By Leigh Newman. Photography by Stefano Amantini GILDING THE LOTUS. Imperial India planted the green in the Golden Triangle; please come right in.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "By Leigh Newman. Photography by Stefano Amantini GILDING THE LOTUS. Imperial India planted the green in the Golden Triangle; please come right in."

Prosper Hopkins
5 years ago
Views:

1 By Leigh Newman Photography by Stefano Amantini GILDING THE LOTUS Imperial India planted the green in the Golden Triangle; please come right in.

2 Heaven on Earth: Cypresses symbolize the eternal in the Taj Mahal s gardens.

Empire builders (from above): An English noblewoman oversaw the creation of the Moghul-style Lodi Gardens around still-intact tombs in 1936; the view from the minaret of the Jama Masjid mosque, built

The ruling class (from above):the Red Fort, the seat of Moghul power until 1857, when their reign ended; the gardens around Humayun s tomb, opposite, inspired the Taj Mahal; the tomb chamber, below.

Step onto the streets of New Delhi and you re already covered with dust clouds of it flying up from the cars, the cows, the bicycle rickshaws, the 1940s-era taxis honking up the streets.

3 Empire builders (from above): An English noblewoman oversaw the creation of the Moghul-style Lodi Gardens around still-intact tombs in 1936; the view from the minaret of the Jama Masjid mosque, built at the height of the Moghuls reign, takes in all of old Delhi. The ruling class (from above):the Red Fort, the seat of Moghul power until 1857, when their reign ended; the gardens around Humayun s tomb, opposite, inspired the Taj Mahal; the tomb chamber, below. Delicate lattices would become a Moghul signature. Northern India isn t lush. Step onto the streets of New Delhi and you re already covered with dust clouds of it flying up from the cars, the cows, the bicycle rickshaws, the 1940s-era taxis honking up the streets. In place of all this heat and noise and movement as exotic as it is imagine a coolness. Peach blossoms flowering against the dark leaves of trees and pomegranates ripening on the bushes. Vines of moon-white jasmine blooming in the evenings and rose-colored stone gazebos standing at the edges of marble pools. From behind the walls of a silk tent, there is the sound of laughter and stringed music. And as you wander through the surrounding forests of asoka and pear trees, wild deer approach you, tame enough to eat from your hand. To build a fortress, to conquer a people is one thing. To conquer the land itself and nature along with it is another. But that s just what the Moghuls, a line of Muslim emperors, did in northern India in the 16th century. Today, the world comes to this region (also known as the Golden Triangle) to see the Moghuls stone and marble monuments Udaipur s Lake Palace or Jaipur s Palace of the Winds, legendary tombs like the Taj Mahal. But around these domed and minareted architectural triumphs lie their gardens, the physical world they created flower by flower, leaf by leaf, vine by vine in the very same arid landscape that should have stunted this greenery. The outdoor-loving, nomadic Moghuls lived in their gardens, using the palace buildings as a symbol of might. And because they lived there, the gardens expressed their devotion to the Muslim religion. Each cypress tree that lined a pathway or terrace symbolized eternity. Every rigidly patterned flower bed functioned like a stained-glass window in a church, but with this or that square of color illustrating a part of the heavento-come promised in the Koran. Over the centuries, as new invaders came and conquered, the gardens began to disappear. Their flowers were planted over; their terraces crumbled. But in recent years, restorations have brought some back to life, and other restorations are currently underway, including the floating lake garden in Jaipur s Amber Palace and the Ram Bagh tomb garden in Agra. A renewed interest in the country s Moghul heritage has even inspired the building of new gardens. In Jaipur, the Jai Mahal Palace, now a hotel, has re-created the lost lotus gardens of Dholpur right on its grounds, down to the sandstone pavilions, flowing water channels, and fruit trees. VEDI, VIDI, VICI...AND VINES? When India s first Moghul ruler, Barbur, came down from Afghanistan in 1526, he should have been pleased with his conquest. He was a descendant of the Mongol leader Genghis Khan. But he was also a teenager 118 TRAVEL HOLIDAY

4 DELHI I N D I A

Like some kind of 16th-century Las Vegas developer, he planted and cleared and terraced and replanted, creating a mini Afghanistan in India, complete with waterfall-like fountains and running,

