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Conservation at the Red Fort – New Delhi 2003 Table of Contents

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Conservation at the Red Fort – New Delhi 2003 Table of Contents Conservation at the Red Fort – New Delhi 2003 table of contents: Neher-i-Behist & Bagh-i-Hayat Baksh > Destroyed Evidence for Medieval Hydrological System > Reconfigured & Reconstructed Terrace > Contravened Conservation Standards Hayat Baksh Extant Traces – covered or removed Intrusive lighting Features Repaved Pathways Reconstituted Features Shah Burj Marble Pool re-Pointed with Cement Diwan-i-Khas & Khas Mahal > Damaged Scale of Justice Jali > Renovated Pietra Dura statement of purpose As a public-spirited group of citizens, we draw your attention to the reckless renovation work at the Red Fort. We present herewith evidence of a cavalier approach to conservation that perpetuates a 'chalta hai' attitude towards a scientific discipline. The present works at the fort violate international norms of conservation that could disqualify its bid to achieve World Heritage status. Adhoc measuresof 'beautification' in the name of restoration attack both protected material heritage and the cultural identity of a society. Who is to be held responsible for the criminal negligence in the execution of well-established guidelines? who answers for: > the eliminatiion of authentic evidence of material heritage, and thereby our identity > the replacement of this authentic heritage with new design elements in violation of international conservation charters > the presentation of a complex, integrated hydrological structure as a decorative feature > the alteration of a traditional architectural ethos with an aesthetics of public-works landscapes > the devaluation of high-quality traditional skills by patronising substandard workmanship > the denial of our basic right to be informed about the state of our heritage The Red Fort is amongst the finest Mughal monuments in India- a talismanic emblem of the subcontinent's struggle against colonial rule. “The palace at Delhi is, or rather was, the most magnificent palace in the East – perhaps in the world... The gems of the palace (remain), it is true, but without the courts and corridors connecting them they lose all their meaning and more than half their beauty. Situated in the middle of a British barrack-yard, they look like precious stones torn from their settings in some exquisite piece of Oriental jeweller’s work and set at random in a bed of the commonest plaster.” James Fergusson, History of India and Eastern Architecture, 1910, in Nicholson, Venturi - The Red Fort Delhi, London: Tauris Parke Books (1989) Conservation at the Red Fort, Shahjahanabad, New Delhi. 2003 2 the Red Fort An axonometric view shows buildings up until the British occupation in 1858 (adapted from Sanderson) in Nicholson, Venturi (1989) p.122 Circled is the area under scrutiny in these papers. ‘Of all the Mugal monuments of Delhi which are now Compared with its counterpart in Agra, the palace invested with so much interest owing to the city having in the red fort of Delhi is a unified whole. Its main become once more the Capital of the Indian Empire, the parts were conceived all at once, rather than built Fort of Shah Jahan will, to the majority appeal to the most.’ up piecemeal over time, and though it has some Sanderson (in ASI Annual report 1911-12,1915, p.1) later additions these have not destroyed the original basic pattern. however, it is much less well preserved than the Agra palace, for various historical reasons. In the larger context Red Fort played an enormous symbolic After half a century of destruction adn neglect, a role for the Indian people throughout the country, both programme of restoration of the surviving parts was during and after the freedom movement. On the morning of begun by the Archeological Survey in 1903. 15 August 1947, it was from this port Pandit Jawaharlal GHR TillotsonTillotson, Mughal India, London: Viking (1990) Nehru the first prime minister of independent India, addressed his countrymen to commemorate a day that had long been sought. A S MukherjiMukherji, The Red Fort, Delhi: Oxford University Press (2003) Conservation at the Red Fort, Shahjahanabad, New Delhi. 