THE FRAMED LANDSCAPE IN ISLAMIC AND

D Fairchild Ruggles

What is the difference between a landscape and a garden? They are made of the same material elements, and yet a garden is not the same as a landscape. Gardens are typically enclosed, organized (even if the organization mimics wild nature), and they are usually planted with selected plants that are placed there by design. More importantly, gardens often have an intended communicative function, expressing concepts such as political hierarchies and order (as evidenced by the neatly drawn parterres in seventeenth-century French court gardens), wealth (as in the case of topiary gardens, which are expensive to prune and maintain), or even subversive humor (as in Martha Schwartz =s Boston bagel garden). Landscapes are less controlled. They are much larger than gardens and are not so easily contained by walls; yet they, like gardens, are invariably inscribed with human presence in some way, whether it be the grid of farms typical of the American and Canadian midwest or the Great Wall that cuts through the landscape of northern China. Gardens and landscapes are also alike in that they constitute the space beyond the limits of our bodies, the world around us. , in contrast, does not define this space, because architecture is an extension of the body. It provides a defensive shell that protects us from rain and weather, from predators, and from the enemy outside the walls. I propose that there is a conceptual dichotomy between the body/architecture and gardens/landscape. In this paper, I will discuss how one experiences the other; specifically, I discuss how the body looks at landscape. The gardens and landscapes that most interest me in this respect are Islamic, because in the Islamic cultural context, the acts of looking, seeing, and being seen are carefully controlled. The human body is modestly covered so that it cannot be seen; in urban space the streets are narrow and angled in order to forbid long vistas (the opposite of the European avenue); and are often veiled by screens that prevent sunlight from heating interior rooms, but that also allow the inhabitants of a house to look out without themselves being seen. In particular, I want to look at these architectural screens and to examine how they draw attention to the windows that frame the views of gardens, landscape, and the world of human habitation. Islamic gardens are some of the most spectacular, stunningly beautiful, and historic gardens that exist today. Islamic gardens, whether attached to magnificent and recreation or in the more sombre contexts of and , share many formal characteristics such as four-part divisioning into garden beds, water 2 D Fairchild Ruggles channels coursing through axial pavements, water displayed dynamically in and pools, and rich verdant plantings that offer shade in the summer =s heat as well as the sensory experience of scent, sound, and taste. In the palaces of Islamic Spain (which, together with was called al-Andalus in ), bronze and stone fountains in the shape of stags, elephants, and lions poured water into large pools and smaller carved basins. More than mere decoration, these zoomorphic sculptures called attention to the precise moment and place that water appeared to enter into the garden. In the hot, dry environment of the southern half of the where rain does not fall for six months at a time, the act of obtaining, storing, and distributing water was critically important to the economy and the culture. 1 sculpture caught the eye Cparticularly in a cultural context where figural imagery was relatively uncommon Cand emphasized the life-giving role of water because, just as the water spewing from the maws of the stone beasts made them appear to move as though alive, the irrigation waters made the arid landscape grow and live. At the in (Spain), the (built between 1370-1390 by the Nasrid sultan V) had an elaborate system of water distribution and display. The water appeared first in basins at the terminal points of the axes that defined the quadripartite plan of the enclosed . It then flowed across the floor pavements and down steps toward the central fountain that took the form of a large stone basin held aloft on the haunches of twelve roaring lions, symbols of Nasrid sovereignty that also made allusion to Suleyman (Solomon), the ideal king of the Bible and (Figure 1). 2 The water that flowed plentifully in the Court of the Lions and throughout the Alhambra was piped to the site by aqueducts and channels that drew the water from the nearby Sierra Nevada. After coursing through the various palace reception , courtyard gardens, and baths, the water ran downhill where it irrigated the farms and provided drinking water for the inhabitants of the city below. The distribution of water from its high mountain source flowing by gravity downward to the royal palace, farms, and urban commonfolk provides a kind of map of the social and political hierarchy of Granada.

