VOHRA HOUSES IN GUJARAT

Balkrishna V. DoshiVastu Shilpa Fundation

AssociatesMuktiraj ChauanPragnesh Parikh

Dawoodi Vohras are Shia's of theMustalian division of Islamic sect,numbering more than a million inIndia and abroad. As early as 765A.D., upon the death of Jaafar Sa-dik, the sixth Imam, dispute aroseregarding the successor. Amongthem the majority supported MusiKazim, the second son of Jaafarand become known as Isna-Ashari.Later, the supporters of Musi's ne-phew started a distinct Ismailigroup in Egypt, rose to great powerand flourished untill 1094 A.D..There are two differing beliefs re-garding the origin of the Vohras inIndia. According to some histo-rians, the eighteenth Imam, Al Mu-stansir Billah, sent his Dai-ul-Mutlaq, Maulai Ahmed to India in

ISHijari 467 (1047 A.D.) to propogate

This religious complex is located between the old and the new Vohrwards at Siddhpur. Amongthe twenty settlements visitedfor this study, it is only at Siddhpur that all the community buil-dings occur as a group.The complex comprises a mosque, a lecture hall for religious discourses,a hallfor communitygatherings on social occasions, a travellers lodge and the local priests house with an admini-strative officefor community institutions. The buildings have came up at intervals and there-fore, the complex does not show attempt at any kind of organization. The following is a briefnote on the buildings in the complex.The mosque is approached through a gate in the eastern wall of the complex. The gate issitua-ted along the central axis of the mosque which remains constantly in view as one approachesit. The approach terminates into a flight of steps leading to the high plinth of the court.Beyond this court is the spacious prayer hall. The ground floor of the prayer hall is used bymen anda mezzanine level is used by women. Earlier the mosque had two minaret on either si-des. A third minarete of similar design has been recently added in the centre.Jamatkhana - Community hall the Community hall is located along the southern wall of themosque. It is generally usedfor community dinners. A large court in the middle houses a drin-king water place. The kitchen is situated along the eastern wall. This hall isfrequently used onsocial, religious as well as cultural occasions. the practice of community dinners indicates thestrong ties of unity in Vohra community. (Fig. 68).

Vohrwad entrance gate. (Fig. 69).

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rrrTKapadvanj is located 60 kms east of Ahme-dabad. As is the case with Siddhpur, fromKapadvanj too, most Vohras have migratedto larger urban settlements. At Kapadvanj,the Vohra dwellings are grouped in two di-stinctly different clustering patterns. Of the-se two clusters, the earlier one, Nani (small)Vohrwad's growth was adhoc and it has amore organic character with meanderinggtreets.Voti (large) Vohrwad which came up laterTeems properly planned with sub-streetsbranching out at perpendicular to the mainstreet. A clock tower above the entrance portto the mosque dominates the street in the4oti Vohrwad. A drinkm g water place is si-tuated near the porch where the street wi-dens.

Approach to both these. Vohrwads isthrough a massive double gate with two ar-ched entrance.A large occurs before the gate. Above thisgate is the local priest's house and as can beseen in the plan, community buildings are lo-cated right next to it, accessible from boththe streets. The commanding position of thepriest in community thus finds a physicalespression in this case. An internal link un-der the gate facilitates movement betweenthe two Vohrwads when the gates linkingwith the town are closed. (Fig. 70)

A street in old vohrwad, Khambhat. (Fig.71).

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the religion in the eastern countries.The Dai landed at Khambhat, thena prosperous port town of Gujarat.He stayed here for a long time andstudied the local language, cultureand religion. Influenced by his wi-sdom, Balamnath and Rupnath,two Hindu boys travelled to Missr(Egypt) with him on his return jour-ney. There they were converted tothe Islamic faith and baptised asAbdullah and Nuruddin respective-ly; and educated to propogate Islamin India. According to another be-

Street facade, Ahmedabad. (Fig. 72).

Entrance portico, Siddhpur. (Fig. 73).

Facade detail, Siddhpur. (Fig. 74).

This 80 years old house is an archetypal example of the space divisions evolved by Vohras within a row house system. Note the use of screenand a shifted entrance axis to the inner domain from dehli and light wooden screens to divide the spaces. (Fig. 75).

A navkhand, niche of nine squares always found in a Vhora family room. (Fig. 76).

