JAIPUR

Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan.

It was founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, after whom the city has been named.

Jaipur is also known as Pink City and Paris of India.

The city is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 34 m (111 ft) wide.

The urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded streets. Five quarters wrap around the east, south, and west sides of a central palace quarter, with a sixth quarter immediately to the east.

The Palace quarter encloses a sprawling palace complex, (Hawa Mahal), formal gardens, and a small lake.

Nahargarh Fort, which was the residence of the King Sawai Jai Singh II, crowns the hill in the northwest corner of the old city.

The observatory, Jantar Mantar, is one of the World Heritage Sites.

HISTORY

BRIEF HISTORY In ancient time Jaipur region came under the Matsya

Kingdom. Modern Jaipur was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Ram

Seo Master II of Amber who ruled from 1699–1744. Initially, his capital was Amber, which lies 11 km

from Jaipur. He felt the need of shifting his capital city with the

increase in population and growing scarcity of water. Jaipur came into existence on the classical principles

of Vastu Shastra and similar classical treatises. After waging several battles with the Marathas,

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II wanted to improve the security aspects of the city.

CONSTRUCTION IN CITY The construction of the city started in 1727. It took around four years to complete the major

palaces, roads and square. The city was built following the principles of

Shilpa Shastra, the science of Indian Architecture.

The city was divided into nine blocks, of which two contain the state buildings and palaces, with the remaining seven allotted to the public.

Huge fortification walls were built, along with seven strong gates.

For the time, architecture of the town was very advanced, and certainly the best in the Indian subcontinent.

In 1876, during the regime of Sawai Ram Singh, the whole city was painted pink to welcome Edward, Prince of Wales.

Today, avenues remain painted in pink, giving Jaipur a distinctive .

The city's wide boulevards were paved and lit.

CLIMATE Jaipur has a hot semi-arid climate . Rainfall :650 millimetres of rainfall annually Most rains occur in the monsoon months between

June and September. Temperatures remain relatively high throughout the

year, with the summer months of April to early July having average daily temperatures of around 30 °C.

During the monsoon there are frequent, heavy rains and thunderstorms, but flooding is not common.

The winter months of November to February are mild and pleasant, with average temperatures ranging from 15–18 °C (59–64 °F) and with little or no humidity.

LOCATION Jaipur is the headquarters of Jaipur district which

is situated in the eastern part of Rajasthan. It is located at 26.92°N 75.82°E. It has an average

elevation of 431 metres. The major rivers passing through the Jaipur

district are Banas and Banganga. Ground water resources to the extent of about

28.65 million cubic meters are available in the district.

Although serious drought is rare, poor water management and exploitation of groundwater with extensive tube-well systems threatens agriculture in some areas.

ARCHITECTURE The city was planned according to Indian Vastu Shastra (Vedic

Planning for the comfort and prosperity of the citizens). The directions of each street and market are East to West

and North to South. The Eastern gate is called Suraj (Sun) Pol, while the Western

gate is called Chand (Moon) Pol. There are three gates facing East, West, and North and a

Northern gate (known as Zorawar Singh gate) which faces toward the ancestral capital of Amber, while many gates face South.

The city was originally within walls, though it has expanded outside of the original walls over time.

The gates used to be closed at sunset and opened at sunrise. The town of Jaipur is built in the form of an eight-part Mandala known as the 'Pithapada'.

ORNAMENTATION• Ornamentation had always been a part of the

state’s architectural heritage, now it became much more opulent.

• The private wings of the family also extended their entertainment areas. Since defence was no longer a primary concern, larger, more ornamental windows were built to over look the streets or courtyards outside these wings.

• Gardens were no longer planned within the internal courtyards only, but were added to the external vistas, and water, a basic feature of Mughal palaces and gardens, was utilized in a similar fashion, in canals and fountains.

DESIGN GENERATORS

• BASIC FEATURES:

Courtyard to support ventilation. Big windowds with low sill. High ceiling to increase comfort levels.

• MATERIALS:

stone the basic construction unit - lime is used as binding material

Big stone pillars used in elevation. Complete rubble masonary. Kota stone flooring.

TYPICAL ZONING IN A HIGH PROFILE HOUSE

The right half is the public zone or men’s area, which belonged to the head of the family.

The left half is the private zone with study, bedrooms specially for the ladies, kitchen and dinning.

