we have three main hills; and of minor
heights inviting buildings, a dozen and more.”
Geddes’ greatest (and forgotten) contribution
to Hyderabad — a dynamic site selection for
Osmania University — would have been
fascinating historical case study material for
evolutionary biologists Edward O. Wilson
and Gordon Orians who asked the question:
“What was Man’s natural environment?” Their
proposition, backed by methodical scientific
research, was detailed in Wilson’s 1984
publication “Biophilia”, in which he writes:
“According to Gordon Orians, the ancestral
environment contained three key features.
First, the savanna by itself, with nothing more
added, offered an abundance of animal and
plant food to which the omnivorous hominids
were well adapted, as well as the clear view
needed to detect animals and rival bands at long
distances. Second, some topographic
relief was desirable. Cliffs, hillocks, and ridges
were the vantage points from which to
make a still more distant surveillance, while
their overhangs and caves served as naturalshelters at night. During longer marches, the
scattered clumps of trees provided auxiliary
retreats sheltering bodies of drinking water.
Finally, lakes and rivers offered fish, mollusks,
and new kinds of edible plants. Because few
natural enemies of man can cross deep
water, the shorelines became natural perimeters
of defence.
Put these three elements together: it seems
that whenever people are given a free choice,
they move to open tree-studded land on
prominences overlooking water.”
Geddes, the botanist/sociologist turned
university/urban planner with a deep
understanding of the organic world,
supported Wilson and Orians ancestral
environment hypothesis sixty-one years
before it was proposed.Fayazuddin’s Biophilia
Just over a decade after Patrick Geddes
was roaming the hill-sites of Hyderabad, an
architect and town-planner inspired by the
polymath, Mohammed Fayazuddin, returnedPrevious spread: Plan of
the City and Environs of
Hyderabad, 1854 J.& C.
Walker Sculpt.
Left: Plan of the City and
Environs of Hyderabad,
an engraving from the
Atlas of Southern India,
artistically illustrates
the undulating
topography and verdant
grounds of Hyderabad.
Right: Geddes selected
the Amberpet site for its
“rocky and barren
heights, pastures, and
wetlands.”
Courtesy: National
Library of Australia,
Map Ra 137, Plate 51
This page, top: Chand
Bibi playing Polo,
1700-1750, unknown
Chand Bibi playing Polo,
a Golkonda-style
miniature from
Hyderabad, features
elements of (wo)man’s
ideal ancestral
environment: hills,
plains, and wetlands.Courtesy: National
Museum, New Delhi
Collection