5 who grew up in the mountains, surrounded by rivers and forests. As he wrote in his journal, Hinustan is a country of few charms...there are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, no muskmelons, or good fruits, no ice or cold water... It was hot, dry, plain country, one he was determined to change. Like some kind of 16th-century Las Vegas developer, he planted and cleared and terraced and replanted, creating a mini Afghanistan in India, complete with waterfall-like fountains and running, streamlike gutters. Barbur s son, Humayun, inherited his father s landscaping ambitions. Humayun s garden and tomb in Delhi served as the model for the Taj Mahal. Like everybody who comes to this 30- acre walled garden (or to almost any Indian tomb or palace), the first thing I do is look up and stand there looking up for quite a while. It s hard not to when there s a 125-foot-high domed tomb rising up out of the earth, supported by arch after arch after arch in red sandstone. Hundreds of carved-stone screens throw lace-like shadows over my feet. It s quiet. It s ancient-smelling. It s the resting place of 5 out of 17 emperors. But once you get used to the idea that the sense of scale in India is off the scale, step outside. There, you get a different kind of perspective on Moghul creativity. The first thing you notice is that all paths lead to the tomb, and so does everything else. And, of course, it all should, since the tomb symbolizes a kind of heavenly mountain in Islam. Four water channels (re-creating the Koran s four rivers of paradise) cut the square garden into four internal squares. (Drought and ancient plumbing limit the use today of water in most Moghul gardens.) Then, each of those four squares is further cut into four and so on, creating a geometric layout known as a chahar-bagh. A little happy-faced, potbellied puppy (like the hundreds of them fat and thin on the streets of India) follows me, sure I ll drop a cracker if he waits long enough. But not even his presence can diminish the regal quality of this place. The dust-colored pathways stretch out impossibly long, impossibly neat lined with palm trees and henna hedges. Equally long sandstone water channels lead to little surprises like a wading pool in the shape of a lotus blossom, where the puppy grabs a quick drink from a puddle. Strangely, leaving this garden helps you understand the wonder it was in its prime. Step outside its massive, arched gates and the birds, the trees, the color green disappears. Boom. You re back in modern New Delhi, where the dust rises up off the parking lots, cars rev, horns blast, a turbaned man sits charming a cobra out of a basket today s version of Indian exotica. TOMB IT MAY CONCERN The following day, I take the train to Agra. It s only about a four-hour trip, past villages and water buffalo in ditches and women in saris so brilliantly colored you almost reach for sunglasses. The city of Agra itself, though, is disappointing. There s a bazaar with the ordinary selection of eyeglass shops, pharmacies, and scorpion-venom salesmen; the usual backpackers district with posted menus promising exotic dishes like spaghetti bolognese; and the strip of almost-luxury hotels, landscaped and swimming-pooled as if in imitation of the gardens I ve come to see. I m not alone (not that anyone gets to be alone in a population of more than one billion). Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal; everybody who doesn t live here has come here to see the tribute that Shah Jahan built to his dead wife in They ll see it at sunset, at sunrise, in the moonlight, as many times as they can squeeze in before they leave; each time is different since the pearlescent marble changes color as the light changes. But the one place many visitors forget to look at in the Taj is in the water. The long oblong pools reflect the monument s domes and minarets. Water creates special effects: It tinkles; it silences the outside world; it cools; it makes things look bigger in reflection, which helps if your tomb is supposed to symbolize that heavenly mountain in that far-off paradise. Today, everybody gets to use the Taj gardens (that is, everybody who can afford the $20 entrance fee). Beside the lines of dark, tapered cypress trees, couples sprawl out on the grass terraces staring at the tomb, the river behind it, and the water buffalo that pull plough-like lawn mowers across the chahar-bagh squares. Under the shade of flame-pink bougainvillea bushes, women weeders stop for lunch, dipping hunks of fried poori bread into homemade curries. A middle-aged Indian woman in a Punjab suit (the flowing dress and pants usually worn by Muslim women) approaches me. May I? she says shyly, pointing to her camera as the rest of her eightmember family laugh. And so we gather around in front of the 16th-century aquamarine wading pool, me the American blond in the center with her, her husband, his brother, and six children for a group photo. SLEEPING WITH THE EMPERORS About 150 miles south lies Jaipur, or the Pink City, named for the color of its buildings (painted by Maharaja Ram Singh in the late 1800s to beautify the city for the visit of the Prince of Wales). Here you find sandstone palaces with lattice-like carved screens on the same traffic-filled street as gem vendors, incense-sellers, shoe- and mask- and firecracker-makers. This is the most beautiful point of the Golden Triangle, and also the only city of the three that s found in Rajasthan, the desert kingdom of India. But neither the Amber Palace nor the gardens that surround it are truly Moghul. They were built in the late 16th century by an Indian ruler named Maharaja Man Singh in a mix of Indian and Moghul styles. Moghuls ruled by persuasion rather than force. They tolerated Hinduism. (In fact, Moghul emperor Akbar even threw religious debates, inviting Muslims, Jain, 120 TRAVEL HOLIDAY

6 AGRA I N D I A This side of paradise (from top):visitors come from all over India to the Taj; due to frequent drought, the tomb s gardens are among the few with working fountains; the Itimad-Ud-Daulah tomb influenced the Taj s builders; the Anguri Bagh gardens, above.