ZONING AND SPACE TYPEPRIVATE SPACE PUBLIC SPACES

GROUND FLOOR PLAN FIRST FLOOR PLAN

DESIGNING AND PLANNING:•The house stands well in approxmately square plan with nearly 55% of carpet area.

•The plan well facilitates the need of the family and the customs they follow.

FEATURES:-Courtyard house.

-Mirror image along central axis into halves.

-Two flights of stair case.

-First floor construction in three parts.

-Bedroom on southwest. 

-Pooja & study in north.

-Guest room & servants quarter in east.

ELEVATION:• As the building was built in the colonial period it

reflects the elements of influence like the pillars & the arches.

• The façade is colored white blended with Jaipur style.

SECTIONS

Arches with stone columns and brackets with jaipuri carved jalis

Big windows with ventilators.

First Floor Terrace

Typical Staircase in Jaipur

The courtyard is the core area of the house hold activities with circumferential verandah and aid in light and ventilation.

Ventilators in a Room

There are large windows with low sill for ventilation is also typical to hot climate.

As told the cornice are painted with flowers and leaves design in vegetable and natural colors.

The rooms in the façade are chamfered at 45, and forms two octagonal volumes vertically, which is unique to Jaipur and can be seen in many buildings of the old city as in Hawa Mahal.

CLIMATE AND UTILITY PATTERN:• The north is along the diagonal.• It is a south west facing with maximum

fenestrations.• North east is guarded by biulding beyond and

courtyard in north east.

There is sequence of spaces being used with changing solar angle and seasons

FOUNDATION AND ROOM SIZE RESTRICTIONS:

• As the roof was made up of stone slab so the room size was restricted to 10’, where ever required to increase the size of room iron girders were used as beams.  

Foundation 12’ deep, of stone slabs resting on walls.

HAVELIS OF JAIPUR• Haveli, a multistoried building with rooms facing an inner

courtyard or a system of courtyards (sometimes as many as seven). They are generally built of red sandstone or brick with lime mortar.

• The haveli principle was developed to contend with the extreme climate and to satisfy perse sociocultural requirements.

• Together, the havelis are accessible only from narrow alleys, and they form densely built residential complexes.

• Such a complex is known as a mohalla; in addition to dwellings, it contains a number of artisan workshops, a temple or two and perhaps a mosque.

• Each mohalla typically accommodates about 40 to 50 residential plots, which makes them a cohesive social and cultural subgroup.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HAVELIS

• Courtyard planning also helped to keep the interior private, but the need to separate men and women required more complicated arrangements.

• Where possible, women were kept to their own inner part of the house, the zenana.

• This might be a rear courtyard, or an upper floor. High walls, with pierced screens (jalis), for air and limited views, helped maintain privacy, along with the careful use of bamboo blinds (chiks) and curtains (pardas).

• Havelis were designed so as to temper the worst excess of the hot climate, with a range of spaces, from external courts (chowks) and terraces to verandas to inner rooms, for use at different times of day and in different seasons.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HAVELIS

• Jharokhas, bay windows bracketed out from the walls and often filled with jalis, helped those sitting behind to catch any possible breeze, as well as to glimpse the world beyond.

• Bracketed access balconies and overhanging upper stories not only maximised space, but provided welcome shading.

• Besides these practical considerations, the havelis played an important role as status symbols, so size and richness of decoration were highly valued.

• Most of the rooms in the haveli were required to be flexible in their use, with soft furnishings.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HAVELIS

• Every haveli had a grand reception room for receiving formal visitors and for festival gatherings or family celebrations.

• Some had a further reception room in the zenana, and some had screened viewing windows to allow the women to watch certain of the men’s festivities.

• Smaller reception rooms were required for business offices, and raised platforms (chabutras) served as the inevitable waiting room.

TRADITIONAL HOUSE IN CHANDPOLE

Jaipur

FEATURES Built in the early 1900s as the city house for

the kalwar family, the house bears distinct signs of that era.

Being a royal family that had a fort and a village named after them, the city house had to be grand as well as big to accommodate the extended family.

The kalwar house is very cleverly divided into two main zones:

The public area (ground floor) The private or family activity areas (upper

floors).

This particular kind of zoning was basically done for two major reasons:

Keeping professional and private lives separate.

Keeping the women folk safe and secure and away from the public eye. This was done according to the cultural mindset of the people at those times.

• While the rest of the houses don’t have platforms in front of them, neither do they have a entry with so much grandeur.

