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VIJAY's
MUSINGS
LalBagh
Gardens
This article was published in the March 2006 newsletter
of the Bangalore Environment Trust.
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Entering
the Gardens from the East Gate we find ourselves
at the foot of a rocky outcrop on which stands
a four pillared “Mandapam” which
was erected in mid 16th Century by Kempe Gowda,
the chieftain of Yelahanka, who erected similar
towers at the other 3 cardinal points to which
he expected Bangalore to expand to.
This rock , now designated a
National Geological Monument, is one of the
oldest rock formations in the world (composed
of granitic gneiss) and dated as being 3000
million years old, was formed by volcanic action
when it was part of Gondwanaland. This part
of Gondwanaland moved north into the Asian continent
creating the Himalayas. Thus the rock
we see at Lalbagh is half as old as the earth
itself and part of eternity.
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The Year was 1760. There was turmoil
in the Deccan. The Marathas, the Nawab of Arcot, the
Nizam of Hyderabad, the rulers of Travancore &
Cochin, the French & the British were all vying
for territory and control in the South. Hyder Ali,
who had just taken control of an enfeebled Mysore,
consolidated and expanded its territories and with
the help of the French hoped to keep the British out
of South India.
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The Rose & Cypress Garden
(a painting by James Hunter in 1792)
Source: British Library
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In
the midst of all this turmoil Hyder Ali found
time to set up Gardens across Mysore. Hyder Ali’s
father was in the service of Dilawar Khan, a Viceroy
of the Moghuls. Dilawar Khan had laid out a “Moghul”
garden at Sira near Tumkur which Hyder Ali would
have known intimately. Hyder Ali set up three
Gardens – Lalbagh at Srirangapatna, a garden
at Malavalli and the Lalbagh Gardens (Bangalore)
which was referred to as the Rose & Cypress
Garden till 1856.
The
act of setting up these Gardens would have been
an act of piety for Hyder Ali as Islamic gardens
were a reflection of Paradise on earth. All the
design elements of such a garden were clearly
covered in over 100 verses across 4 chapters in
the Koran. It is extraordinary that he and his
son Tipu Sultan found time to lay these parks
which included the Darya Daulat Bagh and the Gumbaz.
Hyder Ali imported plants from Multan, Lahore,
Delhi & Arcot and set up the Rose & Cypress
Garden “one mile east of the fort and a
few hundred yards west of the tower.” |
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Tipu Sultan
not only inherited his father’s love for Gardens
but brought in plants and saplings from Cape Town, Mauritius,
Turkey, Tenerife, Persia, Kabul and elsewhere.
Thus was created the original 40 acre Rose &
Cypress Garden: the royal pleasure garden of the Tigers
of Mysore.
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Soon after Tipu Sultan’s death in 1799, the Gardens
came into the hands of Major Waugh of the Madras European
Regiment who offered these gardens to the East India
Company and this was strongly backed by Nathaniel Wallich*
who wrote to the Marquis of Hastings. In the meantime,
Benjamin Heyne became keeper of the Botanical Gardens
(Lalbagh) in Bangalore at the instance of Lord Wellesley.
Simultaneouly he participated in Topographical Survey
of Mysore. Heyne, in the tradition of the Tranquebar
Botanists (Linnaeus’s “Apostle”, Koenig,
was the first of the Tranquebar Botanists), collected
a large number of specimens from the Western Ghats/Canara
Coast upto 1812. Of the 366 species collected,
200 bear the names given by Heyne. Most of these specimens
are currently housed in Kew.
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Lalbagh Gardens from 1858 onwards was headed by a number
of outstanding superintendents. Mr. New, followed by
Cameron and Javaraya , Krumbiegal and Marigowda constituted
the galaxy of professionals, all of them trained or
having previously served in Kew Gardens the mother institution
of Botanical Gardens in the world.
Cameron extended the Gardens from
40 to 120 Acres and also created a lake over 40 Acres
in extent. He introduced a large number of vegetables
from the New World as well as plants from Singapore,
Ceylon and other Botanical Gardens into Lalbagh. The
Glasshouse, a small replica of the crystal palace
of London was commissioned by the Prince of Wales
when Cameron was Superintendent of the Gardens.
A view of the BandStand in 1870
Source: British LIbrary
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A
substantial Zoo was also set up by Cameron.
Javaraya worked closely with Krumbiegal. He
set up the Fruit Orchards at Maddur and the
Fig garden at Ganjam. Javaraya, on the lines
of the Bangalore flower shows. initiated flower
shows in Lutyens Delhi.
Krumbiegal both a landscape artist
and a botanist assisted by Javaraya and with
every encouragement from Sir Mirza Ismail greened
Bangalore with serial blossoming trees and established
Lalbagh as a proper horticultural garden. Krumbiegal
designed the Directorate Building and added
numerous elegant garden architectural features
such as low parapet walls. Marigowda set up
horticultural farms, nurseries and seed depots
across every taluka in Karnataka and expanded
Lalbagh to 240 acres.
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| Lalbagh
today probably has the most diversified collection
of trees and plants of any botanical garden in
the world. Araucarias from Chile, Tasmania,
Norfolk Islands and New Caledonia, a number of
Tabebuia varieties sourced from Paraguay to Brazil,
the Candle Tree, the Cannonball tree, the Calabash,
the Rain tree and a number of exotic palms from
the Caribbean and tropical Americas. Also very
rare and exotic plants such as the Amherstia
nobilis (from Burma) have been successfully
planted here. The most beautiful of all flowering
trees, the Saraca taipengensis (from Malaysia),
thrives in Lalbagh . Cypresses from Mexico,
China, Java and Europe, Pines from Australia,
Junipers from Africa, Wisterias from Swaziland,
Rosewoods from Bolivia, Fig trees from Java, Australia
and China and trees of great medicinal/pharmaceutical
value such as the Kamala (Mallotus from Borneo),
the Bilwa (the Bael) and the Arjun ( Terminalia
arjuna) flourish in Lalbagh. |
The exotic Amherstia nobilis |
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The Saraca taipengensis |
Lalbagh
is also host to a large variety of birds ranging
from the capricious grey pelican to the exquisitely
delicate paradise fly catcher. It would
be difficult to disagree with Edward Lear who
describes, in 1874, how he “went in a
dog cart to Lalbagh ………….never
saw a more beautiful place, terraces, trellises,
etc. Flower exquisite”
Lalbagh
which began as a royal pleasure garden, then
a botanical garden and in turn a zoological
and horticultural garden and now a much used
public park, today rests on a weathered 3000
million year old rock formation and also contains
a 20 million year old fossil of a conifer tree
brought form Tiruvakkarai in Tamil Nadu giving
us glimpses into early plant life in India.
VIJAY
THIRUVADY
*Wallich’s collection of 8000 different
species, when he was Superintendent of Royal
Botanical Gardens at Calcutta, was acknowledged
by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker as “the most
valuable contribution of the kind ever made
to science”. |
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