Jaipur City

In the early nineteenth century, it was said that Jaipur City had the best skyline in the world. Built in 1727, with grand avenues resplendent in gilded palaces and majestic havelis, the city was the fitting abode of the maharajas and their people. Jaipur was the unblemished conception of the vision of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II and the architectural genius of the Bengali architect Vidhyadhar Bhattacharya. Each building served a distinct utilitarian purpose, and yet was an artistic expression of the cultural propriety of its owners. By every conceivable measure, Jaipur was one of the great cities of its time. Unfortunately, the famed city is now a shadow of its former self. One of India’s great treasures is being lost, perhaps ravaged by the inattention of the very people whose priceless legacy it was.

Jaipur was designed by Vidhyadhar according to the principles of Vaastu, the traditional Indian system of architecture, and is considered by urban planners to be one of the best planned cities. It is set in a grid system, arranged in nine rectangular sectors. A wall with seven gates was built to fortify the city from invaders and wild animals. Every haveli or home was intricately designed with beautiful jharokas (windows), aangans (courtyards), cornices, plinths and pillars. The walls inside and on the outside of homes were embellished with colorful paintings and the ceilings bedecked in intricate mosaics of mirrors.

Today, we can only imagine what this city once was. A hint of its former grandeur can be seen in a mid-19th century canopy fresco painted on one of the turrets of the old fort of Nawalgarh, a stunning photograph of which appears in Jaipur – The Last Destination by Aman Nath and Samar Singh Jodha. The beauty of the city was not lost on the well traveled pardesis, conversant with the great cities of the world of the time. In the year 1890, British civil engineer, Colonel Sir S. S. Jacob, recognized Jaipur for the treasure it was. He commissioned his office to produce over three hundred hand drawn sketches of architectural elements of the city’s best known structures. These incredible printed volumes, Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, are held in various private collections and are in precarious condition. The studio of Gobindram and Oodeyram in Jaipur and various British photographers (Bourne & Shepherd) of the time took some of the best pictures of the city in the period 1880-1920 . The photographs that survive are scatter all around the world in various private collections, libraries (see British Library, Queens Library and the Smithsonian) and unavailable to the general public in India. The Albums of Heritage Foundation is actively engaged in an effort to acquire digital copies of these images from various owners and present a pictorial record of the city on its website.

The Album of Heritage Project emanated from the desire of a few concerned citizens of Jaipur to create a visual record of their historical city before it withered beyond recognition. While the best known sites, such as the Hawa Mahal and Jantar Mantar are well preserved, other parts of the city are falling victims to neglect and urban destruction. It is these secondary sites, outstanding in their own right, that are the focus of this project. Without them, Vidhyadhar’s grand composition of a single great city of unprecedented scale and beauty is precipitously endangered. Today, much of the city itself is gone, but notably not long gone. The urban destruction surely has taken place in our times and on our watch – namely, in the post-independence years of economic development. The goal of the project was to seek out the havelis that survive, but are at risk of annihilation, and commission artists to recreate images of what these structures may have looked like in their pristine state over three hundred years ago. In this manner a visual history of the architecture of the Jaipur city may be preserved.

Some ask how such a devastation of a national treasure was possible with no armies of pillaging invaders to assign blame to. We have to wonder if the generation of our forefathers will be remembered best for architecting one of the greatest cities of the world, and the generation of their sons remembered most for its destruction. A prominent historian has argued that Jaipur citizens, who always relied on the Maharaja for the maintenance of the city, were never adequately prepared to live up to their own civic duty. But ultimately it is we, the citizens of Jaipur, whose rightful legacy and heritage it is, who have to raise their voice. When in the next instance, a three hundred year old jharoka is torn asunder to accommodate a desert cooler or accommodate a chappal store display, and a citizen of the city raises his voice, the Albums of Heritage will have found a voice. If only one more citizen of Jaipur adds her voice to those that say that “something can and should be done”, the Albums of Heritage will have been heard.

Senior Citizen V. D. Mathur