PART-1: Indigenous teaching of History of Architecture in India

I: Study of History of Architecture

History of Architecture is an important area of focus both academically and in practice of the profession. For many of us who have been involved in academics for over four decades, it has been a challenging subject for teaching. In current practice, the subject is becoming very important, as heritage conservation now is an important area of architectural practice. The academic approach in teaching history of architecture requires a direction towards a better appreciation of the role of inter-disciplinary influences shaping architectural expression. This would lead to holistic understanding of architecture in a context of time and place. Architecture is seen as an expression of culture, in its context and it is endogenous like the culture it represents.

Study of History of architecture is about the context (time) and about the breakthroughs (events) which have marked important development in building art and engineering. It investigates a larger area of influence in a specific context - in a sub-regional context of a larger cultural region in a historical evolution. The 'Indian' as we understand is diverse in regional characteristic, which are defined in its important regional and sub-regional cultural contexts. When we consider a study in History of Architecture, specific regional and sub-regional contexts could be investigated for its cultural characteristics. Only such specific study can help compiling knowledge on diverse culture and related architectural expressions across the sub-continent. The study of history of architecture could be seen at several levels depending on the types of institutional buildings and built environment for community settlements. Both these categories would have different conceptions and purpose as it satisfies different sets of requirements. There are several categories in which buildings could be classified, but its architectural expression characterizes a region and its local physical and cultural conditions, which influence all works of architecture.

Study of history of Architecture is a record of a time and events of past. It records the buildings, and built environments, its purpose, its manner of conception, and its making. The buildings are representative expression in its time, of man’s needs and aspirations in an evolving society. The building enterprises in any society may be expressive of power or glory (monuments) or built environment for shelter, and settlements, where the concurrent traditions are expressed. The buildings in an era express the prevailing skills of crafts employed to express symbolic adorations, and engineering and technology relevant to its time. In su- total the buildings express the culture of an era and breakthroughs in the field of architecture and to study, investigate and analyze its architectural expression to appreciate its wisdom is the main purpose of History of Architecture.

The sources of study of history of architecture are the evidences available on buildings and the settlement form and structures. Inscriptional evidences, archaeological findings and the secondary sources of historical writings or other such sources are the tools to appreciate history. Historians of architecture while writing history of architecture refer to these and then record their ‘findig’ accompanied by drawings, sketches and photographs. History of Architecture could be ‘read’ from buildings and settlements, as such building acts are a records of builders/patrons’ intentions in a specific era. For this reason one of the methods to study history of architecture is by developing an ability to ‘read’ and ‘investigate’ buildings and then through its analysis, develop an architectural study to approach history which is substantiated by archival records establishing the processes of evolution of architecture of past. The buildings as monuments preserved as ‘authentic’ examples of a specific period of history, invariably display associative symbolism and other attributes relevant to their culture.The investigation of this can actually help us find out the cultural purpose behind its making. Thus study of associative arts and symbolism provide a very useful subject for understanding the socio-political and religious reality many times expressed through mythological connections in a building. Similarly studying the physical aspects of a building provides understanding of the engineering skills and techniques of handling building materials. In this sense it helps us through these, to understand how they achieved the breakthroughs in building technology to elevate the skills and abilities in successive phases in history. The methods of study of buildings by deconstructing its elements and structural form provide us a tool to understand its making. These studies would provide an insight into the then prevailing practices of conceiving buildings and its realizing its designs as a creative process of articulating the ideas and imaginations of creating spaces relevant to a desired programme emerging from cultural aspirations of people for whom the buildings are built.

The study of history of architecture thus provides a record of various aspects of architecture – both physical/built as well as its inner reality natural to its purpose– with a specific emphasis on culture of people in their context. It records related philosophical aspect of creative art, theory and societal Concerns, which help understand its outstanding universal values for habitat in general. It helps us appreciate concepts of artistic creation with its creative attributes as reflection of the culture of people in their habitat. Historic architecture deals with creative instincts supported by the imaginative ideas to suit its purpose and skills for execution. It always has a meaning/duality which deals with the inner spiritual content and an external physical material structure integrating creative ideas arising out of culture of the people. This two-part fusion through a creative and constructive processes realized into a built form – which represents an architectural expression.

