Developed by Amy Gansell for a course at the Pratt Institute in the Spring of 2013, it was taught with an expanded focus on "Non-Western Gardens."
Course Description
The emphasis of this course is on monumental gardens of the Mughal period, but Hindu, Sikh, and earlier Islamic traditions are also considered. In addition, we explore in-depth colonial British gardens and the role of South Asian plants and gardens in the British Empire. We conclude with attention to conservation issues.
Living and archaeological garden evidence is studied as well
as literature, first-hand documentary reports, and visual art.
Week 1 Introduction
to region, history, cultures, and historiography of Indus River region and
South Asia
-J. L. Abu-Loughod, “The
Islamic city – Historic myth, Islamic essence, and contemporary relevance,” International Journal of Middle East Studies
19 (1987): 155-76.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr. and
Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn,” Sources, places, representations, and Prospects: A
Perspective of Mughal Gardens,” in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens: Sources,
Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the
History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996), pp.
5-30.
Week 2
Pre-Mughal gardens, Non-Mughal gardens
-Lindley Vann, “The Palace
and Gardens of Kayayapa at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka,” Archaeology (July/August 1987): 34-41.
-Patrick Bowe, “The Indian
gardening tradition and the Sajjan Niwas Bagh, Udaipur,” Garden History 27 (1999): 189-205.
-Hari Ram Gupta, “Building
and Gardens of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,” in Proceedings
of Punjab History Conference, pp. 133-44.
-I. Husain Siddiqi,
“Waterworks and Irrigation systems in India during pre-Mughal times,” Islamic Culture 58 (1984): 52-77.
Week 3 Timurid
gardens and history
-Howard Crane, “Influence of
Persian gardens in India,” Encyclopedia
Iranica 10 (2000): 305-8.
-Donald N. Wilber, “Timurid
gardens: From Tamerlane to Babur,” Persian
Gardens and Garden Pavilions (Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Col, 1962), pp.
53-78.
-Donald N. Wilber, “The
Timurid court: Life in gardens and tents,” Iran
17 (1979): 127-33.
-Thomas W. Lentz, “Memory and
ideology in the Timurid garden, in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens:
Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium
on the History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks,
1996), pp. 31-57.
Week 4 Mughal
gardens, Part 1
-James Dickie, “The Mughal
Garden: Gateway to Paradise,” Muqarnas
3 (1985): 128-37.
-Jellicoe, Susan. “The
Development of the Mughal Garden,” in Elisabeth B. Macdougall and Richard
Ettinghausen (eds.), The Islamic Garden,
Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture 4
(Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1976), pp. 109-29.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Landscapes of conquest and transformation: Lessons from the earliest Mughal
gardens in India, 1526-1530,” Landscape
Journal 10 (1991): 105-14.
James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Gardens versus citadels: The territorial context of early Mughal gardens,” in
John Dixon Hunt (ed.), Garden History:
Issues, Approaches, Methods (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992), pp.
331-58.
Week 5 Mughal
gardens, Part 2: Babur (r. 1526-30), Humayun (r. 1530-40, 1555-56)
-Catherine B. Asher, “Babur
and the Timurid Char bagh: Use and meaning,” Environmental Design: Mughal Architecture, Pomp, and Ceremonies 1-2
(1991): 46-55.
-Howard Crane, “The patronage
of Zahir al-Din Babur and the origins of Mughal architecture,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 1 (1987):
95-110.
-James L. Wescoat, “Gardens
of invention and exile: The precarious context of Mughal garden design during
the reign of Humayun (1530-1556),” Journal
of Garden History 10 (1990): 106-16.
-James L. Wescoat, “Ritual
Movement and Territoriality: A study of landscape transformation during the
reign of Humayun,” Environmental Design
(1993): 56-63.
-Ebba Koch, “Mughal palace
gardens from Babur to Shahjahan (1526-1648),” Muqarnas 14 (1997): 143-65.
Week 6 Mughal
gardens, Part 3: Jahangir (r. 1605-27), Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658)
-Ebba Koch, “The Mughal
waterfront garden,” in “Attilio Petruccioli (ed.), Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design,
Muqarnas Supplements 7 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 140-60.
-Ebba Koch, “The Zahara Bagh
(Bah-i Jahanara) at Agra,” Environmental
Design 2 (1986): 30-37.
-Ebba Koch, “Pietre dure and
other artistic contacts between the court of the Mughals and that of the
Medici,” in D. Jones (ed.), A Mirror of
Princes: The Mughals and the Medici (Bombay 1987), pp. 29-56.