1 D Fairchild Ruggles, "Fountains and Miradors: Architectural Imitation and Ideology among the ," in Künstlerischer Austausch,(Akten des XXVIII Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte Berlin, 15-20 Juli 1992) 3 vols, ed Thomas W Gaehtgens (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993) I: 391-406.

2 Oleg Grabar, The Alhambra, 2nd ed, rev (Sebastopol, Calif: Solipsist Press, 1992), chapter two. The Framed Landscape 3

A similar interest in the choreography of water is seen in the of in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The principal court cities, and , were located on flat dry plains where water collected in still pools and lethargic rivers that bestirred themselves only seasonally in response to the monsoon rains. Nonetheless, water was treated as a dynamic element in moving channels and jets, as if it were copiously abundant and active. For example, in court gardens such as the Anguri Bagh of the (seventeenth century) there was an elaborate scheme of water. The water was brought from a distant source to the Fort by underground pipes and flowed into the called the Khwabgah, the centermost of the trio called collectively the Khass , which presided over the garden =s east end (Figure 2). This group of three pavilions stood on a raised terrace from which the water was released into the garden by flowing from the Khwabgah =s scallop-edged basin, along a broad channel inlaid with cut marble to resemble the ripples of a stream, and downward into a basin at garden level from which it flowed along channels and into the partitions of the garden (Figure 3). As it fell from terrace to garden, the water imitated the downward rush of water in mountain streams; as it cascaded over a carved decorative panel of recessed niches called a chini khana (literally AChina cabinet @), its spray cooled the air and pleased the senses. These niches might be adorned with either colourful flowers or, at night, flickering oil lamps, and one can imagine the delightful effect of the illusionism and sparkling colour in enhancing the sensory experience of the garden.

4 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 5

6 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 7

In contrast to the cities of the plains, the mountains of Kashmir, where the went during the summer months to escape the extreme heat, had large quantities of fresh flowing water that could be easily displayed in lively garden fountains and chutes. For example, at the (built ca 1620 near Srinagar by the Empress =s brother, Asaf Khan), there was a waterchute called a chadar that mimicked the rushing water of mountain cas-cades. The chadar consisted of a scalloped or rippled surface that gave texture to the water. The splashing had a pleasing sound, threw a gentle refreshing spray upon the viewer, and served to aerate and thus maintain the purity of the water. 3 The chini khana and chadar were devices used in most Mughal gardens. They were particularly delightful elements in a large set of individual forms that contributed to coherent formal compositions. We can see the function of each part and can read, to some degree, the meaning of how and why the space was organized as it was: there is an evident rational order in the geometrical layout of beds, and water is given special prominence. Clearly the control and display of water had great meaning both in Spain, where no rain falls during the summer months, and in India, where 70% of the annual rain falls in a single monsoon season. In these environments, as in much of the Islamic landscape, water must be collected during the rainy season and managed so that it may be used to irrigate the agri-cultural landscape and palace gardens during the hot arid months.

3 My thanks to Professor Lesley Lovett-Doust of the University of Windsor for this observation on how water movement both reduced the growth of bacteria and lowered the water temperature. 8 D Fairchild Ruggles

There is yet another kind of organization here that is difficult to convey through static images such as plans and photographs: it is best experienced by walking through the sites. 4 I am referring to the way that vision is controlled so that what appears to be a walled, entirely self-contained garden may open at points along its outer walls, offering views of landscape.

4 Although I was trained as an historian to think of art, architecture, and landscape as primarily visual forms, I have begun to think that this eclipses the more complex sensory experience of being in a landscape. One does not merely see the garden and the landscape: one inhales the fragrance of fresh loam or scented roses, one savors the taste (actual or anticipated) of a freshly picked fig, one pauses to listen to the trilling of a bird in tree boughs above, and one rejoices in the cool sensation of the water spray from a nearby fountain. The project that I am engaged in at the present, therefore, is not only the completion of a book on gardens and landscape throughout Islamic history, but also an accompanying CD that will permit the viewer to see sequences of movement through a garden and to hear the sounds of a chadar or fountain. The Framed Landscape 9

