JAIPUR A planned City of Rajasthan Alain Borie Françoise Catalàa Rémi Papillault
JAIPUR With an introduction by Dr Sanjeev Vidyarthi
A planned City of Rajasthan
Authors: Alain Borie, Françoise Catalàa and Rémi Papillault Book design: Núria Sordé Orpinell Translation (French to English): Divya Lieser, Valentine Hemdan (Avitra – Auroville international translators) Proof reading: Neha Krishana Kumar Copyright © Altrim Publishers (2020) First Edition All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise or stored in database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Published by Altrim Publishers Passeig de Manuel Girona 55, baixos 2a 08034 Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) www.altrim.net ISBN 978-84-949330-1-1 Printed at JAK Printers (Mumbai, India), 2020 Texts © by the authors Maps and drawings © by the authors Photos © by the authors (as cited on p. 245) Cover photo: Hawa Mahal, facade detail, by Alain Borie
This book is published with the support of: Publication Assistance Programmes of the Institut Français
Aayojan School of Architecture
JAIPUR
A planned City of Rajasthan Alain Borie Françoise Catalàa Rémi Papillault With an introduction by Dr. Sanjeev Vidyarthi
Contents Foreword and acknowledgements by the authors......................................................................... 6 Presentation by Kiran S Mahajani.............................................................................................................. 8 Introduction by Dr. Sanjeev Vidyarthi................................................................................................. 11 The creation of a territiorial city by Rémi Papillault ................................................................................................................................................ 13
Amber/Jaipur, the creation of a territorial city.............................................................................. 14 Jai Singh II, Astronomer and Cartographer.................................................................................... 16 Amber, a hollow city............................................................................................................................................ 20 Jainagar (Jaipur), a flat city: hypotheses on the rationality of the layout..................... 27 The invention of the garden city................................................................................................................ 39 Natural and artificial fortifications.......................................................................................................... 45 Water management in the city.................................................................................................................... 53 The location of temples in the cities: Jaipur/Amber as a religious centre............... 60 Shops: bazaars and chaupars ....................................................................................................................... 67 Living in the town: from the chowkri to the mohalla............................................................... 81 Typology of the houses and havelis by Alain Borie.......................................................................................................................................................... 93 Domestic architecture in Jaipur................................................................................................................. 94 Courtyards................................................................................................................................................................... 98 The grid plan........................................................................................................................................................... 108 High courtyards or chandnis..................................................................................................................... 122 Cantilevered masked facades: jharokhas and corridors...................................................... 145 Size and scale of the houses........................................................................................................................ 161 Architectural patterns and Indian spirituality by Françoise Catalàa......................................................................................................................................... 175
The symbolism of shapes.............................................................................................................................. 176 Indian spirituality............................................................................................................................................... 180 Measurements and techniques................................................................................................................. 191 Architectural patterns in havelis............................................................................................................. 208 Glossary by Jean-Pierre Cataláa.............................................................................................................. 238 Bibliography............................................................................................................................................................ 242 About the authors............................................................................................................................................... 244 Picture Credits....................................................................................................................................................... 245
5
10 Jaipur
Introduction
(p. 10) General view of Jaipur from the Isar Lat Tower with the Tripolia Bazaar on the right
by Dr. Sanjeev Vidyarthi It is a pleasure to write an updated introduction for this special book, originally published in French about a decade ago. Signifying labor of collective love for the many contributors, this carefully-detailed and beautifully-composed book grew out of a multiyear field-based studio that several successive cohorts of Indian and French students jointly undertook around the turn-of-the last century at the city of Jaipur. Faculty colleagues and administrators from the three partner schools enthusiastically supported the purposeful initiative; they liberally provided time, mind-space and resources, without which such a transnational effort would have been impossible to organize and execute (see the impressive list of many contributors to this collaborative effort on p. 7). Important personally, this book also marks the foundation of close camaraderie Remi and I have fondly shared since co-conceiving the joint-studio almost twenty years ago. But boy, did we miss an English edition of this book? In addition to the obvious advantage of English language’s greater reach across the contemporary world, a translated edition seemed increasingly important for several reasons. Jaipur’s unique place-based identity and distinctive built heritage continues to attract a growing number of visitors from both home and abroad—a trend broadly in line with the dramatic expansion of India’s tourism economy that grew from 140.12 million tourist trips in 1996 to a staggering 1642.49 million trips in 20171. Amer is now reputedly India’s second most-visited destination, surpassed only by the matchless Taj Mahal, with the central government now including Amer among India’s top ‘iconic destinations’ identified for priority support and development. Closely matching the growing public popularity, institutional interest in Jaipur’s historic quarters is on the upward trajectory as well. UNESCO, for instance, has inscribed the walled city of Jaipur as a ‘world heritage site’ in the 2019 listing while the government of Rajasthan state has sponsored several new tourism-centered initiatives such as the experts-led ‘heritage walks’ for residents and visitors curious to explore city’s architecture and the development of new projects like the Hathigaon, a purpose-built settlement near Amer for Jaipur’s elephants and their caretakers (check out Altrim’s forthcoming publication illustrating this remarkable place!). The larger urban region around Jaipur has simultaneously continued to grow on other fronts including overall population, physical spread, and old and new economic activity like real-estate development and a wide variety of
art-centered cottage industry and boutique design practices (Vidyarthi 2014). Not surprisingly, the Jaipur region now hosts more than a dozen schools of architecture apart from many other colleges teaching courses in fashion, jewelry, handicrafts and interior designing. However, the growing number of students and tourists miss basic informative text illustrating the development of Jaipur’s distinct planning and architecture over time. For instance, available literature does a fine job telling the general history of Jaipur’s founding and growth in the princely period (see references for some of the more important texts). However, relatively little scholarship focuses on explaining the underlying socio-spatial logic that shaped the citywide architecture in critical ways: from purposefully-designed Havelis, or residential buildings comprising the biggest bulk of urban fabric, to the key design aspects of city’s foundational plan. This book does so from the vantage of two significant scales. First, it illustrates the key characteristics of 3-dimensional built-form and prominent design features of select, representative Havelis that serve as city’s basic building type. Careful architectural documentation and analysis reveals how builders’ efforts to balance cultural imperatives and social preferences with a variety of constraints including arid climate and handful of locally-available building materials shaped Havelis’ distinct spatial configuration on different-sized lots. Second, the book explains the salient design features of city’s original plan as well as its close fit with the surrounding region. By illustrating meaningful connections among a diverse range of geographical features (such as topography, watersheds, hills, forests, and more) and purposefully-conceived planning interventions, the book shows how the city founders paid careful attention to the overall regional-scale landscape in locating human settlements as well as siting appropriate social functions around the availability of freshwater at relevant places. In this sense, both the book’s main contributions remain important for foreseeable future. For instance, Jaipur’s long-term sustainability, just like many other cities worldwide, requires paying attention to regional-scale ecological planning while fast-paced, multidimensional socio-spatial changes in contemporary urban India highlight the need to conserve Jaipur’s many Havelis exemplifying the country’s rich built-heritage for coming generations. Chicago, December 2019
