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PARADISE AS a GARDEN in Persia and Mughal India

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PARADISE AS a GARDEN in Persia and Mughal India PARADISE AS A GARDEN In Persia and Mughal India Elizabeth B. Moynihan George Braziller New York I I I Introduction I I I. The Sources I The English word "paradise" is simply a transliteration of the Old Persian word pairidaeza referring to a walled garden. It comes to us through Xenophon, the Greek essayist and historian, who heard it in 401 B.C. in Persia where he fought I with Greek mercenaries ..;In Xenophon's Socratic Discourse, the Oeconomicus, Socrates explains that the Persian king not only excelled in the art of war but in cultivation, and regarded it as a noble and necessary pursuit: "In whatever countries the king resides, or wherever he travels, he is concerned that there be gardens, the sp-called pleasure gardens, filled with all the fine and good things that the earth wishes to bring forth, and in these ne himself spends most of his time, when the season of the year doesn't preclude it." 1 In this passage, Xenophon used the word napa6e1ao~ for garden, or to use the Roman alphabet, paradeisoi. Socrates follpws this statement with an illustratiqn by repeating a story told by the Spartan, Lysander, commander of the Peloponnesian Fleet and victor in the War. In 407 B.C., Lysander visited the Persian, Cyrus the Younger, at his palace in Sardis. When the bejeweled and elegant Cyrus showed him his pleasure garden, "Lysander had wondered at it-that the trees should be so fine, the plantings so regular, the rows of trees so straight, 'the angles so finely laid, and that so many pleasant scents should accompany them as they walked-wonder­ ing at these things, he spoke, 'I, Cyrus, am full of wonder at the beauty of everything, but much more do I admire the one who has measured out and ordered each kihd of thing for you.' On hearing· this, Cyrus was pleased and spoke. 'All these things, L.,ysander, I measured out ~nd ordered myself, and there are some of them,' he said, that 'I even planted myself.'" Cyrus called his garden a pairidaeza, which is a simple combination of pairi (around) and daeza (wall). From the Greek paradeisoi, this became the Latin paradisus, and ftrst appeared in Middle English as paradis in 1175 in a Biblical passage: "God ha hine brohte into paradis.'' 1 I Some years after his Persian expedition when he settled on his estate in Scillus, I Xenophon laid out a garden. He included a pairidaeza similar to Cyrus' by planting a grove of symmetrically arranged fruit ! -,~es surrounding a temple dedicated to Artemis. Xenophon's description of Cy·11s' pairidaeza, as well as the I beauty of his own garden, influenced the design of Greek gardens and the later gardens of Rome. Xenophon's writings were popular with the Romans, and it is I believed they inspired Virgil to plant a paradisus of a similar grove about a Roman temple. Thus, the word "paradise" came into Western languages meaning an enclosed Persian-style garden with groves of trees. • I I The oldest Persian garden for which it is possible to make a schematic reconstruction was built by Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae more than 2,500 years ago, around 546 B.C. Designed to complement buildings, Cyrus' garden actually I united the official and residential palaces. The geometric plan of the garden was defined by a decorative, carved stone watercourse; trees and shrubs were planted symmetrically in plots. These were the essential elements in the design of I subsequent Persian gardens,' which inspired the gardens of the Islamic world, most notably the great gardens of Mughal India. I A mystical feeling for flowers and a love of gardens are •ancient Persian characteristics. The design of the garden, developed early and perfected to satisfy Persian taste and needs, persisted. In this as in many other artistic traditions, the I Persians were conventional: when a design was perfected, it was seldom changed. The Persians were restricted by a harsh climate as well as a conservative tradition. and apparently their gardens were not horticulturally innovative. 3 I The form of the Paradise Garden evolved from the traditions of the early desert dwellers of the Near East. From earliest times, religious symbolism had exerted a powerful influence on their design. In Antiquity there c:isted .:: pJ:-ttheon I of gods; frequently there were many symbols for each. It is beyond the scope of ' this book to trace. examine or even attempt to list all of the related symbols. We I are only concerned here with those which relate to objects or traditions incor· porated into the gardens.