To restore a building is not to preserve or rebuild it.

It is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which

could never have existed at any given time.

– Violette Leduc

 

NEARLY three hundred years after it was constructed, the elegant Jal Mahal and the surrounding Mansagar Lake, one of the most iconic monuments and natural settings of Jaipur, experienced a comprehensive restoration, renovation and revitalization process beginning in 2007 which continues until today. The project has revealed the many levels of art, craft and garden design that remain alive and well in Jaipur and could well serve as a model for how to approach other endangered monuments across the country. It’s also a trenchant reminder that there still exists an extraordinarily deep resource of master artists and artisans, ustads in every sense of the word, both within the walled city and the surrounding hinterland.

This article explores how projects like the Jal Mahal can interact with these great masters and, in the process, help keep alive these precious art and craft traditions and techniques.

An important document from the Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner, where most of the royal documents and administrative records from the various states of Rajasthan are stored, lists the construction of the Jal Mahal in the year Vikram Samvat 1790, corresponding to 1733 CE. This is only a few years after Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur, decided to shift his ancestral capital from Amber, protected by mountains on all sides, onto the open plain a few kilometres to the West. Such a confident, even audacious move, by a Rajput ruler whose family had been feudatory to the Mughal emperors based in Delhi and Agra for more than one hundred and fifty years, was only possible because the Mughal Empire, following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, had gradually declined in power as one weak ruler after the other succeeded to the throne.

From the start, Jaipur was an extraordinary experiment in town planning laid out in an intersecting grid of wide avenues lined with temples, mosques, haveli-style residences, workshops, bazaars and stepwells. The focal point of the town was the magnificent City Palace, the residence of the royal family which was connected in the same grounds to the temple of Shri Govind Dev Ji, the patron deity of the city, and remains until today the spiritual centre of Jaipur. Sawai Jai Singh II was determined that his new city should become a dynamic and prosperous commercial centre that would exert a strong political and cultural influence across the region.

 

Merchants, bankers, traders and leading art and craft guilds were invited to settle in the new city giving them special tax dispensations and gifts of land on which they could build their havelis, traditional houses arranged around a central courtyard, and to set up karkhana/ateliers and shops often all under the same roof. Neighbourhood mohallas were laid out within the city where specific traditional arts and crafts could be practiced such as the beating of gold leaf, the polishing and shaping of semi-precious and precious stone, metalwork, kite making, moulding bangles out of lac and the carving of marble images for worship in temples and homes. In many of the original mohallas of Jaipur, these precious arts and crafts, are still practiced today.

When Nader Shah invaded Delhi in 1739 further weakening the Mughal Empire, imperial patronage which was so crucial to the commissioning of luxury arts and crafts declined even further, forcing master artists and artisans to find employment in other courts of North India. Many came to the new city of Jaipur to make their fortune, bringing with them remarkable artistry, knowledge and technical skills stretching back generations. The story of the Tirandaz family, one of many in the Pink City, reflects the dynamic cultural and artistic creativity which characterized Jaipur from the beginning.

As the name suggests, the family were specialists in the fashioning of arms and armour. They can trace their ancestry back to the early 16th century in Afghanistan when they decided to migrate and seek their fortune in the Mughal courts of Fatehpur Sikri and Agra where they worked in the Silehkhana or Imperial Armoury. Around 1750, they shifted to Jaipur where they served in the Royal Silehkhana of the City Palace until the state army was disbanded after Independence. Some members of the family began making souvenir daggers and swords for the tourist trade and others who had spent their childhood painting bows, arrows and shields with traditional designs, turned to miniature painting. Art is in their blood and in most part, they have weathered the change and been successful and feel secure enough to pass on their traditional skills to the next generation.

 

The engine that drove the artistic and cultural life of the city was the Jaipur City Palace with its legendary thirty-six karkhanas continued on from the court at Amber although more were added over time. These were royal workshops or administrative departments which coordinated various activities of the palace and oversaw the production of luxury goods and commodities required for the personal use of the royal family, the daily running of the palace as well as for the performance of state and religious ceremonies. The taste of the royal family was also important in determining what was fashionable outside the walls of the palace, and as tastes changed and new technologies emerged, such as photography in the 19th century, these were also brought under the umbrella of the karkhana administration.