The Alhambra Palace had many such views that were possible from the towers, reception halls, and even mosques that were poised on its perimeter walls. The Alhambra is a very large palace-city complex atop a hill high above Granada; it consisted of numerous individual palaces (erroneously treated as one by most modern historians), most of which were organized around a central courtyard, open to the sky and gardened (Figure 4). The aforementioned Court of the Lions is probably the best known of these (Figure 1). Its rectangular courtyard was divided into four sunken beds by means of raised walkways with water channels running down the center of the pavements. The four-part plan was used here not simply because grids were easy to make and easy to read; the adoption of the cross-axial plan had profound meaning, for it reflected a deep need to organize the earth logically according to rational, predictable lines. In Islamic palatine gardens, the individual was usually positioned at the center of the garden, which served as a metaphor for the world, and thus many garden pavilions were situated either at the intersection of the garden axes (the exact centre of the garden) or at the end of the dominant north-south axes so that the individual (represented by the pavilion or ) presided over the entire garden from a slightly elevated position. 5 In the Court of the Lions, the ruler was represented figuratively by the centrally positioned lions, and in person could view the garden from one of the projecting from either end of the courtyard =s enclosing . In the case of a royal palace, the garden recreated not only the position of the human being within nature, but of a king within his kingdom. The garden was thus a political metaphor for the kingdom or territory, and the implied cosmic ordering of the garden served to naturalize human social order, with the king at the centre or apex. The king was also the primary generator of the view, not simply looking at the garden but overlooking it, as a master surveys his property. The place in the Alhambra where this mastery of the view

5 The positioning of the ruler/patron within the space of the garden is discussed in my book Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), 100-109, and 181-208. 10 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 11

was most evident is the Hall of the Ambassadors in the Comares Palace, which has at its center the Court of the Myrtles with its large rectangular pool of water. This court adjoins the Court of the Lions and slightly predates it (the work of multiple patrons, it was finished in 1370). At one end of the Comares Palace stands the Hall of the Ambassadors where official matters of state were handled: receptions, diplomatic gatherings, poetry competitions, and feast days were all celebrated in this ceremonial space. The lofty hall was entered on its north side, and its east, south, and west walls were pierced by large niches with windows that offered views toward the surrounding landscape. The sultan =s throne seems to have been placed in front of the central niche of the south side so that the axis that ran through the Court of the Myrtles into the Hall of the Ambassadors culminated with him. The views of the exterior landscape of Granada seen from this hall appeared natural. However, in fourteenth-century al-Andalus there was no romantic longing for Awilderness @; the city and its outlying landscape of farms and mountains were understood to belong in concept to the Nasrid ruler, while in practice the immediate urban landscape belonged to the workaday world of Granada =s city dwellers. In the distance, snow-capped mountains marked the horizon of the Nasrid kingdom and the Islamic civilization of al-Andalus. The views of the Aworld out there @ contrasted with the tightly controlled space of the domestic courtyard garden where many of the features that made the exterior landscape so very productive, such as water storage, irrigation, and plant cultivation, were also employed and indeed displayed as part of the aesthetic beauty of the garden. The Alhambra had many such places for looking toward gardens and toward landscape. The Partal Palace, for example, was poised on the perimeter of the Alhambra =s precinct walls so that the pavilion and tower of the Torre de las Damas looked simultaneously outward to the Sierra Nevada and inward toward a garden that, in its original state, consisted of a completely enclosed courtyard with a rectangular pool, similar to the Court of the Myrtles (Figure 5). 6 The enclosure walls are missing now, but a computer reconstruction gives a sense of the courtyard =s original character. Next to the courtyard was a small free-standing with a prayer hall that

