Samipya 1991 Vol 08 Ank 01 02

Author(s): Pravinchandra C Parikh, Bhartiben Shelat
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan

Page 60

"There are so many trees and gardens in Ahmedabad that if one views it from a great height, it might look like a forest. Many of its buildings are hidden behind trees.”
In 17th century, the writer of Tarikhe-Firishta says: "Ahmedabad is the most beautiful city in all of India, perhaps it can be said to be the most beautiful city in the whole world.”3
The coins of 17th century describe the city as : "Shahre Muazam"4_"The Great City", and the coins of the period of the great Akbar describe it as "Zinnat-UlBilad"-"Most Beautiful of the Cities".
Mirza Mahmad Hasam, the great writer of Mirat-I-Ahmedi, says: “The rulers and rich noblemen of this city have built many gardenes around it. These gardens have many sweet scented and colourful flowers and fruits in them that keep the atmosphere of the city cool and hygienic and there are many beautiful streams, fountains and waterfalls that please the eye.”
One regrets, reading this description, how those trees and gardens have disappeared from this city and how such a dirty, dusty and smoke-ridden city has taken their place. In 1984, once, Indire Gandhi, having flown over Ahmedabad in an aeroplane, said, in a public lecture at Bhavnagar, "I saw nothing but smoke and dust. Do we really want to make such industrial progress ?”
In 1451, Sultan Kutubuddin completed the construction of a big artificial lake called Hoi-e-Kutub on the south side of the city. Today this tank is known as Kankaria Lake. There is a beautiful garden at the centre, called 'Bag-e-Nagina, or the Signet Garden. No doubt, the rulers used to reside in this Bag-e-Nagina to escape from the summer heat of the city. It was a beauty spot for the people, the Sultans of Ahmedabad and Mughal emperors like Jahangir. Almost all of the European travellers who visited Ahmedabad, including the Czar of Russia, who also visited at and of the last century, have praised this lake for its design, artistic layout, carved sluices, outlets and Mandaps. This garden looks like a precious stone set in a ring. It would have served as a gathering place for court festivities, song and dancing and music, there was a small palace, named “Ghata Mandal Mahal”,5 built for this purpose, in the centre of the like. These dances are now no more, celebrations now take place in big halls and the pleasure of open air performances at Bag-e-Nagina is no more.
Shah-Vadi is a now small village in the south-east of Ahmedabad, but in the sultanate period, it was a beautiful walled garden, filled with scented flowers. with two gates-one each in North and Sourh. It had stone paved roads and measured 62 bighas in area. For its maintence, 4 pairs of bullocks, 8 gardeners and a sweeper were employed.6
Bar-E-Firdaus' also no longer exists though there is still a viilage of this name in the east of Ahmedabad near Ramol. It is said to have been built by Sultan
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[Samipya : April, '91-March, 1992