THE ORIGIN OF THE IMPERIAL BUNGALOW IN INDIA

THE ORIGIN OF THE IMPERIAL BUNGALOW IN INDIA

The bungalow is an architectural form that the whole world has know for over so many years. It is especially common as a residence in tropical climate. It is generally considered as a British invention, although the word bungalow exists in many languages other than English and it is usually understood as a single-storey residence often used as a vacation house which is open to the outdoors and has large verandahs for spending leisure time.

One of the main reason for the bungalows wide spread popularity was that it came to be seen as the recreational building. This association can be traced back to the mid 19th century Britain, coinciding with the birth of the concept of the leisure activities and holidays. The bungalow was then adapted by Australians and Americans thereby ensuring its global reach.

But the real origins of the bungalow lie much earlier in a period where it served neither as a recreation house nor as a resort, but an ingenious solution to the vagaries of the tropical weather of Bengal the erstwhile colony of Britain.

Bengal is the largest delta in the world. The nature and character of the delta is a flat marshy land and suitable for cultivation. The local people – the cultivator or the peasant build their own house either in the middle of the field or near their cultivation field. They built a very small pavilion like structure and it is a temporary structure. This was done in this way due to the course shifting of the river.

Both the name and form of the bungalow originated in Bengal. The word ‘Bungalow’ came from the Guajarati word ‘bangalo’ or in Hindi ‘bangala’ meaning ‘from or of bengal’ or ‘bengalese’. These refered to the indeginous Bengali huts.

The ‘Bangala ghar’ meaning ‘bengal hut’ was an easily constructed temporary structure used to reside in or to accommodate cattle. In this delta land, the rivers change course regularly and flooding is common. It has the advantage of being set up and dismantled easily.

When the first Europeans arrived in Bengal for trade in the middle of the 16th century, they restricted themselves largely to the coasts where they had established their factories. However, in some occasions when they have to travel to the hinterlands requiring overnight stays, they turned to the Bengal huts which their servants could build quickly using locally available materials.

As it was originally envisaged the bungalow had a number of features that made it a unique construction perfectly suited for the hit sun, humidity and heavy monsoon rains of Bengal. Its most significant feature was that it was made out of bamboo an inherently flexible material which led to variations in the number of slopes of the roofs known as ‘dho chala’ or two-sloped, ‘cho chala’ or four-sloped or ‘aat chala’ or eight-sloped.

This position of the rural hut is a rectangular room with a frontal verandah. The wall is made of bamboo which was perforated so that the summer breeze can pass through the room there by allowing cross ventilation inside the huts. The builders of

the Bengal hut used the fact that the flexibility of the bamboo becomes so much stronger when tied with a rope to form a curved skeletal structure. They took this as an advantage to build a curved roof to dispose of the rain water as quick as possible. Because of this curved roof is slanted to its corners, it extended beyond the side walls leading to the introduction of the verandas or open-air corridors that ran around the main room. In a hot-humid climate, the semi-open spaces of the veranda became the principle site of the household activities.

Well before it inspired the British, the ‘bangala ghar’ had already stirred the imaginations of the regions former rulers. The architecture of the both Hindu and Muslim rulers of Bengal is replete with the instances of the chala roof form serving as a symbol in both temple and mosques.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the British colonization of India was being illustrated through their appropriation through the Bengal hut. Like other Europeans, the British had initially been attracted to the ease with which the bungalow hut could be built. As a temporary structure when moving into the hinterlands. As the British had their posts or their factories only near their barracks which was near the coasts, they had to travel in to the interiors of bengal. This led to their requirement of temporary shelters for which they turned back to the ‘bangala ghar’.

The British soon realized that the bungala ghar was versatile enough to be adapted to the new requirements born of their entrenched settlements in India. As the needs of British governance and administration grew, the single spaces ‘bangala ghar’ became transformed into a more permanent multi-room structure. The most important change was the introduction of service spaces along with annex buildings for servants.

Further changes was brought about by the emergence of luxury living born of colonial wealth. The ‘punkah’ or hand drawn fan was added to the ceiling to create artificial breeze. While the bungalow was sometimes raised on a platform allowing a large number of servants to sit and work at a slightly lower level, thereby enduring social distinction.

The development of bungalow as a common term to refer to British dwellings was much influenced by two events that took place in the middle of the 19th century. In 1854, the Public Works Department was established to build and maintain British administrative and common establishments. And in 1858, the governance of India came directly under the British crown. These events instigated the design of more administrative buildings as well as setting a prototype for British residences in India. Many of the administrative and military models did away entirely with the curved slanting roofs opting instead for the functional flat one, thereby removing the main attribute of the original ‘bangala ghar’.