MEDIEVAL INDIA

SHRIYA-2KRUTIKA -11SATEJ-12APOORVA-15VARAD-PRITI-64MAITRI-44RANISHAAKSHAY

INTRODUCTION

The medieval era in the Indian history begins from the decline of Vedic era in the end of 6th century until 12th century.

During the period, a large number of kingdomsflourished in the region. Great cities were developed and prospered.

Religion, military & politics formed the basis of city planning.

The Mauryan and Gupta dynasty in the north, Cholas and Pandyvas in the south, Aghom dynasty of Assam, Rajputs of Rajasthan, Hoslaya dynasty of Karnataka and various other smaller empires existed at the time.

• RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE: The Indian peninsular region majorly followed Hinduism, until the

spread of Buddhism and Jainism and onset of Islam.

Under the patronage of kings, a lot of great temples were built which lead to the development of very particular temple styles and other architectural features in every region.

The temple and other religious building held an important place in their cities.

• MILITARY INFLUENCE : During this period, there was constatnt threats from neighbouring

regions, this lead to extensive measures for security.

It was during this time, that the concept of fortification and defense city walls was used widely.

Great scholar from vedic era and kautilya has provided detailed guide lines for designing.

• POLITICAL INFLUENCE :

The king and the royal court were the seat of administration of kingdoms.

The palaces and forts were architectural marvels and occupied most

prominent location in the city.

INFLUENCES

The vedic era bestowed the world with vastushastra which formed the basis for design and construction for centuries. All the medivial cities followed certain parts from it and kautilya later formulated detailed regulations for defense purpose.

The roads were generally irregular and narrow in the residential region, while the major roads used by kings were wider.

The cities were not made on a regular pattern to create a maze like plan for defense purposes. Roads generally radiated from a religious place or market place.

The RESIDENTIAL PATTERN observed strict hierarchy in terms of distance from the royal fort situated on a mound. They developed along side or along the contours. The royal citadel must have a council hall in the center. It must be surrounded by a number of secondary fortification walls

and moats. The military should be stationed within the fortress as a precaution

against any invasion. Residential quarters should be located towards the north, while the

royal army and military should occupy the east and south sides. • The houses for common mass generally known as

Janabhavanas• The palaces and gorgeous mansions for ruling class named the

Rajbhavanas. • The religious shrines better known as Devabhavanas

CITY PLANNING: SHILPASHASTRA

The Silpasasthras refer to four distinct categories of habitation settlements within the forts and fortified cities

The earlier Silpasasthras do not put more emphasis upon the secular architecture

large artificial tanks are also located in all directions. Some times the step wells are provided in alignment with the fortification walls .

The palaces were provided with guard rooms at various strategic points for guards, equipped with arms, weapons, and well–defended by machinery.

Common residential houses, houses of Kings, special houses-assembly halls and council chambers, animal- sheds and stables, for cows, horses, and elephants.

Prasad's or temples may be classed as extra –ordinary houses as residences for Gods together with their accessory building for worship, ritual, shelter, and the ceremonies of a religious. Samaranganasutradhara; literally means an “architect of human dwellings”.

The towns of this period had walls around them for protection and defense, and were very crowded as a result.

PLANNING

Historical/evolution background• FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT RULE – DO NOT STRETCH THE

IMAGES TO FIT IN THE BOX.

• This format of placing the photos can be changed according to your slide.

• Again the heading and body font remains the same.

• Try to make the .ppt as graphical as possible

Geography/natural resources• FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT RULE – DO NOT STRETCH THE

IMAGES TO FIT IN THE BOX.

• This format of placing the photos can be changed according to your slide.

• Again the heading and body font remains the same.

• Try to make the .ppt as graphical as possible

• SOURCE SHOULD BE MENTIONED

ARCHITECTURE WITH RESPECT TO CONTEXT

• These water and mountain fortifications are best suited to defend populous centers and desert and forest fortifications are habitations in wilderness (atavisthanam).

• Ancient literary works prescribed the rules for laying foundations of the forts and their different essential components and planning.

