Havelis - II

Bikaner is situated in the north-west of Rajasthan and it can legitimately boast of some

unique architectural marvels of India. It has an ancient fort unparallel in its splendour.

It can boast of many attractions for anyone interested in culture or art or architecture.

Apart from Junagarh fort, Jain temples like Bhandasar temple, Neminath temple, Adeshwar

temple are simply adorable. Lallgarh Palace is built in Victorian style but its stone and

wood carvings are typical combinations of Mughal and Rajput art developing a typical

bikaneri flavor of architecture. Carvings find best expression in Bikaneri havelies.

Havelies are marvels in home architecture. Such havelies or residential houses do not exist

anywhere in the world. They are the pride of Bikaner, says great author and philosopher,

Aldous Huxley. They are situated in narrow lanes in the old city. Splendid abodes can be

seen in the midst of streets that look serpent like and peaceful. They are marvelous

mansions made of red stone and stand magnificently.

They stand spreading magic around. Their jharokhas (casements), entrances, latticed

windows, divankhanas, Gumaharias or basements, are exotic. The -red stone gives a look that

is like a red carpet forcing one to look and admire. The havelies were the residence of

wealthy merchants who had a fancy for beauty and art. Nine months in a year they lived in

far off lands to earn money and then came to this city to rest and enjoy and build havelies

and live in them, show their wealth and status, their love , fascination for architecture

and colours. The oldest haveli is perhaps four hundred years old but most of them are

hundred years in age or around it. That is why they indicate a pattern of their own. They

charm each and everyone who happens to see them. Their exterior is dominated by the

jharokhas at once charming and capable of keeping spellbound. The jharokhas are exquisite

carvings made alive by artistic creaters. They marvel in the beauty that lies in them and

not merely in beholder's eyes. They are generally six feet long and three feet wide proving

that small is beautiful.

Smaller they are, the more beautiful they are likely to look. They form the most

picturesque part of the haveli face. They also indicate the love for nature these creators

of havelies had. leaves and flowers decorate every jharokha giving it an astonishing and

pleasant natural effect. Jali or stone with small holes create unbounded beauty.

The most famous cluster of havelies is the Rampuria Group of Havelies. Built by Balujee

Chalva under instructions from Rampuria family its carvings show surprising skill. Rampuria

havelis are many in number and are big in size and being located at nearly adjacent

positions make great impression almost like the great havelies of Jaisalmer, the Patwa

havelies. Their appears an undeniable similarity between the two havelies perhaps because

both of them were mainly conceived and built by Vishwakarma clan. The interior scheme of

decoration of the two havelies is very different. The Patwa havelies were built earlier and

emphasized on exterior decoration and minute carvings on jaisalmeri stone while the

Rampuria havelies were built of dulmera stone. The jaisalmeri stone is yellow in colour.

The dulmera stone is red.

Both are soft redstones. Exquisite and minute carvings come naturally to both the stones.

The patwa havelies have more carvings in the interior also. The Rampuria havelies are

decorated with golden work of the highest quality. They have dankhanas (Drawing Room) which

take us to the mughal and rajput period of amalgamation and synthesis. They have Victorian

influence in abundance. The wood carvings in Rampuria Havelies are more exquisite and are

far more beautiful. Another distinguishing feature is that Rampuria havelies have diverse

exterior and each haveli has a pattern of its own. The Patwa havelies have more intricate

carvings but the Rampuria havelies show a more varied face.

The most beautiful carvings on the face side are those of Rikhji Bagri ki Haveli situated

near mohta chowk. Bikaner. It is very little known and is small in size. It is a poetry

written on stone. Such artistic exterior is unparallel and perhaps does not exist anywhere

on earth. The other and much better known havelies including the great patwa havelies fade

when the carving of this haveli show off the minutest details in a most delicate manner. Be

it a peacock, an elephant, a flower or a pot, every thing is natural. living and just

enchanting. The more you look at them the more joy you get out of the view. It is a beauty

for ever, eternal and irreplaceable. If dreams are cast in stones or if stones can sing

they would be like the exterior of Rikhji bagri ki haveli. Arched entrances and captivating

jharokhas look more beautiful because of the flowers embossed on them which are more

beautiful than the real flowers.

Another cluster of havelies which attracts the onlooker is the cluster of Daga chowk

havelies. There are a number of havelies in daga chowk. A salient feature of these havelies

is the fact that they are scattered like the scattered clouds. They are adorned with

carvings of flowers. The rose is there with its freshness. The lotus flowers are there with

their charm, Other flowers are there with their leaves. The walls are all flowery and take

the viewer in a world of nature and its infinite spelendours. The carvings on jharokhas are

simply artistic to say the least. They are exquisite. They look like projected pieces of

priceless jewelery. They take the viewer to a cocktail of architectural excellence. Daga

family had a fascination for deevankhanas. The deewankhanas or drawing rooms gave prestige

to the family. They were decorated with taste and were their show cases. They were a

treasury of art and a matter of their pride. They preserved valuable murals also. They

exhibited old and contemporary faces of Indian painting. They also demonstrate the

increasing English influence.