Week 7 Lahore
gardens
-Abdul Rehman, “Gardens Types
in Mughal Lahore according to Early-Seventeenth-Century written and visual
sources,” Gardens in the Time of the
Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design, Muqarnas Supplement 7, Studies in
Islamic Art and Architecture, A. Petruccioli (ed.), (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp.
161-72.
-F. S. Aijazuddin, Lahore: Illustrated Views of the 19th
Century. Lahore: Vanguard Books, Ltd., 1991.
-Wescoat, “Waterworks and
culture in metropolitan Lahore,” Asian
Art and Culture 8 (1995): 21-36.
-James L. Wescoat Jr.,
Michael Brand, and M. Naeem Mir, “The Shahdara gardens of Lahore: Site
documentation and spatial analysis,” Pakistan
Archaeology 25 (1993): 333-66.
-Sajjad Kausar, Michael Brand
and James L. Wescoat, Jr., Shalamar
Garden: Landscape, Form and Meaning (Karachi: Pakistan Department of
Archaeology, 1990).
Week 8 Taj Mahal
-Wayne E. Begley and
Ziyauddin A. Desai, eds., Taj Mahal, The
Illumined Tomb – An Anthology of Seventeenth Century Mughal and European
Documentary Sources (Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic
architecture, 1989). (Selections to be divided among students)
-Elizabeth Moynihan,
“Reflections of paradise,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal,” (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2000), pp. 15-41.
-John M. Fritz and George
Michell, “Archaeology of the garden,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the
Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), pp. 79-93.
-Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal (New York: Thames
and Hudson, 2006).
-Wayne E. Begley, “The garden
of the Taj Mahal: A case study of Mughal architectural planning and symbolism,”
in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens: Sources, Places,
Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of
Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996), pp. 213-31.
-E. Findly, “Nur Jahan’s
embroidery trade and flowers of the Taj Mahal,” Asian Art and Cultrue 9 (1996): 7-25.
Week 9 Taj
Mahal Continued
Week 10 Flora
and water
-David L. Lentz, “Botanical
symbolism and function at the Mahtab Bagh,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the
Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 43-57.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Waterworks and landscape design in the Mahtab Bagh,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan
(ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New
Discoveries at the Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2000), pp. 59-77.
-W. M. Thackston, “Mughal
gardens in Persian poetry,” in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens:
Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium
on the History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks,
1996), pp. 233-57.
Week 11 English
Colonial
-Eugenia W. Herbert, “The Taj
and the Raj: Garden imperialism in India,” Studies
in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 25 (2005): 250-72.
-Judith Roberts, “English
Gardens in India,” Garden History 26
(1998): 115-35.
-Rebecca Preston, “‘The scenery
of the Torrid Zone:’ Imagined travels and the culture of exotics in nineteenth
century British gardens,” in Felix Driver and David Gilbert (eds.), Imperial Cities (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1999), pp. 194-211.
-Lucile H. Brockway, “Science
and colonial expansion: The role of the British Royal Botanic Gardens,” American Ethnologist 6 (1979): 449-65.
Ray Desmond, The European Discovery of the Indian Flora
(London: Oxford University, 1992).
-Patrick Bowe, “Charles
Maries: Garden superintendent to two Indian maharajas,” Garden History 30 (2002): 84-94.
-Edith Cuthell, My Garden in the City of Gardens: A Memory
(London, 1910).
Week 12 English Colonial Continued
Week 13 Garden
conservation in India and Pakistan
-M. Yusuf Awan. “Conservation
of historic buildings and gardens in Lahore: Implications for a national
conservation policy for Pakistan,” in Hussain, et al. (eds.), The Mughal Garden, pp. 143-54.
-“Conservation of garden
sites and urban sprawl in Lahore,” in Hussain, et al. (eds.), The Mughal Garden, 165-72.
-James L. Westcoat, Jr.,
“Modern interests in Mughal gardens: Garden conservation in urbanizing
regions,” in Santosh Ghosh (ed.), Architectural
and Urban Conservation (Calcutta: Centre for Build Environment, 1996), pp.
-James L. Westcoat, Jr.,
“Landscape heritage conservation in Agra: An historical-geographic perspective”
and “Landscape heritage conservation timeline for Agra,” In Taj Mahal Heritage Conservation Plan,
Amita Sinha, et al. (eds.), Lucknow and Urbana: University of Illinois and
Uttar Radesh Tourism Department, 2000.
-G. Stiny and W. J. Mitchell,
“The grammar of paradise: On the generation of Mughal gardens,” Environmental Planning B 17 (1980)
209-26.
Weeks 14-15 Student Presentations
Developed by Amy Gansell for a course at the Pratt Institute in the Spring of 2013, it was taught with an expanded focus on "Non-Western Gardens."