1. See Ministry of Tourism Key Statistics, URL http://www.tourism.gov.in/ (accessed 21 April, 2018).
Introduction 11
12 Jaipur
RĂŠmi Papillault
The creation of a territorial city
Amber/Jaipur, the creation of a territorial city
“The architect’s skill comes from his place of training, and it is devoid of any physical deformity. As a quality-oriented person, he knows how to build and has gained knowledge in all sciences. He is strong, just and compassionate, not jealous or otherwise weak, gracious, of equal spirit and cognisant of mathematics. He is a scholar of ancient texts and their authors. He is as frank and sincere in his actions as he is level-headed. He is a skilful drawer and immersed in the geography of all territories. Gluttony is his downfall but his generosity is well known. His health and energy are good and he is therefore not weighted by the seven deadly sins: foul language, theft, violence, hunting, games, wine and women. His concentration and tenacity are great and he proudly wears a distinguished and well-chosen title; he crosses the ocean of architectural science with ease.” Mayamata Historians seem to agree that the layout of Jaipur, built by Jai Singh II in 1728, reflects the principles of Vastu Shastra, or ancient Sanskrit treatises illustrating normative principles of building houses and settlements. The empirical basis of this argument derives form Jaipur’s plan comprising 9 square modules on an urban scale featuring grid-iron based roads and plots. Moreover, it seems that the building of this planned town happened at the expense of the nearby city of Amber, the ancestral seat of Jaipur’s Maharajas. Using this double affirmation as a basis and in collaboration with the School of Architecture in Jaipur, we have tried for several years to measure the connections between the cities of Amber and Jaipur and the nature of their regularity, both on an architectural and urban scale. To perform this analysis, we luckily found in the archives an extremely accurate map of the city drawn by military engineers of the British Raj between 1925 and 1927, that is to say shortly before the
1. (p. 12) The Brihat Samrat Yantra, Jantar Mantar; the Hawa Mahal on the background
arrival of cars and concrete1. While they were in India from 1845 to 1947, the English launched a series of plot measurement campaigns in many cities to set up a basis for taxes or insurance. The exact purpose of this map established under the direction of Major John Smith representing the city of Jaipur on a scale of 1:4000 is still unknown (to us). Nonetheless, it is a document of paramount importance for the historical knowledge of the city due to the amount of details it contains. The plan consists of more than fifty cadastral maps that were digitally scanned and reassembled to form a comprehensive map of the entire old city. The plan shows all buildings, mentioning the number of floors and any set-backs for terraces, as well as the porticoes along the bazaars and the wide commercial avenues that cut the city into squares. Symbols are used to indicate temples, private and public wells and gardens. Though plots are not demarcated on the map, they can easily be inferred as buildings occupy the entire plot. This abundance of urban data allows us to draw up an accurate image of the layout of the city before any major transformations took place. In view of the 36 building plans and urban cross-sections, it seems that at that time the city remained the same as in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. On the basis of this document, we could establish hypotheses on the layout methods followed by Jai Singh II for the conception of the city. Thus, the focus of this article will be on the creation of the city during the reign of Sawai Jai Singh II. The evolution and different extensions of the city will be seen in a following chapter. What elements did the planning focus on? How was the overall layout conceived? Was there a hierarchical logic behind the planning of streets and plots? Which rules were followed for the arrangement of porticoes, bazaars and squares?
1. The author thanks colleague Sanjeev Vidyarthi for unearthing the map sheets of original survey Note: The numbers in brackets in the text refer to the illustrations
14 Jaipur
2. Map of Jaipur-Amber. Reproduction of the city-region
The creation of a territiorial city 15
Amber, a hollow city
The city and its palace Amber is inside out, inverted. It is a stronghold surrounded by a natural protection, the Kalikhoh hills of the Aravalli mountain range, located at the crossroads where the roads to Delhi and Agra meet the ones that lead to the holy Muslim city of Ajmer and the commercial city of Sanganer. Amber was founded in the twelfth century by the first Kachwaha Rajput Lord who built an Ambikeshwar temple as well as the Balabai Ki Sal palace, where statues of deities are still visible (8). Unlike Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Chittogarh and many other cities in Rajasthan that developed “upwards” around a rocky outcrop with the Maharaja’s palace or fort on the top, Amber is nestled in a network of valleys: it is an inverted city where all the buildings on the slopes face each other and are turned towards the palace that is positioned on a middle-sized central hillock. This topographical layout turned out to be the city’s luck as well as its limitation: the hills that make up its border rise particularly abruptly from the plains, thus forming a natural protection but also limiting extension possibilities (9, 10). The golden age of the city begins during the reign of Man Singh I (1590-1614). Benefiting from a period of peace and wealth, the Raja had the Jaigarh Fort and the Palace built on the remnants of an earlier structure. Wanting to strengthen the aura of his city, he had a Shiva Devi sculpture brought from Jessore in Bengal for the new temple built in the palace. Following his allegiance to Akbar, he also had a mosque built, a garden set up and a “Kos Minar” milestone erected, still visible on the main street of the city, to mark the emperor’s road towards conquering central India and Gujarat. A culture mixing Hindu, Rajput and Muslim references was born from this bond with the emperor. Amber is only five or six days’ walk from Delhi, 260 kilometres away, and Agra one day less at 230 kilometres. The three cities form a triangle that was the heart of the Mughal empire for centuries. Emperors Akbar and Jahangir lived in Fatehpur Sikri-Agra, Humayun and Shah Jahan in Delhi; as for Amber-Jaipur, it maintained a special status of allegiance and diplomacy which remained under the control of the Kachwaha family, instead of falling under the direct supervision of the Mughals, due for example to its strategic position. This “in-dependence” was one of the main missions of the various successive Maharajas (7). 20 Jaipur
7. Map of Rajasthan
During his reign from 1621 to 1667, Jai Singh I – whom the Emperor Shah Jahan called Mirza Raja, royal child, in 1639 – undertook major works to modernise and embellish his city. He had several temples built and his palace extended to the point where it became comparable to those of the great Mughal emperors with a “Diwan-i-Khas”, Hall of Private Audiences, and a “Diwan-i-Am”, Hall of Audience, made on the model of those of Agra. The splendour of this palace is due to a succession of courtyards, hypostyle halls and hanging gardens, with decorations carved in the hardest stone and gold leaf paintings, all overlooking a landscape of lakes and hills with their marble balconies and mashrabiyas. The ceiling of the Jai Mandir hall is covered with gold, mirror and ivory tesserae, making it the pinnacle of architectural refinement of the palace. He gathered many decorative arts workshops (producing enamel, paper and upholstery) and artists (dancers, musicians...) from around the city. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I was well-read and spoke Hindi, Persian, Turkish and classical Arabic.
