Heaven on earth

YOU don’t have to be an avid gardener or know all the Latin names of plants to appreciate the opportunity for reflection that a stroll in the garden can afford us. The explosion of colours, shapes, and textures in the garden, the tenacity and ingenuity of the plants, so determined to claim their right to life and beauty, can suspend for us the troubling aspects of everyday life.

But gardens are also bound to their political and religious history, traces of which can be found in our ongoing cultural obsession with them. The connection between the famous gardens of Versailles, once the coveted possession of Louis XIV, and our humble back garden is deeper than we might imagine.

In the book of Genesis, our creation begins in Eden, the ‘‘garden of God’’ which our ancestors, Adam and Eve, failed to appreciate. Having lost our privileged access to this divine garden because of their sin, we perpetually try to recreate it, in our homes, in our cities, in our heads. The earthly garden as a reflection of the paradise we can hope to experience after death is also a central motif in the Qur’an, a promise delivered by Allah himself.

Gods and kings

In the ancient Near East, in whose fertile soil the Biblical traditions took shape, kings (who often assumed priestly duties) were believed to have the monopoly of communicating with the gods in the royal garden. This was seen as a microcosm of the divine garden.

Throughout the Near East, the garden was a place where gods confirmed the legitimacy of kings. Sargon I (19201881 BCE), the founder of the AkkadianSumerian empire, poses in the epic The Legend of Sargon as a humble gardener, and was handpicked by the goddess to become the king.

Ancient Near Eastern kings invested exorbitant sums of money in building magnificent royal gardens, architectural marvels which crystallised in people’s minds their unique communion with the gods.

From the Middle East to the world

The Romans adopted the ideology of gardens, transplanting it to Europe. Gardens were especially celebrated in Britain with the accession of Henry VIII in 1509 and European colonisation of the Middle East reintroduced the idea of the garden in the places of its origin, and also brought it the New World.

Next time you’re wandering around your own garden, reflect on the fact that you’re walking in the footsteps of the kings and queens of yesteryear, in your own slice of paradise. — theconversation.com