Course Description
The emphasis of this course is on monumental gardens of the Mughal period, but Hindu, Sikh, and earlier Islamic traditions are also considered. In addition, we explore in-depth colonial British gardens and the role of South Asian plants and gardens in the British Empire. We conclude with attention to conservation issues.
Living and archaeological garden evidence is studied as well
as literature, first-hand documentary reports, and visual art.
Week 1 Introduction
to region, history, cultures, and historiography of Indus River region and
South Asia
-J. L. Abu-Loughod, “The
Islamic city – Historic myth, Islamic essence, and contemporary relevance,” International Journal of Middle East Studies
19 (1987): 155-76.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr. and
Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn,” Sources, places, representations, and Prospects: A
Perspective of Mughal Gardens,” in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens: Sources,
Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the
History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996), pp.
5-30.
Week 2
Pre-Mughal gardens, Non-Mughal gardens
-Lindley Vann, “The Palace
and Gardens of Kayayapa at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka,” Archaeology (July/August 1987): 34-41.
-Patrick Bowe, “The Indian
gardening tradition and the Sajjan Niwas Bagh, Udaipur,” Garden History 27 (1999): 189-205.
-Hari Ram Gupta, “Building
and Gardens of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,” in Proceedings
of Punjab History Conference, pp. 133-44.
-I. Husain Siddiqi,
“Waterworks and Irrigation systems in India during pre-Mughal times,” Islamic Culture 58 (1984): 52-77.
Week 3 Timurid
gardens and history
-Howard Crane, “Influence of
Persian gardens in India,” Encyclopedia
Iranica 10 (2000): 305-8.
-Donald N. Wilber, “Timurid
gardens: From Tamerlane to Babur,” Persian
Gardens and Garden Pavilions (Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Col, 1962), pp.
53-78.
-Donald N. Wilber, “The
Timurid court: Life in gardens and tents,” Iran
17 (1979): 127-33.
-Thomas W. Lentz, “Memory and
ideology in the Timurid garden, in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens:
Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium
on the History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks,
1996), pp. 31-57.
Week 4 Mughal
gardens, Part 1
-James Dickie, “The Mughal
Garden: Gateway to Paradise,” Muqarnas
3 (1985): 128-37.
-Jellicoe, Susan. “The
Development of the Mughal Garden,” in Elisabeth B. Macdougall and Richard
Ettinghausen (eds.), The Islamic Garden,
Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture 4
(Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1976), pp. 109-29.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Landscapes of conquest and transformation: Lessons from the earliest Mughal
gardens in India, 1526-1530,” Landscape
Journal 10 (1991): 105-14.
James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Gardens versus citadels: The territorial context of early Mughal gardens,” in
John Dixon Hunt (ed.), Garden History:
Issues, Approaches, Methods (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992), pp.
331-58.
Week 5 Mughal
gardens, Part 2: Babur (r. 1526-30), Humayun (r. 1530-40, 1555-56)
-Catherine B. Asher, “Babur
and the Timurid Char bagh: Use and meaning,” Environmental Design: Mughal Architecture, Pomp, and Ceremonies 1-2
(1991): 46-55.
-Howard Crane, “The patronage
of Zahir al-Din Babur and the origins of Mughal architecture,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 1 (1987):
95-110.
-James L. Wescoat, “Gardens
of invention and exile: The precarious context of Mughal garden design during
the reign of Humayun (1530-1556),” Journal
of Garden History 10 (1990): 106-16.
-James L. Wescoat, “Ritual
Movement and Territoriality: A study of landscape transformation during the
reign of Humayun,” Environmental Design
(1993): 56-63.
-Ebba Koch, “Mughal palace
gardens from Babur to Shahjahan (1526-1648),” Muqarnas 14 (1997): 143-65.
Week 6 Mughal
gardens, Part 3: Jahangir (r. 1605-27), Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658)
-Ebba Koch, “The Mughal
waterfront garden,” in “Attilio Petruccioli (ed.), Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design,
Muqarnas Supplements 7 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 140-60.
-Ebba Koch, “The Zahara Bagh
(Bah-i Jahanara) at Agra,” Environmental
Design 2 (1986): 30-37.
-Ebba Koch, “Pietre dure and
other artistic contacts between the court of the Mughals and that of the
Medici,” in D. Jones (ed.), A Mirror of
Princes: The Mughals and the Medici (Bombay 1987), pp. 29-56.
Week 7 Lahore
gardens
-Abdul Rehman, “Gardens Types
in Mughal Lahore according to Early-Seventeenth-Century written and visual
sources,” Gardens in the Time of the
Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design, Muqarnas Supplement 7, Studies in
Islamic Art and Architecture, A. Petruccioli (ed.), (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp.