8. The Palace and the city of Amber as seen from the Jaigarh Qila with – on the crest lines – the fortification walls
9. Cross-section of the city of Amber (Agneska Bonna, “Amber, A drop of Water”, Urban Strategies Seminar, ENSAT, 2005)
The creation of a territiorial city 21
Jainagar (Jaipur), a flat city: hypotheses on the rationality of the layout
To explain the conception of the city, the common practice is for historians to start from the principles expounded in the sacred texts of Indian architecture that are grouped under the name of Vastu. In the case of Jaipur, it would be represented by a layout of 9 squares around the central palace, where the north-western square – blocked by the hillside – would have been moved out of the initial design, to the southeast14 (17). Vastu iterates catch-all notions of geobiology, sustainable development and high environmental quality that are arising today, and distant cultures such as the popular Chinese principles of Feng Shui highlight the hypothesis on the circulation of energy on the surface of the world, beings and things. These principles maintain that it is possible to enhance the beneficial effects of constructions and areabased interventions, or even correct any negative influences. During the construction of Romanesque and Gothic buildings, people seemingly also relied on this energy circulation, but that knowledge was lost when classical culture bloomed during the Renaissance. Cartesian objectivity and rationalism finally brought it all to an end.
16. (p. 26) The urban fabric of Jaipur seen from the Nahagarh Fort
15. Hypothesis of the city’s conception with a layout of 9 squares and its alteration (p 11, Lionel Machonin, “Chaupars, similitudes et diversités”, Urban Strategies Seminar, ENSAT, 2003)
Vastu
It is in this context that, in recent decades, the so-called Vastu Shastra treatise (of which there are many editions today) has resurfaced in India; it is increasingly taken into account, both in the educational and professional fields, as well as by the general public. Thus, audits are carried out on old houses to see if they are within the norm, and the original texts are reread according to current modernity. A hotel, an industrial zone, an office building or a villa can be built following Vastu principles. Within rooms, recommendations can be given regarding the positioning of the television, the telephone, the computer, as well as kitchen and bathroom appliances. Nowadays, this treatise has so much influence that, during a sale, the price of a piece of land or building, the layout of which respects Vastu principles, can be increased.
The importance of Vastu lies in its relationship to a high religious and mystical culture. The base of Vastu, written between the fourth and the twelfth century, consists of thirty-two texts grouping diverse principles on construction methods, the architect’s qualities, choosing a plot, the alignment of a road, the setting of foundations, and the design and construction of temples, houses and palaces. The Mayamata and other major texts, mostly written in Sanskrit, that were lost or destroyed during the invasions of the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, were rediscovered in the state of Kerala in the 1930s, far from the war roads. To understand its essence, one must go back to the origins of Hinduism and to a myth governing the constructive activity. The triple deity of
14. Kulbhushan Jain formulated the nine-square plan hypothesis in 1978. This hypothesis is adopted by B. Doshi, Cités d’Asie in Les Cahiers de la Recherche Architecturale 35/36, Ed. Parenthèses, 1995.
The creation of a territiorial city 27
1. Before 1713, hypothesis regarding the position of pre-existing villages on the plain at the south of Amber
2. 713-1715, construction of the Jai Niwas, the observatory and the temples
3. 1718-1725, setting up the chowkri, the Palace and the bazaar axes
4. 1725-1734, setting up bazaars and chaupars with arrangement of shops
5. 1725-1743, construction of the rampart and forts
6. 1725-1743, catchment, conservation and distribution of water
7. 1725-1743, setting up the grid and urbanisation
8. 1743-1775, extension neighbourhoods
9. 1775-..., modern extension
25. The 9 states of the creation of the city
34 Jaipur
26. Regulating layout hypothesis based on the ancient plans and charters of the City Museum, Jaipur
The creation of a territiorial city 35
52 Jaipur
Water management in the city
One of the most important conditions for creating a city in the dry climate of Rajasthan lies in the availability of water. How was the catchment, conservation and distribution of drinking water organised in the towns of Amber and Jaipur, and to what extent did this issue impact the city’s layout? (51). Monsoon rains, which rarely fall in these areas, fill natural depressions that indicate locations suitable for human settlement, to be artificially enhanced subsequently. The choice of a city’s location is therefore linked to a topographic configuration resulting in a natural water reservoir, like in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. The hills around Amber naturally formed a catchment basin with runoff channels which, over time, were entirely artificially landscaped to form an “upsidedown umbrella” for water recovery. This principle can be observed around the village of Shishyaras and the valleys overlooking the lakes of Amber, where rainwater catchment is carried out by channel systems called “nalas”, carved in the rock, which feed the rainwater into the lakes. The most impressive system is the landscaping of the crest line above Jaigarh with a multitude of small channels on the contour lines to recover each drop of runoff water and bring it back, via a siphon protected by a grating, towards a large lake with a capacity of 3 million cubic metres and cisterns inside the fort to supply men and animals all year long. An ingenious counterflow system placed on the channels enabled the gravity-assisted filtering of sand and dust during the first runoff. Once the first rains had cleared the bottom of the canals, the valves to the cisterns of purer water were opened. The survival of the fort, and therefore of the city, was eminently dependent on the proper functioning of this system that was in place in the two large reservoirs of Nahargarh (50). In the city of Amber, the conservation of water for general usage was organised by setting up three artificial monsoon lakes at the bottom of the thalweg that were called, depending on their importance, sagar or talab52: - Sagar Talao to the east, on two levels, with a dam surmounted by a baradari, a chattri with 12 columns, to keep freshness. - Kundlab Lake is a vast depression that extends all the way up to the city wall, just in front of the northern gate.
