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Introduction
Jaisalmer is located in the arid plains of west Rajasthan in the midst
of the vast Thar desert. It is a region of deficient rainfall averaging
about 15cms a year and therefore only sparse vegetation is found.
The ground water in the greater part is impregnated with salt thus
making it unsuitable for human consumption. The main source of
water was Gadisar lake, just beyond the outer fortification on the
south side until the Indira Gandhi Canal was introduced in the
1970s. Jaisalmer developed as one of the most interesting towns
dominated by the trading community. Because of the wealth in the
town, its architecture was rich and elaborate. The city was founded
in 1156 AD by Rao Jaisal as a military fort and trading post for the
east-west route. Presence of water and wonderful hunting area
surrounding it attracted the Maharaja of Luderva. Some ruins of the
old town of Luderva, which was given up due to its vulnerability to
attack and lack of portable water, still exists about 15 kms from
Jaisalmer. Connected by a meter gauge railway to Jodhpur city
which is about 270 kms east, the town of Jaisalmer is about 900 kms
south west of New Delhi. Extending between 26 degree 4 minutes
and 28 degree 23 minutes north latitude and 69 degree 30 minutes
and 72 degree 42 minutes east longitude, it is surrounded on the
northern and western side by Pakistan bordering at about 70 kms
from the town. On the eastern and southern side, it adjoins other
districts of Rajasthan like Bikaner, Jodhpur and Barmer.
Built entirely out of yellow sand stone, on top of a hillock and its slopes, with nothing else in the vicinity, the city is a dense mass with little
sense of scale when viewed from a distance. With strong circular bastions of the fort wall, the city stands in the middle of the desert like a
piece of sculpture. It is difficult to visualize that it is so porous and harbouring life, because it gives an impression of solidity. As one gets
closer, one feels that the city is carved out of a solid stone rather than constructed piece by piece with stone over stone. However once
inside the city the experience shifts to the buildings and the details, and a strong sense of scale prevails.

City Form

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In its overall shape, Jaisalmer is an irregular polygon with a double

line of fortification. It is a city within a city. The inner city is more
protected with a stronger wall and is set on top of a hill about 100
meters higher than the surrounding area. The city is triangular in
shape due to the shape of the hill on which it is built. The Royal
Palace with the Royal Square forms the nucleus of Jaisalmer. There
is only one entry point to the fort, leading to the Royal Square
through a series of check points in terms of gates (pols). The Royal
Square was the arrival point for traders and visitors to the city.
Compactly built, the city has many tall buildings, up to seven stories
high, giving it a fairly dense and vertical effect. The city structuring
manifests itself in two strong ways : the location of the Royal
Quarters on top of the hill with the strong fortification and secondly
the dispersal of communities is affected by caste groupings making
distinct residential zones of different communities. However there is
little evidence of class distinction which is evident from the manner in
which some of the houses of the rich and the poor are dispersed in
both the upper and the lower cities. The market square with its
bazaar structures in the lower city and the Royal Square with the
temples holds the upper city together. Streets act as linkages,
activity and interaction spaces. The city when viewed from above
gives the impression of cubical grains arranged in close proximity.
Courts and terraces expose the sides of these grains. Though very
solid looking, the city has porosity, somewhat comparable to a
honeycomb due to a certain uniformity and fineness of the textural
quality. This is also due to the constancy of building modules used
all over the town. The cubical grain of the city is contrasted by the
cylindrical bastions of the fort wall. There is a very strong sense of
order and harmony in the whole town though it is not exactly known
how this was accomplished. One wonders if it was the result of
regulations or the spirit of the people who sought for an environment
which responded to the forces of nature. The order is not the result
of construction of this town only. It actually is the result of
culmination of efforts for refinement over a period of time. Similar,
though simpler, constructional order exists in settlements of earlier
times.

