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‘Chabutaras’: A symbol of Ahmedabad's ancient birdfeeding tradition
Summary
Ahmedabad's forgotten bird feeders called ‘chabutaras’, once a symbol of community and compassion, now stand as poignant reminders of a bygone era
Across the historic city of Ahmedabad, the chabutara (also known as parabadi) is ubiquitous. They are in plain sight, standing in all their grandeur, like forgotten gems of the past. Chabutaras are 11-22ft tall structures made of wood, stone or concrete, designed specifically for birds. These traditional bird-feeders, though slightly outlandish looking, are an intrinsic part of the city’s visual and cultural lexicon.
Ahmedabad is a city with an admirable population of sparrows, mynas, pigeons, old world babblers and purple sunbirds. The chabutara is where locals place water and seeds for the feathered itinerants. The structures enable the birds to seek refuge from harsh sunlight or battering rain. “There are said to be over 300 chabutaras in Ahmedabad, of which 120 come under the walled city," says Ahmedabad-born city enthusiast Mohammed Ali Turner, who conducts heritage walks under the Walkipedia banner.
One can’t quite trace the origins of the word “chabutara". Turner speculates that it emerged from the word, “kabutar". “The closest explanation is that it was derived from ‘kabutra’, which means pigeon in Gujarati," he says. However, Ashish Trambadia, conservation architect and former director of Ahmedabad World Heritage City Trust that focuses on preserving heritage buildings and landmarks, contends that the word finds its roots in “char-rasta" or crossroads. “Earlier, at each junction or at the intersection of crossroads in the city, a small pavilion with a bird-feeder on top was installed," he says, suggesting that the chabutara’s raised stone plinth was where locals would convene. “It was a meeting point where people could sit and chit-chat. For instance, in the evenings, once the women collected water from the well, they’d sit there and converse. That’s how the site evolved culturally."
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Emblems of a legacy
The Karanj chabutara, a 120-year-old structure located at the main thoroughfare in Badra Chowk, near the Teen Darwaza, is an architectural marvel. One of the oldest bird-feeders in the city, it displays intricate handmade carvings. The exposed wooden structure is covered in exquisite iconography —dancing apsaras, ferocious tigers displaying their tongues, lions brandishing their teeth and elephants leaping with their trunks in salutation. All are portrayed in fine detail. Trambadia explains that the chabutara exhibits a combination of Islamic and Indian architectural features. The Karanj chabutara is a striking example of peerless craftsmanship that once flourished within the walled city. Upon close inspection, an onlooker would be stupefied by the effort once put into beautifying a structure solely for birds.
The bird-feeder in Dariyapur, for instance, is thought to be the “finest sandstone chabutara" in Ahmedabad, says Trambadia, due to its fascinating iconography. It has “angels playing music at the top level, ganikas (women entertainers) holding sitars at the second level and gajendra (elephants) at third. On the fourth level, women are portrayed in different avatars: warriors, pilgrims and nayikas," he explains.
The quaint chabutara situated in Lambeshwar ni Pol is not as grand as its Karanj counterpart, yet it is one of the most well-preserved. Painted in hues of celadon green and red, it mimics the colour of a parrot. “This chabutara is from the British period," informs Trambadia. “It boasts of female musician figurines who are wearing Victorian crowns, while clad in saris." Right below the chabutara is a small shrine. It has a ladder that enables the caretaker to climb and dispense grains on to the chabutara’s enclosed platform. Suspended on the bird-feeder’s sturdy brackets is a water vessel, which is used to pour water for the birds.
Many of the chabutaras have a unique design: a stone plinth (that is often hollow and used as birdfeed storage), and a long perpendicular pillar that functions as the spine, on top of which is mounted a canopied enclosure for birds. The Karanj chabutara’s dome-like canopy is octagonal in shape. “This is as per the coordinal directions—that is, north, south, north-east, south-west, and so on," explains Trambadia. The canopy of each chabutara is perched at a substantial elevation to prevent feral cats from dashing up and ambushing an unwitting gathering of birds.
