Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Mughal Garden/ Amrit Udyan

Mains level: Charbagh gardening style

mughal

The Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens — popularly known as the Mughal Gardens was renamed as Amrit Udyan.

The Amrit Udyan

Edwin Lutyens had finalized the designs of the Mughal Gardens in 1917, but it was only during the year 1928-1929 that planting was done.
It is spread across 15 acres and it incorporates both Mughal and English landscaping styles.
The main garden has two channels intersecting at right angles dividing the garden into a grid of squares- a Charbagh (a four-cornered garden)- a typical characteristic of Mughal landscaping.
There are six lotus-shaped fountains at the crossings of these channels rising to a height of 12 feet.
The gardens house nearly 2500 varieties of Dahlias and 120 varieties of roses.

Why was it earlier named as Mughal Gardens?

The garden is designed in Persian style of landscaping or what we call as ‘‘Mughal Gardens”.
In fact, Edward Lutyens who designed the Viceroy’s House, what we call today as Rashtrapati Bhavan had deliberately used Mughal architectural details as part of the British appeasement plan.
We see Chajja (dripstone), the Chattri (domed kiosk), the Jali (pierced screen) and many other Indian architectural features liberally used there.
Mughal canals, terraces and flowering shrubs are beautifully blended with European flowerbeds, lawns and private hedges.

The Mughals were known to appreciate gardens. In Babur Nama, Babur says that his favourite kind of garden is the Persian charbagh style (literally, four quadrants garden).
The charbagh structure was intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia – ‘jannat’ – in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.
Defined by its rectilinear layouts, divided in four equal sections, these gardens can be found across lands previously ruled by the Mughals.
From the gardens surrounding Humanyun’s Tomb in Delhi to the Nishat Bagh in Srinagar, all are built in this style – giving them the moniker of Mughal Gardens.
A defining feature of these gardens is the use of waterways, often to demarcate the various quadrants of the garden.
Fountains were often built, symbolising the “cycle of life.”