As countries differ, so do their ways of life and living: How did the people in India and England lay out their houses in the eighteenth century? In the following extract from The Wonders of Vilayet (Vilayet is England in Persian), we get an enchanting picture of the parks, gardens and houses in London including the Queen's Palace. The author also makes references to houses and housing materials used in Bengal at that time. Can you identify some of the significant differences that the author points out? Mirza
Sheikh I'tesamuddin, the author of the travelogue visited England in 1765 and recorded his experiences in Persian, the official language of India during the Mughal reign. The book, Shigurf Name-e-Vilayet, was translated into Bang/a by the late Dhaka University Professor A B M Habibullah. Dr. Kaiser Huq, Professor of English at Dhaka University and a poet translated the book into English.
The exterior of the King's palace is neither magnificent nor beautiful. The outer walls are not even plastered. It could easily be passed off as the multi-storied residence of a merchant of Benares. All the mansions in the city are of this sort, but the Queen's palace is very handsome. I was told, however, that the interior of the King's palace is very elegant, and that the suites of rooms and the chambers of the harem are painted an
attractive verdigris.
The King's garden, which is outside the city, is very old. It has pleasant walks, lawns, and neatly arranged beds of various shapes - triangles, squares, hexagons and octagons. These are planted with varieties of flowers, green plants, and fruit trees such as the apple, gooseberry, peach, pear, filbert, etc. The garden also uses a special method to
grow Indian fruits like the muskmelon, watermelon, cucumber, orange and pomegranate, and Indian flowers like the rose, henna, marigold, tuberose and the cock's-comb flower.
The cold weather in Europe doesn't allow one to grow Indian fruits and flowers in theopen. A special kind of house is constructed for the purpose, three sides of which are of brick, while the fourth, which faces south, is made of glass-plates that keep out the cold air but let in the sun's rays. In the cold season stoves are lit in the house for heat, and fruit and flower seeds are sown in troughs filled with moulds. The heat of the
stoves and the warmth of the sunlight combine to aid the growth of Indian plants.European gardeners grow Eastern fruits in this manner and make a very good profit, charging as much as five rupees for a pomegranate and three for a musk-melon.
The trees along the walks in the King's garden are arranged very tastefully. By cutting the branches many of them have been shaped into human forms, so that at night one may mistake them for real people. It takes many days of work to tailor the trees into
these shapes.
The road in front of the Queen's palace is very broad and charming. On one side is the palace, on the other a pond which is part of a park. Deer are kept in the park and the walks in it are lined with shady walnut trees. On Sundays, men and women, old and young, rich and poor, natives and foreigners, all come here to stroll and amuse themselves. In these delightful surroundings a heavy heart is automatically lightened.
Sauntering courtesans with lissom figures and amorous maidens with the faces of houris spread a heavenly aura and the visitor's soul becomes a flowering garden.
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