II: Appreciation of History of Architecture

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE is a representative record of culture of a society frozen in buildings, which require an understanding and appreciation for its purpose, its manner of conception, and its making. The buildings are representative expression of the man’s needs and aspirations in an evolving civilization. The building may be expressive of power or glory, religion or Mythology, or simple needs for shelter, where man’s contemporaneous knowledge, technology and beliefs are expressed. The buildings thus express purpose, the prevailing skills and technology including crafts employed to express symbolic adorations. In sum-total the buildings express the culture of an era. The study of History of Architecture could thus be seen as a record of past connecting the culture of an era, with the architectural expression.

Thus History of Architecture could be seen as;

• Record of Building Programme and Purpose,
• Record of Advancement of Construction Technology, and its breakthroughs
• Record of Architectural Design Idiom, and culturally relevant theories of Art
• Record of Societal Influences on enterprises and settlement patterns
• Record of Comparative Cultures with Physical Factors and Regional Differences with Indigenous characters.

Study of History presupposes study of sources of History. These establish the factual basis for the records of time and events and their investigation provide important clues for History. These are;

• Buildings and settlements of historic traditions
• Archaeological sites and excavations
• Relics of fragments or parts of buildings with mythical contents of specific times providing evidences of a bye-gone era and its socio-political environment
• Inscriptional records fixed to buildings, sites, ruins, descriptions of physical context
• Literary works, chronicles, oral traditions and accounts of travellers and historians,
• Record of Place names and associative references of historical significance
• Theories of material science and arts and any such canonical sources which connect its prescriptions to the traditional built from and its symbolism in representational arts in general
• Sources of technological and engineering know-how available in the historic remains and traditions of building-related trades and practices which are part of an ongoing practice.

Study of buildings and its analyses by understanding the above sources, becomes a means for deciphering the evidences and gaining new knowledge about the past. Each of the above sources would require relevant methods to understand its influence the examples and thereby help us appreciate the historical facts and data they represent. Such an investigation and then decoding the hidden influences build up the body of stratified cumulative historical knowledge.

History of Architecture thus could be ‘read’ from a building, which actually is a frozen record of builders/patrons’ intentions in a specific era with specific emphasis. The buildings invariably display associative symbolism and decoding this we can actually decipher the hidden cultural agenda for its making. Thus study of associative arts provides a very useful subject for understanding the socio-political and religious reality many times expressed through mythological connections.

Built form as a tool to analyze its making through a conjectural dismembering of its structural parts provides the insights into its making and the ingenuity with which it is realized. Similarly studying its form with the relevant canons of its architectural compositions and theories of art reveal its finer design concepts conveying the cultural connections. All such studies would require cross-references to the then prevailing practices of conceiving buildings through its architectural designs.

It would be thus our endeavour to study the social reality and the influence the religion and religious ideas had to shape this reality of the architectural expression, this would mean examining dominant periods and dominant concepts which adjusted with religion, art and social reality in changing times and artist’s socio-political environment. This is very important to understand the choices that they made for sculptural representations on a building, which primarily were based on the personal benefits for them or the prevailing ideology (based on religious or the rulers choices) of the architects and artist out of many possible for them to adopt. This is interesting when we see certain specific mythological accounts and representation is preferred by the architects for depiction in a building, as this expresses certain specific historical situations which prompt them to do so.

In architecture, studies on history need to be approached through an ability to perceive buildings which represent works of architecture in an era. Historians of architecture while writing history actually do this and then record their ‘findings’ in written words accompanied by drawings, sketches and photographs. An accepted form of method to study architectural history in the schools of architecture includes sketching and modelling as a necessary means to ‘experience’ the complexity of works of architecture. For this reason one of the methods tried out to study history in architectural courses was by developing an ability to ‘read’ buildings and then approach the subject of history by actual finding out the factual information from archival records and codified knowledge which must have been instrumental in guiding the processes of developing architectural expression in past.

III: Method to study: Architectural Documentation as a tool to study Buildings; Instructions to ‘Reading’ Buildings as works of History of Architecture:

Measured Drawing and Documentation work for historic record is an accepted teaching discipline in systematizing the tasks for documentation of historic buildings. This is developing as a professional expertise valuable in compiling essential base work for Conservation practice. In recent times the advancements in instrumentation has facilitated the tasks and achieving better results in overall field.