• Architecturally, the fortifications consist of five components as propounded by the Silpasasthras

1. The Vapra, the built up artificial mound

2. The Parika or a moat with glacis

3. The Prakara or Sala or the fortification wall which is encircled by a Parika

4. The Attalakas (the bastions) provided along the Prakaras.

5. The entrance gates, the Gopura or Pratoli.

The land area which is called jodhpurtoday was only a small portion of thegrand marwar state before independence. Its borders touched

• Bikaner in the North• Jaipur in the North-East• Ajmer Mewara in the East • Sirohi and Palampur in the South cutting

across the Thar of Sindh province and Rann of Kutch

• Jaisalmer State in North-West.

Jodhpur was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, a Rajput chief belonging to the Rathore clan.

Rao Jodha succeeded in conquering the surrounding territory and thus founded a state which came to be known as Marwar, that initially served as the capital of this state however, Jodhpur soon took over that role.

The city was located on the strategic road linking Delhi to Gujarat.

Eventually Rao Jodha decided to shift base to a safer spot and moved from Mandore to Jodhpur which he founded in 1459.

It was a sage who suggested that Jodha establish his settlement on a craggy hill known as the birds nest, which is now called Jodhpur.

Atop this eyrie, Jodha built his stronghold called the Chintamani fort, which was later called Mehrangarh.

This fort was situated 6 miles south of Mandore on a mountain called

Chidiyanath ki Tonk.

The foundation of this fort was laid on 12 May 1459 by Jodha himself on rocky Bhakurcheeria.

This city came to be known as Jodhpur or Jodhana or Jodhaji Ki Dhani and was the capital of the Marwar state for five centuries

The story of Jodhpur begins with Cheeria Nathji, the city's first citizen who had lived here in contemplative isolation for many years when Jodha's masons shattered his tranquil world. Irate, he cursed the Rathore,

"Jodha! May your citadel always suffer a scarcity of water!"

In 1459 there were no water bodies of consequence near Bhakurcheeria, and with the fort under construction the settlement was largely undefended.

The water problem was successfully tackled by Jodha's queen Rani Jasmade who constructed a tank at the base of Mehrangarh, today called Rani Sar, The Queen's Lake.

A year later another of Jodha's six wives built a baori or step-well in the city. However, it was only after the ragged lines of Bhakurcheeria assumed a definite shape of fortification that

people gradually began to migrate to Jodhpur, the new seat of power and potential prosperity in the Thar.

Like other medieval cities of consequence, Jodhpur was originally a walled city too. Jodha's walled Jodhpur had four Pols or gates three of which still stand, though not in very good condition. Jodha's capital was small indeed, for these gates stand almost in the shadow of Bhakurcheeria. The city was located on the strategic road linking Delhi to Gujarat. This enabled it to profit from a flourishing

trade in opium, copper, silk, sandals, date palms and coffee.

EXPANSION OF THE CITY BOUNDARIES The Afghan when announced his intentions of invading

Marwar, the then Rathore ruler, Rao Maldev, was compelled to complete the city's fortifications which once again embraced Jodhpur.

The walls were twenty four thousand feet long, nine feet thick and forty feet high.

He built six gates-Chand Pol, which faced west in honour of the Lunar God's ascent, was the first in that direction.

The other five gates were named after the major Rathore forts they faced.

The gates and walls were simple and functional in design, the walls punctuated with platforms and towers for keeping watch and shooting and were ingeniously interrupted with projections so that no elephant charge was possible upon the gates.

The other five gates were named after the major Rathore forts they faced. The gates and walls were simple and functional in design, the walls punctuated with platforms and towers for

keeping watch and shooting and were ingeniously interrupted with projections so that no elephant charge was possible upon the gates.

The other five gates were named after the major Rathore forts they faced.

The gates and walls were simple and functional in design, the walls

punctuated with platforms and towers for keeping watch and shooting and

were ingeniously interrupted with projections so that no elephant charge

was possible upon the gates.

During 1638 the state became a fief under the MughalEmpire, owing fealty to them while enjoying some internal laws.

During this period, the state furnished the Mughals with several notable generals such as Maharaja Jaswant Singh.

Jodhpur and its people benefited from this exposure to the wider world with new styles of art and architecture made their appearance and opportunities opened up for local tradesmen to make their mark across northern India.

