Gardens of Delight: Indian Gardens through the Ages

Few civilizations have been endowed with a history as complex, encompassing and multifarious as India’s or perhaps, more accurately, that of the greater Indian subcontinent. While much has been researched, written, filmed and in other ways documented about the various dynasties that have left indelible marks on the Indian landscape, not many books have addressed the primordial relationship between a people and their land. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the gardens of India. Gardens of Delight elucidates that remarkable process of history, not seen in other parts of the world. This book is divided into four sections: the first discusses the types of historical gardens and their traditions; the second expounds on the literary references to gardens, both ancient and modern, with corresponding pictorial depictions; the third details the different kinds of religious or sacred gardens, tomb gardens, palace gardens and encampment gardens; and the fourth traces the evolution of the garden in modern times. The development of a culture as rich as India’s cannot be the result of an insular process, nor is it a discrete process that allows for such texture and complexity. Rather, it is one that evolves after having selectively absorbed and regurgitated a host of both internal and external influences. Landscapes, especially of the type that characterize the Indian subcontinent, are fertile ground to examine how such influences are manifested in a physical form and subsequently take on historical proportions. This is what this book sets out to do.