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lief, during the reign of Al Mustan-sir Billah, it was decided to sendmissionaries beyond the valley ofSindu and two eminent Dais, Mau-lai Abdullah, were sent to Indiafrom Egypt via Yemen. Theirtombs at Khambhat are visited bythe Dawoodis even today as placesof pilgrimage.Maulai Abdullah subsequently set-tled at Khambhat, learnt the locallanguage and acquired the knowled-ge about lifestyles, culture and reli-gions of the native Hindus. In thosedays, a Hindu saint was the objectof general faith. Opposing him wasdangerous, so, Abdullah becamehis disciple. His wisdom impressedthe saint and he was allowed to re-fer holy books on Hinduism.Through his study of Hinduism,Abdullah prevailed upon the sainton religious premise, and convertedhim to Islam. Following this, manyof the saint's followers adopted thenew faith. Later, witnessing moremiracles, even the ministers of theking, and the king himself adoptedIslam. This, accelerated the rate ofconversion. As observed by SatishMisra, in his book 'Muslim commu-nities in India', 'the first penetra-tion of Islam in India was peacefuland the rise of this new communitywas imperceptible'.It is difficult to establish correctlythe actual number of early convertsin Gujarat. According to Mausam-i-Bahar, on a single day at Patan,260 pounds of (Janoi) sacred Dertail of stair railing. (Fig. 77).

threads worn by Hindus were taken Right above. House of shamsuddin adenwala, vadodara, 1880. This two bay wide houseoff upon their embracing Islam. shows a definite improvement in the plan organization: at the groundfloor the spaces are con-

strained by the heavy masonry walls; however at first foors the use of wooden partitions al-lThe number of new converts kept ows to make large and small rooms as specifically required. (Fig. 78).

rising continuously for the next 250years, untill about 1380 A.D..Most of these converts were fromthe poor and middle class strata ofthe society. The democratic premiseof Islam with an emphasis on equa-lity among people had a greater ap-

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Right. House of Shabbir Jilal, Surat, 1864.Among the one bay houses this is the largestone. Its extra width has allowed location ofseveral additional stairs independent of therooms. This has facilitated undisturbed useof rooms and easy linkage between thefloors. (Fig. 79).

peal to the lower castes and othersubcastes, of the Hindus. SinceIslam had originated among theprefeudal trading classes of Meccaand other desert nomads of Arabia,maturated in feudal environment ofPersia, the Islamic sect imbided ma-ny a progressive element of the reli-gious and cultural outlook of theseregions. While in India, the Hindutraders were having conflicts notonly with the feudal lords but alsowith those who were lower in the ca-ste hierarchy, like the untouchables.As a result, the traders were moreinclined to adopt Islam with itsstrong sense of equality.This could be the main reason forconversions mainly among the tra-ding castes. To transact or to tradein the local language means 'Vohr-vu' and, people engaged in trade be-came to be known as Vohras, alsowritten as Bohras. From the scruti-ny of some of the social practices ofthis community and from Mirat-i-Ahmadi, a book written in the 17thcentury, it is found that the Brah-min and bania traders were alsoconverted to this new faith.

Habitat characteristics.

The residential zones in traditionalIndian settlements comprise distinctneighbourhoods linked by the city'sthorough-fares. These neighbour-hoods are characteristed by an in-trovert organization with an entran-ce gate. Religious and other com-munity buildings, large and smallopen spaces for festive occasionsare located within the neighbour-hood to enable a full social life wi-thin it.Such an introvert, physical layoutevolved as a response to the generalinsecurity in the mediaeval times.Amongst the Hindus these neigh-bourhoods were formed on the ba-

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As above, court-wellfrom the ravas on thefirst floor. (Fig. 80).