~ The reverence for water, the mystical feeling for trees, the symbolic division of I the earth into quarters by the four rivers of life and the s.ignificance. of a mountain are among the most ancient and enduring traditions of the Near East, but to us the most important is yet another-the Paradise myth, the vision of Paradise as I a garden. Herein lies the essential point which this volume will try to elucidate. II II. The Paradise Myth The idea of Paradise as a garden is one of man's oldest ideals. Since the beginning of history, most probably in prehistory, societies which had nothing else in common shared the concept of Paradise as the ideal garden, a secure and everlasting garden. Almost universal in human experience, this concept of Paradise in which man transcends his frail human condition, has persisted while many of the civilizations which. adhered to it have disappeared. Belief in the myth has lessened the pain of life and fear of death. The image of a place of perfect and eternal peace and plenty can make a difficult temporal existence meaningful and its transitory nature acceptable. 2 \ory plate. Assur, ca. '43-1207 B.C. 1"\ountain with water god, flanked by trees and decorated with SUJ! sy .Dol., Flowing vases symbolize the four rivers of life. (Staatliche ,\\useum. Berlin) The Paradise myth appears in the first known writing of mankind, the wedge· shaped impressions of Mesopotamia from the proto-literate period of Sumer. Among the oldest Sumerian cuneiform tablets unearthed and deciphered. is a 278·1ine poem of the Sumerian paradise myth: Dilmun was a land that was "pure, clear and bright," whose fortunate inhabitants knew neither sickness, violence nor aging, but which had no fresh water. The Sumerian God of Water, Enki, ordered the SL,ln God, Utu, to create a divine garden by providing .fresh water from beneath the earth; Utu obeyed and Dilmun was transformed into a Paradise of the Gods with fruit trees, green fields, and meadows. 5 In the twenty-seventh century B.C., the dominant Sumerian city stqte of Erech (Warka, Iraq) was ruled by Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh later became the hero of the collected myths of the Akkadians and Babylonians. Many of these myths develop the theme of death and immortality and the hope of eternal return. The Paradise myth is repeated on fragments of Babylonian tablets bearing the Epic of Cilgamesh. In the following excerpt, Gilgamesh wanders in the Ga~den of the Gods: Anrl lo! tl..,p gesr1in [tree] shining stands With crystal branches in the golden sands, In this immortal garden stands the Tree, With trunk of gold, and beautiful to see. Beside a sacred fount the tree is placed, With emeralds and unknown gems is graced.6 3 I I I I r I I Seal impression. Late Akkadian, ca. 2254-2154 B.C. Heroes with symbols of the water god. Note vase with flowing water. (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lent by I the Right Reverend Paul Moore, Jr., 1955) I The Sumerian-Babylonian Paradise, the Garden of the Gods, was an idyllic earthly garden of peace and plenty reserved for those who had achieved immortality. It corresponds to the Homeric Elysian Fields-a place of perfect bliss and immortality for those favored by the gods.l This ancient mythological theme-the promise of Paradise as a garden-is surely one of the most beautiful that man has ever created. For primitive people living the hard life of the soil­ people who feared the natural world and dreaded the unknown-it was a green and hopeful myth. The colorful, dramatic Epic was popular and widely known throughout the ancient world and influenced the folk-tales of later civilizations. Under the Achaernenid kings of Persia (sixth to fourth centuries E\.C.) the prophet Zarathus­ tra, known to us by the Greek name, Zoroaster, gained prominence. The Avesta, the later collected holy wo~ks of the Zoroastrians, records a promise by the prophet of a paradise with paths of burnished gold. pleas\-]re pavilions of diamonds and filled with fruit and fragrant flowers. The Yashts, or heroic hymns of the Avesta, parallel the hymns of the Rig- Veda of ancient India. Both contain heroic exploits similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh, as do the legends of the Greeks, especially those relating the labors of Heracles. The Epic was certainly familiar to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity, from which the first Achaem~nid king, Cyrus the Great, released them in 538 B.C. and allowed them to return to Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word pardes, from the Old Persian pairidaeza, is used to mean garden. It was in the Greek translation of the Old Testament-with its use of the word paradeisos I for garden-that Paradise became identified with the Garden of Eden, where 4 primeval man dwelt in the gardens of the Lord. Through the Bible, earthly Paradise became identified with Heaven-the celestial abode of God-remote and unobtainable, thus acquiring the transcendental image dominant in Christian tradition.
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