Maldev's walls, formidable as Sher Shah found them, were not able to contain Jodhpur for long and except for the gate in the east and in the west, all the other gates were shifted outwards again in the reigns of the brothers, Maharajas Abhaya Singh and Bakhta Singh (1724-1752).

FORTS AND DEFENCE SYSTEM Kautilya in his Arthasasthra has described a number of forts to be raised on certain places in different localities namely

Sthaniya, Dronamukha, Kharvatika, Sangarahana etc.

On all the four cardinal directions of the boundaries of the kingdom, defensive fortifications against an enemy in war was constructed on grounds naturally best suited for the purpose.• A water fortification , such as an island in the midst of a river, or a plain surrounded by low ground.• A mountainous fortification (parvata) such as a rocky tract or a cave.• A desert fortification(dhanavana) such as a wild tract devoid of water and overgrown with thicket growing in barren soil.• Or a forest fortification (vanadurga) full of wagtail (khajana) water and thickets.

Jaipur lies at a distance of about 200 miles from Delhi, 150 miles from Agra and 84 miles from Ajmer. Capital city of Rajasthan is located amidst the Aravali hill ranges at an altitude of about 430 m above sea level.•Latitude – 26 55’•Longitude – 75 50’

JAIPUR

The three main capitals of the Dhoondhar Region under the Kachchwahas – Dausa, Amber and Jaipur.

Military ReasonsDefence was an important consideration. A site at the South of Amber ensured greater distance from Delhi and also prevented the expansion of the city in that direction. It was clear that the out skirting hill ranges (Nahargarh hills) shaped as a horseshoe would allow the new city to expand only in the South. So this flat site with a basin like shape was chosen. It was an open plain bounded on the north-west and east by hills.

Geographical Reasons•The rocky terrain of Amber restricted expansion.•Jaipur had the potentialities of developing into a city with adequate drinking water due to the presence of a perennial stream nearby and good drainage system. Its rugged hills also ensured a constant supply of building material, which might be required in the times to come

PLANNING OF THE CITY : JAIPUR

The generic plan of a medieval Rajasthani hill town- as in Dausa and Amber

The hill town of Dausa with an organic layout guided by the topography

Amber Town with the Fort on top of the hill and the walled town down the slopes

CONCEPTUAL PRASTARA PLAN

•It is a model of town planning- the first planned city in India. It is based on Hindu systems of town planning and followed the principles prescribed in the Shilpa-shastra, an ancient Indian treatise on architecture .according to this shastra the site should be divided into grids or mandalas rangung from 2x 2 to 10 x 10.•Planned according to the Prastara type of layout, which gives prominence to the cardinal directions.•Thus plan of jaipur is a grid of 3x3 with gridlines being the city’s main streets.

•The town has around it a masonry wall, 25ft. high & 9ft. thick, with eight gates.

•The city’s division into nine wards was also in conformity with the Hindu caste system, which necessitated the segregation of people belonging to different communities and ranks.

South of the main road were four almost equal rectangles. The rectangle opposite the palace has been broken up into two equal and smaller rectangles by the Chaura Rasta.Thus altogether there are now five rectangles on the south of the main road called Chowkris.On the North of the main road from West to East are the Purani Basti, the Palace and Ramchandraji.

ROAD NETWORK

•Jaipur’s road network follows a definite hierarchy. The major east-west and north-south road ,form the sector boundaries and are called Rajmargas they lead to the city gates. These measure 33m. wide.• Next there is a network of 16.5m wide which runs north-south in each sector linking the internal areas of the sectors to the major activity spine.• An orthogonal grid of 8.25mx4.00m roads in the prastara-chessboard pattern further divide sectors into Mohallas.

•Junctions of the main axial streets formed the two square civic open spaces called chaupars (Badi chaupar and Chhoti chaupar). The width of the square chaupars was three times that of the main street.•Historically, the chaupars were outlets for intense social use with water structures connected by underground aqueducts, supplying numerous sources of drinking water at •street level. Presently, the centre of each chaupar has square enclosures with ornamental fountains.•The streets and chowks (central open squares in a town) of the internal chowkries (sectors) with numerous clusters or mohallas were not predetermined; hence show a mix of grid iron and organic pattern, with the basic unit of built form being the rectangular haveli.