JAISALMER“The Golden City”

“the yellow sand and the yellow sandstone used in every architecture of the city gives a yellowish-golden tinge to the city and its surrounding area”..

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

AASTHA TALWAR

HISTORY• The fort & town of JAISALMER was founded by Maharawal Jaisal

in the year 1156 AD after having shifted his capital from Ludharva (18 Kms away from Jaisalmer) to a safer place.

• The ruling family of the erstwhile Jaisalmer State belongs to Bhati Clan of Yadu Rajputs of Chandrawasnshi (Lunar) race who claim descent from Lord Krishna,the defied hero who ruled at Dwarka.

• The historical origin of Bahttis can be inferred from the couplet which says that the Yadu Rajputs ruled and constructed Forts at Kashi,Mathura, Pragvad, Gajni,Bhatner,Digam,Dirwal,Lodurva and ninth in Jaisalmer.

• Jaisalmer was merged into the state of Rajasthan, there was no important change in the area of the state.

• On October 6,1949,the region was given the status of an independent district in Jodhpur division.

INTRODUCTION• Set in the arid plains of western Rajasthan, in the midst of

the vast Thar desert, the city of Jaisalmer is a living fortress, perhaps the only one of its kind in India.

• There are many spectacular forts in India, particularly in Rajasthan, reflecting a martial history of which the local people are self consciously proud.

• These forts have tremendous tourist potential, and proposals are afoot to convert some into ‘heritage hotels’ or museums.

• To the visitor, almost every nook and corner of this richly crafted town in the midst of the desert is fascinating, because a medieval aura is still palpable in the streets, architecture and the traditional society of Jaisalmer.

• Today this town consists of two major components: The fortified upper citadel, elevated on a ridge, with

more: than 400 houses, groups of temples and a palace complex,

the lower town, also fortified, set on the north-eastern slopes of the ridge in the wind shadow of the citadel.

Location Jaisalmer , Rajasthan, India

Longitude 75°55'E

Latitude 26°55'N

Altitude 241.7m above mean sea level

CLIMATE & LOCATION

District JAISALMER has a very dry climate with very hot summer; a cold winter and sparse rains.

AIR TEMPERATURE

The climate is extremely hot during summer with maximum temperature reaching up to 49.2 degree Celsius and extremely cold during winter with minimum temp. in the range of 1 degree Celsius.

RELATIVE HUMIDITY & RAINFALL

The average rainfall is only 16.4 cms as against the state average of 57.51 cms.

SOCIO-CULTURAL /LIFE STYLE OF PEOPLE

• Jaisalmer district is bestowed with art, architecture, culture and traditions full of color and music and thereby attracting hordes of Domestic and foreign tourists.

• The folk music of desert is an outstanding culmination of long traditions mixed with varied social customs and inherent concept of classical music revealing the life of desert. Being in the neighborhood the language, culture and traditions of the people of the district are influenced by the culture of sindh.

People are hardy and have great power of tolerance. The people of the desert are very jovial and friendly. More than 80% of the population of Jaisalmer lives in rural areas. Males go out to work and females stay at home.

In the village most people live in huts (Jhopri). These beautiful huts are made of grass. These huts are cool in summers and warm in winter. Every family has 4-5 huts. Around the huts there are thorny bushes and wire.

Some of the villages have stone houses.

Almost all villages have a pond or well for drinking water. In most of the villages the water is provided by the government through pipelines.

OCCUPATION1. In the villages the main sources of

income are animal rearing and farming. Every family keeps cows, goats, sheep and camel. When there is good rain there is plenty of fodder for cattle.

2. The staple crops are ‘Bajara’ and ‘Gawar’. People change their establishments in search of fodder for cattle. The trees and bushes, which are found in desert, have fruits and buds, which are eaten as vegetables.

FLORA

1. Khezada, Bavla, Lora, Rohida, Van, Phog, Kumbhar, Jal, Neem, Babul and many other trees are to be found among sparse vegetation.

2. Orchards are luxury and can be seen occasionally in a very rare sport. Grass-beds or lawns are never seen anywhere.

FESTIVAL OF JAISALMER

From the city, the annual sand dunes festival is set up an hour’s drive into the desert towards the southwest.

Indians come from all over the country for this very popular three-day festival. There are camel rides and races, wrestling matches, beauty contests (including one for best mustache), and traditional singing and dance performances.