50. (p. 52) The Sagar Talab lake seen from the Jaigarh Fort
51. Monsoon water recovery channel above Jaigarh
The creation of a territiorial city 53
The location of temples in the cities: Jaipur/Amber as a religious centre
“Jaya Simha Sharanah, Shri Govinda Sharanah” (Jai Singh’s sanctuary extends to the foot of Govind Dev Ji) (62). The puja, an Indian religious ritual, is practised at different times of the day and there are all types of praying areas in the city, from small temples in houses to large monuments that can accommodate hundreds of pilgrims. Jai Singh’s ambition was to transform his city into a high place of religious pilgrimage integrating both cities: even after the founding of Jaipur, Amber continued to be built. With more than sixty temples, it is often referred to as a “temple city”, the built-up representing temples being at least as important as that of residential buildings. This distorted view of what Amber may have been in the days of Jai Singh comes from the fact that in India, temples are always preserved on their original site, even if people come to pay homage to the corresponding deity only very occasionally. This is not the same for residential buildings which largely disappeared in a great selective erosion. In the days of Jai Singh II, of the 75 hectares contained in the ramparts, nearly 90% was urbanised and the temples were gathered on the flatter grounds in the hollow of the valley. Most of the temples (about forty of them) are Hindu, the most important of which is the ancient Ambikeshwar Mahadev Mandir dedicated to Shiva, built on the lowest point in the city centre. Its sacred fountain would be directly connected to Sagar Talab. The Shila Devi, installed by Mirza Raja Man Singh inside the palace, is now the subject of an important cult, as is the famous Jagat Shiromani temple dedicated to Vishnu, built in 1590-1614 by Raja Man Singh in memory of his eldest son, who died young. There is also the Lakshmi Narayan Temple on the old street leading to the east gate, the Surya Mandir built using the cut and fill method on the slope to the west of the city, as well as 6 Jain temples built for the most part during the Kachwaha period, under the reign of Raja Barmal (1548-1570), located along the main road going up to the palace. The Akbari Mosque was built in 1569 so that the emperor could pray during pilgrimages to Amber.
60. Sachdev & Tillotson, Building Jaipur, op. quot. p 37.
60 Jaipur
62. Puja room in a house
Jai Singh II, in his youth, prayed to the god Rama and, as an adult, he honoured the god Krishna with Vedic liturgies normally reserved for sovereigns of imperial position60. He and his ancestors have always preserved this religious culture, even during the darkest hours of the Mughal inquisition. In Jaipur, the palaces were made to adopt the architectural codes and signs of his allies; the temples, however, remained places of resistance and invention. During the founding and drawing of Jaipur, the landmarks were sanctified by the construction of temples like Ganesh Mandir in the north, Surasti Pur in the west and Surya Mandir in the east. To expand the religious importance of his city, Jai Singh constructed many temples, making Jaipur the most important city for the Vaishnava sect of which he is a member, with the Govindadeva Vaishnava temple at the top of the hierarchy. The city is also a major centre of importance for the Ra-
63. Map of the sites of the main temples in Amber-Jaipur
64. Surasti Pur, portal and temple
manandi sect, due to the presence of the Galta temple, as well as for the Jains (66, 67). As mentioned above, Jai Singh had a dream in his pavilion in the centre of Jai Niwas, where an apparition of Govind Dev Ji (Lord Krishna) told him that he wanted to live in this place. A statue of the god was brought from the sacred city of Vrindavan where it was kept in a seven-story temple, specially built by his ancestor Raja Man Singh. He first had the deity set up at Amber and then near Man Sagar lake, where the Kanak Vrindavan temple was built, surrounded by ornamental gardens, just next to the Ashwamedha Yagna (horse sacrifice) monument. The statue was finally installed in the central pavilion of Jai Niwas, creating this strange arrangement of a “summer temple-pavilion� that still exists today. The square fountain, symbolic and geometric centre of the city, was therefore flanked on one side by the Chandra Mahal and on the other by the deity. He had specific rites written for Govind Dev Ji, which could only be performed by himself or by high-ranking kings. This granted the city a sacred dimension, leading to the arrival of many pilgrims.
Around the palace, drawing the diagonals of the square and keeping the fountain as the centre, one can see that the figure is composed around temples, all of which were built under the reign of Jai Singh II: - At the southwest corner, in Choti Chaupar, the Sita Rama Mandir faces east. - At the southeast corner, the Lakshmi Narayan (Bai Ji Ka Mandir) in Badi Chaupar faces west. - At the northeast corner is the Hanuman Ji Temple, built by Jai Singh in 1740. - At the northwest corner, there is an empty square; was a temple supposed to be built there, or did he partially respect Vastu constraints of eastern and northern orientation? Opposite the Sireh Deori Gate is also the very important Shri Ramchandra Ji Mandir which is accessed by a spike-shaped ramp with a small cell facing west inside, in the axis of the palace gate. This temple completes the east-facing figure because the real gateway to the Palace is not the Tripolia Gate on the north-south axis but the Sireh Deori Gate, which opens to the east, in accordance with the Indian The creation of a territiorial city 61
66 Jaipur
Shops: bazaars and chaupars
Sawai Jai Singh II also wanted to transform his city into a big shopping centre and, for this reason more than for all others, Amber was just not enough: the small commercial street in the city centre contains about fifty shops. Unsafe trade routes to the south, due to Marathi and Sikh movements to the north on the Punjab roads, favoured the blossoming of the city. The Maharaja wrote to wealthy traders in Delhi and Agra to offer safe, free and tax-free sites. Jain merchants were particularly solicited to ensure the development of banks and the sale of gems. He even offered the thakurs (chiefs of administrative divisions) havelis in the city, thus organising the control of their acts and recovering the construction cost by compulsory levy. At the beginning, the city was established as a place of exchange between Gujarati and Mughal products, but as soon as the city asserted itself as a centre of commerce, Jai Singh only authorised the sale of products from his State. To offer a long row of commercial facades, he amended the bazaar’s urban system to resemble that of Mughal cities, such as Isfahan. Emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658), builder of Agra and the Taj Mahal, made Delhi – or Shahjahanabad – his capital in 1638, where he opened a new trade route just over thirty metres wide and 1,450 metres long opposite his new palace: Chandni Chowk. The word chowk, i.e. court or square, probably refers to the caravanserai or Maidan, which adopted more linear proportions here. The plan dated 1750 (preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) shows a canal either partly crossed by bridges or interspersed with a series of square fountains. This avenue ends in a hexagonal square with the Lal Qila (Red Fort) on one side and the Fatehpuri Masjid on the other, built at the same time, in the idea of closing off the road. It is composed of semicircular or polyfoil arches on the ground floor. The arrangement then leaves room for public facilities on the front of the chowk. The residential buildings are located above the porticoes, a layout that is also found in Jaipur. After the Delhi attempt, Jaipur thus includes the Persian formula for the linear bazaar, considerably amplified and regularised (79).
75. (p. 66) Shop in Topkhana Desh
74. The commercial fabric of bazaars today, (p 34, Sébastien Mazauric, “La structure commerciale de Jaipur”, Urban Strategies Seminar, ENSAT, 2002)
Jaipur’s founding ceremony took place on November 28, 1927 and was recognised as the state capital by Emperor Muhammad Shah in 1734, the year in which this plan of the construction progress was made62. It shows that the arranged bazaar porticoes are the first elements constructed in the city. These galleries were intended both to
62. Plan of Jaipur, dated 1734, LS /14, Sawai Man Singh Museum, Jaipur. See the reproduction in Sachdev & Tillotson, Building Jaipur, ill. 34, p 48.
