I walk into a street and reach a small rectangular space, a cul-de-sac, about 20 paces wide. About five doorways that seem to have been locked since quite some years have access to that tiny courtyard. The guide however ushers me through a narrow metal grill gate into a passageway which is wide just enough to let only one person cross through. This, the guide tells me is the secret alley that leads to another wider street and more cluster of houses.
Old Ahmedabad on the eastern banks of Sabarmati River is defined by a jigsaw of many such narrow pathways that lead through one cluster of housing to another. The interconnected cluster housing is what Amdavadis call ‘Pol'. There are approximately 360 Pol in old Ahmedabad. Derived from Sanskrit word ‘Pratoli', the Pol usually consists of twenty or more houses with common side walls and are placed around a central courtyard. Each house rises up to two or more floors and most have their own private courtyard called ‘chowk' surrounded by rooms.
With Gujarat always falling first in the path of invaders, constructing houses in such clusters that were connected through passageways camouflaged as narrow doors was an effective strategy for quick escape. Even during the war between Marathas and Mughals, the inhabitants of one Pol could escape the communal riots through such narrow pathways.
A Community Within a Community
Each pol is similar to a gated housing society of modern times with the difference that residents usually belong to same community or trade or religion. A thick wall with a not too big a gate and a room with window on top for the guard became the entrance through the winding streets. A small temple and a bird feeding platform ‘chabutro' is omnipresent in most of the pols as is the common courtyard. This courtyard becomes a binding space for members to gather in evenings in open air or a safe play area for kids or a festive preparation place for women of the pol. Most houses in the pol are built with wood beams alternating with bricks making the houses resilient to earthquakes. The projected chhajjas and balconies were mostly embellished with wooden carved brackets and cornices with richer owners having more intricate timber designs. Almost each house of the pol also managed to store drinking water in an underground water reservoir in the ‘chowk'.
The Pol architecture makes for an interesting study for evolution in urban living spaces. While the cluster housing provided a safe, cohesive community space, the houses in each pol have another story to tell. With almost zero cross ventilation, narrow entrance and small courtyards, it becomes stifling hot and humid during summer and rainy seasons. Over the years the houses in some pol that are 100 years or more old have also developed cracks and seepage forcing some residents to sell their houses and move to newer parts of Ahmedabad.
The maze of Pols of old Ahmedabad is included in the World Heritage list. While it indeed needs to be conserved, there is an urgent need of renovation too lest we lose this splendid system to forces of nature.