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Step back to the golden age with the Havelis

Beyond the historical background of Churu, we can noticed how beautiful the haveli are at each corner of the old town's streets. The heritage walking tour that we designed at Malji Ka Kamra aim to give a chance to our guests to explore and travel back to the 19th Century and taste the somptuous lives of rich merchants Marwaris.


  • The golden age of the Shekhawati region

Churu is a 450 year old town and is homeland to Marwaris – India’s most successful business community since the time of Mughals. The region flourished because it was the main spot of cotton, opium and spices trading. The secret is that rich marchands were given tax breaks… In fact, the region reduced taxes to merchants while diverted caravan trade of big city nearby as Jaipur or Bikaner. This is the reason why Marwari community moved in Shekhawati region and started to build sumptuous mansions : the huge and sumptuous havelis, nowadays known as biggest legacies of this community.


So the main havelis were constructed between the 18th century and the early 20th century. Then was introduced railways in India under British colonization, and as the Marwaris community followed the money trail and was always seeking for new opportunities, they left the region for the indian coast such as Mumbai or Kulkuta. During this time, they made a lot of money in these big cities and sent money to their havelis. That’s why you can noticed the wealth of havelis’ walls. More rich they were, more their havelis were impressive by their wealth.


  • What have became of the havelis ?

All havelis were abandoned and crumbling since owners left the town. By the 1950’s, towns belonging to Shekhawati region fall into despair. The richest families abandoned their goods, and stop renovations of their mansions. In fact, some mansions can welcomed more than 40 families at once. And more the number of owners is important, more the shared between them is difficult. Some sharings became legal disputes. You will ask yourself : why the government is not caring about these awesome and unique houses, because these legacies take part of India’s history and legacy ? In fact, most of the havelis are private. It is very complicated for the government to preserve them in this case. Nowadays, some families live inside, but most of them are empty.


  • The Havelis : between visual wealth and architectural influences

Between artistic expressions, colors, story tell through the paintings, the havelis are a kind of artistic book in open sky, which are telling the story of this merchants and describing mythological scenes. Most of the Haveli look alike in their architectural style : 2 storied buildings, with 2 - 4 courtyards for men, women, cookings and animal stables. The existing differences are in the ornaments, frescos and paintings. Cross the streets, and you will recognize European, italien and Shekhawati influences among architecture and paintings. That’s why you can see European cars paintings on walls, or some European street just beside mythological scenes.




Do you want more information about Malji Ka Kamra ? www.maljikakamra.com


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