6 This was first pointed out by James Dickie, AThe Palaces of the Alhambra, @ in Jerrilynn D Dodds, ed, Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 135-151. 12 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 13 served the residents of the Partal Palace. Even in this diminutive , the purpose of which was prayer and spiritual reflection, there were large double windows that provided views on one side toward the exterior landscape and on the other side toward the gardens and that surrounded the Partal complex. In these and many more other halls and towers along the outer walls of the Alhambra, the architecture was designed to encourage views that look outward and downward, so that the viewer Ca privileged member of the royal court Chad a sense of physical elevation that enhanced, metaphorically or psychologically, the concept of elevated social or political importance. In the palaces and gardens of Mughal South Asia, approximately two hundred and fifty years later and at the other end of the Islamic map, there was a similar interest in the garden as a metaphor for the civilized world and vision as a tool for establishing social hierarchy. Although there were pronounced cultural differences between in al-Andalus and in India, 7 there were also signs of a common Islamic legacy that appeared most clearly in the close association between architecture and gardens. The at Agra (built mostly in the seventeenth century although founded earlier) was an enormous palatine city that, like the Alhambra, consisted of far more gardened and open areas than actual roofed building fabric. Particularly along its eastern perimeter, where the floor level of the palace grounds stood several stories higher than the ground level of the river bank it overlooked, there was a string of graceful garden pavilions and halls. Some of these appear to have served no other purpose than to provide a pleasant place for sitting and gazing at the river, its opposite bank of pleasure gardens owned by the members of the royal family and court, and, eventually, the (Figure 6). The chronology of building that allowed such views requires explanation. While the Fort was transformed into the primary royal residence during the reign of 1556-1605), many of the finer kiosks and reception halls of white marble date to the reign of (1627-1658) (the southern half of the eastern face, Figure 2). The elegant Musamman Burj, the Khass Mahal trio, along with the

7 The term India here is a translation of the historical geographical designation Aal-Hind, @ now divided between the modern nations of India and . 14 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 15

Anguri Bagh, date from 1628-1637, the period of the most intense construction. 8 The Taj Mahal was situated on the same side of the river as the Fort but just past a bend, so that the majestic could be seen from the Fort =s kiosks. The Taj was begun in 1632 C although the land had been purchased earlier Cand largely finished in 1636. 9 The Fort and the Taj were major commissions achieved early in the reign of Shah Jahan, and, given the already intensely gardened banks of river in this part of Agra, it is highly likely that the kiosks adorning the Fort were planned so as to provide a view of the emperor =s other major architectural work Cand public memorial to personal and dynastic glory Cat the other end of the river frontage.

8 Catherine B Asher, Architecture of Mughal India. The New Cambridge , vol 1, no 4. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 185-6.

9 Ibid, 212. 16 D Fairchild Ruggles

Shah Jehan lined the river facade of his palace with pavilions. At one end, the Diwan-i Khass, a private audience hall, consisted of an open, pillared hall on a raised platform with a sunken garden on one side and panoramic views of the river and its opposite bank on the other side (labelled on Figure 2). In the more private palace quarters at the other end of this elite row of sumptuous residential halls, the Khass Mahal was reserved for the personal use of the emperor and immediate family members. The Khwabgah served as his sleeping chamber; the smaller, curved, bangla roofed pavilion flanking it on the south side was assigned to the Emperor =s daughter, Jahanara; and the identical pavilion on the north side was the Bangla-i Darshan where Shah Jahan made his ceremonial appearances to the public. 10 (These were not audiences, but distant iconic showings of his visage in the official palace frame.) All three of the Khass Mahal pavilions had large windows that allowed views outward. The bangla pavilions were enclosed by walls for privacy, but the Khwabgah itself was open and its terrace provided a raised setting from which to look over and enjoy the Anguri Bagh. We have already seen how water was an integral aspect of the garden design, pouring from the pavilion to the garden where it then irrigated a large four-part enclosure that was ornately subdivided into interlocking parterres defined by thin stone borders. The concept of an orderly garden where water was the focal point of display and movement had been developed in earlier palaces in Islamic al-Andalus, the (today , Algeria, and ), and Central Asia (today , , and the newly independent states to the north), and by the seventeenth century it was an integral element of the of pleasure. This was a system defined not only by built mass, but also by windows and openings that pierced the walls. As at the Alhambra, the Red Fort had views toward its surrounding landscape (in Agra, this was the river where the opposite bank was thickly covered with orchards) as well as inward to highly organized courtyard gardens. The pleasure of sitting within a sheltered cool hall and gazing toward near and distant landscape was a distinctly Islamic taste and it appears earlier in South Asia in the Sultanate (Islamic) architecture of the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries. Although introduced by , the predilection for ornamental gardens expressing the patron =s personal identity was soon integrated into the general vocabulary of diverse wealthy builders in the . These included many high ranking of the clans (a warrior caste), some of whom served as regional governors or even close advisors to the emperor. One of the most astute political strategies of the early Mughals was to incorporate regional Hindu rulers Cpotential

