On Vastu: Jaipur’s Best Kept Secret
Written by Guest Contributor Himanshu Verma
Himanshu Verma is an arts curator, artist, and independent scholar based in Jaipur. He leads heritage walks across the country and is the founder of Red Earth, an independent arts organisation that works with Indian contemporary visual art, design as well as diverse forms of cultural expression.
I reflect fondly on my visitations to Jaipur before having moved to the city permanently around eight years ago. On those sporadic visits from Delhi - then my hometown - I remember palpably feeling drawn to the then inexplicable energy and beauty of this urban landscape.
(City Palace, Photo by Tropico Photo for Thread Caravan)
While it is true that the renaissance of composite Indian traditional systems of knowledge, arts and aesthetics, religion, trade and commerce, and varied aspects of lived culture, court and city life; contributed collectively to the city’s allure when it was founded in the 18th c. by Sawai Jai Singh - I believe that it is the Vastu allegiance of the city that sets it a notch above any other city - making it Sawai (literally one and a quarter; symbolically ‘extra’) much like its founder. I have been long acquainted with the strong Vastu bent of the city, thanks to the pioneering work ‘Building Jaipur’ by Vibhuti Sachdev and Giles Tillotson (Reaktion Books, 2002); but it was only after a few years of the lived experience of the city as its resident; that I discovered that this traditional system of architectural theory / urban planning / energy was the fount of Jaipur’s abiding effervescence.
(Extracted from Building Jaipur; Sachdev & Tillotson)
The city was founded on a plain north of Amer, the older capital of the kingdom, making it more accessible than a typical hill-top Rajput fort-capital. Perhaps the primary tenet of Vastu is the alignment of the layout of a city / building with the four cardinal directions, tantamount to a deeper connection with the forces of the universe really; and Jaipur follows it to the tee. The long 3.5 km east-west axis of the city, emanates from Surajpol (Sun-Gate) in the east, where just outside the city, overlooking it, Sawai constructed the Sun Temple atop a hill. The first ray of the sun touches this site every morning, and then, continues to spread radiance through the city. At the other end of this axis is the Chandpol (Moon-Gate) defining the western edge of the walled city. This main axial street is then intersected by several South-North streets creating three prominent squares (or Chaupads, as they are called in the local dialect).
(Plan of the city as built: extracted from Building Jaipur; Sachdev & Tillotson)
The square is the paradigmatic representation of perfection, balance and prosperity in Vastu and sacred Tantric geometry, and the city’s layout itself follows the classic square pattern, except that an additional square was added to the main square - to enable the city to meet the protective hill ranges around it - making it a polygon, extending permissibly the energy of the square. Within this enigmatic walled polygon is an elaborate grid based city, perfectly aligned with the forces of the universe; further harbouring an elaborate schema of co-relations between its various parts and the nine Chowkdis (quarters) created within the polygon. What a paradox that the average visitor, tourist, and even resident is largely unaware of the magical system of energy working within the city!
(View from the Sun Temple hill, with the Galta Gate and the East-west street visible)
Furthermore, Jai Singh and his mostly anonymous planners and subsequent Jaipur rulers, created a larger web of built heritage around the walled city, with temples, garrison forts, palaces and gardens dotting the larger gestalt of the Jaipur landscape, all significantly aligning with ideas of Vastu and sacred geography.
When you live and breathe in Jaipur eternally, is when the mysteries of Vastu start making themselves apparent: they reveal themselves in the carefully planned dramatic burst of light on a facade; in the bewildering alignment of temples separated by kilometres, and yet creating a web of energy; and in many such serendipitous moments that strike you walking around this phenomenal city.
(Jaipur light on a Johari Bazaar facade, Photo by Luna Antonia Arboleda for Thread Caravan)
(Luna Antonia Arboleda for Thread Caravan)
(Luna Antonia Arboleda for Thread Caravan)