[Abha Sharma]

Development or Evolution of Pink City Jaipur


Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II established the city of Jaipur. He changed his capital from Amber to Jaipur for some Military and Geographical Reasons.

A natural ridge runs across the plain, N of the road and parallel to it, in a roughly EW alignment (with deviation of 15 deg. from the cardinal axes). The area to its S is flat while that to its N slopes down gently. In Shastric terms, this is an ideal arrangement as declivity towards  the north-east Is considered the best site. The point of intersection of the city’s main cross-roads are called chaupar. The intersection of the axes to define the Badi Chaupar (City Square).  Division in to eight portions, ends of the roads marked by Gates in the City Wall.

[Abha Sharma]

Plan of Jaipur is a grid of 3x3 with gridlines being the city’s main streets.

•  The central axis of the town was laid from East to West between the gates of the Sun(Suraj pol) and the moon(Chandpol) 
  

• This was crossed by two roads at right angles dividing the town into nine almost square, almost equally sized blocks, which were further sub divided by lanes and alleys all at right angles. 
  
• The town has around it a masonry wall, 25ft. high & 9ft. thick, with eight gates viz; Chandpole Gate,  Ghat Gate, Ajmeri Gate,  Sanganeri Gate, Surajpole Gate, Gangapole Gate, Zorawar Singh Gate, and New Gate. 
  
• The palace building covered two blocks, the town six and the remaining ninth block was not usable on account of steep hills. So this North-West ward was transferred to the South-East corner of the city, making the shape of the plan as a whole asymmetrical rather than square.  
  
• The city’s division into nine wards was also in conformity with the Hindu caste system, which necessitated the segregation of people belonging to different communities and ranks. 
  
• Even the lanes were named after the occupations of inhabitants such as Maniharon ka Rasta, Thatheron ka Rasta & many others.
  
• Following the directions of the Hindu Shilpa shastra, width of the main streets & other lanes were fixed. Thus the main streets of the city were 111ft. wide, secondary streets 55 ft. wide & the smaller ones 27ft. wide. 
  
•  South of the main road were four almost equal rectangles. The rectangle opposite the palace has been broken up into two equal and smaller rectangles by the Chaura Rasta.Thus altogether there are now five rectangles on the south of the main road called Chowkris. 
  
• On the North of the main road from West to East are the Purani Basti, the Palace and Ramchandraji.
  
• The principal bazaar leads from the western gate in the city wall, The Chandpole, passing in front of the Tripolia Gate, to the eastern city gate, the Surajpole.
  
•  To the NW of this lay the Jai Niwas. Given that its royal association meant that it had to be within the palace compound, the site of the palace was established. Indeed, given the wish to locate the palace centrally, the position of the brahmasthana was also established. A wall surrounds the palace buildings. 
  
• The serving class occupied the peripheral areas.
  
• Another constraint was the position of the lake, which formed a part of the pleasure garden around which the city was built. This lake lay close to the hillside. In the original design it fell outside the main block of the city; but due to Jai Singh’s wish to include the old garden in the city, the lake was made the tank of palace garden. 
  

[mehak jain]

The spatial and temporal growth pattern of Jaipur can be divided in to four distinct phases. Each phase has made a special contribution to the development of Jaipur. 

Phase 1: 1727-1850
Phase 2: 1850-1930
Phase 3: 1930- 1970
Phase 4: 1970- Onwards

Phase I: 1727-1850 AD: 
The city was founded and planned by Maharaja Sawai Singh based on 
(i)  Hindu system of Town planning following the principles prescribed in the Shilpa-shastra.
(ii) The site is divided into nine grids or mandalas, by grid lines (main streets). Due to steep hills, the mandala could not be completed in Northwest direction. Therefore an extra mandala has been extended in the south –east direction. 
(iii) Planned according to the Prastara type of layout, giving prominence to the cardinal directions.
(iv) Jaipur’s road network follows a definite hierarchy. The major east-west and north-south road, form the sector boundaries and are called Rajmarg (33mts. wide) as they lead to the city gates.   Next is a network of 16.5m wide roads which run north south in each sector linking the internal areas of the sectors to the major activity spine. An orthogonal grid of 8.25mx4.00m roads in the prastara-chessboard pattern further divide sectors into Mohallas


Phase II:1850-1930 A.D.: 
The city grew outside the walled city confines, triggered by establishment of  railway line in 1868 A.D.outside the walled city.

Phase III: 1930-1970 A.D.: 
Government followed an socialist ideology and development five development schemes to provide residential plots, public institutes, other amenities and the Rajasthan university opening opportunities towards the south direction.

Phase IV: Post 1970’s: 
Major changes were between two land uses i.e. agriculture crop area converted to built area. The city has grown towards south, south- west, and west directions along major roads, national highways, triggering land use and land cover changes and unplanned expansion. The prime causes behind such expansion has been availability of land at considerably cheaper rate in those areas, good transport communicational network, availability of better infrastructural and institutional amenities, migration from rural to urban areas. 
The city of Jaipur is witnessing three major kind of urban sprawl patterns, 
(i) Linear, 
(ii) Leaf frog, 
(iii) Radial, 
and occurrences of polycentric sprawl.