When Rice saw Lalbagh

No visit to Bangalore would be complete without walking around Lalbagh, India’s most famous botanical garden. But did you know that this was almost precisely the same words that BL Rice (1837-1927) wrote when he visited Bangalore and wrote the gazetteer.

Rice was in Bangalore to compile facts for his gazette. He went around the city and he has given us a detailed description of Bangalore and its environs.

He says horticulture in the State and Bangalore in particular received a boost with the establishment of the Agri-Horticultural society in Bangalore in 1839.

Horticulture received a further boost when Lalbagh was declared as a horticultural and botanical garden in 1856.

Rice says the Lalbagh helped growers and horticulturists of Bangalore make a profitable living.

The Lalbagh inspired many Indian and European growers and farmers to take up horticulture and floriculture. Both the Lalbagh and growers imported seeds and plants directly from England and other places.

Rice says Roses were the most favoured flowering plant to be imported into Bangalore. He says the authorities at Lalbagh took care to grow 258 varieties of roses, 160 kinds of ferns, 122 varieties of crotons and a large number of ornamental and flowering plants including orchids and creepers.

The Lalbagh thus took the initiative in introducing several new varieties of plants and fruit bearing trees in the State. Besides, it imported scores of species of plants and trees and encouraged the growth of horticultural crops.

Rice says Lalbagh imported from South America, varieties such as  Achras Sapota (which is widely used in medicine), Eucharis Grandiflora, Allamanda Grandiflora and from north America it imported Magnolia Grandiflora, rubra, phlox paniculata.

Plants and tree such as AgapanthusUmbillatus,  Mellanthus Major, Ganzia Splendens were imported from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

Lalbagh also imported from the South Sea islands, Acalypha tricolour and Crotons, while the Castanospermum funebris, Aslophila latebrosa and coccoloba plotyclada came from Australia.

The Cupressus funebris, farfugium grande, alternathera sessilis all came from China,      

The Anagalis carrulea, viola odorata, myosotis arvenis came from England and from Mexico came Fuchsia fulgens, ageratum mexicanum and agave Americana.

Rice found all these species growing in the Lalbagh. He says no account of Bangalore would be complete without a notice of Lalbagh. “This beautiful garden, situated a mile to the east of the fort, appears to have been first laid out in the time of Hyder Ali and enlarged in the time of Tipu Sultan”.

He then goes on to mention the description of Lalbagh in 1800 by Buchanan.

Rice says that Lalbagh has a rare and valuable collections of tropical, sub-tropical pants together with indigenous and foreign fruit bearing trees, He says this stock is constantly replenished by exchanges and donations. He says the Lalbagh was extended and it covered a little more than 100 acres.

He also mentions that a spacious glass house has been constructed. He then goes on to mention that a native artist has been hired to paint coloured drawing of all plants.

Thus, we see that Lalbagh even a century ago was the center of attraction and people visited it in large numbers even then. It was a cynosure of all eyes then and has continued to remain so even centuries later.

By the way, all the shrubs, plants and trees mentioned by Rice still continue to flourish in Lalbagh. Care to take a look. Then head to Lalbagh.        

When Sarjapur was a Jagir

It is the emerging IT and real estate hub of Bangalore. Once known as a small village coming in Anekal taluk, it was a forgotten outpost of history till a decade ago.

Today, this village boasts of hosting several IT majors and it has been seeing a booming real estate market, all thanks to the innumerable IT and BT companies that dot the place.

Located south east of Bangalore, it is now being spoken of as the place where WIPRO is housing its world class university and Infosys is setting up a special economic zone (SEZ).

The SEZ and university makes good sense as this area is well connected to other IT hotspots such as Whitefield, Electronic City, Bommanahalli, Bommasandra, Marathahalli, Silk Board Junction, Anekal, Koramangala, Madiwala and Outer Ring Road.

This is Sarjapur, which was once a sleepy village. It is emerging as a fast growing IT hub and the Aziz Premji Foundation plans to acquire 50 acres here to set up a university. Similarly, Infosys has purchased 202 acres to set up a SEZ exclusively for IT.

Though Sarjapur is seeing a boom now, very few know that it was once a jagir granted by the Mughals and that this Jagirship continued  for more than a century.   

Sarjapur till 1873 was also the headquarters of the taluk by the same name. Sarjapur, till the beginning of the 21st century, was mostly rural in character and it was a place where a fair or jatre was held every Sunday.