The task of documentation, if seen in its wider dimension would include various media and require a disciplined teamwork in order to record the facts related to a building or precincts or sites. This can be historic records – literary or factual, measured drawings, and photo-documentation.

1. History of recording traditions, its contextual importance in different phases of architectural history
   • Prevailing attitudes to document existing buildings and methods adopted for recording
   • Advancement in instrumentation in recording the various details of existing buildings
   • Importance of studying historic structures in developing architectural know-how
2. Techniques of actual work could be further subdivided into
   • methods of measuring depending on the nature of building and its associated features
   • Recording the drawings on-site depending on levels of data collection for various drawings
   • Tools and equipment for measuring, recording, drawing and photographing the building
   • Use of graph papers, graph screens, photography and other instrumentation
   • Preparing final drawings, details and photographs, to document the building and its features.
3. Studies on history and times of the selected examples of existing buildings
   • Typology of the selected example in terms of its architecture
   • Its geographic location and features
   • History and philosophical content
   • A sample outline for Instruction (see Programme for Studies, in sidebar/box)
4. A sample outline for Instruction: (see Programme for Studies in Historical Architecture of India, below)

PART-2: History of Modern Architecture in India

I: Introduction:

My paper presented here deals with the History of Architecture of our immediate past, the period of Modernity in India, which is marked by the establishment of British Rule in India with the exposure to Europe in general, which started the Bengal Renaissance later spreading all over India. The ideas to integrate the then prevailing modern thoughts in western cultural tradition with endogenous local Indian traditions was demonstrated by many prominent artists, musicians, social thinkers, writers, literary figures through their work in all aspects of culture in Bengal. This provided the basis for what is termed as Bengal Renaissance resulting into a movement in Indian Modernity. These trends obviously affected the architecture and city planning and for that reason Bengal in particular, became the seat for Indian modernity in late 19^th early 20^th century India. The paper would deal with this particular part of history of architecture in India and bring out through detailed study the precursors of this movement, the influences especially of the British and Bauhaus (Exhibition of Bauhaus in Calcutta in 1922) in Bengal and the resultant expression in architecture of settlements and public institutions in Calcutta and elsewhere in India. My focus of the study would be ultimately to examine the modern architecture in Ahmedabad, the city with which I am familiar with. A detailed study would be presented on how the city evolved over the last six centuries and the way in which the late 19^thcentury gave rise to its modern phase which started from the onset of 20^thcentury which laid the beginning of city’s modern phase. Developments in mid 20^th century Ahmedabad really was in forefront of modern movement in architecture and thus the case of Ahmedabad is central to the emergence of modern movement in architecture in India.

II: Indian Modernity of 20^th century emerging from Bengal and its spread in India as a catalyst for modern movement:

A. Precursors of movement, the influences in Bengal:

1. British, European: During the first half of the twentieth century the architectural habits of the world completely changed. Within that period, and at the heart of the process of change, we can now trace, as a matter of history, the workings of what we conventionally call the Modern Movement in architecture. The Movement had its beginnings in the decade before 1914. It reached its highest pitch of innovating vigor in the late twenties, and after World War II, exploded like a delayed action bomb, filling the huge vacuum the war years had created. Its effects spread and spread until by now there is no corner of the industrialized world…1
2. Bauhaus (Exhibition of Bauhaus in Calcutta in 1922): Little material evidence remains of the legendary status which this exhibition has gained over ninety-one years of modern, international art historiography. The exhibition building was demolished in the nineteen-forties; possibly the only remaining original exhibition catalogue is now in Lahore, Pakistan; and photographs of the exhibition are nowhere to be found. There are just two cuttings from December 15, 1922 issue of The Englishmenthat report the opening of the exhibition – although the society’s own journal RUPAM published a lengthy review by the art historian Stella Kramrisch, which placed the exhibition in the context of the Indian artists’ search for cultural identity. Nevertheless, the sparse material makes one thing clear; the exhibition was a crystallization point for complex cultural departures in late-colonial Calcutta, a metropolis that had a specific presence in the world. The comparatively small community from which the Indian Society of Oriental Art derived its members was a part of a wide international network of cultural, political and intellectual circles and institutions, the activities of which reflected the global nature of the early twentieth century….At the same time, the exhibition presented a platform for extensive international efforts to redefine the social role of art and in this context, to reform art education.2

