Land of Kashyapa - Page#9 - Badamvaer




Badamvaer

Akbar in 1597 built a stone wall around the Hari-Parbat in Srinagar to fortify the foothills. Called "faseel-e-akbari" the wall was about 5600 meters long, 8.5 meters high and 4 meters thick. "The wall would girdle around a small city of "Naagar Nagar" that would house palaces and balconies for the King and his nobles in civil and military affairs besides barracks and other buildings."
In my earlier post I had written about the Kathi Darwaza - the doorway to the fort. The long wall of the fort was called "Kalai". When Akbar conquered Kashmir "he settled his soldiers behind the Kalai to prevent skirmishes with the local population who were against the Mughal rule".
Akbar's son Jehangir completed the works in 1620. I also read that Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin in the 14th century maintained a garden inside the fort walls.
In my earlier pages I had written about the persecution of the Kashmiri hindus under the Mughals and Durranis. The Sikhs offered some solace to the Kashmiri Hindus when Rajit Singh - the Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", who was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, defeated the Durranis in 1819.
Gulab Singh Jamwal was the founder of Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. His third son, Ranbir Singh planted a humongous number of Almond Trees in the garden that enclosed the fort. The entire place lost its glory during the years of turmoil that followed. Vast areas were encroached upon. In 2007 the J&K Bank restored a bit of the vast gardens which are now called Badam Vaer and the property is now under the Department of Floriculture, Kashmir.
The garden blooms with flowers on Almond trees during spring. There are different versions about the origin of the circular covered well inside the garden. It is now called Waris Khan or Waris Shah Well. I think the well is dedicated to Waris Shah the "Punjabi Sufi poet of the Chishti order, known for his contribution to Punjabi literature - and the author of Heer Ranjha". I saw several youths rolling up joints while they sang poems loudly.
"The concept of a planned garden, also known as the Charbagh, (rectilinear, with four sections crisscrossed by pathways and water) was introduced in South Asia by the Mughal Emperor Babur". The Kings built the gardens more to remind them of their ancestral land. They included running water, pools to reflect the skies and gardens, shade giving and flower and fruit trees. "The Turkish- Mongolian elements of the gardens are usually the inclusion of tents, carpets, and canopies reflecting the nomadic roots." - I thought the conical structure over the Waris shah well represented the idea of a tent.
While I looked into the deep well through the metal mesh, a local said that - a long time ago - prisoners were drowned in the deep well. Which gave me the jitters!
If you have time to kill when you are in Srinagar, be at the Badam Vaer. Photographers hang around at the entrance and you can make pictures with traditional Kashmiri attire.
Sriram(Hari)

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