JAIN HERITAGE OF JAISALMER

1. Jain community has enhanced the place Jaisalmer greatly.

2. It has festooned the city with marvellous temples, especially the temples dedicated to 23rd Tirthankara, Parshva and the 16th Tirthankara, Shantinath which all counts for the beauty of the Jaisalmer.

3. One can find the a typical of the artefacts and manuscripts of Jain tradition in the oldest libraries of India which are possessed by Jaisalmer.

Amarsagar, Lodarva, Pokharan and Brahmsar are the major places where crowd of pilgrims can be seen.

MATERIALS• Most common building materials:

– Light yellowish sandstone for walls (0.45m or more in thickness).– 50 mm thick panels of limestone used on upper levels for elements on projecting wall facades.

PLANNING

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN IN THE TRADIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF

JAISALMER

- The study focuses on the sandstone havelis (urban courtyard houses) of the desert city of Jaisalmer, north-west Rajasthan, India. - While the city has been much admired by contemporary Indian architects, their understanding has been a Modernist one, based largely on the idea of 'spatial organisation'.

Three distinct architectural schools, or shaili, are then identified. THE SOMPURIYA SHAILI (the Sompuras are traditional temple builders) has its roots in the medieval architecture known from surviving temples,

THE MUGHLAI SHAILI is influenced by the imperial Mughal style, THE ANGREZI (ENGLISH) SHAILI brought an influx of western Classicism.

Architecturally, Jaisalmer fort consists of three layers of wall. - The outer wall (the lowest) is composed of solid stone

blocks. - From the inner wall, Rajput warriors used to throw boiling

water, oil,- massive blocks of rocks on the enemies, when they got

trapped between the inner and the middle walls. - The architecture of these forts is a blend of Islamic, Persian and Indian styles of architecture.

The buildings are analysed at their various levels of organsiation: - formal and spatial planning, - composition of elevations (interior and exterior), - architectural components and details. Aedicules, miniature representations of buildings, play an important role as compositional elements.

LAYOUT PLANNING & ARCHITECTURAL STYLES IN JAISALMER

These were built of sandstone or marble and were endowed with 1. jharokhās (a type of overhanging balcony), 2. chatrīs (elevated, dome-shaped pavilions),3. chajjās (projecting eaves or cover usually supported on large carved brackets) and 4. jālīs (perforated stone or latticed screen used for ventilation as well as decoration

Most of these forts had ingenious water structures designed for harvesting and storage, including step-wells, elaborate reservoirs and channels.

CITY FORM•In its overall shape, Jaisalmer is an irregular polygon with a double line of fortification.

• It is a city within a city. The inner city is more protected with a stronger wall and is set on top of a hill about 100 meters higher than the surrounding area. The city is triangular in shape due to the shape of the hill on which it is built.

• The Royal Palace with the Royal Square forms the nucleus of Jaisalmer.

•The city structuring manifests itself in two strong ways : the location of the Royal Quarters on top of the hill with the strong fortification. secondly the dispersal of communities is affected by caste groupings making distinct residential zones of different communities.

The market square with its bazaar structures in the lower city and the Royal Square with the temples holds the upper city together. Streets act as linkages, activity and interaction spaces.

TOWN LAYOUT• Narrow winding streets with

densely built construction on both sides.

• All Major streets were oriented in the East-West direction at right angles to the direction of dust storms.

• The height of the building compared to the width of streets is large to create shaded cool environment for the pedestrians and other social activities on the streets.

Plan of Jaisalmer town

SMALLER HOUSES

The simplest town house consists of a single room, a verandah and a courtyard. Larger houses of this type have another verandah over the entrance and some houses have an additional room on one side of the courtyard. These single storey structures are owned by the poorest people and have been built in the peripheral areas of the town.

MIDDLE INCOME HOUSESA two or three-storey structure, this house type can be considered the typical house of Jaisalmer. It is similar to the first house type in plan, with the only difference that additional rooms and small enclosed terraces are located at the upper floors. The front part of the first floor has a balcony projecting onto the street.

HAVELI’S1. The most complex and interesting residential buildings in Jaisalmer are the haveli’s built by the rich merchants or courtiers.