B. Important Examples of Architectural Expression In Calcutta:

1. Traditions in Bengal and improvisations in early 20^thcent Bengal: Engaging in an exploration of how modern men and women may become subjects as well as objects of modernization, how they might get a grip on the modern world and make themselves at home in it3 one aspect of modern living has consistently eluded investigation. In the context of India’s multiple modernities, alongside the boulevard and the monument, the city space and its architecture, the spaces withinhomes are redefined and rearranged to accommodate the arrival of modernity. Changing spaces within the home and representations of that change in literary terms can be seen to have functioned as a primary marker of modernity in the colonial world. That the material manifestations of the home underwent a transformation in India with colonial contact is undisputed common sense, but very little work has focused on the manner in which these changes occurred. Mapping the political, social and cultural changes in the evolving history of modernity in Indian context, what follows is the history of a social space, the colonial drawing room in Bengal. Changes in the form and substance of this room, uniquely a confluence of the public and the private within the space of the home, were mediated by the development outside it of certain practices, institutions and spaces characteristic of modernity everywhere, but one of the most crucial, although the most tangentially discussed, was the space of the modern drawing room.4 To describe the onset of modernity as the result of the 'impact' of British rule is a very old and established way to looking at our recent history, and I would argue that that modernity, which I would date from 1757, came to us from a mélange of sources, not least the Portuguese, who were very much present in Bengal from the 16th century onward (their cottage cheese resulted in our rosogolla and a particular variety of Bandel cheese that we still make named after the Bandel church area where their church is!). Modernity would have happened anyway with time, and in Bengal, though the force of British laws stirred up things radically by the 19th c, the presence of the Danish, the Dutch, and the French cannot be ignored. The Danish mission at Serampore (Srirampur) for instance, printed the first Bible translated into an Indian language - Bengali - in 1801.
   
   The dates, as I've indicated above, could be pegged at 1757 for convenience only. The number of printing presses, newspapers (from 1780 onward), and books both arriving here on ships and printed here in Calcutta grew exponentially from the first printing of Rammohun's Tuhfat around 1787.
   
   Most interestingly, this mixed creation of modernity from the melting pot that was colonial Calcutta was and is most interestingly and concretely demonstrated in our architecture. Look at the Armenian buildings, the Jewish buildings that include 2 synagogues and grand structures built on Ezra Street, Park Street and elsewhere by Jewish tycoons, and most importantly the natural syncretism of Mughal styles in Indian wealthy residences. A respected scholar called Arun Nag has a paper (unfortunately in Bengali only) where he shows how after Awadh fell, the artisans (they were never given the dignity of being called architects) came from there out of work and were commissioned by rich Bengalis to build homes, resulting in many informal elements creeping into Bengali house construction. And the more formal Mughal presence in areas like Metiabruj, where Wajid Ali settled, is of course well-known. Danish churches, French mansions such as Dupleix's in Chandennagore, Dutch government houses - the list can go on.5
2. Important examples of Settlement Architecture: Calcutta’s (Kolkata) urbanity is unparalleled in India. Broadly the city has two distinct parts which are situated to north and south of the Maidan, which in itself is a phenomenal colonial concept of open place and a separator adopted by the British while planning their colonial cities in India. It has an extremely pronounced streetscape which lends its urbanity a very strong character with buildings built over a period of time. The settlement patterns of urban neighbourhoodwith prominent street aspects help one to observe the layers of this important city. The northern part, though dotted with colonial sensibilities of built traditions, is with a settlement pattern more ‘organic’ and endogenous in its planning punctuated by large mansions and Rajabari built in colonial idiom with large internal courtyards dominating the entire settlement pattern. The southern part of the city is having newer settlements of para which are populated by rich merchant class and professionals, whose preferences for built forms are influenced by British era as well as European sensibilities, which amount to a rich heritage of urban living-characteristic of progressive ideals. Calcutta’s historic layers signify a rich combined heritage of European; British and Indian culture which certainly is unique. Bengal experienced a very progressive period in late 19th and early 20th centuries with thinkers and reformers, who through their works initiated new ways of looking at their cultural traditions. The ideas to integrate modern thoughts emanating from western culture into their own cultural traditions were demonstrated by many prominent artists, musicians, scholars, writers and social reformers through their works, which actually became a significant force to revitalise the life of people and eventually their built environment. This is immensely displayed in their preferences for life style and houses and for this reason studying the residential buildings of early 20th century would allow us an opportunity to actually understand this phase of Indian Modernity, which eventually spread all over the country.6
3. Examples of Colonial Public Institutions: Calcutta can boast of some of the finest examples of public institutions built during the 19^thcentury. The public institutions built for the purpose of various requirements for administrative, justice and public services buildings are some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in India. buildings built for religious institutions stand out as truly magnificent expression of British Colonial Architecture designed by some of the most prominent British Architects. The urbanity characterized by public open places such as Dalhousie square around such institutions like Writers Building, Treasury, the Post Office and the Church, exemplify the best in the urban architecture of Calcutta. The buildings along the major streets and on the edge of Maidan as well as the areas along the great Hoogly river built for the port facilities, Howrah Railway station are some of the best built anywhere during that period. The Victoria Memorial display the finest of Colonial Architecture with its site and settings and the landscape design where the British tried to even import the building materials in order to create the perfect colonial environment out side of Britain which can match with the parallel examples of such monuments back in Britain. Study of each of these examples is very vital to understand the period and influences it had on the modern architecture in India.