The creation of a territiorial city 67
90. Plan of Jaipur with indication of the main chowkri, bazaar and chaupar
76 Jaipur
The creation of a territiorial city 77
92 Jaipur
Alain Borie
Typology of the houses and havelis
Courtyards
Courtyard houses Homes in Jaipur are “courtyard houses”. In Jaipur’s very dense urban fabric, houses always occupy the entire plot: the courtyard is therefore a fundamental element, being the only source of air flow in the house and the only external space on the bare ground, even though it is included in the construction. Very few havelis had a garden at the back of the plot. Many have disappeared and those that can still be seen are currently abandoned, such as the Tiwari ji ki haveli (survey no. 16) (13) or the Raja Udai Singh ji ki haveli (survey no. 23) (169). In “courtyard houses”, the courtyard is indeed the essential component in the organisation of the architectural space and domestic life. From the outset, they should be distinguished from simple “houses with courtyards” where the courtyard only acts as a clear space to brighten and ventilate certain rooms, like in many types of old or recent urban housing in Western Europe for example. In the former, on the contrary, the courtyard plays an essential distributive role3 and almost becomes a living space in its own right. This is instantly visible in the daily habits of the inhabitants: the courtyard is fully used and inhabited; it is a living space. The question that immediately arose was: what are the common points or differences between houses in Jaipur and other courtyard houses that can be seen in other countries, particularly around the Mediterranean Sea? Defining the characteristics of these houses implied placing them within a more general corpus of courtyard houses. Occasionally, we have also tried to compare houses in Jaipur with other Indian homes, based on available studies4.
1
3
2
4
5
6
10. Theoretical table of houses with several courtyards (1. General courtyard houses: separate entrances, 2. Courtyard houses in Jaipur: successive courtyards, 3. One courtyard, 4. The successive forecourt system, 5. Two courtyards, 6. Three courtyards)
What are the characteristics and specificities of this type of housing? To answer this question, we will establish a classification of architectural examples available to us on the basis of rational typological criteria. This method will reveal the original aspects of architectural culture and philosophy in Jaipur between the 18th and 20th centuries. The criteria presented will be ranked in descending order of importance, ranging from the most general to the most specific.
3. Cf. Samir Abdulac, Alain Borie, Charles Chauliaguet, Michel Herrou, Pierre Pinon, Maisons à patio, rapport de recherche CORDA, 1982. 4. See: Shikha Jain, Havelis: A Living Tradition of Rajasthan, Shubhi, Delhi, 2004, which is the most recent and comprehensive book on the subject. It includes valuable information about havelis in Jaipur; Tejinder Singh Randhawa, The Indian Courtyard House, New Delhi 1999; please note that this book does not contain blueprints; Kulbhushan & Minakshi Jain, Architecture of The Indian Desert, Ahmedabad, 2000, which presents a lot of information, especially on urban housing in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur; Kulbhushan Jain, Thematic Space in Indian Architecture, Ahmedabad, 2002, which presents several examples of courtyard houses in India; V.S. Pramar, Haveli: Wooden Houses and Mansions of Gujarat, Ahmedabad 1989, which presents a very detailed study of houses in Gujarat; Pierre Daniel Couté, Jean Michel Léger (dir.), Bénarès, un voyage d’architecture, Paris, 1989, which features some of the city’s houses and palaces.
98 Jaipur
Houses with a single courtyard and houses with multiple courtyards The first typological criterion to be highlighted is the number of courtyards (chowk in Hindi) in the house. Depending on the case, there may be one or two courtyards, sometimes three, even in relatively small dwellings. A very specific characteristic of these courtyards is that they are arranged in a row and therefore each one leads to the next (10). This distinguishes houses in Jaipur from many other types of houses with several courtyards, where the courtyards are generally more independent from each other. In the Middle East, for example in houses in Isfahan5, the main courtyard is reserved for the noble spaces of the dwelling; the others, if any, are service courtyards, but each one has an independent entrance. Another example can be found in Saudi Arabia, in the Riyadh region6, where traditional houses with two courtyards correspond to a strict dichotomy between the reception areas (reserved for men) and the family area, each one often having a specific entrance. This is not the case in Jaipur, where the house always has only one entrance. As a result, there was a strong dependence between the spaces of the zenana (part reserved for women) at the back of the house and those of the mardana (part reserved for male activities) in the front. Let’s take the example of a large two-courtyard haveli, the Kashliwalji ki haveli (survey no. 24) (11). When entering the first courtyard through the street front porch (2), one surprisingly arrives in front of a second facade, comparable to the first, with another porch ahead which is completely identical to the first (15): one was thus not really “in” the haveli, but in a simple forecourt! Passing through this new porch to reach the second courtyard, now a staggered passageway needs to be followed. The heart of the house is located at the far end of the plot, in the old zenana, far from the street and protected via a well-controlled path. A careful examination of the blueprint of this haveli’s ground floor confirms these observations. The main part of the house, at the back of the plot, follows a perfectly square geometry, centred on the main courtyard which also has a square layout. The geometric perfection of this part is a reflection of its importance. On the street side, the forecourt is surrounded by buildings on only three sides and follows a rectangular plan. The fourth side, to the back, is constituted by the facade, which is in a way “external” to the main part of the haveli. This explains why this facade is protected by a series of small openings like a street facade and not furnished with corridors like the rest of the forecourt.
11. Kashliwalji ki haveli (survey no. 24), plan of the ground floor
12. Banthika ji ki haveli (survey no. 33), plan of the ground floor
13. Tiwari ji ki haveli (survey no. 16), plan of the ground floor
5. See Darab Diba, Philippe Revault, Serge Santelli (dir), Maisons d’Ispahan, Paris, 2001. 6. See Alain Borie, François Denieul, The Saudi Architectural Heritage, Idea Center, 1982
Typology of the houses and havelis 99
97. Narendra Mohan Paliwal haveli (survey no. 12), axonometric cross-section
134 Jaipur
Typology of the houses and havelis 135
144 Jaipur
Cantilevered masked facades: jharokhas and corridors
A heavy structure The construction of the Jaipur havelis combines two types of installations: a heavy structure that constitutes the main framework of the house, and a lighter structure appended to it. The heavy construction consists of load-bearing masonry walls (at least 50 centimetres thick) made of sandstone, shale or sometimes limestone, embedded in mortar. These walls are always covered with a smooth coating, traditionally painted pink23. Generally, the absence of moulding gives them a raw appearance. Most of the time, this heavy construction is not very visible because it is hidden by the light structures which we will analyse later in this study. One must head towards the back of the buildings or on the terraces to see it. Apart from the dwellings themselves, all purely utilitarian buildings use this type of plastered masonry and therefore have the same sober and abstract aspect of an almost timeless architecture. This is clearly
115. Choturam ji ki haveli, niches in the kamra of the upper floor
114. (p. 144) Choturam ji ki haveli, the jharokha with jali
showcased by the Jaigarh Fort which protects the site of Amber or Jai Singh’s famous Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Inside the rooms, the wall takes on a completely different appearance. Its thickness allows multiple recesses to be made throughout, constituting niches used for storage (115), particularly in kitchens. The walls are therefore strongly structured, and visually very present, in line with the absence of furniture in the traditional lifestyle. Still indoors, in addition to the plaster coating, wall plastering can take the very refined form of araish. This extremely fine finishing plaster, fresh to the touch, smooth and shiny, is made of marble powder and polished with semi-precious stones. An extremely expensive product, it was obviously only used in the most beautiful rooms, on the lower parts of the walls (where one comes to lean against) (116) or in all parts directly in contact with the hand or body (stairwells). The resulting tactile comfort is a very enjoyable luxury in Jaipur’s climate.