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Public Spaces
Public spaces in Jaisalmer may be classified according to their
types. The major categories are : The Royal Square in the center of
the upper city ; public spaces like Gandhi chowk and Gopa chowk ;
community spaces at the level of residential clusters. The Royal
Square is a very well conceived space forming the core of the upper
city as well as the Royal quarters. It has a high quality of
architectural order. On reaching the entrance to the square through
a winding and well guarded path, one sees very few buildings;
actually one views the horizon just above the fort wall. Only on
turning around does one find the richly ornamented Royal Palace
and the temple exhibiting exquisite craftsmanship. Visitors and
traders met the king and the community in this square. The king's
throne occupies one corner of the square at a diagonal, overlooking
the square. The square acts as a key linking element and as a
nucleus in the upper city thus holding it together. Market squares,
such as Gandhi Chowk, Gopa Chowk etc. are all located in the lower
city. These squares build part of a sequence of spaces and streets
forming the main bazaar. Starting with Gandhi Chowk, just inside the
western wall of the lower city, one is lead through the main bazaar
with Jindani Chowk along the way to Gopa Chowk, the latter being
the main market square. Gopa Chowk is closely linked with the entry
gate to the upper city and has a very informal quality due to the
diversity of activities that take place there. Cluster space is quite
frequently found, particularly in the upper city. It is either a space
which connects streets on two or four sides, or it is made by
widening a street at a particular point. In any case, each space
serves a group of houses for their immediate activities. One such
space included here, called Holingda (because the space is used for
lighting the Holi pyre, a significant festival in Rajasthan), is within the
Kothari pada area. Connecting four streets it is very active for most
parts of the day. About twelve houses open directly in to the space
while many other houses from adjoining streets make use of it.
Platforms, one to two meter wide, extend into the square from in
front of the houses, forming the key activity elements within it.

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Streets of Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer is a compact network of streets rarely too long. In
negotiating the terrain, the streets have become quite interesting.
With fairly high buildings and width of streets rarely more than three
meters, one can move around the town in cool shade. Thus one can
probably term Jaisalmer as a pedestrian town with very little and
limited vehicular traffic. There is a significant difference in the street
patterns of the upper and the lower city. The radial pattern in the
upper city is contrasted by the somewhat irregular grid iron pattern in
the lower city. It will be wrong to call the growth of the city as organic
as may be the case with many other Indian cities. Location of certain
squares in very strategic places and a very well developed and
definite order of streets and buildings make Jaisalmer a city well
organized and planned. The major part of the lower city is divided in
to somewhat rectangular blocks with closely built buildings. These
blocks show continuous facades of exquisitely carved elements
behind which are the open courtyards and terraces thus making the A street showing additions and alterations in Jaisalmer
building plan a fairly porous one. Streets have at times strong
pauses, but generally they are moulded with subtle curves
enhancing the view of the richly ornamented buildings and also not
exposing the entire view of the facade all at once, thus making a
walk through the town an interesting one. The upper city also has
similar qualities but the street pattern is radial in character. In
general the variation of any hierarchical order are too little to be of
any consequence. Jaisalmer streets are more than mere paths -
they are public spaces too. Although streets harbour activities which
are comparable to public spaces, the streets as a space has a
different character. Not only is the comparison more linear, it is also
more limited in terms of activities. The desire of the people to
'participate' with the street is strongly expressed through certain
elements between two dominant realms - residential and public.
Platforms (otla) with entry steps are the key transition elements
evoking the extension of some house hold activities. Here, however,
A typical cobbled street in Jaisalmer
womenfolk are more restrained and these platforms are used more
by the children and the older men. In tune with the need for privacy

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for women, facades are characterized by small openings often in the

form of jharokhas, elements essentially generated by social customs
of allowing women to peep out without being seen. Thus women are
able to 'participate' in the outside activities and yet maintain their
privacy. Besides, the streets are used by children to play and by
adults to socialize. Jaisalmer being essentially a pedestrian town,
people know one another and there is little evidence of social
anonymity.

House Form
The architecture of the city displays a strong sense of anonymity
which is essentially a cultural trait. In some of the oriental cultures it
is part of life and comes naturally to the people. This expression is
found specially in domestic architecture. The spaces aquire non
specific character. They change in their use as the morning changes
to noon and the noon changes to evening. They are also used
differently in summer and in winter. The interior open spaces like
courtyards, terraces and balconies have special significance under
such situations. They accommodate variety of activities during
different seasons and different times of the day. The whole idea of a
house in Jaisalmer is developed around the idea of 'privacy'. This
has generated very specific elements and expressions. The ground
floor has no openings facing the street except the entrance door. A
kind of platform called otla is developed in front of the houses where
people do not have such a strong notion of privacy. The house starts
to open up as one moves inward. Although the need for privacy from Jaisalmer Fort showing the three different sand stone walls and the bastion
the house across the street is less as compared to from the houses along the periphery.
strangers passing by on the streets, but even that has been carefully
worked out by inclining the stone jali work of the jharokhas down at
an angle of 45 degrees. With compact organization, the house and
the streets become very close to each other, so the most natural
thing was to close the house to the exterior and open it to the interior
thus making the courtyard an extremely important feature of the
house. The idea of an inward looking house is also reinforced
because of climatic reasons. Almost every house is built of yellow