sis of castes and sub-castes. Thismeant, that in each neighbourhood,the inhabitants would be persuingthe same occupation, as well as thesocial and religious practices pecu-liar to that sub-caste or occupation.Physically, these neighbourhoodsare a closed system of streets ap-proached through a gate from thecity throughfares. Two to three sto-reyed houses open directly into themeandering narrow streets whichwiden at intervals to form spacesfor the community activities and thecommunity buildings.It was natural for the Vohras toform their own neighbourhoods,known as a Vohrwad, in such a con-text. Distinct Vohrwads were obser-

ved in all the settlements visited forthis study in the Gujarat state.The Vohras are a minority commu-nity in India and the need for secu-rity is strongly felt by them. Theirsocio-cultural and religious practi-ces also demand the location oftheir houses in the close vicinity oftheir priest's residence, the mosqueand the community hall. As most ofthem are traders, and frequentlytravel to other towns for business,they prefer that their family mem-bers should stay amongst membersof their community. All these fac-tors gave rise to the 'Vohrward' as adistinct sector of a town. It was ob-served during the study that theVohrwards from different settle-

ments fall in two categories basedon their physical layout.One, an organic development cha-racteristic of the traditional citypattern and, the other, a gridironlayout based on the right angle geo-metry. However, both the develop-ments still maintain a closed-systemof streets, substreets and small openspaces accessible only through a ga-te linking the city thoroughfaresand the over all urban fabric.Almost all the Vohrawads whichare more than 100 years old, evol-ved organically within the confinesof the available land in the fortifiedcity.In the second half on 19th century,the Britishers consolidated their

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hold in India and relatively peacefulenvironment prevailed. The Voh-ras' contacts with Britishers, andexposure through travel abroad,must have led to the creation of thesecond category of Vohrwads. The-se newer Vohrwads generally occuradjacent to an old Vohrwad on thefringe of the settlements. Not con-strained by the shape and size of theland, Vohras could lay out theseclusters in a gridiron pattern.The main buildings include; a mo-sque, the assembly hall for religiousdiscourses, the local priests' house,a travellers' lodge and communityhall for cerimonial occasions espe-cially the commensal dinners on va-rious occasions such as the birthday

of the local priest, the first ten daysof Mahorram or the anniversary ofa saint etc..

The House

A typical Vohra house is distingui-shed by it's facade decoration, thetreatment of the openings and richmaterials of construction. Apartfrom a typical space use pattern di-scriminating between the privateand semi-public domain, the basicplan of a Vohra house is found tobe very much similar to that of Hin-du house which, conforms to thegeneral pattern of a mediaeval townhouses in a row, sharing two wallswith the adjoining units. In a Vohra

dwelling the typical space organiza-tion is as described below.At the ground level one enters thehouse through a portico raisedabout 75 cms above the street level.Through the main door, one stepsinto an anteroom, known as 'Delhi'separated by a light screen from theinner court to ensure privacy insidethe house. This space usually hou-ses a stair which directly leads to theupper floors. Visitors are directlyled upto the formal sitting room onthe first floor from here. Next theopen to sky court houses all the ser-vices on its side walls.The space immediately after thecourt is fully open on the courtsideand refered to as 'baharni parsal',

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meaning external portico. This isfollowed by a room known as 'an-darni parsal', meaning internal por-tico. Such a seemingly incongruousdesignation of these space is withreference to last room of the house,known as 'ordo' which is the sanc-tum of Vohra family's life.For all practical purposes on theground floor, the Vohra family on-ly uses the spaces which are afterthe inner court. And, with this asreference, the space immediatelyfollowing the court becomes an ex-ternal portico, followed by an innerportico and then the family room-ordo.The upper floors are normally orga-nized as independent rooms on ei-ther sides of the court around whichthe services are located. In case of ahouse with more than one upperfloors the stair is also found to belocated in the area around thecourt. This space is known as 'ra-vas'. On the top floor, the ravasarea becomes a terrace seperatingthe rooms in the front and at theback. A double lean-to roof overboth these rooms allows an atticspace underneath which is known as'daglo'.Contrary to the other communities,the Vohras rarely use the raised,street side portico. While it is usedextensively by other communitiesfor various activities like by eldersto while away their time and thechildren to play, the Vohras desistfrom this. This may be due to grea-ter confinement of the women folkin the social set up of Vohras.Once inside, the anteroom serves asthe second buffer between the innerdomain and external domain. Gene-rally light wooden screens are pla-ced to avoid a clear view into thehouse from the street. This also ser-ves as brief meeting point betweenthe men folk and the casual visitors.

Neighbourhood showing house of Rupawa-la. (Fg. 82).

House of Zohar Rupawala, Ahmedabd,1730. Located next to a mosque in a clusterof Vohra houses known as. Saifee mohallathe plan exibits an interesting solution to thesite conditions. The entrance gate to the clu-ster has on its upper level a house beloging tothe mosque. (Fig. 83).

