The Painted Havelis of Shekhawati

Most of the 2,000 odd Havelis of Shekhawati surviving today are in ruins; often the fading murals covered with a fresh coat of whitewash.

The decline of an empire ushers in profound changes in society. The downfall of the Mughal empire by the early years of the 18th century and the contemporaneous rise of the British was no different. The general transformation across South Asia was mirrored by events in the Shekhawati area of north-eastern Rajasthan. This area was named after Rao Shekha (1433-1488), a chieftain from the Kachwaha Rajput kingdom of Amer. Rao Shekha gradually pushed out the resident Khamkhani Muslim Nawabs, who claimed descent from Chauhan Rajputs, to establish the kingdom of Shekhawati or the ‘Garden of the Shekha’. After the death of Shardul Singh in 1472, the kingdom, nominally under the control of Amer/Jaipur but largely independent, was divided among his five sons, who set up their independent Thikanas or principalities. These Thikanas and their associated small towns were developed in a competitive environment but shared a unity of purpose.

Important trade routes passed through this area from the ports of Surat and Sindh to Delhi and the northern plains. The significant trading centres on these routes were Jaipur and Bikaner. Both those centres, owing to the financial stress of their respective ruling families, increased the levies on the trading caravans to an unsustainable level. The newly emerging towns of Shekhawati of that era gained in prominence as the alternate trading centres at the cost of the established ones. A large number of merchant families from the surrounding areas migrated into Shekhawati leading to a phenomenal economic growth of these small mercantile towns between 1740 and 1800.

The 13,000 square kilometre Shekhawati area, falling within the triangle formed by Delhi, Jaipur and Bikaner and comprising of the current districts of Churu, Jhunjhunu and Sikar of Rajasthan saw its visionary feudal rulers actively encouraging the merchants to settle in its iconic small towns like Nawalgarh, Mandawa, Fatehpur, Dundlod, Lakshmangarh, Juhunjhunu, Mukundgarh, Alisar, etc. Being familiar with the planned city of Jaipur they adopted a similar model to develop their new towns. The typical settlement pattern was a fortified palace in the centre as the residence of the ruling Thakur and then a walled city around it laid in a grid pattern with provision for Havelis of the merchants, caravanserais, bazaars, gardens and water harvesting structures of stepped wells and tanks. The perimeter walls of each town usually had imposing gates in the four cardinal directions.

The enterprising traders of these towns paid a levy to the local rulers on the opium, indigo, grains and later cotton that they traded in, and also acted as money lenders to the ruling Thakurs and others. Organised in extended joint families, with a cooperative bond of trust and mutuality within the community, they conducted their commercial operations through family members and relatives stationed at important points on the overland trading routes. Prestige and reliability of the competing merchant families, being a significant variable for attracting trade, was sought to be projected through the grandeur of their Havelis that were lavishly decorated with colourful frescoes and murals.

The hectic construction activity, funded by the profits of the flourishing trade, attracted skilled craftsmen to the Shekhawati region. The initial painters were Muslims adept at Mughal miniatures and artists from Jaipur. Soon enough the local Kumhars, who were initially engaged as masons for the construction of these Havelis, over time developed expertise in decorating them also. These skilled craftsmen and the motifs that they developed, for not just the Havelis but also the substantial public works were undertaken, defined the emerging cultural landscape of Shekhawati, remnants of which are still visible today in the midst of these now commercially insignificant small towns dotted all over that region.

This was a passing phase which technological developments and political changes in the first half of the 19th century put an end to. The gradually declining Mughal control and incursions by the Marathas led to a deterioration of the law and order with the Pindari bandits increasingly disrupting the movement of the trade caravans. The British progressively diverted trade to their newly developed seaports of Calcutta and Bombay introduced steamboats along the Ganga for the movement of trade goods and started laying their railway network. Both Jaipur and Bikaner, under their respective treaties with the British, reduced the levy on trade, to re-emerge as attractive business centres. This transformed trading environment altered the prevailing pattern of the overland trade and Shekhawati soon lost its earlier economic base.

The merchant class, with their frugal and austere lifestyle, and not inclined to invest in landholdings, was always enterprising as businessmen, and to a great extent were mobile. Just as they had come to Shekhawati sensing the commercial opportunity there, they could very well move out. And so, they did, though not entirely. The youth moved to Calcutta, Bombay and to locations along the Ganga trade route to set up agencies there in a symbiotic trade partnership with the East India Company. From commission agents, they graduated to becoming traders in their own right and then, under the British sovereign rule, increasingly forayed into manufacture and industry. Besides periodic visits, they would come back to their ‘homeland’ of Shekhawati only after retirement from work. The women and the children stayed back all along in their magnificent Havelis in Shekhawati.
From the mid-19th century onwards, the family members venturing out to the new trading centres initially relied on the support base of the community members already there, and then progressed to setting up independent businesses of their own. The family ties were strong and the business ventures in those far-flung areas would, in effect, be branches with the capital and manpower moving out to the branches and profits in the opposite direction to the patriarch of the family stationed in Shekhawati. There was a competitive desire to showcase the prosperity of their foreign businesses back in Shekhawati, primarily through the construction of grand Havelis. In addition, the religious and social compulsion was to create elaborate chhatris (cenotaphs in the shape of elevated dome-shaped pavilions) in memory of their ancestors, temples for the Kul Devi (family deity), wells, Dharamshala or guesthouses and gaushalas or cow shelters. Thus, in spite of commerce having largely moved out of Shekhawati, from the 1850s to 1930, the emigrant merchants ensured that the building activities continued in Shekhawati and that too, on a larger scale than before.

