Monumental Love

A run-down palace and a lake killed by sewage. What could turn this pair into a hot destination? NISHITA JHA recounts the epic adventure of restoring Jaipur’s Jal Mahal

Watery pleasures The Jal Mahal seen from the waterfront Photo: SURESH SHARMA

GUIDEBOOKS WILL tell you with confidence that Sawai Jai Singh built the Jal Mahal in Jaipur’s Man Sagar Lake in 1799 as a pleasure pavilion. It is a confidence that anyone who has studied the Jal Mahal will find enviable. Neither the dates, the purpose nor the creator of this floating palace can be confirmed. The term ‘pleasure pavilion too is one borrowed from the register of Victorian architects. What has been palpable instead was the frank stench that rose from the lake. And in the lake was a forgotten building that looked like the remains of Ms Havisham’s wedding.

Today, more esoteric questions of its origin and meaning can be raised because a remarkable conservation effort — the Jal Tarang Project — has restored the palace and its surroundings to definitive beauty. In 2007, when 38-year-old Rajeev Lunkad and his team took on the task of restoring the palace and its surrounding areas, the impossible feat before them was to return the Jal Mahal to its original self, using it to display traditional Rajasthani music and arts, against a stunning backdrop of sunken marble gardens, perfumed with champa, chameli and mogra. The team visualised the waterfront as a promenade with eateries and craft stalls, while the barren land adjacent would house an amphitheatre and two luxury hotels with a view of the lake.

Lunkad, architect and director of the Jal Tarang Project — the actual conservation effort — has many talents. But his greatest one must be the leap of imagination that allowed him to look at the wreck of the Jal Mahal and see it as a place that visitors will flock to. Until early 2007, Man Sagar lake was a drying swamp, clogged with venomous and hostile weeds. “It was the shame of Jaipur,” Mohanji, says a senior artist in the project. “You had to hold your breath just while going down the road which faces the lake — its stench was so foul.” Jal Mahal was overgrown with wild grass and vandalised by boastful lovers. Its façade was covered with dirty, peeling plaster — the result of previous restoration attempts. Then the Jal Tarang Valley project, a private company, took the palace and its surrounding 300 acres on a 99-year lease from the government for Rs 2.42 crore per year to turn it into an exceptional tourist hub. They sought out Lunkad. He smiles recalling the moment he first set eyes on the dilapidated building. “It was more of a challenge than an offer,” “But I could see what it once was, what it could become again — I couldn’t resist it.”

The Jal Mahal as it once was COURTESY: JAL TARANG VALLEY

Today, Jal Mahal has become something of a model for restoration projects, because of its commitment to traditional methods and for restoring the lake eco-system. In 2007, two of Jaipur’s largest drains emptied themselves in the lake. Hence, the bio-oxygen demand of the water was far above permissible limits, (800 mg/litre as opposed to the permissible 3 mg/litre) and there were enough chemicals to kill any signs of life. Under similar conditions in the Dal lake or the Kodai lake the solution was to cut off the sewage flow, set up a treatment plant and build a boundary wall. The solution is temporary and does not restore the ecosystem.

More complications. While the restoration of Jal Mahal is a collaboration of the Rajasthan Government, the Jaipur Development Authority and the Jal Tarang project — strangely no money was allotted to clean the lake by the government. Jain Associates shelled out Rs 7 crore and the team was, for the first time in India, able to clean a lake with methods that combined that both tradition and modernity. An expert panel of IIT professors conducted a hydrological study. The lake-bed was dredged and desilted. Then, a channel was created to divert the drain and storm water to a sedimentation basin. For generations in Rajasthan, water has been purified with this manner of basin — using just sand and rubble. Soon vegetation reappeared and environmentalists like Harsh Vardhan, who hold Jaipur’s annual ‘birding fair’ and Robert Oates of the Thames River Restoration Trust have been impressed at the swiftly growing bird population. Next step: foliage. The palace had an astonishing total of three eucalyptus trees. Here too the team displayed ingenuity rescuing trees about to be felled off the Delhi-Jaipur highway. The area now boasts of over a lakh rescued trees.

At last, the conservationists could return to the palace. Luckily, underneath the layers of plaster, the building itself turned out to largely undamaged, except for a few cracks along the stone pavings. The red sandstone palace was originally designed so the first four storeys could be completely submerged when the lake was full, leaving only the top-most floor exposed. The lower floors comprise of pristine marble pillars, white corridors and tiny chambers (to be converted into audio-visual rooms) and a staircase, which takes one into an octagonal sunken garden overlooking the lake.

The most back-breaking work has been the research involved to restore the monument to its original beauty rather than turning it into something ‘modern’. As conservationist Pramod Kumar KG, Managing Director, Eka resources, will tell you, conservation projects are plagued by problems. Indian architects’ unthinking devotion to European conservation concepts is only one. Two, traditional Indian architects did not use blueprints. Even Lunkad’s passionate researchers, architect Vibhuti Sachdev and historian Giles Tillotson (authors of Building Jaipur) have been unable to unearth any reference image of the Jal Mahal. “All our research was done through Mughal miniatures and other monuments. For instance, a pattern that appears as part of a lattice in some other monument was carefully re-created to make the railing for our balcony,” says Lunkad. Three, to recreate the original you need both the traditional materials and workers — both rare. The project is a story of many inspired collaborations — American landscapers, Indian lighting designers and the living memories of elderly local artists such as Mohanji and Gopalji.

Photo: JOCELYN BAUN

TODAY, SEEING the painstakingly meticulous work at the Mahal is in itself a mode of time travel — to a time before assembly-line designs took over our aesthetic. The plaster for repairing the damaged walls alone takes a whole year to prepare. Gopalji, 80, and his team use mortar mixed with lime, sand, surkhi, gur (jaggery), guggal and methi (cumin) to make this plaster, which takes a day to dry. It is then polished inch by inch with small agate stones. One chamber is covered in intricate Mughal paintings, another with dazzling gold-leaf work. The third and fourth awaits lapis lazuli and burnished brass.

Jal Mahal is expected to open by October. The project will be completed (amphitheatre, hotels et al) by 2013. In spite of all the money that’ll be finally spent (Rs 524 crore), Lunkad doesn’t consider it a particularly lavish project. “You realise when you come here it’s a small price to pay. Who remembers what the point of a garden was? We wanted to create something that could make anyone feel like a king. Building malls, we have forgotten the real meaning of pleasure,” he says. For now, as the sun sets, the marble glows with inlaid lights. The soothing sound of fountains and the heady perfume of flowers make one forgets the world across the lake. In the heart of a chaotic city — one experiences an opulent, voluptuous pleasure.

WRITER’S EMAIL: nishita@tehelka.com