Staircase to the first floor is locatedhere which directly leads the gueststo first floor sitting room. On theground floor, beyond the ante-room, is the family domain intowhich only the close relatives andfamily friends are invited.Open to sky court situated next,helps ventilate the whole house besi-des letting in light on all floors. Thekitchen and other services are loca-ted around the court. The court as

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well as the baharni parsal are usedfor dining and lounging. All dome-stic activities are also carried out he-re. 'Bethak', a large wooden plat-form with storage underneath and asoft cushion on the top is a domi-nant piece of furniture in this space.Family's elders while away their ti-me here in the midst of the domesticactivities. These spaces actually arethe hub of the family world andused throughout the day. Next, the

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wa- andarni parsal, being covered, ex-tends the use in monsoon when the

'ad, court is unusable.steralla Andarni parsal often has a swingthe which is a popular device in hot cli-o/u-

to mates to keep cool. This space isused predominanty as a familylounging space during the hot after-noons. Beyond the andarni parsal,the house ends in a room, which isthe family's living room. Known as'ordo', this room is richly decoratedwith seating arrangements in tradi-tional style on the floor. The cup-board on the extreme rear wall ofthis 'room' is always designed inIslamic traditions representing theconcept of nine squares known as'navkhand'. Such a cupboard withintricate carvings is an inseparablecomponent of a Dawoodi's house.This space is generally used to en-tertain close relatives, and familyfriends and for sleeping.Generally a service lane separatesthe next parallel row of houses.This barely ensures ventilation. Thelevel of natural illumination is ex-tremely low in this room on theground floor. In case of a housewith a back yard, the light in theroom is satisfactory.The first floor is reached by a stairfrom the anteroom at ground floor.From the first floor upwards, thestair is often provided near thecourt, allowing for an independentuse of the rooms on its either sides.

;ed A large room at the back on this le-ie- vel is generally used as a formal li-le- ving area and guests are entertainedat- here. The windows generally havei a double shutters, one of wood andni- the other of stained glass. The roomce. in the front is generally used as ati- multi-purpose space and sometimestic has a covered balcony.Ire It is in facades that the Vohra hou-nd ses built early this century largely.he differ from the Hindu houses as

well as of the initial converts. Inthese facades variations of Euro-pean styles are dominant.The first converts continued to oc-cupy the Hindu houses with margi-nal changes within, hardly affectingthe facades. As their trade fluori-shed their dwellings and particular-ly the facade manifested their pro-sperity. At that stage, the modelavailable for the Vohras was thedwellings of rich Hindus. Predomi-nant use of wood and finely carvedelements of facades; columns, brac-kets, railings, window frames etc.can be observed in the house morethan 150 years old at Surat, Kapad-vanj and for example, in case ofRupwala house at Ahmedabad,where the decoration is very muchHindu.However, this only helped the Voh-ras to distinguish themselves fromthe poorer households but, not acommunity following a different re-ligion; being a minority communi-

As above, vwew of the court and baharnm par-salfrom Dehh. (Fig. 84).

ty, an urge for such manifestationmust have been very strong forthem.Discovery of European and Britishfacade treatment during their tra-vels abroad, as well as in the colo-nial architecture in India, providedthem an opportunity to further di-stinguish their dwellings from the

rich Hindus in the region and, theVohras adopted in en masse. By themid 19th century, the Britishers hadconsolidated their political and eco-nomic hold over large parts of Indiaand as partners in trade, Vohrasidentified themselves with the Briti-shers and broke the Hindu roots oftheir habitat. Eclectic adoption ofvarious European styles of facadesat the new Vohrwad, Siddhpur builtbetween AD 1890's to AD 1930's isa clear evidence of this process. Itwas learnt during the survey for thisstudy, that they even had Britishersadvising them during the design andconstruction of these houses. Thisprobably affected the choice of ma-terial which is no longer wood, butbrick masonry with stucco.In conclusion, our study shows thatthe Vohra houses have naturallyevolved in the context of the regionand it's traditional habitat pattern.Being Hindu converts, this evolu-tion appears to have been a slowprocess of modifying the space or-ganization and objects, and ele-ments of daily use, within the socialvalues and religious beliefs of theirnew religion.This process of evolution has beenmore of an additive nature, particu-larly in the basic plan of the houseand the arrangement of the decora-tion and elements of interior spacesand furniture which acquired sophi-stication in design and detailing.This is easily noticeable in the laterday house facades, furniture andfixtures, treatment of openings, in-ternal partitions and false ceilings.This superimposition of externaland internal changes on the basicplan can be attributed to the Britishinfluence on the Vohra communitydue to their trade relationship andan exposure to the British life stylein Europe.In the planning of the neighbour-