10 , (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1991), 108. The Framed Landscape 17 foes Cinto Mughal administration, allowing them to retain considerable power and wealth and giving them a stake in the success of the empire. As a further means of strengthening alliances between powerful Rajput families and the Mughal house, Rajput daughters were married into the royal house. These women gave birth to children, some of whom grew up to become emperors, effectively intertwining the genealogical destinies of certain Rajput families and the Mughals. This close affinity between two clans of different religious faiths had a marked impact on the formation of Mughal culture. The princely courts of the Hindus began to adopt the dress and social manners of their more powerful Islamic neighbors, while the Mughals similarly embraced aspects of the material culture and secular social practices of the Hindus. 11 The cultural, religious, and philosophical hybridity of Akbar =s court has been well documented; in their architecture, the Mughal patrons eagerly adopted indigenous South Asian forms and materials such as red sandstone inlaid with white marble, bangla roofs, and decorative moldings, to name only a few. Less well understood is the reverse process in which Rajput patrons borrowed singular architectural elements or entire compositions from Muslim designs. The Rajput palaces, which have been studied in two major books, did not adhere slavishly to Mughal norms. 12 Rather, they selectively adopted from Mughal architectural vocabulary in a process parallelling what Philip Wagoner, writing about the Hindu Vijayanagara court =s emulation of Muslim practices, describes as Aconscious and deliberately calculated acts @ by Acreative individuals

11 While religious differences were maintained, Muslims and Hindus adopted each other =s artistic forms and social practices. Under such conditions when people begin to dress, build, and sound alike, how are such cultures to be distinguished? Marshall Hodgson defined a society neither by its religion nor by its political structure, but rather as a Afield of activity @ (AThe Interrelations of Societies in History, @ 3-28 in Hodgson, Rethinking World History, ed Edmund Burke III [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993]). To reflect this way of thinking about a society, he used the term Aislamicate @ rather than Islamic or Muslim ( AThe Role of in World History, @ 97-125 in Hodgson, op cit).

12 The best source on the history of Rajput palaces is G H R Tillotson, The Rajput Palaces: The Development of an , 1450-1750 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987); George Michell, The Royal Palaces of India (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994) provides less explanation but has magnificent photographs that include useful interior and exterior details. 18 D Fairchild Ruggles seeking to maximize their opportunities in an ever-widening world. @13 In the early stages of the Mughal Empire, the Rajput use of recognizably Mughal architectural vocabulary seems to have reflected the degree of closeness to the Mughal family; later, Mughal forms and elements were employed to suggest historicity.

13 Phillip Wagoner describes the specific process in South Asia by which a non-Muslim society might adopt Islamic manners without embracing its faith or accepting its rule (Wagoner, A=Sultan among Hindu kings =: Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara, @ Journal of Asian Studies 55, 4 [1996]: 851-880, specifically 875). The Framed Landscape 19

