Gardens and their Designs in Ancient Indian Texts.

Ancient Indian city life was less congested than it happened to be in today’s modern world. Ancient Indian history writings cite the existence of gardens, groves, and parks laid out for every city’s diversions. Henri Lefebvre stated that “social space is a social product” and the people made sense of these spaces by creating geographies. Different gardens in ancient India were related to various features. Gardens and their varied designs reflect the practice of horticulture. The knowledge of these individual spaces comes from the translated Sanskrit texts such as the ‘Upavana Vinoda’ by Ginja Prasanna Majumdar in 1935. A garden is exemplified as the ‘betwixt and between’ at the spatial levels. The spots of the garden formed an integral part of sexual liaisons and courtships between men and women in ancient India. The Silparatna states that according to the Vastushastra,  Pushpavatika must be located in the northern portion of the town. The gardens were of two types in ancient India, the first was attached to a royal palace. The second one was a public garden, usually located outside the city. Both these gardens were spaciously laid out to include water tanks on their edges, flowers, an orchard, etc.

(Source: Scroll; A raga mala painting depicting  Krishna and Gopis celebrating spring festival in a garden)

The Kathasaritasagara text from 11th c Kashmir, compiled by Somadeva highlights the origin and functional features of a garden in Indian history through various anecdotes. The Kathasaritasagara states that the origin of gardens on earth was through divine intervention when Gunadhya encountered a garden on the banks of river Godavari, on questioning, the Udyanapal or the gardener told him that the garden came into existence because of a Brahmana’s penance. The Brahman was given a heavenly seed by the goddess Durga and it was through this seed that he planted a garden alongside a temple.  In Ancient India seldom the kings had their private gardens and it is where he held discussions on important state affairs. However, it also highlights the aspect of the ‘garden being a liminal space’ in Indian history, it was not a residential or a place for ceremonial purposes. Its functionality depended upon the place it was attached to, when near a household or a temple, a garden in ancient India acted as a threshold or outer space. The Gardens described in the Kathasaritasagara are often described as an urban phenomenon and a space for the elite, especially the monarchy. Thus, the establishment of a garden was held as a symbol of prestige and the control of resources.

The gardens in the Indian history text, Kathasaritasagra are divided into two types – the garden with par excellence was described as the garden of the gods in heaven called Nandana. The spatial space of the garden was one for leisure and romance, the author of the Kathasaritasagara makes it explicit that gardens in Ancient India were a place permitted to ‘fall in love’. This argument can be substantiated by the example of King Pururavas (the first king of the Chandravamsha dynasty), who was once walking in the garden of Nandana when he glanced upon the Apsara Urvashi and they subsequently fell in love. While the king could have seen the apsara in his court or performing in the palace, the garden has been portrayed as the ‘legitimate’ social space to fall in love. The garden in Ancient Indian texts serves as a liminal space and was an area secluded from habitation which was utilized by divine and semi-divine for ambiguous activities. Another instance from the same text that proves this point is the instance when Apsara Tilottama was sent by Brahma to seduce the two Asura brothers, Sunda and Upasunda. The Apsara chose to seduce both the twin brothers when they were in the garden of Kalidasa. The Kathasaritasagara on the other hand, describes the earthly gardens as the marker of prestige and royalty of a city in ancient India. It also signifies the control of humans over nature.

(Source: Oilindian arts.com; Lovers on a garden terrace with attendants, 18th century Rajput painting)

The Indian history texts also mention the ideal site for a garden in Ancient India. The Brihasamhita recommends that a garden must be located on the margins of a water body so that the cool ambiance and the soothful and shady presence of the garden can significantly be utilized. Surapala in Vrikshaayurveda on the other hand states that the ideal way a site should be shaped must be near a square, in which a house must be located in the center with a garden in the four directions. The Upavana-Vinoda on the other hand suggests that a garden in Ancient India must be in the north and west direction. It is interesting to note how most of the Ancient Indian history texts do not suggest a garden on the southern end of a house in north India. The Upavanavinoda mentions two more types of garden retreats. One is in the form of a cool cave and groves adorned with branches of trees climbing and plants laid with precious rocks cut out from mountains. The second type of garden retreat described in this Ancient Indian text is a Tree-covered artificial mound.

(Source: Hindustan Times; Nidhivan of Vrindavan )

Surapala in Vrikshaayurveda also states the choices of plant species that must be planted in a garden in ancient India. The first and foremost plant according to Surapala that must be planted in a garden in Ancient India is the shrub tulsi or sacred basil. The most famous garden or upavan where Tulsi is found in abundance today is the Nidhivan in Vrindavan. The Nidhivan in Vrindavan consists of lush green tulsi shrubs planted in pairs and are bent downwards, no one is allowed to visit the garden after sunset as it is believed locally that these tulsi shrubs turn into gopis and Krishna at night to perform rasleela. Kalidas, the most renowned poet of the Gupta period in ancient India described an ideal garden as one that has elaborate water tanks and mock hillocks called Kridasila with crystalline posts set for the peacocks. The Brihatsamhita recommends the plantation of three important trees in the garden – Neem, Alexandrian laurel, and lebbek. While each text in Indian history describes what an ideal garden must contain, it does not describe where these should be located within the spatial space of a garden. The description of gardens in ancient Indian texts and the continued presence of these spatial spaces throughout Indian history is important to understand its place in society. In India, gardens have been always a picturesque location that attracts lakhs of visitors every year be it the Amrit Udayan at Rashtrapati Bhavan or India’s Srinagar tulip gardens have been declared the largest such park in entire Asia. thus, gardens in India and Indian history also form an integral part of India’s heritage.

REFERENCES

195. Sheemar, (2008) ‘GARDENS IN THE “KATHĀSARITSĀGARA”’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 69pp. pp. 187-195. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44147180

BOWE, PATRICK. “ANCIENT HINDU GARDEN DESIGN.” Garden History, vol. 44, no. 2, 2016, pp. 272–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44987905. Accessed 21 Aug. 2023.