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sand stone in dry masonry within an order that prevails over the
entire settlement. Grown out of a modulation at the domestic scale,
dictated by the limitation of stone construction, the town presents a
picture of an unique order. Yet, it is not regimental. A minimum
house is generally a two bay house with one of the bay containing
the courtyard. It is the number of bays that start increasing as the
house starts becoming bigger. The bastion houses that are on the
periphery of the upper city i.e. along the fort wall show some
difference in character. These houses were originally occupied by
the warrior class and their families. The occupants of these houses
belong to a lower strata of the society, and the architectural
ornamentation and the quality of construction does reflect that.
Random stone masonry is finished with mud plaster and major
elements like the doors and windows are finished with a white
border, typical of the surrounding rural areas. Even in the interior, the
clay and the mirror work has a rural character. Yet there is a sense
Patwon ki Haveli. The front facade
of design, continuity and resemblance in terms of the house form, with the jharokhas and beautiful stone jali.
and these houses are well integrated with the urban fabric of
Jaisalmer.
A reason for Jaisalmer's success in coping with the heat is the
design of the havelis (palaces). The haveli reaches a peak of beauty
and sophistication in Jaisalmer. The craftsmen who built the havelis
used a system of modular construction, cutting the yellow sand
stone into standardized columns, beams, wall panels and floor slabs
that could be arranged in endless permutation and combinations to
give each haveli both a unique character and kinship with its
neighbors.

Like most stones, sand stone is a good insulator and a poor

conductor. It reflects most of the sunlight, heats up slowly and allows
little of that heat to pass through. At night, when the temperature
drops the stone radiates the heat stored during the day. An important
feature of the buildings in Jaisalmer is their porosity, a haveli is full of
holes. The holes are different in size, from courtyards and shafts to
slots and cavities to finely carved stone jalis, and all this allows Patwon ki Haveli
passage for cross ventilation. In the havelis of Jaisalmer, there is
through cross ventilation. The process starts by minimizing the area

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of building surface exposed to sun. Of the wall and roof areas that
face the sun, a good portion is
covered by a protective outer layer such as an overhang, a
projecting balcony, a window with an arched recess, or a carved
stone jali. During the day, the outer layer of stone gets heated and
the heat is radiated to the immediate environment. When there is
only a single wall receiving the brunt of the sun's rays, the immediate
environment is the air inside the house, and the entire house gets
heated up. But if the immediate environment is a secondary space
with air flowing through it, like the gap between an overhang and the
wall, then the heat that enters the secondary space will dissipate in
the street before it finds its way into the house. The numerous
recesses and overhangs of the buildings facade have a further
purpose, to draw cool air into the building. Since the streets of
Jaisalmer spends most of the day in shade because of tall buildings
on either side, the air that passes through the facade from the street
is much cooler than the air exposed to the sun. The cool air enters
through the haveli's front facade, circulates through the rooms and Entrance to Patwon ki Haveli
then escapes through one of the courtyards taking out the hot air
along with it.

If the courtyards are the largest holes in a haveli, then on the other
end of the scale are the intricately carved stone jalis. The advantage
of a jali is that it blocks the direct rays of the sun and yet permits air
to enter the room and is designed to grant privacy. The balconies of
two houses on opposite sides of the street in Jaisalmer are often
extended so far that people could almost reach out and shake
hands. But with the stone jalis carved at an angle of forty five
degrees sloping down, the viewer can maintain his privacy while
looking down at the street. Since there is little penetration of direct
sunlight into the deep recesses of the haveli, the rooms have a
tendency to be dark. One of the ingenious solutions to this problem
which the craftsmen came up with was the use of mirrored glass.
The builders of havelis created mosaics of myriad small pieces of
curved glass. Because each disc of the glass is not flat, but a portion
of a sphere, the walls have more reflective surface than a flat mirror.
The many curved mirrors also scatter the light in different direction

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thus distributing it evenly. When a mirrored room of a haveli is lit up

by a single candle, the effect is magical.

The spatial complexity, the fine proportions, the subtle carvings and
the way light filters through from room to room are some of the
architectural qualities that pass beyond the functional realm and
goes into the realm of artistry and spirituality. Sadly, when
Jaisalmer's merchant class and the patrons of the
haveli left home over a century ago to go to bigger cities to persue
their dreams and aspirations, the architecture of the city began to
disappear and die.

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