The British when they shifted their base from Calcutta to Bombay, they brought their the then contemporary trends to influence the life styles and practices which resulted into new concepts in residential and urban planning. The traditions of early 20^thcentury architecture evolved from the influences of the then current practices of architecture and urban planning in Britain which were highly influenced by Art Deco. The movement started by the Exposition of Arts Decorative and modern Industry held in Paris in 1925. It was known as Style Moderne. When these influences started spreading all over Europe and America and in the countries of the colonies, it virtually became many Art Deco with contextual intermingling of forms and details of artifacts, decorations and furnishings in architecture!

III: Architecture of immediate past in Ahmedabad

The paper would try to examine how this major movement in Bengal school eventually had its presence in the historic city of Ahmedabad and how the real modernity for this city began by the works of some of the important individuals from Shantiniketan and Calcutta patronised by the nobility of Ahmedabad. The artists trained in Shantiniketan were invited to work in Baroda and Ahmedabad to work as academics in Baroda and on architectural projects in Ahmedabad and their works actually provided a new vision coming from the Bengal Renaissance spreading west wards. Many works done for the Mill Owner’s families, as well as for city institutions of Ahmedabad by Claude Batley the British Architect settled in Bombay and the Bengal architects invited to design buildings for the patrons of Ahmedabad are exemplary of this period.

The analytical studies, aimed at examining the process of creative innovation by integrating the local traditions and external influences, would be attempted selecting important examples so that the nuances in spirit of creativity and innovation in approach to architectural expression could be studied. The entire sphere of all pervading cross-cultural consciousness during this period would be explained as a basis for changing life styles and preferences infusing new cultural revival. This was the obvious basis for the architectural preferences. For that reason these aspects would be analysed through a detailed study, which would attempt to develop a model to demonstrate methods for such a study to appreciate and understand the architectural expression of Indian modernity which then spread all over the country.

Ahmedabad city has evolved over last six centuries. There are five different layers of its history which were in a sense successive breaktrhoughs in its city’s development. In each of these layers the city’s settlement passed through changes in its preferences of building designs and attributes still retaining the basic plotting and closed packed housing constant. The external influences adopted by wealthy traders and merchants, who due to their connections across the continent brought back several impressions and imageries which they tried to employ into their own hous designs with the help pf progressive craftsmen and masons who very quickly adopted the various stylistic variations preferred by their patrons. So the evolution of the city’s architecture was always influenced by the then contemporary trends. The major spread of such influences was after the British established their rule and when they started introducing their own materials, methods and techniques of construction. This was wide spread as they also started important building components of metal from England for use in building which also revolutionised the building practices in residential and institutional architecture all together. The British also built many institutional buildings, religious as well as educational as well as health and administrative. British architects working in Bombay for the agency were commissioned later to build city’s public institutions like Town Hall and private commercial buildings, including residences for wealthy families. Thus city’s architecture got its colonial buildings of various categories which heralded the era of new architectural expression and building enterprises.

