The small quaint town of Udvada’s long, glorious religious history is not widely known outside the state of Gujarat. A home to the Parsi community and their Iranshah Atash Behram (Holy Fire Temple), the history of the place was discussed by architect Jamshid Bhiwandiwalla during a heritage walk conducted during the Iranshah Udvada festival in December 2019.
Udvada was under the rule of Dharampur State until a treaty was signed between the Portuguese and the Dharampur ruler and it came under the Portuguese rule from the beginning of the 18th century. Prior to that, the Marathas defeated the King of Dharampur in the 18th century and that is how Udvada came under the rule of the Peshwas and the Parsis moved into the town in 1742. The Peshwas sent the defeated King of Dharampur, Maharana Durjansingh of Mandvi to fight the Portuguese. After his victory, the Peshwas returned his kingdom along with Udvada as a reward.
This, along with, other geographical and religious history of the town, was discussed by architect Jamshid Bhiwandiwalla with the attendees. A graduate of the Sir JJ College of Architecture, Bhiwandiwalla started working on documenting Udvada through Rizvi College of Architecture Consultancy Cell 2002. Having completed his Masters in Architecture with Conservation and Management plan for Udvada 2004, he aided the restoration of the Zoroastrian Information Centre with Gujarat Tourism.
The town’s geography
The Iranshah Atash Behram or the Holy Fire Temple, has grown from a humble house to its present-day monumental structure. It is well camouflaged and sheltered by the immediate core around it. The settlement also has a number of significant religious and institutional structures such as the Petit Dar-e-Maher built by the first Baronet Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit, in the year 1891.
“The Udvada settlement exhibits a linear infill planning with a south-north main spine leading from Jhanda Chowk to the Iranshah core. Two secondary accesses run parallel to the main spine. All along the length of the settlement, east-west transverse lanes connect the three parallel spines. In addition to the main streets, service streets connect the long narrow plot at the rear ends. They were mostly used for night soil collection in the 18th and 19th century,” explains Bhiwandiwalla as the walk proceeds towards Mirza chowk from Iranshah Node.
The town, he says, now sees some commercial activity with people coming in to pay homage to the Iranshah. A number of prominent residential hotels have thus come up. The town also has five dharamshalas.
Most of the structures in the historic district are residential belonging to the priestly families (Athornans), which are now also occupied by Zoroastrian commoners (Behdins). “The settlement,” Bhiwandiwalla says, “dates to the 17th century but the buildings were constructed over the existing properties a number of times. The present physical fabric of Udvada is about 80 to 150 years old.”
Studies hint that the architecture befits the climate and socio-cultural style and has characteristics of local workmanship with Gujarati, Persian and Portuguese influences.
“The priestly families are involved in rituals associated with the Iranshah for which well water is a must. Thereby the town has more than hundreds of wells which are shared between one or more houses,” he adds.
Conservation vs development
Even with considerable pressure of transformation, Udvada, Bhiwandiwalla says, has sustained its essential architectural expression. “A majority of buildings in the precinct are in need of repair. Buildings that are closed and not used for long periods are the ones in poor state. These structures are in need of urgent, moderate to major repairs,” says Bhiwandiwalla, who also teaches at the Kamla Raheja Institute of Architecture at the post-graduate programme of Urban Conservation.
In the last couple of decades, however, a number of buildings have been demolished and are under reconstruction, thereby causing disharmonious development. Other issues like receding coastline, creeping of salination in sweet water wells, diminishing green cover and leaching of age-old existing septic tanks have been concerns that the administration is trying to address. The Foundation for Development of Udvada is working to resolve these issues along with the state machinery.