Place · Mysore sultanate botanical garden · India
Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bengaluru
Also known as Lalbagh, Lal Bagh, Lālbāgh, Lal Bagh Botanical Garden, Government Botanical Garden, Bangalore
Lalbagh is Bengaluru's botanical garden, commissioned by Hyder Ali in 1760 on the lines of Mughal gardens and completed by Tipu Sultan, who imported trees and plants from several countries. After 1799 it passed to British management: from 1819 Nathaniel Wallich supervised it under the botanical garden at Calcutta, and in 1856 it became the Government Botanical Garden under gardeners trained at Kew. Its iron glasshouse of 1890–91, cast in Glasgow, still hosts two flower shows a year.
- Date
- 1760–None
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Patron dynasty
- Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan (Kingdom of Mysore)
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 12.950, 77.590
Worth knowing
The garden takes in the Lalbagh Rock, said to be some 3,000 million years old, crowned by a watchtower built in the reign of Kempe Gowda II, successor of Bengaluru's founder.
The meaning of 'Lal' is debated: it may refer to red flowers or mean 'beloved'.
Connections (3)
- Site withinBengaluru
Lalbagh lies in south Bengaluru and, with Cubbon Park, is one of the city's two great urban green spaces, home to wild birds and other wildlife. Hyder Ali commissioned it in 1760, the year he built the Delhi and Mysore gates of the town; in the nineteenth century it became the Government Botanical Garden, chosen although it lay at a distance from the British cantonment. The garden adjoins one of the towers erected by Kempe Gowda's line, whose fort of 1537 founded the city.
- FoundedHyder Ali
Hyder Ali commissioned Lalbagh in 1760 and laid it out on the lines of the Mughal gardens then gaining popularity, taking as his model the Mughal gardens at Sira, 120 kilometres from Bengaluru and then the headquarters of the southernmost Mughal province of the Deccan. The gardens were managed for Hyder and his son by Mohammed Ali and his son Abdul Khader, and Tipu Sultan completed the work, adding to its horticultural wealth with trees and plants imported from several countries.
- Historical linkCalcutta Botanic Garden
After the British conquest of Mysore in 1799 Lalbagh was run by the Company paymaster Gilbert Waugh, who in 1814 asked the Marquis of Hastings to place it under the botanical garden at Fort William, Calcutta. The request was accepted, and from 24 April 1819 Nathaniel Wallich supervised Lalbagh until charge passed to the Mysore Commissioner in 1831. When Hugh Cleghorn planned its revival in 1855, he proposed exchanging plant and seed material with the gardens at Madras, Calcutta and Ooty.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Lal Bagh" and "Bengaluru".
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