Pinjore Garden Festival: A Treasure Trove of Heritage

The Yadavindra Gardens, better known as Pinjore Gardens, is seldom the destination and always a pit stop on a journey. Most tourists motoring up to the cooler climbs of Kasauli or Shimla treat this historic site as a convenient stop over; many are even unaware that these grounds have a significant heritage. Laid out in steps around a column of central fountains, in the shadow of the ancient Shivaliks, it’s the kind of locale you’d expect a Bollywood pair to be dancing around in! However the spread of the lawns, and some architecture within the complex, attests to its Mughal roots. Off late, it’s become the venue of the Pinjore Heritage Festival, organised by Haryana’s tourism department. This annual cultural extravaganza, and the garden’s illustrious past, should be explored during a weekend getaway to the region.

About Pinjore Festival

The initiative to mobilise artists to participate in a two-day fest was started in 2006. The idea was to draw attention to the importance of the Yadavindra Gardens, poised on a gradient at the foot of the Himalayas. It is scheduled between October and December, each year. Crafts-people, folk performers, famous instrumentalists and dancers, designers and restaurateurs collaborate on this visual and sensory treat amidst a spectacular setting. The Mughal era fort on the premises is illuminated; the gardens twinkle with fairy-light and tinkling marble fountains make the experience quite magical.

The ‘Anarkali Bazaar’, a regular feature at all editions of the festival, is a highlight. Inspired by the Mughal street bazaars of yore, local traders and artisans are encouraged to sell their ware at the haat. Hotel-management institutes from adjoining cities organise regional food stalls – from creamy chicken recipes of Patiala, stuffed kulchas of Amritsar, tandoori frontier items to street foods of states like Gujarat and Rajasthan. State tourism boards, specifically of Jammu & Kashmir, have participated adding some variation to the line-up.

The evenings are dedicated to recitals. In the past, Sufi singer Ustaad Shujaat Ali Khan, Pandit Ravi Ghosh and a disciple of Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan have been crowd pullers. Rangoli making competitions, heritage walks, art displays and local community interactions are some of the other events to look forward to during this festival.

History of the Gardens

If you’ve been to the Shalimar Gardens of Kashmir, and find the Pinjore Gardens similar, you won’t be wrong. It was typical for all Mughal era gardens to have Persian elements, chiefly a network of canals that criss-cross the lawns in a lattice design to create four sections. The natural water sources on these grounds are eased into the landscaping to create movement. Yadavindra Gardens was built by Fidai Khan, Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s architect and relative. It was laid out in seven steps, during the 17^th century.

Pinjore Gardens is just outside Chandigarh, on what used to be the Chandigarh-Shimla highway till the new Himalayan toll road came up in 2012. Today, it’s a diversion of a few hundred yards from the highway. From Delhi, the morning Shatabdi reaches Kalka, a few kilometres away, before noon. Taxis and other forms of local transport are available to Pinjore from the station. There are plenty of hotels in Chandigarh, Parwanoo and Kalka.