The format of the Havelis was fairly uniform. They typically had a high rectangular wall enclosing the haveli with a large carved wooden gate facing the street that was usually locked from inside with only a smaller opening on the left panel through which the servants and visitors could enter. Inside, there would be a porch where the accountants would sit in small enclosures alongside the entrance passage with perhaps musicians playing from open enclosures above them at the first-floor level. The entrance passage led into an open to sky mud floored courtyard where ritual havans (fire worship) would occasionally be performed. Two large halls on either side of this courtyard were meant for the use of the menfolk of the household and for the visitors coming to the haveli to conduct business with them.

Across the courtyard was another large carved wooden door known as the Toran Gate leading into the ladies’ chamber. This gate would have multiple torans above it in symbolic memory of each daughter of the house who had been given in marriage. Beyond it was again an open courtyard for the use of the women. Around this inner courtyard, there would be a kitchen, a small room to store water, pooja room, storeroom and perhaps a room for resting in the daytime. Staircases led to the first floor where all the bedrooms were located around the open to sky courtyard. Married women would hardly ever leave the ladies’ section of the house. A narrow stretch alongside the haveli and inside the boundary wall would be used as the dry toilet area, while a larger open space adjacent to the haveli, known as the ‘Nora’ had rooms for the servants, storage space for goods and also space for cattle and other animals. Of course, a few larger Havelis had more than two courtyards catering to larger joint families or perhaps simply to demonstrate their builder’s larger wealth.

Using natural dyes, the frescoes and murals were painted on the topmost lime plastered layer of the inner and the outer walls while they were still wet so that the dyes used on combining with the atmospheric carbon dioxide got fixed to the surface to retain their vibrancy that is still visible today. Only by the early 20th century, synthetic paints manufactured in Germany also began to be used. The paintings were organised in discrete rectangles next to each other. The themes captured in the paintings included geometric and floral patterns derived from Muslim art, well known incidents from the epics Mahabharat and Ramayan, a profusion of Krishna images usually with Radha and the other gopikas, other gods and goddesses, subjects from local folk stories, battle scenes, festivals, depictions of daily activities as well as portraits of their patrons and other dignitaries. There is no formal school of painting, the artists expressed their quirky ideas quite freely. With photographic and printed images available, the artists also incorporated many European men and women in their repertoire along with the contraptions associated with them like aircraft, ships, railway trains, bicycles, gramophones, accordions, etc.

The erstwhile emigrant Marwari, a term used not just for the merchants originating from Shekhawati alone but in general from northern Rajasthan, saw manufacturing and industry as a profitable venue for the deployment of the surplus capital generated from their trading activities. Such was their success in this new field that the Birlas, Singhanias, Poddars, Dalmias, Goenkas, Sarafs, Jhunjhunwalas, Modis and others, all hailing from Shekhawati, became well-known names across India. Local folklore believes that at the time of India’s Independence there were 22 crorepati families among the Marwari diaspora from Shekhawati. A Government of India report in 1964 found that 38 per cent of the total assets in the country were owned collectively by 10 prominent families originating from Shekhawati.

Due to pressing business compulsions outside of Shekhawati, the regular visits to their ancestral homes became increasingly difficult for the wealthy Marwari emigrants. Railway lines reaching Shekhawati by the 1920s once again brought profound changes to the social environment there. It provided safe passage from Shekhawati to Calcutta and other business centres, and using them, the families also gradually moved out to join their husbands.

By the mid-20th century, the grand Havelis, no longer permanently occupied for personal residence by their owners, still retained an emotional and a ritual significance for these families. They kept coming back for performing the marriage ceremonies taking place in the family and for the mundan (first haircut of a child) ceremony. However, the younger generations, with the passage of time, were less inclined to continue to undertake that emotion-driven journey and the havelis were increasingly left in the custody of caretakers. They wear a forlorn look today, being in various stages of disrepair. A few have been painstakingly restored and serve as museums, significant examples being the Poddar and Murarka Havelis of Nawalgarh. Others have been restored and converted into heritage hotels and homestays but most of the 2,000 odd Havelis of Shekhawati surviving today are in ruins; often the fading murals covered with a fresh coat of whitewash.

The painted Havelis of Shekhawati do attract some Europeans as a tourist destination but adequate amenities for them are lacking. Development of the area as a heritage centre is difficult because almost all the Havelis are privately owned. Abandoned and forgotten by their wealthy owners, and crumbling due to the ravages of time, this important cultural heritage tucked away in a nondescript corner of Rajasthan may soon be irretrievably lost to us.