How green is my valley?

Exploring the relationship between a people and their land, Gardens of Delight — Indian Gardens Through the Ages illustrates historical gardens and their traditions, and the evolution of these lush green spaces in modern times

Visiting the monastic university of Nalanda in AD 630, the Chinese pilgrim Hsieun Tsang described the surrounding gardens in these words: ...the temple arose into the mists and the shrine halls stood high above the clouds... streams of blue water wound through the parks; green lotus flowers sparkled among the blossoms of sandal (wood) trees and a mango grove spread outside the enclosure.

Accounts of travellers such as Hsieun Tsang are vivid descriptions of a people and their relationship with their land. Megasthenes, the Greek traveller sent as an ambassador to India by Seleucus I of Syria, visited the palace of Chandragupta Maurya and described it as follows: ...in the Indian royal parks, tame peacocks are kept... there are shady groves and pasture grounds planted with trees... while some trees are native to the soil, others are brought from other parts and with their beauty enhance the charm of the landscape.

 

This relationship of gardens with the perception of beauty, aptly summed up in the word sumansa (that which pleases the mind), is not without its accompanying prescriptive texts, which describe the modes and methods that one should follow when planning a garden. The Kamasutra, for example, states that every house should have a vrakshavatika or a pushpavatika, both terms referring to a garden that accommodates plants and fruit trees as well as herb and medicinal gardens.

Ponds, lakes, canals or tanks were other features to be found in these gardens. A variyantra as described by Kalidasa, the Sanskrit dramatist and poet, was a novel device used to spray water on plantations — water flowed from fountains through narrow drains called kulya to irrigate the gardens, while water-wheels spurted jets of water into flowerbeds and circular ditches (alavala) at the base of trees. So elaborate were some of these systems that Kalidasa referred to one such palace garden and its four accompanying fountains as Samudragraha, which translates into ‘House of the Sea’.

The sophistication that exemplified early landscape and garden design in ancient India was due in part to a number of treatises on the subject, the most famous and comprehensive of all being the Vaastu Shastra. Literally translated from the Sankrit, the word vaastu refers to a site, building or house, while shastra refers to a treatise or instruction...

A critical component of the Vaastu Shastra, the Vaastu Purusha Mandala, describes both mathematically and diagrammatically the basis for generating design. The purusha mandala is representative of a very specific mandala (diagram depicting the microcosm of the universe), which in the context of architecture and gardens, can be defined as a metaphysical plan of a building and suite that reflects the course of heavenly bodies and supernatural forces. Within the mandala... the surface of the earth is represented as a square with deities presiding over each direction (ashtadikpalar).

Among the greatest manifestations of the purusha mandala is the city plan of Jaipur, Rajasthan, in the form of a mandala, and the temple complex in Madurai, Tamil Nadu... where golden lilies once grew.

The development of a treatise such as the Vaastu Shastra can only be a product of an evolved and structured society where art has dedicated patrons.

GARDENS OF DELIGHT
Author: Rahoul B Singh
Publisher: Roli Books
Pages: 192
Price: Rs 1,295