Southworth lecture #1<\/p>\n
10:15\u201311:15am \u00a0Nov. 7, 2015<\/p>\n
James L. Wescoat Jr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/strong> Author’s abstract:<\/strong> Of the many fragmentary sources on Mughal gardens during the reign of the third Mughal ruler Akbar (1556-1607 CE), the Akbarnama stands out as an historical chronicle compiled by a brilliant courtier, Abul Fazl. It contains the richest array of texts \u2013 from poetic garden images to virtuous metaphors, historic garden events, and regional garden analogies. Some passages exaggerated the garden-like qualities of people, while others shed light on the evolution of Mughal garden culture. Still others provided new layers of meaning through the representation of gardens in the many paintings that illustrated royal copies of the manuscript. This paper re-reads the Akbarnama, including its three volume topical supplement known as the Ain-i Akbari. The Ain-i Akbari includes an account of all the Mughal provinces at that time (subahs), in which the larger geographic contexts of gardens were described. For all of these reasons, I refer to these sources as \u201cThe Gardens of Abul Fazl.\u201d Without Abul Fazl\u2019s Akbarnama, it is fair to ask whether Mughal garden culture would have been sustained through Akbar\u2019s reign, especially in ways that co-evolved with larger Mughal cities and territories.<\/p>\n My comments: <\/strong><\/p>\n I have a story related to James Wescoat’s\u00a0opening\u00a0comment\u00a0that Maine lies\u00a0in the ancient climate region 6, just south of the zone inhabited\u00a0the barbarians. When I first arrived at Colby my graduate school advisor, the distinguished historian\u00a0Charles Gillispie at Princeton asked me, “How are things at the edge of the North Woods?” \u00a0I replied, Oh Charles, I am so glad you said “edge.” \u00a0Now, the air is very pure in Maine, and this has a direct and beneficial influences our mental processes, which are sharp and clear.<\/p>\n James Wescoat’s paper re-reads the three-volume\u00a0Akbar nama<\/em>,\u00a0the official chronicle of the reign of\u00a0Akbar, the third\u00a0Mughal Emperor\u00a0(1556\u20131605). The text\u00a0was written in Persian by court biographer\u00a0Abul Fazl\u00a0and includes, notably, extensive text and illustrations of gardens, citadels, and cities past, present, and future.\u00a0\u00a0The Mughals were obsessed with symbol and incorporated it into their gardens in many ways. References to paradise are embedded\u00a0in the architecture, layout, and in the choice of plant life,\u00a0juxtaposed\u00a0with\u00a0numerology and zodiacal references, for example in the prevalence of\u00a0octagonal pools.<\/p>\n My questions, returning to the opening trope, involve first of all climate and place, which provide geographical context for both the flora and the people. \u00a0Second, regarding social organization, the Akbar nama<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>presents\u00a0an extensive description of the\u00a0Caste system in its many dimensions. \u00a0I would like to hear more on the \u201cscaling up\u201d of gardens and on social divisions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Southworth lecture #1 10:15\u201311:15am \u00a0Nov. 7, 2015 James L. Wescoat Jr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology \u201cThe Poetics of Mughal Gardens and Subahs in the Akbarnama\u201d Author’s abstract: Of the many fragmentary sources on Mughal gardens during the reign of the… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250545],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cThe Poetics of Mughal Gardens and Subahs in the Akbarnama\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n