116. Jai Singh Minister haveli, inside the jharokhas showing – from bottom to top – the superposition of viewing, ventilation and lighting windows
23. This “tradition” is not so old since it was for the Prince of Wales’ visit to Jaipur in 1876 that Maharaja Ram Singh II, the city’s great moderniser, decided to carry out this general renovation of the buildings in a single colour, pink.
Typology of the houses and havelis 145
160 Jaipur
Size and scale of the houses
157. (p. 160) Raja Udai Singh ji ki haveli (survey no. 23), the big mahal of the mardana
A very wide sample of houses To constitute the corpus of our study, we have tried to choose dwellings of very diverse sizes and levels of complexity. These range from the smallest, such as the Pareek Sadan house (survey no. 4) (158, 159), located in a plot less than three metres wide, to the largest havelis which are true urban palaces, such as the Rajputana haveli (survey no. 36) (162, 163), or the Raja Udai Singh ji ki haveli (survey no. 23). In large houses, given the consistency of the bays’ depth, it is clear that there are not many solutions to obtain rooms that are more generously proportioned in accordance with the social status of the residents. The only examples that attempt to cover larger areas, such as the Mothi Mahal, a large reception room in the Jai Singh Minister haveli (survey no. 28) for example, show signs of frailty at present (160). In the Raja Udai Singh ji ki haveli (survey no. 23), only two large rooms located under chandnis, thus not supporting additional loads, can afford an exceptional range of more than 5.50 metres (161). Since it was not possible to directly examine the structure, we could not determine how this architectural feat had been realised. All the other rooms of this gigantic haveli, even the luxurious music room, were designed with brackets every 2.50 metres. To obtain larger spaces, double-depth parts are always used, already divided by a diaphragm arch. An effort is then made to enlarge the surface with lateral spaces in the form of inner tibaras, or jharokhas. All this naturally leads to an increase of brackets within one room. This abundance of architectural elements multiplies the secondary spaces around the room, enriches the perspectives and serves as a pretext for a large decorative display. Nevertheless, in the end, big houses mainly play on the dimensions of the courtyards, which at least makes it possible to increase the width of the spans that border them, while the depth is still limited. In small houses, the reduced size of the courtyard is obviously the most striking feature. In the Peeli haveli (survey no. 2) (166, 167), for example, located on a plot of only 8 x 8.50 metres, the central courtyard’s area is only 1.10 metres wide and 2.10 metres long. The original corridors are also very narrow, measuring no more than
158. Pareek Sadam house (survey no. 4), facade
159. Maison Pareek Sadam (survey no. 4), terraces
Typology of the houses and havelis 161
172 Jaipur
Typology of the houses and havelis 173
174 Jaipur
Françoise Català a
Architectural patterns and Indian spirituality
The symbolism of shapes
1. (p. 174) The god Krishna and the gapis, cow herders, Tiwari ji ki haveli
The cultural context of havelis in Jaipur
For many years now, I have researched a wide range of subjects throughout India: the history of civilizations, the diversity of languages and architecture, urban and rural lifestyles, and the philosophies related to religious cults. However, the knowledge conveyed through oral tradition many tribal societies living in this vast country was what captured my attention from the very beginning. In 1996, fifty million Indians still belonged to tribal communities. I gradually came to the idea that these Indians, the adivasi, (from Hindi adi - beginning, and vasi - resident)1, gave meaning to all their actions. I began to analyse the havelis of Jaipur under the assumption that their architecture was meaningful and that it conveyed a large number of symbols deeply linked to Hindu culture and religion. Describing the patterns was not enough, their keys had to be found. In the words of Sunand Prasad, quoted by Shikha Jain2, the term haveli comes from an ancient Arabic word meaning “enclosure”. In haveli, we can find the word haowala derived from hawaleh, which means “around” as an adverb or “transform” as a verb. In addition, we have also noted that in Hindi, hava means air, wind, breeze, which could lead us to another etymology. Either way, haveli is a feminine word (as are many Hindi words ending in i). The havelis were built with some variations throughout India, where they have different names depending on the region, as indicated in the glossary at the end of this book. The ones we will be focusing on, in Rajasthan, were built with the heritage of the traditions of the family clan in mind as well as in the spirit of mystical India through the application of the ancestral rules of Vastu. However, they were
2. Haveli-temple Gopal ji Jalaiwaala
also under the influence of customs brought by the Mughals. Other influences, such as the region’s proximity to trade routes, were also decisive. The Southern Silk Road was where commerce took place; for example, Chinese silk was traded for the Indian pharmacopoeia paradigms (plants, opium, etc.), or Indian fabrics for the Venice glasses and crystals found in the Shekhawati. We will therefore have to make some comparisons between dwellings in Jaipur and Amber, and also bring in examples from the nearby Shekhawati region.
