CULTURE & ITS

INFLUENCE
ON VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE

A country is not only identified by its

people and government, but by its
architecture. Through architecture
it's possible to gauge many things
about a culture, such as lifestyle,
artistic sensibilities and social
structure.

India is known for its rich cultural

heritage. The culture plays an
important role in defining the
architecture of a place or people with
time.

CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OF MADHYA PRADESH

The tribal and folk traditions of Madhya Pradesh are reflected in the
vernacular architecture. The state is known for its visual and
performing arts, these art forms are closely associated with their
beliefs, customs, religion and values. The singing and dancing are
part of their day to day life.
These activities have evolved the necessity of a community space
like a courtyard or chaupal in their settlement pattern. These
patterns resulted in a strong social binding within the community.
Each tribe has its own way of settlement pattern on the basis of
their culture and lifestyle like Saharia has circular, Bhil has scattered
and Korku has linear. The central space in Saharia is chaupal where
grandparents chat and look after grandchildren while the parents are
working on fields.

Madhya Pradesh is famous for its traditional crafts like bamboo,

wood, pottery, painting, metal casting, terracotta and textiles. The
sarees from Mahaeshwar and Chanderi are famous for weaving
whereas Bagh and Ujjain are famous for printing. The designs are
evolved and inspired from the surrounding environment. The
weaving pattern in Maheshwari sarees Laharia is most dominating
which is inspired from the holy river Narmada. These patterns of
textiles are also reflected in the vernacular architecture. The
sculpture and murals in the houses are not simply for decoration but
are part of their rituals and beliefs.

The communities of potters, textiles, printer, waevers and bamboo

workers are well placed in their native places like textile printers in
Bagh; weavers in Mahaeshwar, they have their own settlement
pattern as per their trade. When they come to a city in search of
employment they have to adopt a new trade or either continues
with their own. There cultural identities are well defined in the
traditional settlements in their built forms, decorations and
lifestyle. The settlement of Bhil or Gond tribe can be easily
identified through these identities.

VERNACULAR SETTLEMENT OF POTTERS (KUMAHAR)

Potters community lives in separate clusters in village settlement due to their
work culture. In the dwelling the spaces are required for storage of raw materia
and finished products, preparation of clay, creation of pots, roof tiles or bricks
and firing. In the front there is an open space for working and selling and on the
backyard for private space like washing, bathing and other household works.
The enclosed spaces are used for sleeping, cooking and living.

VERNACULAR SETTLEMENT OF BAMBOO WORKERS (BASOR)

Bamboo workers community lives close to the forest. The Basods are the
people belonging to community of bamboo craftsmen who are traditionally
dependent on bamboo for their livelihood. They are mostly engaged in
construction work like scaffolding or temporary structures. Variety utility
items are made like furniture, basket, ornaments, musical instruments,
effigies, totems etc. A traditionl dwelling of bamboo worker at Churhat,
District Satna,
They have living and sleeping spaces along the courtyard and the working
space is outside the courtyard in front of the dwelling.

TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE: HOUSE FORM OF

BOHRAS IN GUJARAT
There are two broad categories
of Bohrwads: one has an
organic layout while the other
is strictly geometrically laid
out. The structure of a typical
organic Bohrwad is inwardly
oriented, where the houses are
arranged in an introverted
neighborhood form. Most
Bohrwads have a formal
entrance where gates used to
be closed at night in the past.
The houses in a Bohrwad are
typically grouped around a
street and these form a
mohalla; several mohallas form
a Bohrwad. Each mohalla is an
exogamous unit and may have
fifty to a hundred houses.

A traditional Bohra
house, seen in its
cultural and spatial
context, creates a
sense of place in a
distinct domestic
setting. The house
can almost be
considered a
metaphor for the
social system. Male
dominance is strong
and women are
commonly
segregated from
men not belonging
to their immediate
families. Gender is
important as an
organizing theme in
dwelling layouts and

For the Bohras, religion is

a way of life that also
provides a civic code,
influencing social
behavior and interactions.
The Bohra house is
usually always oriented
according to the cardinal
directions as per the
practice in the region. The
urban house has at its
core a set of spaces,
which in their sequence
and proportions are
identical to those of the
rural dwelling. It is
basically a deep houseplan with three (or four)
sequential rooms one
behind the other.

There is a lot of aesthetic attention paid to the

making of the windows, entrance doors, columns,
brackets, grills and other elements. In the
embellishments they use only non-figural and
abstract geometrical patterns as per the Islamic
tradition, which rejects animate objects (gods,
people, birds and animals) in carving.
The impact of cultural attitudes is seen in the full
enclosure of the balcony in many of the Bohra
houses. One hardly sees any person standing in the
external zarookha or the balcony and interacting
because the Bohra life-style emphasizes privacy,
formality and internalization.

The crucial fact to remember is that the Bohras are

conservationists and promoters of art may be unconsciously. If they
are further encouraged by a strategy for conserving entire
Bohrwads, it will help continue the momentum of cultural
preservation in order that some of the best historic examples of
regional domestic architecture in Gujarat are not lost.