2003 3 Hayat Baksh Garden “Made the earth the envy of the sky…” Fadil Khan There were two major gardens, the Hyat In the design of their gardens, the Mughals balanced everything Baksh or Life Giving Garden, and the perfectly: space and texture, light and shade, colour and scent. In Mahtab Bagh or Moonlight Garden, the realm of waterworks, their imagination knew know bounds; combined to form one grand design. The every detail was considered, even surface patterns. latter no longer exists, but much of the Hayat Baksh remains, designed as a water The Hayat Baksh, or life bestowing garden, once had several rows garden and connected with the eastern of cypress and beds of saffron, crimson and purple flowers, a terrace with the Neher-i-Behist running favorite combination in the colorful Timurid charbags. Today the through it. garden area is modernized with lawns and low, clipped hedges and flower beds, though it is still planted in the old colors. The gardens In the Hyat Baksh …the centre of each of its of the Red Fort, once most splendid of Mughal Gardens, lack even four sides was marked by pavilions or the melancholy charm of a ruin. gateways. On the northern and southern ends were Sawan and Bhadon pavilions, There has been much restoration and unfortunately, some and on the eastern and western ends were building. Within the fort today, ugly nineteenth century barracks Moti Mahal pavilion and the connecting stand on the site of the Mahtab Bagh and loom over restored river gateway to the Mehtab Bagh respectively. side terrace. Moti Mahal, no longer extant, is represented by the white pavilion in Above all it was the playful use of water in their gardens that so miniature drawings. Written descriptions enchanted and pleased the Mughals. For these gardens were not however portray it as a red stone building just symbols of power where they lusted after pleasure. Rather the …(with a) white marble tank in the centre. deeper symbolism and the poetic nature of the appeal of these A S Mukherji (2002) the Red Fort, Paradise Gardens is reaffirmed in an inscription in the Red Fort Delhi, p.149 describing the water garden of the palace: “The Hayt Baksh (life bestowing garden), which is to these buildings as the soul is to body, and the lamp to an assembly; and of the pure canal, the limpid water of which is to the person possessing sight, as the mirror showing the world; and of the water cascades, each of which you may see is the whitener of the dawn… and of the fountains, each of which is hand inclined to shake hands with the inhabitants of heavens, or a string of bright pearls made to descend reward the inhabitants of the earth; and of the tank, full to the brim of the water and in its purity the envy of light and spring of the sun.” E Moynihan (1979) Paradise as a Garden - In Persia & Mughal India, p.135, 136, 146, 147 Conservation at the Red Fort, Shahjahanabad, New Delhi. 2003 4 the Neher-i-Behist ‘There is almost no chamber but it hath at it’s Door a storehouse of running water; that ‘tis full of Parterres, pleasant Walk, shady Places, Rivulets, Fountains, Jets of Water, Grottas, great Caves against the heat of the day, and great Terraces raised high, and very airy, to sleep upon in the cool: in a word, you know not there what ‘tis to be hot.’ BernierBernier, in Crowe, Haywood, The Gardens of Mughul India, p.159 Based on contemporary and preceding Mughal water systems, it seems likely that within the Red Fort, water would have flowed from a storage tank with designated pipe inlets and outlets, through copper pipes into the pavilion attached to the Shah Burj. Water in the canal, after rising up at fountains at frequent intervals, would have continued through the pavilions into the garden. It would have then entered hammams, the emperor’s private chambers, and the imperial seraglio to finally collect in a baoli in the Asad Burj. Here, it was probably used as a watering hole for the animals, after which it was allowed to flow back to the river. Since the Yamuna also flowed southwards, the direction of currents would have ensured that this used water would not flow back towards the Shah Burj and into the Fort. Mukherji (2002) The Red Fort, Delhi, p.115 Once inside Shahajahanabad, the Neher-i-Behist split into two. One branch met Chandni Chowk near Fatehpur Masjid and flowed down the middle of the bazaar to Faiz Bazar. The other branch entered Saihibabad garden and ran to the northeastern corner of the palace-fortress near Shah Burj. A ingenious device called Shuturgulu (Camel’s Neck) is said to have lifted the stream from the ground level to the floor of the fort. A marble channel directed water to the building and the apartments along the eastern wall, while smaller canals diverted the flow to the gardens and waterways. A mid eighteenth century writer observed: (The canal) brought greenness to Delhi. It ran in all of the city from lane to lane, and the wells became full from it. Having flown to the mansion of princess and amirs it flowed into the city – to Chandni Chawk, to the Chawk of Sa’adulla Khan, to Pahargunj, to Ajmeri Gate, to the grazing places to the other mahallahs, and to all the lanes and bazaars of the city. The paradise canal was responsible for much that was fresh green and beautiful in Shahjahnabad. Sujan Rai wrote: “confers freshness to the gardens in suburbs of the capital, lends happiness to the streets and bazaars, and enhances the splendor of the imperial palaces.” Sujan Raiai, “Khulasat al-Tawarikh,” fol.29b Water moved regularly from the Jamuna to the city until the middle Reconstituted Plan of the eighteenth century.
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