The European influence is more evident in the haveli of Bhairondan Kothari. Its exterior is

not so attractive or artistic but once you enter. it you are just enamored with its charm,

it excels in marble work. It imparts fascinating beauty to its floors. Marble tiles are

studded in the floors of the haveli. Marble magic is evident in every corner. It is the

beautiful poem of Kamayani written by soft marble stone. Its marble work is unmatched and

can match marble work any where in any part of world. It is this consideration which has

forced some to include this haveli as one of the most beautiful houses of India, one of the

fifty most beautiful.

Another remarkable haveli near this haveli is the haveli of Poonam Chand Kothari. Its

exterior carvings are as beautiful as those of Daga havelies. Its wood work is better.

Havelies of near by dhadhon ka chowck are also beautiful. Chandmal dhadha haveli is very

beautiful in the eyes of some critics. Mohta havelies in Banthia chowk are all important.

Havelies in mava patti and kothari Mohalla and those in dammani chowk deserve special

mention.

In every haveli the dankhana is the most adored room and most prestigious too. The

guests are received here. It is significant to mention that every haveli has two

dankhanas. One for men and another for women and these are situated at the main entrance of

the haveli. There may a few havelies who are not big enough to accommodate two dankhanas.

seperate space is kept in the same dankhana for ladies and gents.

A dankhana generally has six pillars. Every pillar has a glass mirror with gold frame. This

frame is engrossed with flowers mostly roses. The flowers of various colours illuminate the

diwankhana and add to its beauty. The flowers and the leaves adore all walls of the

diwankhnna. They may be curved on stone or may be painted, they give illusion of nature and

natural beauty. Then every diwankhana has paintings of gods and goddesses. Lord Ganesh and

Laxmi and Parwati are the most prevalent among them. Lord Shiv and Bhagwan Ram and Lord

Krishana are the other Godswho generally decorate this room. Taken as a whole, the havelis

contain a number of paintings of Radha Krishan and Ram Sita also. Apart from religious

deities and flowers, the leaves fruits like apples, grapes, oranges and bananas also find

place in most havelies in Bikaner. They had great fascination for peacocks and parrots and

these are shown hovering over the fruits. The ceiling of a diwankhana was always beautiful

and artistic. It was a wooden ceiling generally and was embossed with flowers with six or

eight leaves. Some of the havelies have golden work on the ceiling and some like the

Bhairnodan kothari haveli and Rampuria havelis excel in this type of work. The owners of

the havelies were mostly religious people and every haveli has a temple.

Every haveli has at least a second story. A mol or mahal is the most beautiful and artistic

portion of this part and is normally adorned with golden work of carving . Mahal is the

symbol of status. lt is rich in carvings. Golden carvings are the ardour of the mahal

because it is here that dancing girls used to give performances in mahfils (parties). The

richer the mahfil.the richer is the owner in the eyes of the society. The paintings of

Indra ,the king of heaven sitting on his throne or his elephant with beautiful fairies

dancing .enhances the beauty of the mol linking it with Hindu fables and stories and myths.

Some mols contain valuable master pieces of art. Most of the rooms in Sampatlal Agarwal

haveli are adorned with large priceless paintings of Raja Ravi Verma. They are as old as

eighteen hundred ninety four. Large courtyards, sals, and oras turn these ancient houses

into depositors of history, art and architecture in their own small way. Their another

feature is the impressive beautifully painted ceilings. Some havelis have ceilings which

instantly attract the viewer, earn his appreciation, amaze him, delight him. Every haveli

consists of a number of rooms, big and small, made for special purposes and suitable for

those purposes. A sal is a rather half open multi purpose room for internal use of the

family. An ora is a small bed room again for the members of the family. It is also a box

room. Barsali is the passage from enterce to the interior portion of the haveli. It is

follwed by Angan or chowk. Angan is surrounded by kitchen, Pujaghar, and water store or

parindha. Almost every haveli has more than one stories. Sometimes five to six but normally

three.

An interesting feature of havelies is that there are no urinals in them. This was because

water was a scarce commodity and it was to he utilized with utmost care andnot a drop of it

was to be wasted. There were no flush latrines. Purity was another consideration. The

pujaghar or temple was to be as away from the urinal place as possible. The toilets were

situated in near by kotries or large open spaces with only toilet buildings. The courtyards

or boundaries were always there to surround a kotri. Most of the havelies are situated in

narrow streets in the old city or the walled city.

These havelies are priceless treasures of heritage.