Tale of two Sumroo Baghs

Even though the two Mughal-style gardens no longer exist, the stories of change in their fortune continue to captivate us

AT PEACE A sketch of Walter Reinhardt Sumroo’s tomb

Delhi had its Sumroo Bagh behind what is now Bhagirath Palace in Chandni Chowk. It actually came up on a part of the garden laid by Shah Jahan’s daughter, Jahanara Begum and was renamed Queen’s Garden in British days. Agra too had a Sumroo Bagh, which no longer exists as a garden but whose magnificent gateway and solid boundary walls, enclosing an area of about 60 acres were still in excellent condition up to 1960, when Father and I used to cycle to it. Having escaped the notice it deserved as a protected monument and a tourist attraction, it passed into private ownership and abounded in crops of wheat, bajra and sugarcane.

Sumroo Bagh lay to the west of Shahganj, on the Agra-Fatehpur Sikri Road. It was once the residence of Walter Reinhardt Sumroo, husband of the famous Begum of Sardhana. The garden was enclosed like a fortress. The porch had a massive arch and over the gate a panel in white plaster in the middle of which was a beautiful heart-shaped monogram bearing the letters “W R” and the inscription of a Persian couplet and the year 1769 on either side.

H R Nevil, ICS, writing in 1905, says that in 1774 Najaf Khan, minister of the Emperor Shah Alam, occupied Agra and took possession of the garden on Sumroo’s death. Later Benoit de Boigne, the French general of Gwalior ruler Madhoji Rao Scindia (Mahadji), made it his headquarters. With the accession of Daulat Rao and the departure of de Boigne, the garden passed into the hands of General Perron.

In August 1803, Perron was defeated by Lord Lake near Aligarh, and by October 27, Lake was master of Agra. On his way to Fatehpur Sikri, Lake deposited his heavy guns at the garden, with the permission of Begum Sumroo, who had reclaimed her husband’s property. The permission was necessary because, according to the administrative arrangements made in 1803, the estates of the Begum in Gurgaon, Delhi, Agra and Sardhana were not included in the assigned territory.

In 1804, war broke out with the Marathas of Jaswant Rao Holkar. Colonel W Monson was dispatched from Kanpur to resist him, but the expedition proved a failure and Monson was pursued as far as Fatehpur Sikri. Sumroo’s well fortified garden became his sanctuary. Lake defeated the Marathas and gave Colonel Simpson permission to plunder the town of Fatehpur Sikri as a punishment for the treatment meted out to Monson. He then returned to Agra, making Sumroo’s Garden his headquarters for further operations.

Garden becomes battleground

With the outbreak of the First War of Independence in 1857, Saifulla Khan, an ally of the British, was called in and the garden was placed at his disposal. During the action of Shahganj, the garden was the scene of a battle in which the forces led by Brigadier Polwhele were forced to retreat. They took refuge in the garden and it was there that many a sorely wounded European and native soldier was carried in for treatment. .

The garden of Walter Reinhardt Sumroo perhaps passed through as many vicissitudes of fortune as its owner, a native of Treves, France, born on August 30, 1707 and baptised under the name of Joannes Reiner. He became notorious after the slaying of British captives in the Patna Massacre of 1763, which he carried out at the behest of Mir Qasim, Nawab of Bengal. Sumroo died in 1778 and was buried in the old Catholic Cemetery of Agra.

Reinhardt’s tomb lies a little to the east of Father Santus’ Chapel. The mausoleum, which is still in good condition, is a handsome octagonal building, surmounted by a low dome rising out of a cornice, with a deep drip-stone. Inside are two tombstones, the one bearing the roughly carved Portuguese inscription with a Persian chronogram in flowery style is of Sumroo. The second tombstone bears a French inscription (“Tomb of Paul Frederick, killed at the siege of Kama, 3 October, 1792”).

It has not been possible to identify Paul Frederick, but since he was interred in a mausoleum, it is presumed that he was a person of status. But why was he buried by Sumroo’s side? Since Begum Sumroo was alive at that time and her permission must have been sought for the burial, it points to some relationship between the two soldiers of fortune. Be that as it may, is it not an irony of history that the Delhi and Agra Sumroo Baghs no longer exist as Mughal-style gardens?