1. I continuously used four different dictionaries to cross-check information about Sanskrit and Hindi roots. a-Dictionnaire sanscrit/français by N. Stchoupak, L. Nitti and L. Renou, 3° edition Jean Maisonneuve, Paris 1987 b-Hindi / français, Dictionnaire général by Nicole Balbir and Jagbans K. Balbir, Ed. L’Anathèque, Paris 1992. c-Allied Chambers Transliterated Hindi-English Dictionary, New Delhi 1993. d-M. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi 2002 2. Shikha Jain, Havelis: A Living Tradition of Rajasthan, Shubhi, Delhi, 2004, p 20. Note: The numbers in brackets in the text refer to the illustrations
176 Jaipur
Ornamental patterns
As one walks through the city, one is struck by the abundance and quality of the decorative motifs that adorn both the façades and the interiors of houses: arches, mouldings, carved friezes, corbels, paintings, highlights, etc.Is this merely decoration, as would be understood in the West? The word “decor” is a term borrowed around 1350 from the Latin decorare, which means “to adorn”, and figuratively “to honour, enhance”. The essence of the figurative meaning of “honour”, which came out of use in the sixteenth century, is preserved by the special meaning of “giving a decoration to someone”. Decus is synonymous with decor and is linked to decere, decent. Thus, the decor can be defined as what is appropriate for adornment and is honorary3. However, the word “decor” does not exist in Hindi or Sanskrit, where one would instead speak of “architectural or ornamental patterns”. The very notion of decor is foreign to Indian culture. Indian architecture is experienced as a
whole, so the features that one would tend to qualify as “decor” are not additional elements, but are an integral part of the whole. Without this holistic approach to Indian architecture, misinterpretation may occur. The following tale, often referred to in schools, is a good illustration of this: A king requests a miniaturist who was painting his portrait: “Teach me to paint.” “Painting is the art of putting figures in the space generally reserved for sculpture. How can I teach you that?” The king then retorted: “So begin by teaching me sculpture!” “How could I, Sire,” replied the man, “teach you the art of creating figures in space, if you ignore the laws of architecture, the very essence of which is the organisation of space? One cannot understand the ordinance of space without knowing the laws of music, which has the power to order time, whose rhythms govern the harmony of the Universe, and whose understanding can be found in the Vedas.”4 Thus, starting from the ancient texts that structure Indian thought, we will take a more global look at a number of architectural patterns found in havelis.
3. Tiwari ji ki haveli, second courtyard (Purani Basti)
3. Le Robert, Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, edited by Alain Rey, Paris, 1993, p 1384. 4. Often quoted; Guides Bleus: Inde du Nord, Bhoutan, Hachette Paris 1995, p 181
Architectural patterns and Indian spirituality 177
Indian spirituality
The religious and philosophical foundations of Haveli Architecture
To decipher the meaning of architectural patterns in Jaipur, one must first look at a series of elements of Hindu culture: sacred texts, religion, the Upanishads, philosophy, all things that are the backbone of traditional Hindu thought and the reference of all architecture. Sri Aurobindo writes on this subject5: “Indian architecture, painting, sculpture are not only intimately one in inspiration with the central things in Indian philosophy, religion, Yoga, culture, but a specially intense expression of their significance”. He adds that it is through these three great arts that the sensitive and the invisible come together. “This characteristic attitude of the Indian reflective and creative mind necessitates in our view of its creations an effort to get beyond at once to the inner spirit of the reality it expresses and see from it and not from outside [...] Here the only right way is to [...] by some meditative dwelling on the whole, dhyana in the technical Indian term, to the spiritual meaning and atmosphere, make ourselves one with that as completely as possible [...] it is the spirit that carries the form [...]Indian architecture especially demands this kind of inner study and this spiritual self-identification with its deepest meaning and will not otherwise reveal itself to us [...]Ignore the spiritual suggestion, the religious significance, the meaning of the symbols and indications, look only with the rational and secular aesthetic mind, and it is vain to expect that we shall get to any true and discerning appreciation of this art.” Sanskrit and sacred texts
Sanskrit is the Indo-Aryan scholarly language in which the Brahmanic texts of India were written. The word Sanskrit literally means
9. Domes, Diwan Shiv ji Lal ji ki haveli
“complete, accomplished, perfect”. The Sanskrit language was built up gradually, thanks to grammarians, the oldest and most famous of whom was Panini6 (fourth century BC). His grammar was an 8-volume work (Ashtadhyayi) which consists of 4,000 sutras or maxims. Julia Kristeva7 points out that this relatively recent text assembles the mass of linguistic theories, which were previously transmitted orally. This grammar, translated in Europe by Böhtlingk (1815-1840) and published in two volumes in French by Louis Renou as early as 19308, is remarkably precise in its formulations, both in terms of the phonic organisation and the morphology of the Sanskrit language. The oldest texts of India, transcribed in the eighth century BC, are the Vedas; Veda meaning “knowledge, science” in Sanskrit. These
5. Sri Aurobindo, Foundations of Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1972, pp 209-211. 6. Louis Frédéric, Dictionnaire de la civilisation indienne, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1987 p 827. 7. Julia Kristeva, Language: The Unknown, Columbia University Press, 1989. 8. Louis Renou, Grammaire sanscrite, 2 volumes, Jean Maisonneuve, Paris, 1930.
180 Jaipur
10. Painted dome, Narendra Mohan Paliwal haveli
Architectural patterns and Indian spirituality 181
190 Jaipur
Measurements and techniques
Now that we have established the cultural context in which haveli architecture developed in Jaipur, we will focus on the techniques that have allowed it to be implemented. This will mainly concern the execution techniques of the various decorative patterns that are ubiquitous in these houses. However, to begin with, we will discuss an essential aspect of architectural design and execution: measurement systems. Traditional measurement systems All trades directly related to buildings (architects, sculptors, painters) retain a certain freedom to express their creative genius but are subject to the inviolable law of canons as to iconography, ritual, as well as size and proportion. As in many traditional civilisations, Indian measurement systems have nothing to do with our modern metric system, whose main characteristics are its unity and abstraction. On the contrary, these systems use a considerable number of different units of measurement, each intended for a specific use in a particular field. Among these units of measurement, some are more specifically designed for architectural design. They are rarely presented as a whole and it seemed interesting to attempt that in this study. The following measurements were drawn from Chapter II of the Manasara Treatise. The most frequently used terms are as follows: 1 yava = 8 yukas = 1/8 angula = 2.34 mm = 1 barley corn. It should be noted that in the current English pharmacopoeia, the mustard seed is still a unit of measurement. 1 angula = 8 yavas = 1.87 cm = 1 finger width = 8 small barley grains. 1 vitasti = 12 angulas = 1/2 hasta = 22 cm = 1 span, i.e. the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of an open hand with spread fingers.
23. (p. 190) View of the city of Mathura, painting in the Tiwari ji ki haveli
It should be noted that the hasta, which represents a cubit, thus a very common dimension, changes size according to the use that one makes of it: 1 hasta (or kishu-hasta) = 24 angulas = 2 vitastis = 45 cm = small cubit to measure indoors. This is a dimension that is frequently found inside havelis. 1 prajapatya-hasta = 25 angulas = 46.87 cm to measure buildings. 1 dhanur-mushti-hasta = 26 angulas = 48.75 cm to measure land. 1 dhanur-grana-hasta = 27 angulas = 50.62 cm to measure villages. In addition, the hasta also varies according to the finger chosen to measure the cubit: - the distance from the tip of the little finger to the tip of the elbow is a small hasta. - the distance from the tip of the index finger to the tip of the elbow is a medium hasta. - the distance from the tip of the middle finger to the tip of the elbow is a large hasta. It is estimated that a man standing with his arms stretched over his head, hands joined, will measure 5 hasta from his middle finger to his heels23. 1 danda (comparable to the Greek δενδρον tree) = 4 hastas = approximately 1.80 m = 1 stick. This is also a very widely used dimension. The porticoes of shopping avenues in Jaipur are exactly 2 dandas long, which equals to 3.60 metres between two pillars. 1 rajju = 8 dandas = 14.40 m = 1 rope (to measure cities). These measuring systems were complemented by various dimensional transfer techniques to execute architecture or various decorative patterns. According to Prahlad Singh Rathore24, the craftsmen working on the paintings at the time the havelis were built made the ornamental designs by calibrating strands of straw that they used as a template to accurately measure and arrange the patterns.
