Comparative Study of Iranian Garden Concepts in Iran and India

Assistant professor of architecture faculty at the University of Zanjan, Iran
Iranian Garden can be considered as one of the greatest achievements of Iranian culture and civilization which over the years presented the view of Iranian human towards the world around, and formed a part of its ontology. Iranian garden is genuine product of the interaction of mind and Iranians life in their natural environment (Mansouri, 2005). Iranian human’s perception of Garden is its understanding of nature, and contains its aestheticism taste toward elements of this world and their concepts. Cultural and political interactions that governing human society, has made this unparalleled product to be considered by many governors and artists from other civilizations for centuries. Hence, different levels of effects of such garden-building can be seen in landscaping arts of various ethnicities and civilizations across the world. By conflicts of Timur’s offspring, Timurids government in Iran was declined, but Timur’s descendants formed a new government in India that Europeans called it the Great Mugal (Ansari, 2011). Timur and his successors were interested to the Iranian Garden and Gardens of Samarkand are proof of this claim. Therefore, after dominance of Goorkani dynasty on Indian subcontinent, Iranian garden was entered in India as a perfect product along with new governors. yet, by accepting the fact that Iranian garden is a phenomenon of mixed nature and culture, this issue arises that existence of major differences between the new and former host regarding components such as: worldview, culture, art and particularly continent has led to changes in concept of Iranian garden. Basically, the new host had different perception about Iranian garden and its components. Research trip to India provided an opportunity that researcher investigating different aspects of the constructed Iranian gardens and also to evaluating the domain of changes created in concepts and the shape of the garden by adjustment comparison with domestic samples. Accordingly, instances of Iranian garden existed in India and their components were studied separately in a series of parallel studies, as a result new thinking and perception of garden can be identified. The obtained results from initial research lead to the formation of a general theory, based on this theory the general attitude towards Iranian garden in India considering the Iranian garden not only as Naturalistic landscaping but an architectural construction which regulate and organizes India’s unorganized background. Then, after completion of the studies which are on the basis of written sources, the obtained results would be investigated and analyzed with a single view until clearer aspects about changes in Iranian garden concepts in India’s background achieved.