THE
HISTORIC BACKGROUND The Ahhichatragarh fort is
a medieval Rajput fortress in Rajasthan, of the
4th century A.D Nagaur's strategic location attracted
several rulers for control over this key fort
Sultan Behram Shah initiated the building in the
early 12th century.
Sheesh Mahal and the entrance pavilion were built
during the reign of Hassan Kali (1563-1570) to
commemorate Akbar's visit to Nagaur. King Bakht
Singh ruled over Nagaur between 1725 - 1751 and
built Abha Mahal and Hawa Mahal The last building
was built in 1725
Born
23rd March 1943, studied under Kahn at Pennsylvania
for her Masters in Architecture. She teaches at
CEPT, Ahmedabad, since 1971, in Architecture and
Urban Design. Under her, many reports on historic
cities of Gujarat have been produced. She has
THE FORT
The fort has its battlemented walls, massive bastions,
lofty gates and handsome buildings and is approximately
370 m x 425 m The fort wall has temples, a baori,
a wall and two small palaces on the north and
south side
co-authored Mud Architecture of the Indian Desert,
Fort of Nagaur and Indian City in the Arid West,
with Prof. K. Jain. She has been involved in the
design of many residences
The
complex houses palaces, buildings and gardens.
They provide delightful internal and external,
and recreational and functional areas. Standard
sandstone
& institutional buildings.Housing
and conservation of historic buildings has been
one of her major
construction is used with white, yellow or red
sandstone. These
are finished with gypsum plaster or chunnam plaster
interests. She is currently involved in the conservation
of Nagaur Fort in Rajasthan with the Meherangarh
Museum Trust and funding from the Getty Foundation,
USA. She has to her credit the Kitply award for
conservation and Hari Om award for Low Cost Housing
for rural and urban areas.
PRESENT
DAMAGED STATUS
Until about a decade ago, this place was almost
as good as lost to posterity In the moat area
encroachments and shops shift the historic value
Vegetational growth, seepage and rising damp contributed
to the damage as many structures are in a state
of impending collapse
The
conservation work envisages the future use
of the palace complex and to preserve the
physical fabric in the changed scenario.
The
approach is in the spirit of minimum intervention
while respecting its historicity with the
use of local
crafts, construction skills of lime mortar,
stone carving and revival
of traditional craft
skills.
Along the external fortification wall, stabilization
and certain repairs are considered. The
damaged fort and its structures will be
stabilized. Large grounds of the fort have
deteriorated.
THE
WATER SYSTEM
Nagaur being a desert region, faced water problems
from its inception. A special water system was
designed and the conservation project includes
documentation and restoration of the systems
CONSERVATION
EFFORTS
The Meherangarh museum trust took up the
restoration in 1988 Students of School of
Architecture under the guidance of Prof.
Jain did the documentation Later, with the
help of INTACH, some necessary repairs were
undertaken