Being treated royally (top to bottom): Spend a night at the Jai Mahal Palace hotel double rooms start at $210; the knot gardens at the Amber Palace each knot was planted in a different color to mimic

Inside the harem (opposite):the Palace of the Winds was built in 1799 to allow the ladies of the royal household to look out over the city and its bazaars without being seen.

Of course, as a tribute, Singh incorporated Moghul style into his massive palace and its gardens.

7 Being treated royally (top to bottom): Spend a night at the Jai Mahal Palace hotel double rooms start at $210; the knot gardens at the Amber Palace each knot was planted in a different color to mimic the patterns of an Oriental carpet; the valley below the palace. Inside the harem (opposite):the Palace of the Winds was built in 1799 to allow the ladies of the royal household to look out over the city and its bazaars without being seen.the honeycomb sandstone windows were a common feature in Moghul architecture. Parisis, and Jewish scholars to speak.) Most important, to secure loyalty, Moghul emperors married Indian princesses. Of course, as a tribute, Singh incorporated Moghul style into his massive palace and its gardens. The first thing I see when I get off my elephant (touristy yes, but worth it, if just for the bejeweled headdress the beast wears and for the ride to the top of the cliff that the palace sits on) is a mini chahar-bagh anchored by cypresses. Through a narrow window, you can see a series of terraces, each one decorated with ornate knot garden beds (created by stucco curbs that weave in and out of each other). In Moghul days, they were filled with brightly colored flowers to create a kind of living oriental carpet. Nowadays, Moghul heritage is Indian heritage. And it s a heritage that Indians have learned to appreciate and to market. After viewing the Amber Palace, I spend the night in the Jai Mahal Palace a genuine sleeping place of Indo-Moghul royalty. Here, the English bowling green has been converted into a chahar-bagh, complete with fountains and waterchutes and gazebos made of sandstone. Peacocks sashay across the flower beds and parrots squawk in the fruit trees. At night, the hotel even throws gala, candlelit dinners in the garden, with turbaned attendants and traditional puppet shows. And though there s a touch of Disney in all this, there s still an authenticity just seeing, say, a grapevine growing on a latticework of stone. Before leaving the country, I go back to Agra. Across the siltfilled Yamuna river from the Taj Mahal stands Ram Bagh, the earliest of India s Moghul gardens. You won t find anyone here. Everyone seems to have forgotten it, except for the few old men working to restore the intricate arabesques of carved stone on one of the pavilions. A few boys run up to greet me as I enter, curious, it seems, as to why I d want to see their playground. But that s what this one still is, a playground the way the Moghuls envisioned it. We walk together down the sandstone pathways, the stone getting redder and redder as the sun sets over the river water. We walk through the chahar-bagh, passing broken terrace after broken terrace, crumbling pavilion after crumbling pavilion. Weeds are growing everywhere, and bushes. Tamarinds and guavas ripen on branches. Monkeys chatter in the banyan trees. And at the edge of the garden near the pool that surrounds the tomb, I find water buffalo grazing on the muddy banks below. Despite its decaying state, Ram Bagh still feels the most Moghul of all. The lushness may come from overgrown vines and weeds. But it s green; it s dense. You can hear the rippling sounds of the river water and taste its coolness as it blows up and over the walls. They can no longer keep anyone out. But they seem to keep something in silence, the smell of wet and growing things, and the mystery of something forgotten. TH For details on visiting India s Moghul palaces and gardens, turn to Essentials. 122 TRAVEL HOLIDAY

8 Welcome to the palaces (from top): Jaipur s Amber Palace doubled as a fort inner rooms and courtyards have delicate alabaster and marble reliefs; the facade of the Palace of the Winds; flowered tiles and complex geometric patterns, like those in the Amber Palace gardens, are typical Moghul features they represent paradise as described in the Koran; playing hooky in Jaipur. JAIPUR I N D I A

Online Book Club. Bring It To Life!

Online Book Club. Bring It To Life! Online Book Club Bring It To Life! 1. Map it! Find India on a world map. Draw India and the countries surrounding it on a poster board. Label India, its neighbors, and any bodies of water near it. What