Pinjore Gardens

[Mathew Moothasseril]

An evening in Pinjore Gardens
Rana Safvi JULY 22, 2018 00:15 IST
UPDATED: JULY 21, 2018 22:11 IST
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The beautiful garden was abandoned briefly because of a strange rumour

My first visit to a Mughal garden was many decades ago. I was a
teenager then and was taken to visit the sprawling Pinjore Gardens in
Panchkula district of Haryana. The Pinjore Gardens came under the
territory ruled by the Maharajas of Patiala before independence. They
were renamed as the Yadavindra Gardens after Yadavindra Singh, the
Maharaja of Patiala who ruled from 1938 to 1974 and who restored the
garden to its former glory.

Grand gardens in India

But first the concept of grand gardens in India. Art historian
Catherine Asher writes that though there we find mentions of sacred
groves around Buddhist and Hindu shrines, as well as the names of
myriad flowers and trees, it was Babur, the founder of the Mughal
empire in India, who introduced the concept of grand gardens here.
Though Babur held Samarkand briefly, its garden and the concept of
charbagh (a quadrilateral garden layout based on the four gardens of
Paradise mentioned in the Koran) made a profound impression on him.
After he established his kingdom in India, Babur created many gardens.
The first of them was the Aram Bagh in Agra, now named the Ram Bagh.
His great grandson, Jahangir, also had a deep love for flora and fauna
and many charbaghs were created during his reign.

These Mughal gardens were chronicled in the book, Gardens of the Great
Mughals, by Constance Mary Villiers-Stuart. She writes: “All the
finest Mughal gardens or their ruins are found in beautiful
situations, centering round a hillside spring, like the gardens of
Achibal, Verinag, Wah, and Pinjor or else built across a narrow ravine
or valley through which a constant stream of water flows, such as the
Kashmir Shalimar Bagh.”

Villiers-Stuart resided in the Pinjore Gardens for a few years and she
describes it lovingly. It was built on the springs of Panchpura, known
as the town of the Pandavas. And according to legend, the closing
scene of the Mahabharat was against the backdrop of these wooded
hills.

Visualising the garden

After many centuries, Muzaffar Hussain, popularly known as Fidai Khan
Koka, the foster brother of Aurangzeb and the man who built the
Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, was appointed the governor of Punjab which
included this salubrious area.

For those who have lived in the hot and dusty plains of India, the
hills are always attractive. Fidai Khan was no exception to this lure
of the hills, and with his artistic sensibility he visualised the
potential of this location with its springs. He planned a terraced
garden which would, as Villiers-Stuart says poetically, “embrace wide
views over the lower woodlands to the plains beyond; a garden through
which the spring might flow with the never-ending music of its
waterfalls and fountains.” Among the many flowers and trees which grew
here, roses were prominent. Sadaf Fatima in Gardens in Mughal India
quotes Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh (1695 CE) by Sujan Rai Bhandari that 40
Alamgiri maunds of roses were sent from the Pinjore Gardens to the
Gulab Khana for making attar. This is a tradition that was apparently
restored by the Patiala Maharajas.

However, Fidai Khan’s summer retreat alarmed the neighbouring hill
rajas “for they dreaded the coming of the Mughal Court, and feared
still more to lose the use of the precious water which irrigated the
surrounding country,” says Villiers-Stuart. They came up with an
ingenuous idea of making him vacate it. They ensured that the noble
employed men and women who were suffering from goitre. Soon, a rumour
was spread that the air and water of Pinjore were causing goitre. The
alarmed women insisted on leaving the place and Fidai Khan was left
with no choice. This garden of seven levels with its beautiful palaces
was occupied by Fidai Khan and his harem for a few years only.

In 1769, the area in which Pinjore Gardens was located fell into the
hands of the Patiala kings. In the 19th century, it became popular
because of its location on the Ambala-Shimla route. Today, the Haryana
tourism department maintains it beautifully.

The best time to visit the gardens is in the evening. As I entered the
grand gateway, I recalled the descriptions of the Red Fort gardens
that I had read in Asar-us-Sanadid by Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan. A single
water channel runs through the entire garden, falling down the chute
at each level, creating mists. This chute, called chini-khana, has
niches in which camphor lamps used to burn at night and bouquets of
fragrant flowers were kept during the day. Today they are lit up
electrically.

The residential palaces in the initial level have been tastefully
transformed into a hotel and restaurant.

The Jal Mahal at the centre of a water pool is well lit. For a while I
was transported back in time as I could visualise the dancers and
singers entertaining the residents in the evenings.
--
*GATHER THE SCATTERED*

Fr Mathew Moothasseril
Sant Thoma Bhavan
Post Box 306
RAMAN MALA
Kolhapur,416 003
Maharashtra
INDIA