A pol pronounced as pole, Gujarati: in India is a housing cluster which comprises many families of

a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. Pols are typical of urban centres
in Gujarat especially of Old Ahmedabad.
Architecture and culture
Pols were originally made as a protection measure when communal riots necessitated greater
security probably dating from 1738 during Mughal-Maratha rule (1738-1753) in Ahmedabad. A
typical pol would have only one or two entrances and also some secret entrances known only to
people residing in a pol. Some pols contain old beautiful houses with internal courts having
intricate wooden carved facades with columns and fresco work done around court walls or
ceilings.Pol architecture is an interesting evolution in urban living space.
Each pol was protected by a gateway closed at night as a safeguard against thieves. Inside is one
main street, with crooked lanes branching on either side. Most vary in size from five or ten to fifty
or sixty houses. One of them, the Mandvi pol in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad, is much larger
than the rest and includes several smaller pols, with an area of about fifty acres and a population
of thousands. Pols are almost entirely inhabited by Hindus, in some cases by a settlement of
families belonging to one caste, and in others by families of several of the higher castes,
Brahmins, Vanias, Suthars, and Kanbis.[1]
Most of the pols have been established and provided with a gateway, at the expense of some Pols'
leading man whose name the pol in many cases bears, and whose family holds a position of
respect as the heads of the pol. Each pol had generally its own watchman and its own sanitary
arrangements. The affairs of pol were managed by group of people. The house property in the pol
is to some extent held in common. Formerly no man could sell or mortgage a house to an outsider
without first offering it to the people of the pol. Though this rule is not kept later, inmates of a pol
sold their houses to same caste people. When a house ismortgaged or sold, the people of the pol
had a right to claim from one-half to two per cent of the money received. Again, on wedding and
other great family occasions, each householder is expected to feast the whole pol, and in some
cases all the men of the pol, though not of the same caste, are expected to attend any funeral that
may take place. If the pol rules are slighted, the offender is fined, and, in former times, till he paid,
he was not allowed to light a lamp in his house or to give a feast. The money gathered from gifts,
fines, and the percentage on house property sales, formed a common fund managed by the
leaders, seths, of the pol. This was spent on repairs to the pol gate, the pol privies, or the pol well.
The polia or gate-keeper is not paid out of the fund. He earns his living by begging from the people
of the pol and works as a labourer for them.[1]
The chief feature of these Pols is that each has a separate entrance protected by a gateway, pol,
with a picket house on the top of it. Inside of the gateway the houses of the group form one or
more streets, the ends either blocked by a dead wall, or, through a small door, bari, opening into
another Pol. Inside the pols the roads are rough, narrow, and winding, fit in many cases only for
foot passengers. Most of the houses are first class, the walls massive and the timber strong. Some
of them, especially those about more than hundred years old, are ornamented with much rich and
finely cut wood-work. From their fondness for this part of the town and the want of open sites, the
families as they grew larger, added story on story to the old houses, the upper stories often jutting
out so far that, when two opposite houses were enlarged, their eaves almost met across the
roadway. Inside of most two or more storied houses is a yard, and under the yard a covered
reservoir with supplies of rain water for drinking. Part of the courtyard is sometimes raised into a
terrace and used as a lounge or for drying grain, pulse, and clothes. In these houses valuables
are, if unwieldy, stowed away in secret under-ground cellars with most carefully hid entrances.
Some of these cellars have air shafts run through the walls, so that they may be used as retreats
for men in hiding. The jewellery 'safe' is usually a hole in the house wall or in one of the main
beams, hidden so cunningly that no stranger can find it out, and its secret so jealously guarded,
that it is known only to the bead of the house, his wife, and one or two of his most trusted children.
The people of these pols form, to some extent, separate communities, each with arrangements for
managing its common affairs.[2]

Pol
The old city of Ahmedabad located on the Eastern banks of the Sabarmati river is made up of
around 360 pols within a fortified compound.The earliest Pol to be incorporated was aptly
christened Mahurat Pol and was built adjacent to Manek Chowk
The historic city of Ahmadabad is characterised by an urban pattern, consist of three scales of
community based settlement: the neighborhood 'Pur', the sub neighborhood 'Pol' and a house. Pol
houses is considered as a primary housing typology built for more than 300 years in the city of
Ahmadabad. The pol settlement pattern has a rural origin prevalent in the villages of North
Gujarat.
Ahmadabad has a rich heritage of settlement patterns in its historic old town, which was populated
by a large merchant community in various community settlements following different religions.
Following the communal riots of 1714 and the civil disorder of the 18th century, the houses built in
the city were organised in dense clusters consisitng of a set of dead end streets entered through a
single gateway. The residents of each cluster tended to belong to not only the same religion but
also the same caste, or occupation group. The gate into each cluster could be closed. These
clusters are called 'Pol'.
A combination of several of such settlements Pol formef a neighborhood, and these
neighborhoods again constituted the entire fortified historic city. These neighborhoods have their
own urban structure which is self sufficient for the communities, where each 'Pol' is also a self
sufficient unit. As the individual Pol is an entity by itself, the neighborhood is also an entity at a
larger scale. So the progression goes further, which gives the city an urban pattern consistong of
these neighborhoods that downscale to a house.
Each Pol was socially and architecturally homogenous and provided a territory for the interaction,
co-operation and interdependence. This enhanced the formation of a cohesive and self-sustaining
community whose physical boundaries were set by the day-to-day interactions of its inhabitants.
Some Pols were also places of work, where artisans sold their wares on the thoroughfares outside
of the pols.
The essence of a Pol is a network of small streets, side lanes, shrines and open community
spaces (otla), with a bird house (chabutaro) raised on a pole to feed birds in the neighborhood.
Historically, each pol was specific to a community, caste or occupational group and each house
was a single family unit. The neighborhood was based on cultural homogenity, rather than
economic status.
Today, as ahmedabad is experiencing a rapid rate of urbanization, an enormous pressure is being
put on the walled city. A lot of the pols in the city were demolished when new roads were laid out
and existing roads widened. However, even today over 100 pols exist in the historic part of the city,
putting the city on the tentative list of UNESCO's world heritage cities.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
Within a Pol, everybody knew each other. Each family had a set of obligations to participate
in Pol councils, and the weddings and funerals of other families. The social sytem demanded an
adherence to behavioural norms and in return, the families recieved a sense of social and physical
security, a sense of belonging and a sense of place in the broader society.
The essence of the social nature of Pols lies in the Otlas. While The street comes alive right
through the day break with washing, cleaning and water filling activities taking place on the front
otla and street edges, where chowkdi (wash places), water taps and drainage connections are
provided. Ottas get occupied by women washing clothes and utensils, filling water, while men are