161-72.
-F. S. Aijazuddin, Lahore: Illustrated Views of the 19th
Century. Lahore: Vanguard Books, Ltd., 1991.
-Wescoat, “Waterworks and
culture in metropolitan Lahore,” Asian
Art and Culture 8 (1995): 21-36.
-James L. Wescoat Jr.,
Michael Brand, and M. Naeem Mir, “The Shahdara gardens of Lahore: Site
documentation and spatial analysis,” Pakistan
Archaeology 25 (1993): 333-66.
-Sajjad Kausar, Michael Brand
and James L. Wescoat, Jr., Shalamar
Garden: Landscape, Form and Meaning (Karachi: Pakistan Department of
Archaeology, 1990).
Week 8 Taj Mahal
-Wayne E. Begley and
Ziyauddin A. Desai, eds., Taj Mahal, The
Illumined Tomb – An Anthology of Seventeenth Century Mughal and European
Documentary Sources (Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic
architecture, 1989). (Selections to be divided among students)
-Elizabeth Moynihan,
“Reflections of paradise,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal,” (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2000), pp. 15-41.
-John M. Fritz and George
Michell, “Archaeology of the garden,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the
Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), pp. 79-93.
-Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal (New York: Thames
and Hudson, 2006).
-Wayne E. Begley, “The garden
of the Taj Mahal: A case study of Mughal architectural planning and symbolism,”
in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens: Sources, Places,
Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of
Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996), pp. 213-31.
-E. Findly, “Nur Jahan’s
embroidery trade and flowers of the Taj Mahal,” Asian Art and Cultrue 9 (1996): 7-25.
Week 9 Taj
Mahal Continued
Week 10 Flora
and water
-David L. Lentz, “Botanical
symbolism and function at the Mahtab Bagh,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan (ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the
Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 43-57.
-James L. Wescoat, Jr.,
“Waterworks and landscape design in the Mahtab Bagh,” in Elizabeth B. Moynihan
(ed.), The Moonlight Garden: New
Discoveries at the Taj Mahal,” (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2000), pp. 59-77.
-W. M. Thackston, “Mughal
gardens in Persian poetry,” in James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (eds.), Mughal Gardens:
Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium
on the History of Landscape Architecture 16 (Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks,
1996), pp. 233-57.
Week 11 English
Colonial
-Eugenia W. Herbert, “The Taj
and the Raj: Garden imperialism in India,” Studies
in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 25 (2005): 250-72.
-Judith Roberts, “English
Gardens in India,” Garden History 26
(1998): 115-35.
-Rebecca Preston, “‘The scenery
of the Torrid Zone:’ Imagined travels and the culture of exotics in nineteenth
century British gardens,” in Felix Driver and David Gilbert (eds.), Imperial Cities (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1999), pp. 194-211.
-Lucile H. Brockway, “Science
and colonial expansion: The role of the British Royal Botanic Gardens,” American Ethnologist 6 (1979): 449-65.
Ray Desmond, The European Discovery of the Indian Flora
(London: Oxford University, 1992).
-Patrick Bowe, “Charles
Maries: Garden superintendent to two Indian maharajas,” Garden History 30 (2002): 84-94.
-Edith Cuthell, My Garden in the City of Gardens: A Memory
(London, 1910).
Week 12 English Colonial Continued
Week 13 Garden
conservation in India and Pakistan
-M. Yusuf Awan. “Conservation
of historic buildings and gardens in Lahore: Implications for a national
conservation policy for Pakistan,” in Hussain, et al. (eds.), The Mughal Garden, pp. 143-54.
-“Conservation of garden
sites and urban sprawl in Lahore,” in Hussain, et al. (eds.), The Mughal Garden, 165-72.
-James L. Westcoat, Jr.,
“Modern interests in Mughal gardens: Garden conservation in urbanizing
regions,” in Santosh Ghosh (ed.), Architectural
and Urban Conservation (Calcutta: Centre for Build Environment, 1996), pp.
-James L. Westcoat, Jr.,
“Landscape heritage conservation in Agra: An historical-geographic perspective”
and “Landscape heritage conservation timeline for Agra,” In Taj Mahal Heritage Conservation Plan,
Amita Sinha, et al. (eds.), Lucknow and Urbana: University of Illinois and
Uttar Radesh Tourism Department, 2000.
-G. Stiny and W. J. Mitchell,
“The grammar of paradise: On the generation of Mughal gardens,” Environmental Planning B 17 (1980)
209-26.
Weeks 14-15 Student Presentations