23. Vibhuti Chakrabarti, Indian Architecture Theory, Oxford Universty Press, 1999 (p 39) 24. Mr Prahlad Singh Rathore, coming from a Rajput family and living in Jaipur, is a scholar passionate about Indian civilization who agreed to answer our questions regarding these topics.
Architectural patterns and Indian spirituality 191
Glossary
by Jean-Pierre Catalรกa Entries in the glossary are in Hindi, phonetically transcribed into the Latin alphabet with simplified spelling. Each term is then presented in 2 languages: - in Hindi - in English (with a rough equivalent of the Hindi term) - in English (with a more complete definition)
ADHISHTHAN
base
AGNI
Fire South-East
ALA ALMARI ANTARALA
niche cupboard vestibule
ARAISH
stucco
BAGH BAITHAK BAKHRI BAOLI
garden sitting room simple house step well
BARADARI
colonnade
BARAMDA BARHI CHAUPAR BAZAAR BHIT CHABUTRA CHHAJJA
semi-open gallery big urban square shopping centre wall entrance porch canopy
CHANDNI
open to sky walled terrace
CHARBAGH CHHAT CHHATRI
square garden terrace umbrella roofed pavilion
238 Jaipur
Base, platform. Slight elevation whose height is not defined, usually decorated with lotus leaves Southeast Fire God Niche, recess, alcove Wardrobe, cabinet Interval Passage or vestibule in front of a sanctuary Smooth, glossy coating covering the lower parts of walls. This coating is made of a mixture of limestone, marble powder, egg shells, yoghurt and sugar, that is then polished with agate, a hard semi-precious stone Garden. Mughal term of Iranian origin Lounge, meeting room. Place where one sits House built with simple means A monumental stepwell, to collect water during the monsoon season and access it all year round Open pavilion supported by columns generally comprising four arches on each of its sides Verandah, sometimes used as a shopping arcade Large square (in Rajasthan) formed with a crossroads Shopping street, shopping district Wall, eminence Masonry platform placed in front of the facade of a house or shop. A projecting canopy used as protection from the sun and monsoon rain (Mughal or Hindu term) Outdoor balcony, terrace, dripstone Open space on an upper floor, entirely surrounded by rooms or enclosed by walls. Suspended courtyard Literally: moonlight, moonbeam, or large piece of white fabric. The term chandni comes from chand, the moon. By extension, the chandni is an open-air space where one can sleep under the stars A garden divided into four square parts Terrace, ceiling or roof A vaulted kiosk located on a terrace, usually supported by four columns
CHAUPAR or CHOPAR CHHOTI CHAUPAR CHOWK or CHAUK
public square
CHULHA CUL DAFTAR DAHLIZ DAKSHIN DALAN DARVAZA DEODI DEORI DIWAN
fireplace pivot office doorsill South yard gate women’s apartments entrance audience place
DIWAN-I-AM DIWAN-I-KHAS DIWAN-KHANA DUKAN DVARA (Rajput) DVARA-PALAS GALI GAMALA GANDHI GALI
public hall private hall drawing room shop door door-keeper small street flowerpot dirty lane
GAUKH GAUSHALA GAVAKSHA
portico cowshed bull’s eye
GHANA-DVARA GHAT GHUSALKHANA GODAM GUR HARAM HAVA HAVELI
blind door steps to water bathroom storage jaggery women’s quarters wind mansion
ISHAN IVAN or IWAN
North-East vaulted hall
small urban square courtyard
Square, crossroads, public space where many activities take place (in Rajasthani) Small square (in Rajasthani) Open courtyard or space located on the ground floor According to Vastu Shastra, the courtyard – the empty space – is considered as the “navel of the house”, griha nabhi Crossroads, square, plaza in the city where the market is Fireplace in the broadest sense of the word Pivot, pin located at the bottom of a door. Door knocker Office, work room. Originally, manuscript, book (from the Arabic language) Threshold, doorstep, entrance South Entrance of a haveli, courtyard, room Door, gate or portal, particularly of large dimensions Women’s apartment Entrance, area through which a house is accessed Royal court or place of audience Term of Iranian origin designating a reception room in a house or palace In a political context, this term also refers to the government Public audience room In a palace, a room for private audiences Sitting room, audience room Shop Door, gate Doorkeeper, gatekeeper Alley, passage Flowerpots Gutter lane or street surrounding the house or separating it from neighbouring houses Place to sit while waiting to be shown into the house Cow stable Lens Bull’s-eye or horseshoe-shaped small window Dummy or blind door created to ensure symmetry Steps leading to water, usually located along rivers or water reservoirs Bathroom Store warehouse Sugarcane-based jaggery or jaggery liquid given as an offering Part of the house reserved for women Air, wind, breeze Large residence, merchant’s house. Courtyard house in Rajasthan Literally: house where one can catch the wind, enjoy the breeze Northeast, one of Shiva’s names An often vaulted room located in a recess with respect to the courtyard The space is closed on three sides, opening onto the courtyard via the fourth A characteristic space in Iranian and Middle Eastern architecture Glossary 239
JAIPUR
JAIPUR, a planned City of Rajasthan delves into the very heart of the city of Jaipur and its Architecture, exploring the most concealed details, which but a few visitors venture to: shopping galleries, courtyards, houses. The historical, urban and architectural approach to the historic center of the capital of Rajasthan holds many discoveries and happy surprises. The book challenges a number of received ideas about Jaipur’s layout and architecture, and takes a new look at ornamentation. Fruit of the close collaboration between several eminent French and Indian architects and teachers, it synthesizes the research work accomplished over the past few years. Alain Borie is an architect and former Professor of Architecture à l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture of Paris-Malaquais (France). Françoise Catalàa is a sculptor in urban art design. She taught in visual arts at the National School of Architecture Paris-Malaquais for 25 years. Rémi Papillault is an architect and urban planner. He is Professor of Architecture at the National School of Architecture of Toulouse (France), and responsible for the seminar on India held there. Dr. Sanjeev Vidyarthi is an architect and former professor and lead faculty for the exchange program at the Aayojan School of Architecture (Jaipur).
A planned City of Rajasthan