Conservation strategies for gond period devtal in Jabalpur

Abstract

This work is about the very important part of our life ‘water’ and the most secluded part also, and it talks about community who knows the importance of water, they harvested it will their skills, technique and they used it for their daily purposes. In this i tried to understand the traditional ways of managing water, and communities who have built this, I studied about prevalent site of traditional water management in central india and chose Jabalpur for my thesis work. Jabalpur is a city in central India, was capital of Rajgonds and called as ‘Garha Mandla’ earlier it is known for its lakes/tals, there are many tals in this region built by Gonds to fullfill their daily need, these tals are more than 500 years old and some are still evident, tals are built by making stone bund wall in one end, to understand its working i studied geography of region and got to know about drainage pattern and system which helps in working of water system. In this thesis i tried to understand traditional water system of city and further by taking Devtal as case example prepared strategies for Devtal. Background study has been done to understand the context of region with respect to history, water system and their association with geography, ruler who built this and their system of working and the knowledge system they used for it. Further the major focus is on the analysis of Devtal one of the tal from historic era has high historical and cultural value. The importance of tal and its connection with the cultural practices in daily life and during festivals in the present day scenario and analyzed. The study also focuses on temples around Devtal and association of people with all these temples and activity in this area which enhance the religious and cultural values of the site. These components are interdependent and interrelated to each other. These thesis aims to study and document this heritage component at the site including the relation to people and use. Followed by the issues and analysis for the proposals of strategies and guidelines for its protection.