The modern era in Ahmedabad had its beginnings sometime in late 19^thcentury. The architecture of city always had its patrons in the Mill owners, rich traders and merchants, who always played an important role in city’s development since historic times. The tradition of ‘Nagarsheth’ was institutionalised in later periods as Mayors when the city got its municipal administration and important noble citizens became Mayors of the city. Their role in city’s growth and development became very important under the British administration when the city started growing on the western banks of the river Sabarmati.

The buildings which were designed by British Architects such as Claude Batley exhibited the archittects consciousness in reinterpreting the architectural traditions of past in a new interpretation when he was assigned to build a Town Hall in 1930s – an audotirium for the growing city as a cultural place on the west bank of river on the other side of the historic city. The building was on the axis of the Ellisbridge as one approached from the historic city and was seen as part of a cultural complex along with an important Library building. The Town Hall as an institution of culture seem to take clue from the form of a complex structural formation usually attributed to a temple form, where the plinth, the superstructure with projected weather sheds and a tapered roof profile with comples tiering are employed for designing the building form. The plan of the main auditorium is accomodated within an octagonal auditorium seating floor with a centric tapering roof, with a balcony supprted originally by an inserted metal structure of columns and balcony floor. The stage and other facilities were inserted as an adjunct to the stage area at the back. The overall treatment and attributes to the detailing of the form reflected the then prevailing Art Deco idiom very much used by the British architects in their works in Bombay, as Bombay was one of the major centres in grip of the Art Deco Movement in India. The building form of Town hall was having a very articulated plinth profile vertically in several identifyable offsetted layers as well as horizontally in form of a dynamically rotated plan form forming a prominent octagon. The roof had three tiers very prominantly angles to meet at the center closing the octagonal profile with a central ventilating roof plate. The structure was in bricks with discreetly plastered surfaces. The overall form was extremely modern but at the same time rooted in the tradition of the city and its patrons.

The city got in the pre-independence era many such buildings, both as sprawling residences for wealthy mill owners families, especially Lalbhai and Mangaldas families and city authorities for the public institutions. These buildings also followed the progressive colonial idiom and were actually seen as the beginning of the modern era in the evolving city.

It was during the early 20^thcentury that Sarabhai family invited the architects from Bengal, and especially those who were connected with Shantiniketan, to design and build for their own as well as for the need of the institutions they supported. The Sarabhai Estate of residences were designed by these architects. The prominent architect who worked for them was Surendranath Kar who designed several projects for Sarabhai family. He also designed Kasturba Ashram at Koba near Ahmedabad for training and education for Kasturba Trust. These buiildings strongly reflected the Bengal Renaissance characteristics and could really be considered as the real examples of Indian Modernity in Ahmedabad. Surendranath Kar also designed some very small but distinctly modern buildings for other purposes like a small prayer temple in a school in Ahmedabad, which exhibit the soirit of that era in India.After Indian independence, when the city required a new push for developemnt into a more progressive city, the municipal authorities involved eminant internationally known architects to build new institutions for the expanding city which actually marked the beginning of advent of modern architecture in Ahmedabad. The important ones amongst these are Le Corbusier and Louis I Kahn. Their works in the city are internationally important works of modern architecture and have significantly influenced younger generation of architects.

• 1. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Art:( London, Thames and Hudson, 2004), 106
• 2. Regina Bittner and Kathrin Rhomberg, History of an Exhibition, The Bauhaus in Calcutta;( Edition Bauhaus 36 Hatje Cantz),65-66
• 3. Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity( London: Verso, 1993), 13
• 4. Rosinka Chaudhuri, Freedom and Beef Steaks:(New Delhi, Orient BlackSwan, 2012), 120-121
• 5. Rosinka Chaudhary in an email conversation: 28^thAugust 2017
• 6. R J Vasavada: Exemplary Houses of Calcutta-ongoing work on heritage of Calcutta, August 2017