A form of service
Chabutaras are prominent within pols in Ahmedabad. According to the 2011 book, Ahmedabad: From Royal City to Megacity, by Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth, pols are “a labyrinth of neighbourhoods consisting of tightly packed homes along narrow, often dead-end streets." Steeped in centuries of history, “many pols were inhabited by families belonging to the same social or occupational group….(and) the dense packing of these neighbourhoods resulted in (the formation of) tightly knit communities." Each pol was said to have 20-65 houses within it.
Centuries ago, when the pols were forming, countless trees were razed to build homes. “Naturally, there was a surplus of leftover wood from these timber-framed residential constructions which needed to be used," explains Trambadia. “That’s how this genuinely interesting idea of constructing chabutaras would have emerged, because feeding the birds was always a community activity."
In Ahmedabad, historically, community members would regularly feed birds, as there was an enduring belief that the birds were, in fact, deceased relatives who’d return to meet their families. The practice was also considered as a form of sewa or service. Octogenarian Surendra C. Patel is a veteran architect-interior designer, and owner of Vishalla Restaurant. He fondly remembers his childhood and talks about the time when his mother would encourage him to “put a fistful of grains" for the birds en route to school, every time he had to give an exam. “It will bring you good luck, she would say," Patel recalls. “Such things were a part of our culture, which we have now completely forgotten," he notes, while talking about the slow demise of serving birds, and the dilapidating state of chabutaras in the city.
A forgotten past
Over the years, as the city became more urbanised and populated, several traditional bird-feeders have been pushed into obscurity, wedged between hideous, modern-day constructions (such as the one near Rangila police chowki in Shahpur area). The book, Ahmedabad: From Royal City to Megacity, notes, “As the city spread across to the western bank of the river in the 20th century, the tradition of building chabutaras continued, though ornamentation decreased as skilled craftspeople were unavailable. By the mid-20th century, metal sheets, cement and concrete became the commonly used materials and the traditional designs gave way to modern, minimalist interpretations."
Today, several bird-feeders exhibit a lonely, melancholic look. They have fallen into a perilous state of neglect and lack maintenance. For instance, the Karanj chabutara’s charming presence is smudged into the busy backdrop of the modern-day marketplace, rendering it almost invisible and obscuring its historical worth. Local hawkers tie pale yellow and blue tarpaulins to the structure to create temporary sunshades, under which they sit and sell their wares.
However, there are a few chabutaras that continue to be looked after by the community members. The 2001 Bhuj earthquake deeply impacted parts of Ahmedabad. Several architectural structures, including certain chabutaras, were on the verge of crumbling. Turner explains how residents in the pols came up with inventive ways of preserving these traditional bird-feeders, including one that is located within a pol near the Kalupur Swaminarayan temple. “This particular chabutara is painted in several colours, and carries iconography of dancers dancing with different mudras," explains Turner. “However, it was in a very poor condition—some of its iconographic dragons were damaged." To prevent the chabutara from completely falling apart, the community members strengthened its slender pole by constructing a solid semi-circular pillar around it. “To save the structure, they built an Ambe maa temple right under the chabutara in 2003, to give it extra support from below," he explains.
There are several conservation efforts that have begun to safeguard the tangible heritage of Ahmedabad, including labelling the older chabutaras with Grade IIA and Grade IIB markers, which, according to the ministry of housing and urban affairs, “comprises of buildings and precincts of regional or local importance possessing special architectural or aesthetic merit, or cultural or historical significance."
Chabutaras are a unique and exemplary part of our history, and were originally built to mimic trees as alternative sheltered lodging for birds. Several of them, despite their aged appearance, are fascinating relics which need to be admired and preserved. The next time you’re in Ahmedabad, be sure to keep a look out for these architectural gems of a time past.
The author was a writer-in-residence at the Ahmedabad Writing Program, Ahmedabad University. This article was born out of the writing residency at AU, supported by the JCB Grant.
