Even though life and atmosphere in villages have a lot to share in common, but compared to the pastoral ambiance, architecture and construction style of Indian villages, villages in Kashmir stand apart for their unique features and traits. Pertinently, what strikes a wonder with the life in villages of Kashmir is the outstanding and distinctive traditional art and architecture of the houses. Kashmiri villages have got their own style, structure and architecture, when we match the construction plan outset of our villages’ with the rest of India.
Let’s take village houses as an example, these are the most glorious aspect of a pastoral life as from times immemorial, they have been providing shelter to their inmates. But, with the passage of time as the construction boom assumed a gigantic proportion, the antiquity, signified by the muddy and thatched houses in villages was hampered. From concrete buildings to sky piecing skyscrapers, construction witnessed a boom and a huge chunk of population, after migrating from villages to cities began to live in lofty mansions as is the norm of living in an advanced city.
As a result of the so-called modernism, it is difficult to explore such a classical village these days. But still in the distant corners of the valley, there are few certain evidences found which exhibit the classical architecture and plan of classical village architecture. The interesting feature of an old village is its mud and thatch houses, sometimes covered over by wooden shingles. Mud houses are hardly seen anywhere now.
The traditional plans and designs have been discontinued. The few thatched houses still seen in distant villages have been consigned to oblivion. Their survival is at stake as nobody would like to live in them. People who still live in such mud houses would also soon dismantle them. Sir Walter Lawrence, the British missionary in his monumental book ‘valley of Kashmir’ has given an interesting picture of village houses. He writes, “The houses are made of un-burnt bricks set in wooden frames, and timber of cedar, pine and fir. The roofs are pointed to throw off snow. The thatch is usually of straw. Rice straw is considered to be the best material but in the vicinity of the lakes, reeds are used. Near the forests the roofs are made of wooden shingles, and the houses are real log huts, the walls being formed of whole logs laid one upon another, like the cottage of the Russian peasantry.”
Almost all the village houses were rectangular in plan facing commonly to south and rarely to east, but never to north or west. The site plan of the houses used to be measured in Asta’s (a local measuring unit equivalent to 2 ft). The plinth was formed of local stones called Kashir Ken (a bolder stone) usually extracted from Nallah beds. Over the plinth was placed a row of wooden logs, called locally as Das. It served as a DPC which locked the plinth. The Das was followed by brick pillars. The plinth was kept wide so that brick pillars stand on that; the minimum width of the walls measured one gaz (about one meter).
The gaps in between the brick pillars were covered by Inderdus (earthen wall formed by wooden moulds). The linters were pieces of wooden logs or axe cut planks placed on row of wooden logs called Ked. It served as the lock of entire structure. Like towns and cities the villagers also preferred to have their houses double and triple storied. The ground was usually occupied by cattle while other two successive floors by the inmates.
The upper floor called Kani was used in summer while the first storey was useful for winters. There were various rooms of the house like: Tanab (Common room), Dankuth (Kitchen), Bankuth (Store room), Gaan (Cattle room), Mandow (A big room), Paechh Kuth (Guest room) and Moar (Pen).
Unfortunately this classical heritage has almost extinguished and nowadays hardy any rare evidences of this built heritage is seen anywhere. Steps are required to be taken to identify such classical wonders and preserve those for the posterity so that the coming generations can also have glimpses of this heritage.
Village tourism
The villages not only house unadulterated and virgin places for sight-seeing, but the cultural and traditional way of life is certainly of incredible value to tourists with such taste. The villages have distinctive social, cultural and architectural fabric, never to be found in the urban and semi-urban areas, and have the potential to hook a number of tourists. But to realize such a dream, the government and the other concerned departments must realize the fact that much needs to be done to advertise Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Dal and other known destinations on the national and international levels. In fact the kind of concrete jungles that have come up at the above mentioned places have already mauled the chastity of nature at these places. There have been discussions and decisions regarding reviving the Village Tourism in Kashmir and numerous villages have also been declared as ‘Tourist Villages’. It is not that Kashmir has stopped receiving tourists but the very potential of our picturistic valley remains unexplored to its full potential. Infrastructure is not the only requirement for reviving the village tourism. Credible campaigning is also required for such a venture.
(Author is Senior Archaeologist and columnist. Email: [email protected])
