Chinar was an integral part of Mughal landscape gardening. It was found throughout the Mughal tradition of gardening & plantation. During the Mughal period, there were 700-800 gardens around the Dal Lake in Srinagar, which existed at the start of Sikh Rule in Kashmir. And those gardens have now disappeared as a result of troubled days which followed the decline of the Mughal Rule. But some have outlived the vagaries of time & the apathies of the successor Rulers.
Nishat-Bagh, Shalimar-Bagh, Chashma-Shahi-Bagh, Pari-Mahal garden, Achabal-Bagh & Verinag-Bagh, Mansbal lake garden or Baghi Wafa, are the extant examples of the Mughal Emperors’ higher sense of nature & building the world-class gardens in the valley of Kashmir. The first three Mughal Gardens, named above, on banks of Dal Lake are most frequented & preserved till date.
In addition to the above, on North side of Hazratbal, on well raised position above Dal lake lies famousNaseem Bagh, Garden of Bliss or Garden of Zephyrs or Delicious-Breeze. “The garden has now nothing to show off its original work except some ruins by the lakeside & hundreds of huge chenar trees”. It was laid out by Emperor Shah Jahan. 1200 saplings of Chinars (plane trees) were planted under the orders of the Emperor Shah Jahan in this garden & many of these fully grown shady giant Chinars exist in this garden till date. It goes without mention that the irrigation of plane tree by wine to make it fruitful & growto the fullest has been reported since ancient times, according to Francis Bacon. It takes its name, Naseem, from the cool breezes that blow always under its shady plane trees (Chinars) with the vista of Dal Lake seen below it. Its walls, canals, and fountains have disappeared. It houses now many departments, research and other centres of the University of Kashmir under the name of Naseem-Bagh-Campus of the University of Kashmir. University of Kashmir was set up in 1948 on Amar Singh Bagh & Naseem Bagh together. As Naseem Bagh has been declared heritage site by the government of J&K, further extension of the University of Kashmir here was stopped & shifted to nearby 300 Kanals of land in Zakura which is called Zakura-Campus of University of Kashmir.
Just half a mile distant, Saif Khan, Mughal Governor of Kashmir (1664-67 AD), built a garden , Habbak, which was called Saifabad garden after his name. He had desired to bring water stream into the garden & plant chinars. But as he was suddenly called back in 1667 AD from Kashmir by the Emperor Awrangzeb, he could not plant the chinars & the garden thus remained shadow-less for want of chinars. During the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan, a garden, Bagh I Chinar, was built on Eastern end of Jhelum in Shadipora village, & 500 chinar saplings were planted in the garden.
There are two artificially built islets in Bud-Dal & Lokut-Dal. Nothing like islet is in Sodra Khon, from Kohi-Maran or Hari Parvat fort side. In Bud-Dal the islet originally raised by Sultan Zain ul Abidin Badshah in 1421 AD is called Sona Lank (Golden Island) which has chinars in it & can be seen from Naseem Bagh. It was raised by Sultan Zain ul Abidin Badshah to give shelter to boats in distress. In Lokut-Dal, or Astawhol , largest sheet of water, an islet built by Sultan Hassan Shah is called Rupa Lank (Silver Island). Both islets are artificial masonry built & improved upon by the Mughal Emperors. The improvement, rather actually ‘formation’ of Rupa-Lank was the idea of Nur-Jahan who carried it into effect by causing a mass of masonry to be built up & covered with earth, forming an small garden of about an acre in extent, ornamented at each corner by a single Chinar tree, whence its name Isle of Chinars”, or Char Chinar, or Char Chinari. Rupa- Lank is called in Persian the Chahar Chunar, or Four Plane-trees.
In 1859 Temple recorded that this plan of planting four plane trees is universal throughout Kashmir, and is a Muslim device, a plane tree being placed at each point of the compass so as to ensure shade at all hours of the day. This observation of Temple is also found in PNK Bamzai’s book without mention of Sir Temple. Anand Koul Anand, father of PNK Bamzai, writes that Char Chinari was laid out by Shazada Murad Baksh, son of Emperor Shah Jahan, in 1641 AD when he was Governor of Kashmir. This statement of Anand Koul Anand is wrong as Shazada Murad Baksh was Governor of Kashmir between August 1647-July 1648. In 1641 AD, Tarbiyat Khan was Governor of Kashmir.
UNESCO World Heritage List:
In 2011, 14-16 November, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, (INTACH) Jammu and Kashmir Chapter in collaboration with Department of History of the University of Kashmir and the Department of Floriculture, of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir organised first ever International Seminar on “Mughal Gardens of Kashmir: Towards the UNESCO World Heritage Nomination” at the University of Kashmir. The object of the seminar was to press for the need of nomination of the historic Mughal gardens of Kashmir to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) prestigious list of World Heritage Sites. Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh, Achabal Bagh, Pari Mahal, Verinag and Chashma Shahi were already included in the Tentative List of the UNESCO World Heriitage. Since the day of those recommendation of 2011 sent to the UNESCO, it seems there has been no follow-up action taken by those at the helm of affairs in J&K Administration with the World Body. However, according to a local newspaper report (KO 7/9/20) the government of J&K is now preparing a dossier for permanent inclusion of the said six famed Mughal Gardens in the List ofthe UNESCO World Heritage.
Tailpiece:
Beauty of Chinars:It is like changing apparel. In autumn, tired chinars shed their worn out yellow & red leaves, get a bath in snow & fog of winter to prepare for dressing up in new bright green leaves of spring for hot summer exuberance, yet again.