2. In these four or five-storied houses, the courtyard is surrounded by rooms or verandahs on all sides.

3. There are underground rooms as well, sometimes at two levels one below the other.

4. The uppermost storey comprises terraces enclosed by wind pavilions and high parapet walls. In some cases, the house is built around two courtyards.

PLAN AND SECTION OF A TYPICAL HAVELI IN JAISALMER

PUBLIC SPACESPublic spaces in Jaisalmer may be classified according to their types. The major categories are : The Royal Square in the center of the upper city ; Public spaces like Gandhi Chowk and Gopa Chowk ; Community spaces at the level of residential clusters. 

STREETS OF JAISALMERJaisalmer is a compact network of streets rarely too long. With fairly high buildings and width of streets rarely more than three meters, one can move around the town in cool shade. There is a significant difference in the street patterns of the upper and the lower city. The radial pattern in the upper city is contrasted by the somewhat irregular grid iron pattern in the lower city.

A typical cobbled street in Jaisalmer

A street showing additions and Alterations in Jaisalmer

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE IN JAISALMERDESIGN: Jaisalmer fort is a traditionalsettlement, not exactly a vernacularsettlements. The design layout shows a network of space in which :HIERARCHY OF SIZE: When the space dominates in architectural design by being significantly different in size from all other elements, dominance by size of elements such as "C-Royal Square"HIERARCHY OF SHAPE: Visually dominant by the shape from other elements in composition. A discreet contrast in shape is critical.RHYTHM: Patterened reoccurrence of elements in design such as Granary areas in the design. Repetation as a dense organizationof repetitive pillars.

HIERARCHYExceptional size -dominance seen by the size of the space .form in design.A unique shape-visually dominant and importatnt shape of the space /form in design.

Generation of form in space is affect of opening these horizontal and vertical elements in space.It depends on size,number and location of openings.

1. Main Chowk has full enclosure with two streets opening the visual link.2. Neighbourhood Space activity linked to houses opens to the residential streets.3. Angan near the house.4. Transition space in house and street.Main Village Square is village community space,at intersection of main streets.

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

Two types of construction used for floors and roofs:

– TRADITIONAL METHOD: Laying closely spaces timber beams and covering them with a layer or reed or grass matting with a layer of earth on top.

– Because of lack of availability in the desert, stone beams are being used.

NATURAL COOLING SYSTEMS OF JAISALMER

The natural cooling systems used at Jaisalmer include: 1. Dense clustering of buildings. 2. Sun control through orientation and structural projections. 3. Cooling of sunlit surfaces by use of fins. 4. Massive construction for roofs and walls. 5. Courtyards and other air ducts for ventilation. The effectiveness of each of these cooling methods has been evaluated by temperature observations and this will be reported in a subsequent paper.

Details of carved panel

CONTROL OF HEATING BY TEXTURE OF SURFACES:

The heat inside of the building is controlled by the use of textures in Jaisalmer. This is organized at three levels.

 1. At the town scale the buildings are of unequal height with parapets and high walls, creating uneven sky lines and desired shading of each other. 2. Secondly, the building facades have large number of projections like jharokhas and chajjas which provide shade to the facades. 3. Thirdly, the front part of the facade which remains exposed are controlled by creating deeply carved patterns. Use of such devices minimizes the heat gain by providing shading due to texture.

- Such devices also result in increased convective transfer of heat because of increased surface area.

JAISALMER AND PRE-CAST CONSTRUCTIONJaisalmer as a city, as urban fabric, is in total harmony with its soil, its terrain and the lifestyle of its people. A city in yellow stone, a sculpture that emerges out of the landscape. But, Jaisalmer is a man-made sculpture of small well-designed parts. The parts that make the harmonious whole are the key to the urban fabric that one sees today in Rajasthan.It is a system of carved elements - stone slabs, beams, columns - pieces put together, the putting together - a carefully pre-planned process. Stone carvers - the artists, the artisans working in groups to deliver the pieces as required, with every piece cut, carved, to make a railing, to turn it to make a junction or to break the monotony of a symmetrical façade.

Stone blocks cut and carved to make an arch, a doorway, a jharokha, brackets that support a circular jharokha, brackets that are radiating out from a point and therefore vary in their sizes, but must be carved to precision to take their place away from the courtyard of the carver's house, in the walls of the palace.

PHOTO GALLERY