The Amber Fort, built near in the early seventeenth century by one of the highest ranking members of the Mughal court, the Rajput Man Singh (reign1592-1615), is an example of a non-Muslim palace that resembled its Muslim Mughal counterparts. Rectangular in plan, it was built in successive phases, beginning with a large courtyard with high defensive walls on what is now the southern end. 14 When two to the north were added by Raja Jai Singh I (1623-67/8), this original court became the women =s residence ( ) and received unfortunate architectural alterations such as the blocking of arcades and doorways for greater privacy. Beyond these to the north, the Jaleb Chowk, a public court surrounded by offices and guard lodges, was added in the first half of the eighteenth century. 15 Of the two middle courtyards (between the former zenana and the Jaleb Chowk), the northern one was for semi-public receptions, and the central one served as the raja =s own sumptuous residence (Figure 7). A monumental gate dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed god associated with auspicious beginnings and the removal of obstacles, marked the threshold between these parts of the palace. This was by no means the only explicit sign of the patron =s identity. There were other formal elements and iconographic references, such as the pitched roof of the corner towers of the zenana where would be expected, the delight in elevated rooftop terraces, and the insertion of a small into the northwestern corner of the third court, all of which proclaimed the Hindu affiliation of the Rajput patron. 16 However, in the raja =s private courtyard, Mughal architectural models were closely followed (Figure 8). The raja =s courtyard adopts the four-part garden plan with a central water feature that was standard among Mughal palace gardens. Moreover, its setting alongside a stream that was dammed to create an artificial lake, followed the typology of the classic Mughal waterfront garden as seen in the Agra Fort, discussed above, as well as the forts of Delhi and . Indeed, the attraction to riverfronts as sites for gardens and garden palaces dates from the reign of (reign1526-1530) who with his followers built a garland of gardens along the River in Agra. 17

14 Tillotson, The Rajput Palaces, 86.

15 Michell, The Royal Palaces, 162.

16 Tillotson, The Rajput Palaces, 95.

17 Ebba Koch, AThe Mughal Waterfront Garden, @ Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design, ed Attilio Petruccioli, vol 7 of Studies in and Architecture (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1997), 140-160. 20 D Fairchild Ruggles

In the first half of the twentieth century, the historians Percy Brown and Hermann Goetz suggested that the use of the Mughal style at the Amber and other Rajput palaces was due to the use of craftsmen trained previously by the Emperor Akbar. In response, Tillotson argued that such arguments are bound to emerge from the Ainsistence on the primacy of Indo-Islamic over Hindu styles @ and asked instead that we acknowledge the semi-autonomous

The Framed Landscape 21

22 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 23

Rajput school of craft and architecture that continued to exist and develop alongside of the Mughal styles of the Islamic ruling court. 18 While these views different with respect to the explanations they offer, both rely on a concept of architecture that occurs on the level of zeitgeist . Tillotson talks of Aa continuing Hindu development @ in which patrons and architects Acontribute, @ as if architecture were a much larger force than any single player within in it. 19 It is true that the Mughal architectural style can be analyzed without ever referring to the individuals who laid the brick and carved the sandstone; and yet such an explanation masks the fact that elite buildings were built and used by people who wished to express individual preferences and complex political affiliations, as well as to impress rival princes, foes, and clients (families, dependents, and inhabitants of the lands they governed). If we take the of the patrons and users of these buildings, we can look beyond the measurement of incremental changes in stone fabric and ornamental overlay and instead explore the meaning of those forms to the people who paid to have them built. The central garden court of the Amber Fort also reflected the raja =s Islamicate cultural taste and his immersion in Mughal political administration. 20 For example, the display of water is one of the central features of the Amber garden. From the richly ornamented halls on the east and west sides of the courtyard, water pours down a chute ( chadar ) and over a panel of tiered niches ( chini khana ) to flow through narrow channels lined with white marble, collecting in the central star-shaped pool (Figure 9). Like earlier palaces of the Islamic Mediterranean, the water features and disciplined organization of the garden into distinct parterres mirrored the formal elements of the irrigated agricultural landscape. The garden bed here was the elite version, and to some extent a representation, of the humble farmed plot bounded by low earthen walls. The size of the farm plot is usually determined by a practical calculation of the area

18 For references to Brown and Goetz as well as to Tillotson =s counter argument, see Tillotson, The Rajput Palaces, 98.

19 Ibid, 98.

20 On the term "Islamicate," see note 18. On the Mughalizing architectural taste of certain Rajput princes, see D F Ruggles, AWhat =s Religion Got to do with it? A Skeptical Look at the Symbolism of Islamic and Rajput Gardens, @ DAK: The Newsletter of the American Institute of Indian Studies 4 (autumn 2000), 1, 5-8. 24 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 25

