An encounter with the past..

Sardar Purandare Wada, Saswad

It was my final year of architecture- we had to select a topic for our thesis and for me, it was very clear that I wanted to work with a historic site. So the meticulous process of site searching began. Considering I reside in Pune, which is the cultural capital of Maharashtra, there is a lot of traditional architecture in the city. I needed a site that was unique, never been documented architecturally before, and considerably close to Pune- just to make the site visits easier.

After roaming around the city and combing through thesis books from pass-out students of other colleges, I found myself lost and had almost given up. My thesis guide then suggested to look up Sardar Purandare Wada. This wada (traditional dwelling) is located in the heart of Saswad, which is about 30 kilometers from Pune. I got in contact with the then heir, and asked for his permission for visiting the wada, and potentially coming up with detailed drawings.

I took 3 of my classmates with me for the documentation as the wada complex is pretty huge. We got down at the main ST bus stand and walked for about 10 minutes down the main road which was busy with the day’s hustle and bustle. You couldn’t miss it! Just from a distance, you could see this huge fortified wada towering over the modern buildings.

The caretaker took us to the wada, there is an old Ganpati Mandir built by Ambaji Purandare which is accessible for all through the outside.

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We entered the main gate to a vast ground on the right side and the fortified walls surrounding the wada, with bastions and an iron-spiked gate on the left. He opened the lock on the wicket door on the gate and we entered into a dark devdi (antechamber), with a ceiling of about 7m. This led up to a small open space with a small aangan to your left, a barracks room to the right, and the main wada straight ahead.

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We then entered the main chowk (courtyard) of the wada. The caretaker said he’ll return in a few hours to lock it up and to just be careful as the structure was very old and dilapidated. As I stood in the chowk, I couldn’t believe I’d come this far! Although the wada was dilapidated, we could see how grand it was when it was built.

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Without wasting any time, we got to business, taking out measuring tapes and taking pictures. To measure any old building, you should know what measuring system they used because at that time the metric/feet system wasn’t in practice. My research came in handy here- back in the day, the measuring system khann was used which was basically the available size wooden beams came in and varied between 8-10 feet. That made it much easier to measure spaces because each point of intersection on the grid, i.e., the four corners of a khann were marked by a column. The structural framework of the wada is built in wood while the filler walls are constructed in brick.

I went on making a rough plan and clicking photos and noticed a hierarchy in spaces. The ground floor has a lot of public and semi-private spaces (such as the chowk, osari, living areas, kitchen, howd (water cistern), vihir (private well), toilets, etc. whereas the upper floors were more for private use.

The thickness of the walls contributed to the coolness of the interior of the wada. Most walls have aedicules and niches to facilitate storage and to house lamps. Kitchen walls were provided with a shaft within so as to ensure the kitchen enjoyed sufficient ventilation and to keep the food fresh. Staircases are single flight and located within the thickness of these walls. Walls were plastered with lime mortar and color was added later.

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On the first floor, there was a private jalsa (entertainment) hall for the Sardar and his guests where dances and performances took place. You can still see a platform for the dancers, the remnants of drapes, painting on the wall, and an old dyut ludo board, carved in the ground.

The other rooms were pretty much empty. On the second floor, I found a mill room with drawings of widows draped in red sarees and faces painted in black, grinding wheat to make flour. The cultural and social messages were clear here- widows were considered as outcasts and were often confined to an isolated space, given household tasks and did not get to leave the house or be seen in public.

This room led to the terrace- the terrace has a passage which runs along the entire complex with steps to guard towers and the fortified basalt walls. I walked along precariously as in many places the roof had collapsed in and the passage had given away. The view from up here is simply breathtaking, you can see clearly for miles!

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Apart from this, I also came across basements- the walls had fallen in but people say that these were secret passages that connected the wada to Jadhavgadh, which is about 7km away- that means an hour and a half walk through a tunnel!

The austerity of the façade is relieved in part by the patterns of embrasures in brickwork for guns and murder holes.

The bricks used back then were flatter and hence known as pustaki vita (book-bricks).

The monotony of the brick external façade was relieved by bands of relief work and diaper motifs executed in brick and tile.

We were done with initial drawings, and the caretaker returned in the evening to lock up. During the measuring and photo-taking we noticed a lot of film equipment lying about, and when we asked him about it he said they were shooting a horror film there. And guess which film that was? They were shooting the recently released period horror film Tumbbad! You can see a lot of this wada in the movie, which somehow makes me very happy and proud. I did feel a bit eerie on the second floor in the widows’ room, the floor was poorly lit, silent, and very intimidating.

It took a lot of time and effort to come up with existing and proposed drawings but honestly, it was worth the effort. I feel satisfied that I took on the challenge, and that a piece of history got documented.
Numerous wadas in Pune are being torn down or sold due to maintenance costs. We are losing some really good traditionally and architecturally significant structures and slowly we’ll be left with none. It is crucial for the government along with the public to come up with solutions to preserve these heritage structures. Every house has a story, and this one, in particular, had a lot to say. It is our job to share that story with everyone.

“A house can have integrity, just like a person; and just as seldom.” 
-Howard Roark, The Fountainhead

P.S.- Feel free to leave down a comment with your questions and I’ll do my best to answer it 🙂