 

The accompanying list of royal karkhanas which were known to have been active at Amber and in the Jaipur City Palace from the 17th through the mid-20th century has been compiled after consulting state documents and archives and talking to the old artists, artisans and court retainers who still remember the period when the majority of the City Palace karkhanas were still functioning. The impact of the royal karkhanas on the daily life of the city was so significant that the people of Jaipur even had a saying that a real holiday could only take place when ‘the chattis karkhanas were closed’.

The Jaipur City Palace was the engine which drove the arts and crafts of the city. Royal patronage was important but so was that of the nobility of Jaipur state, the thakurs and rawals, hereditary feudals, who emulated the magnificence of the Jaipur court in their own grand ancestral forts and palaces as well as in their haveli-style mansions in Jaipur, often surrounded by elaborate gardens, where they stayed when summoned by the maharaja to attend state ceremonies held in the Durbar Hall of the City Palace.

With this rich heritage in mind, the team of expert conservationists, restorers and art historians who worked on the Jal Mahal project turned to the back lanes of the mohallas of Jaipur to source master artists and artisans who could assist with the restoration of the Jal Mahal monument. More than 300 skilled masters were recruited for the project bringing with them a virtual encyclopedia of Jaipuri arts and crafts including wood and stone carving, mirror work, polished araish wall finishes, gilded kalash spires for the tops of the tibari and chatri pavilions, miniaturists and fresco painters, metal workers, boat makers, carpenters, designers and ornamentalists, the mixing of traditional plaster and mortar for wall repair and building construction, masters in the beating and application of gold leaf, gardeners, water technologists, stone cutters, masons and polishers, hand-blown glass lamps and lighting experts, bamboo chick makers, perfumers and masters of block printing among others.

Throughout the project, the team who supervised the restoration drew inspiration and guidance from the following thoughts on how to maintain cultural heritage, revive tradition and work with ustad masters.

1. Develop a perspective and an aesthetic approach that is deeply grounded in the local culture.

2. Always remain sensitive to the surrounding natural beauty and the broader environmental concerns of the project.

3. Try and source the most interesting and beautiful raw materials available locally.

4. Find the best ustad masters and work closely and sensitively with them.

5. Study and document local methods of construction and ornamentation.

6. Search for the enduring strengths and iconic images of the classical tradition, and remember always that the classical and the modern are not mutually exclusive options.

7. Reconcile history with design.

8. Aim for the work to last and penetrate time making sure it has substance, quality and maturity.

9. Let the artisans create from within themselves whenever possible, not just slavishly copy the designs given to them. Be aware that they are able to address complex design problems with ingenious simplicity. Listen to them.

10. Reinterpret the classical tradition with freshness and strength in ways that appeal and resonate with our own contemporary sensibilities.

 

One of the most important aspects of the project was the recreation of a royal Rajput garden on the upper terrace of the Jal Mahal. In order to make sure that the ‘footprint’ of an earlier garden was not there, excavations were made into the central earthen core of the monument down to a depth of two metres. No remains of an earlier garden were found which allowed the designers to create something new but based on local traditions of garden design.