of land that can be sufficiently soaked in the allotted unit of time in which the farmer has access to irrigation water. Indeed, the pleasure garden displays the most important formal elements of the irrigated, cultivated landscape: the grid of garden beds where plants are organized and tended, shallow channels for the transport of water, and pools for water storage. 21 At the Amber Fort, as in the palaces of Muslims patrons, the gardens were walled and invisible to the eye of the world. In contrast, the inhabitants of the palace could see magnificent views of the world around them by looking through windows or mounting stairs to the airy belvedere ( ) on the second storey of the central courtyard =s east hall (comprised of the Jess Mandir on the lower floor and the Jai Mandir on the upper floor). Looking directly outward from this eastern face of the palace, they could see the dramatic profile of rugged mountains; in the valley below, they saw an artificial platform built in the lake and divided into an ornate of parterres (Figure 10). This lower garden is so strikingly linear in the network of low white borders, which establish the parterres, that it must have been intended to be read as a flat composition from the perspective of the Jai Mandir =s belvedere. In other words, it was designed for viewing from a specific vantage point so that the garden below and the belvedere above, although separate structures, were united within a single visual field. The concept of a visual field that unites architecture and landscape is important not only because it explains why architecture =s reach extends far beyond itself, but also because in this duality the division between self and other, or subject and object, becomes apparent. On the western side of the Jai Mandir, residents in the late seventeenth century could gaze upward toward the . Built or renovated by Mirza Raja Jai Singh I, the patron who made the additions to the Amber Fort, the Jaigarh Fort stands on a high peak and has magnificent views of mountains, deep valleys, lakes, and streams. The Fort, which is architecturally unexceptional and in poor condition today, is hard to reach and hence it receives few

21 Ruggles, Gardens, Landscape, and Vision, passim; also D F Ruggles, "Il giardini con pianta a croce nel Mediterraneo islamico," in Il giardino islamico: Architettura, natura, paesaggio, ed. Attilio Petruccioli (Milan: Electa, 1993), 143-54 and (German)"Der als Achsenkreuz angelegte islamische Garten des Mittelmeerraums und seine Bedeutung," in Der islamische Garten: Architektur. Natur. Landschaft, ed A Petruccioli (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, 1994), 143-54 26 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 27 visitors. 22 Unlike the Amber Fort, there is no attempt at Jaigarh to maintain garden plantings or fill the ornamental pools. However, one of its courtyards has the layout of a classic Mughal chahar bagh Ca cross-axial, quadripartite garden with sunken quadrants (Figure 11). Its north-south and east-west divisions are articulated by pavements that meet at a central pool. As at the Amber Fort, there is a keen interest in the control and manipulation of vision within the garden as well as beyond it to the surrounding landscape. The courtyard is surrounded by high walls with corner towers; where the axes of the four-part garden terminate at the walls, there are windows that invite the eye to survey the dramatic mountain landscape. One such opening afforded a triple-arched view of the water source that supplied the Amber Fort and settlements below. Another looked down onto the Amber Fort itself. The interest in vistas, in which the viewer looks from architecture (the Abody @) to landscape (the Aworld @), is deeply embedded in Islamic culture and it is one of the many architectural devices that was embraced by Hindu patrons (mirroring the equally enthusiastic adoption of Hindu forms such as brackets, corbels, and by Muslim builders). The question of vision is particularly interesting because, more than the adoption of a material element, it entailed the adoption of a mode of perception and the social practice of positioning the body in the visual field. Not only was the landscape view a source of sensory delight, it was also understood as a sign of power and authority. As at the Alhambra Palace, where the ruler had a view of garden and landscape that expressed his elevated political status as sovereign, in South Asia both the and the Rajput had palaces with framed views that were directed toward specific sights such as an important water source or the ruling family =s principal palatine residence. In South Asia, landscape vistas could be open and unimpeded, as is Jaigarh =s view toward the valley =s water supply; or vision might be blocked by a screen (called a ), as is Jaigarh =s view of the Amber Fort (Figure 12). Although during the colonial period many of the Mughal buildings lost their screens or received replacements that do not match the originals, there are still a great many Mughal structures with their original screens intact. Thus, we can observe another aspect of Islamic visual culture: the denial

