Community Furniture: Creating Public Spaces

Takhat are most commonly seen in chaupal across Haryana. Chaupal is a public building found in villages of Haryana. It is a community space, built and maintained using collective funds.

In chaupal, men gather for panchayat meetings, playing games and socialising with other village men. It is also used as a rest house for the male guests when any woman in the village gets married.

Two or more takhat are placed edge to edge to form a larger seating surface.

Men gather around during the daytime to socialise and play games. This takhat was kept outside a shop in Rawaldhi village, Charkhi Dadri.

Earlier, takhat in the chaupal were made with elaborate carvings and fretwork. One such example was found in a chaupal of Maham. It can seat around ten to twelve men at a time.

It had backrests on three sides of the surface for comfortable seating. The fourth side had partial backrests, leaving a space for men to climb over the takhat.

This takhat was placed in the verandah of a chaupal in Manduri village of Palwal district. A terracotta pot filled with water was kept near takhat for people gathering in the chaupal.

Takhat are also kept in the courtyard of chaupal. It is used during the gatherings or functions. Three takhat were kept edge to edge to form larger surface for seating.

The map indicates the places where takhat (bench) were mapped across the state of Haryana.

Bikaner lies in the Marwar region of Rajasthan. It is one of the magnificent cities of Rajasthan. Bikaner is surrounded by golden sand dunes, spiritual temples, traditional houses, majestic forts and richly sculptured Palaces in Dulmera red and yellow sandstone displays the ideal creations of the Rajput civilization.

This map indicates the paata (bench) mapped across the old city of Bikaner in Rajasthan.

Paata are used by men for taking an afternoon nap, to take rest from their commute, while others would sit around reading newspapers. On festival days, paata are lined up and used as stages and places for serving for food and drink.

Paata can be owned by individual families, by a specific community, or by social establishments like a temple or a panchayat. People from the specific neighbourhoods partake in maintaining these pieces of furniture.

This paata was kept in Kocharo ka chowk in Bikaner and was around hundred and four years old. It originally belonged to a rich merchant family and is now used and maintained by the people of the neighbourhood. The original rohida wood was replaced by teak wood in some parts and was painted to reduce weathering of wood and metal. This was one of the biggest paata recorded during this research, measuring about 12’-4” x 8’-3” x 3’2” (l x b x h).

This is the only paata with chhatri (canopy) recorded in Rajasthan. The chhatri was originally made using sheesham wood, and was restored recently using metal.

This paata was kept on the periphery of the street in Kikani viyaso ka chowk. A paata generally is around two feet in height. Stone blocks were kept around this paata for the men to easily climb on.

Paata were used by the men as a meeting place. It was a site for conversations and information being shared about the neighbourhood.