brushing teeth, reading newspaper or drinking tea Occasionally young children are found
playing on otlas.
During festivals and weddings, neighbourhood otlas are richly decorated with rangoli
(sandpainting) and symbolic decorations, many of which are considered to be auspicious. The otla
establishes a coherent social character for a neighbourhood and mitigates harsh climactic effects.
The otla is one of the most comfortable urban areas due to the high degree of shade on it
throughout the day. The shade comes from the narrow nature of the streets.
MATERIALS AND BUILDING TECHNIQUES
Houses are mainly multi-story, usually made of brick and mortar. Massive walls are supported with
timber structures.; many of them are ornamented with wooden carving. A tacit system is employed
in the planning of the house that is based on the degrees of privacy which determines who can
enter the house, how far one can past the courtyard or up the steep flight of steps.
The construction of the houses in the pols is like a one which is found in the towns of north
Gujarat. The houses have peculiar construction with entrances and the open space. There is an
otla outside the house. At the main gate, there is some open space inside which is used to put
things like traditional cots etc. Then there is a space open to sky called chowk. The rainwater falls
in the chowk. The chowk and parsal are the peculiarities of the houses of the pol. There is a
central hall which has a place where the housewife can cook in sitting position. There is a
provision for chimney over the fireplace (Chulha) as an outlet for smoke of the kitchen. Then there
is a big room with two small ventilators.
In the houses of rich people. There are beautiful engravings on the wooden frames and the
shutters of the cupboards as well as the door panels. Each door frame has a todla, a large
wooden peg driven into the wall, and a recess in the wall beside it. The small recesses or holes in
the wall were used for placing lamps. The big recesses in the wall in the inside hall were used to
keep things, clothes etc.
As there was shortage of drinking water, big water tanks were made in the house to preserve rain
water, so that the preserved water could be used when. When the waterwork started in the city,
these underground water tanks became useless. Residents filled up these underground tanks.
The clustering of the masses in a pol house and the material and building technique also makes
these houses earthquake resistant.Pol houses use lightweight materials like wood which is an
advantage during earthquake as quake impact is in proportionate with the weight of the structure.
Wood is highly resistant to earthquake as it has high strength-to-weight ratio. It also has properties
of ductility and its cellulose fibers make it highly effective to undertake tensile stresses.
The large flat bricks, which are used in these pol houses, are helpful in resisting earthquakes as
they are stable against overturning. The bonding materials used for brick work is made of mixture
of mud and cow-dung or lime which was adequate bonding material for large sized bricks. This
weak mortar allowed a certain degree of movement and plasticity in the wall.
Pol houses also use stones to form the base for columns and doorframes. During earthquakes,
while the columns are effectively pin-connected at the top and bottom, the structure can slightly
rock to and fro. This has the advantage of substantially reducing the lateral forces.
EARTH AND CLIMATE
The city is considered to have summer all the year round. It can be described as a hot climate with
average outdoor temperatures between 20C and 34 C. May is the hottest month with peak
temperatures rising up to an intolerable 42C and January the coldest with an average day

temperature of 20C. The city really never faces winters except a few months (December,
January) when the night time temperatures reach as low as 10-14C. For most part of the year
Ahmedabad is hot and dry, with tropical rains for only three months from August to September.
Mild season (November to February) is within the comfort zone for most parts of the day. Gujarat
is also prone to severe earthquake.
The typical pol house, usually two- to fours-stories high, is deep and narrow and shares side walls
with its neighbors. Each storey projects beyond the one below, minimizes sun and heat
penetration and shades the actual streets during the summer. The core of a house is the courtyad
which lets out heated air by convection. Organized around it are a series of semi-open spaces and
rooms. In many houses, the courtyard also forms the roof of the tanka, a spacious underground
tank that collects rainwater during monsoon to be used year round.
The pol house is well sited for shading. Sharing long walls while exposing narrow end walls is the
successful strategy used.The exposed wall facades are furthermore on narrow streets which tend
to shade the house facade during most of the day, with variations due to orientation. The unique
pol strategy of cloaking the exposed mass wall with wooden details provides a sheild between
incident solar radiation and the thermal mass of the house. The floor of the courtyard is tiled and
coupled either to the earth or to the water tank. The floor gains heat through the season, but the
daily washing and cleaning habits of the household counteracts the increasing solar radiations
through the season by providing sufficient evaporative cooling. The upper floors of the houses
have overhanging balconies and windows, casting a complete shadow on the streets below,
maintaining a cool atmosphere for comfortable locomotion.
The orientation of the terraces and street facades becomes important during winters since the
houses with south facing exposures can open shutters and let sun into the upper rooms. The
chowk also provides shelter from the winter winds.