22 My thanks to Catherine Asher of the University of Minnesota for insisting that I make the climb to see the valley =s water source from the perspective of the Jaigarh Fort. 28 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 29

30 D Fairchild Ruggles or postponement of vision in architectural and landscape spaces. The most common practical explanation for these screens is that they offer protection from the hot sun while admitting cooling breezes into architectural interiors. Certainly in hot climates such as India and much of the Islamic world, screens are used to filter the light and subdue the heat in residential architecture. Likewise in monumental buildings, jali screens can reduce light and heat, as can be seen at the of where the windows of the central chamber are screens with red sandstone framed by white marble (Figure 13). However, the screens at the Jaigarh Fort do not really block the sun because they surround an already open courtyard. And inside the dimly lit central chamber of the Taj Mahal, the purpose of the ornate marble screen that encloses the is not to prevent the entry of sunlight. The screen =s role in this context has nothing to do with climate control; it marks the symbolic separation between the living and the dead Cthe most significant threshold imaginable (Figure 14). Another explanation for these screens is that they ensure privacy, especially for women. The screens do indeed act as that deny vision to some (men and the public) and allow it to others (women and male members of immediate family). For example, many of the pavilions lining the riverfront perimeter of the Agra, Delhi, and Lahore Forts had protective screens to ensure privacy for the privileged inhabitants within. But, as we have seen, screens were also used in places such as the Tomb of Humayun and the Taj Mahal where women were not present, or rather where such screens did not serve to divide space according to categories of gender. Without denying the screen =s functional role of reducing heat and its social role of providing visual protection, I propose that the jali screen has a third role: it draws attention to the act of vision, much as the fountain drew attention to the presence of water. Placed across windows and visual threshold, these screen intercept the view, or at least delay it. We can see through the screen to the view that lies beyond, but we have to negotiate the intervening and the view (the object at the other end of the visual field), the screen teases the eye, making the viewer aware of the act of looking. In these examples of jali screens, we first look at the screen, and then beyond it, so that it appears first as a material object and then disappears from consciousness (like our own eyelids and noses). The critical difference between the eyes that see and the object that is

The Framed Landscape 31

32 D Fairchild Ruggles

The Framed Landscape 33 seen is made tangible in the screen. In that moment in which vision pauses to look at and through the screen, the viewer gains awareness of the act of vision. The screen, then, is the embodiment of vision: it gives the visual field a moment (or membrane) of material presence. As a material form, the screen has double parentage. It occurs in al-Andalus, and other areas of the Islamic world, rendered in stone, , and wood, and is called variously a mashribiyya or a shamsiyya . But stone screens are also seen in both north and south Indian Hindu temples dating from the sixth century CE onward. These can be simple carved grids, such as in the sixth-century Parvati Temple at Nachna, or more ornately carved screens representing swirling foliage, as at the eighth-century Virupaksha Temple at Pattadakal. It is probably pointless to attempt a typological genealogy of anything so ubiquitous as a carved screen, which appears in Islamic, Hindu, western Christian, and Byzantine contexts. My point here is simply that jali screens were used in Mughal and Rajput contexts as window openings where landscape views were intended to be seen, while, at the same time, because of the intervening jali , temporarily denied to the viewer. This reflects not only the use of a shared element of architecture among Hindu and Muslim patrons, but also a profound, shared understanding of garden meaning and the role of architecture in positioning the body in order to look out at the external world. While Islamic screens appeared prior to the Mughal period and were employed in situations where practical considerations of climate control and privacy were foremost, I believe that, in the garden and landscape environments of Mughal palaces and tombs, the screen was used to draw attention to the split between subject and object. This usage appeared relatively late in Islamic culture, and it developed as a result of the conscious awareness of how architecture and landscape Cthe two halves of the visual field Cwere united. That momentary juncture between self and the world outside, or between body and nature, architecture and landscape, was embodied in the jali screen. It was a device that transcended religious or cultural difference, and its shared use was emblematic of the hybrid and complex nature of the Mughal Empire in which both Muslims and Hindus were profoundly invested.