History,Influences And Semantic Analysis Of Elements In Earthly Paradise Mughal Islamic Gardens Of Lahore,Pakistan

Before birth of Islamic era gardens being affected by geographical conditions and they were influenced by ritual,traditional and cultural background of the people,therefore Ancient Persians developed Royal Pasargadae garden form by introducing intersecting water channels at right angles where garden’s four sections could be irrigated for constant crop production.As man developed his environment,he also developed his thinking about his place in the universe where four approaches deliver water to the garden and reflect ancient mythology;holding four rivers of creation,at that time the figure four was also symbol of universality,representing four sacred elements of which were water,fire,wind and soil.The first terrestrial garden was celestial garden that constructed too pleased Gods and after Islam it became a Paradise garden by God that promise as reward for righteous people after their death.After the advent of Islam as a religion in the 7~thh century C.E.,basic concepts of garden design were developed and refined,because gardens have been described as metaphor of paradise or Al-Jannah,so it became an important concept that modified the gardens of this world.Islam contributed a metaphorical richness to the Ancient Persian garden tradition through the clear association with the Paradise reported in 166 verses of Quran,which was portrayed as a garden with running water and fruit bearing trees signifying their importance to man.Architecture,art and garden’s craft flourish if peace and stability prevails for longer period of time;it was during the stable Mughal empire rule(1526-1707)that resulted in greatest garden’s landscape tradition of the world.Identity and culture of a society can be represented by its architecture and meanings intertwined with it,so in this regard,architecture and design are interface for transferring identity and meaning to the future generations therefore Mughal gardens have been developed through history in regard to their culture and beliefs.This dissertation aims to investigate the design pattern and architecture in Mughal Islamic gardens of Lahore and the meanings intertwined with their patterns.These gardens are not only about geometrical shapes;but also manifest different design elements and each representing a specific symbol.The philosophical design concept of Mughal garden Lahore had a style heavily influenced by Quranic verse Garden’s underneath rivers flow in form of chahr bagh,having structure including use of rectilinear layouts with its walled enclosure evoking the idea of religious paradise as well as dynastic pleasure.Thesis seeks to explore the philosophy behind the creation of Mughal Islamic gardens of Lahore as earthly paradise concept in the light of history,influences and semantic analysis of garden elements,therefore research focus on precise relation of Paradise gardens with selected garden sites of Lahore including Palace gardens of Lahore Fort,tomb garden of Jahangir and pleasure garden Shalamar.In these gardens a number of characteristics become evident as similar as the use of quartered garden representing cardinal points in the Ancient Persian gardens and later the four rivers of Quranic Paradise image for Islamic gardens.The dissertation Earthly Paradise gardens,special emphasis on Mughal Islamic gardens of Lahore has been explored the use of garden as a metaphor of paradise while grounded theory approach used so primary data and secondary data collected side by side as semantic analysis of garden elements and studies on Quranic verses of Paradise.Therefore the first part of dissertation considers different examples of gardens for define the genealogy from pre Islamic Achaemenids to Islamic gardens of Mughals and also identify the evolution process of chahar bagh involved in their creation.While second part based on hypothesis that adherence to the Quranic image of Paradise and explores its possible influence on planning of Mughal Islamic gardens of the Lahore.Conclusively it has two factorial categories for their design of formal quartered gardens among these first is the impact of ancient and Persian Islamic garden pattern,while the second is representation of Paradise in the Holy book Quran,is so desire evoking and vibrant,that automatically a wish generate to be there so for such celestial image depicted in the these gardens.Therefore it is concluded that thesis approaches the“sense of Islam”by analyzing Mughal Islamic gardens based on formal elements such as softscape and hardscape in the garden,and abstracting design principles from them in order to illustrate the Islamic gardens of Lahore as Earthly Paradise.Analysis of these gardens proved that the Quranic paradise imagery served as a basic theme in Mughal Islamic garden architecture especially in Lahore,Pakistan.These design principles will use traditional forms to inspire contemporary designers because proposed results present a design booklet of Mughal Islamic design concepts,forms,visual strategies,textures,and ornament for an audience of landscape architecture firms and contemporary designers.Therefore it will help landscape architects to design in future chahar bagh gardens that have characteristics to echo historic Islamic landscapes and thus evoke image of paradise.