• Even though the housetype is courtyard type but the ground floor is not connected in the courtyard.

• That is, the courtyard is on the first floor. Thus there was interaction between the first and the second floor through the courtyrad while the ground floor was completely cut off due to the earlier reasons.

• The house is decorated with numerous beautiful jaalis, carvings, big halls with fireplaces, etc.

• There are many rooms on each floor for the accomodation of visitors and extended family members, also to show off their royal status.

• The overall look of the kalwar house is thus one of luxury and grandeur.

FEATURES

ELEVATION

• The impressive façade of the kalwar house further marks the importance of the occupants.

• The numerous windows and jaalis present in the upper floors acted like a purdah for the women as well as a statement of importance.

• The ground floor is mostly public- as the area was meant for business and work related interactions.

• The upper floors are predominantly private as the women were scarcely allowed to come out in the open and interact.

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

AMER PALACE

AMER FORT • Amer Fort) is located in Amer (a town with an area

of 4 square kilometres(1.5 sq mi), 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Jaipur, Rajasthan state, India.

• It is one of the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area, located high on a hill.Amer Fort was made by Meenas king Raja Alan Singh Chanda later occupied by Kachhawa rajput .

• CHARACTERISTIC:• Amer Fort is known for its artistic style, blending

both Hindu Rajput elements. • The fort with its large ramparts, series of gates and

cobbled paths, overlooks the Maota Lake, at its forefront.

• The aesthetic ambiance of this formidable fort is seen within its walls on a four level (each with a courtyard) layout plan in well turned out opulent palace complex built with red sandstone and marble consisting of the Diwan-e-Aam or the "Hall of Public Audience", the Diwan-e-Khas or the "Hall of Private Audience", the Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace) or Jai Mandir, and the Sukh Niwas where a cool climate is artificially created by winds that blow over the water cascade within the palace.

• The Amer Fort is also popularly known as the Amer Palace.

• The palace was lived in by the Rajput Maharajas and their families. At the entrance to the palace near the fort’s Ganesh Gate, there is also a temple dedicated to Sila Devi, a goddess of the Chaitanya cult which was gifted to Raja Mansingh when he had defeated the Raja of Jessore in Bengal (Jessore is now in Bangladesh) in 1604.

• This fort along with Jaigarh Fort located immediately above on the Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles) of same Aravalli range of hills, is considered as one complex, as the two are well connected by subterranean passage.

• This passage was meant as an escape route in times of war for the royal family members and others in the Amer Fort to shift to the more redoubtable Jaigarh Fort.

• Constructed of red lime sand stone it stills stands as a historic monument.

HISTORY • Amer was known in the medieval period as

Dhundar (meaning attributed to a sacrificial mount in the western frontiers) and ruled by the Kachwahas from the 11th century onwards – between 1037 and 1727 AD, till the capital was moved from Amer to Jaipur.The history of Amer is indelibly linked to these rulers as they founded their empire at Amer.

• Earlier to the Kachwahas, Amer was a small place built by the Meenas in the town they consecrated to Amba, the Mother Goddess, whom they knew as `Gatta Rani' or `Queen of the Pass’.

• The structure was fully expanded by his descendant, Jai Singh I. Even later, Amer Fort underwent improvements and additions by successive rulers over the next 150 years, until the Kachwahas shifted their capital to Jaipur during the time of Sawai Jai Singh II, in 1727.

• Many of the ancient structures of the medieval period of the Meenas have been either destroyed or replaced.

• However, the 16th century impressive edifice of the Amer Fort and the palace complex within it built by the Rajput Maharajas are very well preserved.

LAYOUT• The fort is divided into four main sections each

with its own entry gate and courtyard.• Main entry is through the Suraj Pole (Sun Gate)

which leads to Jaleb Chowk, which is the first main courtyard.

• This was the place where armies would hold victory parades with their war bounty on their return from battles, which were also witnessed by the Royal family women folk through the latticed windows.

• This gate was built exclusively and was provided with guards as it was the main entry into the palace.

• It faced the eastern direction towards the rising Sun and hence the name.

•

LAYOUT• Royal cavalcades and dignitaries entered the palace

through this gate.

• Jaleb Chowk is an Arabic usage, which means a place for soldiers to assemble. This is one of the four courtyards of the Amer Palace, which was built during Sawai Jai Singh’s reign (1693–1743 AD).

• The Maharaja's personal bodyguards held parades here under the command of the army commander or Fauj Bakshi. The Maharaja used to inspect the Guards contingent.

