In spring 1526 A.D., Muhammad Babur, ruler of the small kingdom of Kabul, invaded India with ten thousand horsemen and a dozen cannons. Babur earned his place in the history of warfare by defeating the august Sultan of Delhi's army of one hundred thousand warriors and a thousand war elephants at the Battle of Panipat. Babur would become the first Moghul Emperor. A cultural as well as military juggernaut, the Mughal Empire produced treasures such as miniature paintings and the Taj Mahal. Even while his masons erected skull pyramids from carnage at Panipat, Babur was planning his first Persian-style garden in Hindustan.
“A few days after coming to Agra, I crossed the Yamuna River to scout for places to plant gardens, but everywhere I looked was so unpleasant and desolate that I crossed back in disgust. Because the place was so ugly and disagreeable, I abandoned the dream of making a charbagh. There is no really suitable place near Agra, but one must work with what one has. First, we shall build a foundation using the large well that will also provide the water for the bathhouse. The patch of ground with tamarind trees and octagonal pond will be a great pool and courtyard. Then will come the pool in front of the stone buildings and after that the bathhouse. Thus, in unpleasant and inharmonious Hindustan, marvelously regular and geometric gardens will be introduced. In every corner I will plant beautiful plots, and in every plot will be regularly laid out arrangements of roses and narcissus. I will call it the Garden of Rest.”
Babur was able to conquer the flatness of the Gangetic Plain, "Even the gentlest slope was made use of, only a foot or two difference sufficed to create charming little waterfalls, whose inspiration was drawn from the memories of the dancing spray and white foam of mountain rivulets in the builder’s northern home." The music of the waters carried him home as swiftly as a folksong. Hindus had never seen such gardens and had nicknamed the far side of the river, “Kabul.” After the Battle of Panipat, Babar never stepped foot in Kabul again but gardens he planted brought Kabul to him.
In the 1980s, I spent a year in India studying at the University of New Delhi. The Moghuls' paradisaic gardens grafted onto the dusty plains made a big impression on me. Delhi was similar to my hometown of Los Angeles -- sprawling and crowded, hot and dusty. I tried to imagine what Los Angeles would look like if Babur had invaded it and he and his ancestors had planted scores of charbaghs across the city. What a team Babur and Mulholland would make.
I started this blog because our planet's increasing population is clustering in big cities and because each generation is more estranged from nature than the last. In the future, like Babur we must bring Kabul to us. The Moghuls didn't only build gardens, they also reserved picnic and hunting grounds in the countryside around the cities. These hunting grounds have become today's wildlife reserves such as Rathambore National Park.