List of Jaipur City Palace Karkhanas (17th-20th centuries) (1) Kapad-Dwara: This comprehensive department has four divisions which covered royal clothing and costume as well as the private treasury of the maharaja and royal family – (a) Kirkiraqkhana: Woolen clothes section. (b) Zarzarkhana: Embroidery. (c) Toshakhana: Wardrobe. (d) Khazana Behla: Private treasury. (2) Pothikhana: Library and manuscripts. (3) Surakhana: Art of the book including miniature painting and illumination. (4) Khayalkhana: Puppetry. (5) Silehkhana and Topkhana: Armoury and cannon casting. (6) Farrashkhana: Tents, carpets, floor coverings and portable furniture. (7) Palkikhana: Palanquins and sedan chairs. (8) Filkhana: Elephant stables. (9) Buggikhana: Horse-drawn carriages and later European cars. (10) Shutarkhana: Camel stables. (11) Rathkhana: Chariots. (12) Tabela or Atish: Horse stables. (13) Gwalera or Gokhana: Dairy and possibly goshala. (14) Shikarkhana and Cheetahkhana: Royal hunts which also included the training of cheetahs for hunting and other wild animals for royal entertainment and public performances. (15) Rasowara: Royal kitchens. (16) Modikhana or Ambar: Provisions and stores. (17) Taterkhana: Distribution of hot and cold water to the palaces. (18) Tambulkhana: Betel leaves and vessels associated with the ceremony. (19) Aukhadkhana: Apothecary and possibly distillery. (20) Imarat: Architecture/building construction. (21) Mistrikhana: Atelier of master artisans including carpenters, metalworkers and stone carvers. (22) Nakkarkhana, Naubatkhana or Roshan Chowki: Platform above large gateways where ceremonial salutes with shehnai, drums and other instruments were performed. (23) Gunijankhana: Performing arts: music, singing, dance, theatricals and poetry recitals. (24) Karkhana Punya: Charities, donations and alms-giving. (25) Bagayat: Royal gardens and irrigated and cultivated land. (26) Khabar: Intelligence gathering. (27) Tarkashi and Gota-Kinari: Silver, gold and metal wire inlay into wood and gold and silver embellishment on textiles. (28) Khushbukhana: Perfumery. (29) Nakhas: Purchasing of horses, camels and livestock for the palace. (30) Mashalkhana: Torches and illuminations. (31) Patangkhana: Kites. (32) Patarkhana: Most likely hand-made paper for painting and manuscripts. (33) Rangkhana: Paints, dyes and colours. (34) Hammam: Hot and cold baths and lavatories. (35) Asbihkhana: Prayer room. (36) Mevakhana: Purchase of fresh and dried fruits. (37) Rikabkhana or Jinkhana: Saddlery. (38) Ibtiyakhana: General purchase department. (39) Awaherkhana: Jewellery department. (40) Chirakhkhana: Lamp house. (41) Daftarkhana: Administrative offices. (42) Koshkhana: Royal treasury. (43) Abdarkhana or panera: Storage and supply of drinking water to the palace and the city. (44) Bilorkhana or Langarkhana: Distribution of food to the poor and needy. (45) Chapakhana: Printing press. (46) Tasvirkhana: Photography and development laboratory.

Jaipur has a rich history of garden design starting with the royal gardens of Amber and Nahargarh which have a strong Persian and Mughal influence in their char bagh layout divided into four quadrants. The love of gardens dotted with shaded chatris and pavilions and cooled by terraced water channels and fountains was also continued in the new city of Jaipur. Inspiration for the Chameli Bagh, as the garden at Jal Mahal was christened, came from the study of the design and layout of several major gardens spread out across the city. These included the ‘valley of gardens’ at Ghat ki Ghuni on the outskirts of the city lined along the Jaipur-Agra road where the nobles of Jaipur escaped from the heat of the city to relax and enjoy the cool evening air.

Two of the best preserved gardens here are the Rani Sisodia palace and garden complex and the Vidyadhar ka Bagh dramatically nestled against the mountains. An important and elegant 19th century garden can be found inside the Ayurvedic College on Amer Road which is rapidly being encroached upon and requires immediate protection. A major walled garden with substantial interior pavilions is located in the northwest part of the city and remains in good condition due to the fact that it houses the headquarters of the army.

From the work done on the conservation and renovation of the Jal Mahal, several conclusions can be drawn:

1. From the beginning, the Jal Mahal project was conceived as a public/ private partnership. Like all ambitious and ground-breaking projects, the project has experienced ups and down which hopefully can be resolved in the near future. However, what is clear is that when there is a creative collaboration between the government of Rajasthan and dedicated members of the private sector under the guidance of professional conservationists and scholars, remarkable results can be achieved. The approach taken in the Jal Mahal project should be explored further and seriously studied as a model for the conservation, renovation and revitalization of other endangered historic sites and monuments across the state.

2. Extending sensitive patronage to artists and craftspersons from both the public and private sectors can be one of the keys to the survival and revival of these precious art and craft traditions. This should be strongly encouraged at all levels.

3. Projects like Jal Mahal not only preserve endangered buildings, rejunvenate art and craft traditions, but also revitalize the surrounding area turning it into an oasis of positive development which benefits the people of Jaipur and, in the process, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually from all parts of the country and abroad.