• At this location, the horse stables were also located where its upper level rooms were occupied by the guards.

1. Suraj Pol (Victory) Gate 4. Diwan-i-Am 7. Suk Mandir2. Jaleb Chowk 5. Jas/Jai Mandir 8. Baradari3. Shiva Devi Temple 6. Ganesh Pol 9. Zenana

DESIGN

FIRST COURTYARD:• An impressive stairway from the Jaleb Chowk

leads into the main palace grounds. • Here, at the entrance itself to the right of the

stairway steps is the Sila Devi temple where the Rajput Maharajas offered worship, starting with Maharaja Mansingh in the 16th century till the 1980s, when the animal sacrifice ritual (sacrifice of a buffalo) practiced by the royalty was stopped .

• Ganesh Pol or the Ganesh Gate, named after the Hindu godLord Ganesh who removes all obstacles in life, is the entryinto the private palaces of the Maharajas.

DESIGN• It is a three level structure which has many frescoes and was

also built at the orders of the Mirza Raja Jai Singh(1621–1627) and leads to the private quarters of the royal family.

• Above this gate is the Suhag Mandir where ladies of the royal family used to watch through the latticed windows functions held in the Diwan-i-Am. Sila Devi templeOn the right side of the Jaleb Chowk there is a small but an elegant temple called the Sila Devi (an incarnation of Kali or Durga) temple.

• The entrance to the temple is through silver sheet covered double leaf gate with raised relief. The main deity inside the sanctum is flanked by two lions made in silver.

AMER FORT

Second courtyard • The second courtyard, up the main stairway of

the first level courtyard, houses the Diwan-i-Am or the Public Audience Hall. Built with double row of columns, the Diwan-i-Am is a raised platform with 27 colonnades, each of which is mounted with elephant shaped capital with galleries above it. As the name suggests, the Raja held audience here to hear and receive petitions from the public.

AMER FORT THIRD COURTYARD • The third courtyard is where the private

quarters of the Maharaja, his family and attendants were built.

• This courtyard is entered through the Ganesh Pol or Ganesh Gate, which is embellished with mosaics and sculptures.

• The court yard has two buildings, one opposite to the other, separated by a garden laid in the fashion of the Mughal Gardens.

• The building to the left of the entrance gate is called the Jai Mandir, which is exquisitely beautified with glass inlaid panels and multi-mirrored ceilings.

• The mirrors are of convex shape and designed with coloured foil and paint which would glitter bright under candle nights at the time it was in use.

• Also known as Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace), the mirror mosaics and coloured glasses were "glittering jewel box in flickering candle light".

THIRD COURTYARD• However, most of this work was allowed to deteriorate

during the period 1970–80 but has since then been subjected to a process of restoration and renovation. Carved marble relief panels are placed on walls around hall. The hall provides enchanting vistas of the Maota Lake.

• The other building seen in the court yard is opposite to the Jai Mandir and is known as the Sukh Niwas or Sukh Mahal (Hall of Pleasure). This hall is approached through a sandalwood door with marble inlay work with perforations. A piped water supply flows through an open channel that runs through this edifice keeping the environs cool, as in an air conditioned environment. The water from this channel was led into the garden.

• Magic flower : A particular attraction here is the “magic flower” fresco carved in marble at the base of one of the pillars around the mirror palace which is identified by two hovering butterflies depiction; the flower has seven unique designs of fish tail, a lotus, a hooded cobra, an elephant trunk, a lion’s tail, a cob of corn and a scorpion, each is viewed by a particular way of partial

1. Suraj Pol (Victory) Gate 4. Diwan-i-Am 7. Suk Mandir2. Jaleb Chowk 5. Jas/Jai Mandir 8. Baradari3. Shiva Devi Temple 6. Ganesh Pol 9. Zenana

AMER FORT FOURTH COURTYARD

• The fourth courtyard is where the Zenana (Royal family women, including concubines or mistresses) lived. This courtyard has many living rooms where the queens resided and who were visited by the king at his choice without being found out as to which queen he was visiting, as all the rooms open into a common corridor.

• The queen mothers and the Raja’s consorts lived in this part of the palace in Zanani Deorhi, which also housed their female attendants. The queen mothers took deep interest in building temples in Amer town.

• Jas Mandir, a hall of private audience with floral glass inlays and alabaster relief work is also located in this courtyard