The fair was popular and people from Sarjapur and surrounding villages and even Anekal came here to buy and sell goods. The fair gave an opportunity to local farmers and growers to display and sell their commodities and small time traders to sell their goods.

The fair disappeared once Sarjapur was swallowed by in the throes of urbanisation. However, the conduct of the fair can be gauged if one were to visit the Madivala fair which is held even today.        

Coming back to Sarjapur,  it was a small trading centre and its importance lay in the fact that it bordered Bangalore on one side eighteen villages on the other three sides.

Sarjapur had access to all these eighteens villages and obviously it was the biggest of them all in population.

Sarjapur was known for the manufacture of cotton, clothes, carpets and tapes. Muslins of the finest quality were woven here and sold in Bangalore and other places. The Sarjapur Muslin was well-known in and around Bangalore and it was in great demand.

The Sarjapur products were sold in the petes of Bangalore and the Muslin competed with similar products from Doddaballapur. If Doddaballapur was known for sarees, Sarjapur was known for its clothes and cotton. Today, neither are manufactured in Sarjapur.  

Sarjapur was a jagir along with 18 other surrounding villages. The first mention of the jagir of Sarjapur goes back to the time of the Mughals.

The Mughals invaded Bangalore and took over the fort of Bangalore under the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, sometime in 1686. The Mughal General, Khasim Khan, wrested Bangalore and its surroundings from the Marathas and in 1689 leased Bangalore to the Wodeyars of Mysore.

In the meantime, the Mughals appear to have leased Sarjapur as a jagir. Their main condition was that the jagirdar train and station troops to help the Mughal Emperor in tines of war. This condition appears statesmanlike as the Mughals were constantly battling the Marathas all over the Deccan (South India).

The Mughals had also brought an end to the Adil Shahis of Bijapur in 1686 and the Qutb Shahs of Golconda in 1689. With both these Muslim Kingdoms annexed by the Mughals, the Marathas came in direct conflict with the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb.

Emperor Aurangzeb realised that the Hindu kingdom of Wodeyars was just a little more than a hundred kilometers from Bangalore. His General, Kasim Khan, gave away Bangalore to the Wodeyars but kept Sira and Sarjapur as Mughal provinces. While Sira, near Tumkur, became a regular Mughal province, Sarjapur was given as a Jagir. However, both Sira and Sarjapur were part of the Mughal province in the south.

The jagir of Sira and also Sarjapur was confirmed b successive rulers. While Sira finally fell to Hyder Ali, he allowed the jagir of Sarjapur to continue. This even as Hyder Ali took Bangalore from the Marathas.

B.L. Rice, in his gazetteer, speaks of having seen the documents confirming and reconfirming the Sarjapur Jagir.

The first grant is in Persian and it is by Dilawar Khan, the Mughal Subedar of Sira province. The grant is in the name of the Mughal Emperor and the Mughal Emperor is called as Alamgir Padshah i Ghazi.

Then comes the grant of the jagir by Madhava Rao, a minister of the Peshwas of  Pune. This grant is in Marathi. This document bears the inscription, Raja Ram Narapati, Harsha Nishan Madhav Rao Ballal Pradhan.

The next confirmation of the grant is by Hyder Ali. This paper has the signature of Hyder Ali and it is also in Marathi. It is signed as Fatte Haider. Then comes the grant by Lord Cornwallis and it is sealed with the Persian word Salar E Inglistan. It is initialed at the back as “GFC”.

Then comes the grant by Captain Cherry and this too is in Persian. It says the seal is by George Fredrick Cherry, Khayim Jang, fidvi E Kampani Angresi Bahadur.

The last grant of the jagir is by Captain Reed in 1791 and it is in Persian. The seal says Alexander Reed Bahadur. The grants were finally cancelled by Dewan Purnaiah when he found that the Jagardir of Sarjapur wanted to sell the jagir.

Purnaiah bought out the Jahagirdar, After that there was no jagir or Jahagirdar. The Sarjapur province was merged with the Mysore Kingdom and it soon lost all its former glory and by the turn of the century it was just a small village.

Today, Sarjapur is on another incline. Modernisation and development is going hand in hand and the area is seeing a boom in the real estate sector. IT and BT companies are setting shop in Sarjapur. Connectivity to and from Sarjapur has improved by leaps and bounds. Alas, the march of modernity has ensured that all relics of the past, barring a few temples, have vanished without a trace. This is the price one has to pay for growing urbanization and development.