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hoods the introvert, security con-scious make up of the Vohra com-munity and its Hindu origin are ex-plicitly manifested. Unlike the Bri-tish colonial neighbourhoods, onehouse per a large plot on the out-skirts of existing mediaeval towns inIndia, the Vohras always built hou-ses in close-knit clusters in a rowhouse system. These were often,physically integrated with the exi-sting random patterns of the oldVohra neighbourhoods to obtain asocio-economic interdependanceand the social security. The Vohraneighbourhood is found to be simi-lar to Hindu ones rather then theBritish, indicating the lack of anymajor change in their outlook to li-fe and living. It is also an indica-tion, that the British influence wasperhaps superficial.For example, due to their exposureto the outside world Vohras laidnew residential development on arectilinear basis. In few instancesthe row houses even had controlledstreet facades. With the exceptionof few erstwhile princely rulers whoplanned their towns on Europeanmodels, these Vohrwards were thenthe only neighbourhoods in Gujaratlaid out geometrically.The British house was large in sizeand its verandahs adjoining the pe-ripheral rooms opened towards thegarden. The Vohra or the Hindushouse on the other hand was inwardlooking, towards the small internalcourt. They had limited externalopenings confined by the two thickparty walls.By and large, independent use of se-veral rooms is possible in case of thecolonial house, where as in the Voh-ra houses similar to the Hindu hou-se, all rooms occur along a singleaxis of movement, leaving only thelast room free of the general move-ment which can be used without di-

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Four houses in kutbi mohalla, Ahmedabad. 1750. (Fg. 85).

sturbance. This indicates the lowpriority given to degree of privacywithin the family unlike the colonialhouse. Since privacy vis-a-vis outsi-ders is of greater concern to Vohrasthan Hindus. And this is indicatedby a screen between the internalcourt and ante room, from wherethe visitors are directly led upstairsto the formal sitting room. Apartfrom these minor, localized addi-tions, the basic plan organizationremains the same as it's Hindu ori-gins.Even when opportunities were avai-lable, as in the case of house of Ta-herbhai Madraswala at Siddhpur,there is no effort at evolving a moresophisticated plan organization in-

spite of its larger width and locationfacilitating three open sides. As aresult even such a large house beco-mes 'twice' the traditional house. Itappears that the strong colonial in-fluence is only manifested in the de-coration of the interiors and thefurniture for identity purpose onlyto express their contact with the ex-ternal world, which dealt in busi-ness and economic status. Yet, basi-cally the inner beings of the Vohrasremained the same.As observed in the chart, the Hin-dus and the Vohras, being situatedin congested old city fabric, had tobuild houses with several storeys tomeet the area requirements. Forlight and ventilation, these houses

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Street facade of Dawoodi Vohra dwellings at Ahmedabad. (Fig. 86).

employed an open to sky courtthrough all the floors similar to oldHindu houses. On the other hand,the Britishers spread their houses onthe vast plot available to them andeliminated the internal court yards.However, there are examples of co-lonial houses where, by differingthe ceiling heights, better ventila-tion and light have been achieved tosatisfy the need for greater ventila-

tion in a hot humid climate.It can be said that over the centu-ries, Vohras have defenitely evolveda house character which is largelydistinct from that of other houses inthe region. The space use lattern,the treatment of the facades and thedecorations are characteristicallydifferent from a Hindu house. ThatVohras, in their search for a separa-te identity, judiciously utilized ele-

ments of European architecture viathe British influence. However, theinfluences have only been skindeep. No radical changes took placein the Vohra's social values and reli-gious beliefs and, this is reflected intheir habitat which basically re-mains very much the same as theHindu one of their origin, reflectingthe strong adherence to their tradi-tional way of life and thought.

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