storage tanks raised at the platform of the Maqbara to irrigate the trees planted on all sides of the channels and also to irrigate flower beds and trees all around the garden. A more complex symbol not found in the earlier Paradise Gardens but much used by the Mughals in India particularly at the Maqbara at Aurangabad is the eight octagonal cisterns built at the eight intersections of the water channels. The octagon symbolizes the reconciliation of the material side of man which is represented by a square, with a circle around it symbolizing eternity. In the later Paradise Gardens and still more in those of the Mughals other forms of symbolism play a significant part.[23]

 

The Maqbara garden is divided into seven parts which represent the seven divisions of the Holy Quran (called Manzil).[24] A characteristic of this garden is geometric symmetry which is interlaced and overlaid with the freedom of plant growth.[25]

Spring flowers grow informally from the exact turf plot, roses are spread all around the cisterns and water channels and trees branch out in their natural forms. The intellectual concept of geometric order is wedded to the freedom of organic growth.

While setting the plan of the garden for the Taj Mahal at Agra, the garden has been laid out entirely in front of the tomb[26] but the tomb of Rabiya Daurani at Aurangabad is built in the centre and the principles of Paradise Gardens have been implemented.[27] The tomb of Humayun is also similarly raised in the centre of its garden.[28]

The garden at the Maqbara in Aurangabad has a unique system of water supply to irrigate the garden and to make the water spring from its fountains. Life-giving water is one of the principal adornments as well as the very life and soul, the “raison d'être” of the garden. Water flows through to the canals, jets of water, waterfalls, cascades and ponds. Canals and cisterns were constructed to keep the water from brimming to the level of the paths on either side. The shallow water channels, measuring 488 feet in length and 9 feet in breadth, are paved on all four sides of the tomb and the clear rivulets run in and out between the groves of the avenues reflecting the sky in the water that flows through it.

The garden contains 61 pearl-shaped fountains[29] with an eight-foot gap between each fountain. The purpose of the fountains is to feast on the eyes of the beholders as well as to cool down the temperature which facilitates the growth of flowers and plants and keeps them hydrated and fresh.

There are four big cisterns paved at the main gate, one at the Mosque, another at the Jamal Khana[30] and the last at the southern pavilion. The size of the cistern at the main gate is 28 feet in length, 18 feet in breadth and 3 feet in depth. There are also four big cisterns on the four sides of the platform of the tomb which receive water directly from the three huge wells constructed outside the boundary wall nearby. The water springs into the cisterns through a beautiful fountain carved out to resemble a lotus and raised in the centre of each cistern.[31] The surplus water in the cistern flows out through an outlet in the sidewall of the cistern and comes down through the chute built on the sidewall of the platform. The surface of the water chute is carved in marble in a pattern that gives a cascading effect to the water as it flows down the chute.[32]

The garden contains a profusion of trees orange, lime, pomegranate, peach, a few apple trees[33] and mango trees.[34] The garden enriches the beauty of the Maqbara and is a feast to the eyes and hearts of the visitors.

The garden enriches the beauty of the Maqbara and enchants the souls of the visitors.

 

 

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[1] Photo as above also see a plan of Maqbara, p. 2 & 162

[2] Garden Plan of Maqbara, p. 2, 129, 162

[3] Donald N. Wilber, “Persian Gardens and Garden Pavilions” (Tokyo, 1962), p. 34

[4] Sylvia Crowe, “The Gardens of Mughal India”, (Delhi, Vikas Publication House Pvt. Ltd., 1973, p.20

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., p. 20

[7] Sylvia, op. cit. p. 18

[8] Ibid., P.21

[9] Ibid.

[10] R. Nath, op. cit., p. 3

[11] Ibid., p. 3

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid., p. 132-173

[14] S.M. Pagadi, “Mughal Darbarchi Batmi Patre”, op. cit., p. 35

[15] Anecdotes of Nizam-ul-Mulk, Lala Manikram, no. 23, p. 130

[16] Ground plan of Maqbara., p. 2, 162

[17] Maharashtra Govt. Gazette dated 3^rd May 1973 serial no. 269. List of (Sunni) Wakfs in the Hyderabad Area of the State of Maharashtra, Form A. p. 42

Note: District Gazetteers on page 951 stated 500 yards long and 300 yards wide and seems to be correct. Wakiyat Mamlequat Bijapur also stated 500x300 yards on page No. 9. Quila-e-Suba-e-Khujista Buniyad (A Persian unpublished report) stated 500x300 yards folio no. 4-A.

[18] Sylvia, op. cit. p. 169

[19] Hambly, op. cit., p. 51

[20] Plan of Maqbara Garden, p. 2, 130

[21] Plan of Maqbara and water supply, p. 129, 141

[22] Sylvia, op. cit., p. 17

[23] Ibid. p. 20

[24] Ibid.

[25] Plan of Maqbara Garden, p. 197

[26] Carroll, op. cit., p.91

[27] Plan of Maqbara Garden, op. cit.,

[28] Sylvia, op. cit., p. 73

[29] Bilgrami, op. cit., p. 234. Bilgrami has quoted 60 fountains and 6 feet width of the shallow watercourses is incorrect.

[30] Seely (1825 AD) counted 13 fountains in “Wonders of Ellora” on page No. 383 which seems to be incorrect.

[31] Photo plate no., A, p. 521

[32] Photo plate no., C, p. 573

[33] Seely, op. cit., p. 383

[34] Only mango trees now remain standing, in large numbers.