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| About Pols
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Pol (pronounced "pole") is derived from the Sanskrit word pratoli meaning entrance to an enclosed area. It is a housing cluster comprising many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion.
Pols are an integral part of old Ahmedabad. It nurtures in its folds, pages of history, a breath of harmony and a showcase of exquisite architecture.
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| Pols of old city
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The old city comprises many pols in which some of them are virtually small villages, traversed by narrow streets with community wells and chabutras for feeding birds. A Pol is a residential precinct with labyrinthine streets. Gates and secret passages protected these pols. A Pol would have only one, or at the most two entrances (apart from the secret ones), one main street with crooked lanes branching on either side, and walls and gates, which were barred at night. To some extent the house property in the Pol was held in common.
The Pols, of old Ahmedabad are residential units dating back to 1714 with intricately carved facades, which line the streets. Notable in the present day Pols are Mhurat Pol, Mandvi-ni-Pol, and Lakha Patel-ni-Pol.
Pols are densely populated and are like a maze with winding narrow lanes. Some of them contain old beautiful houses with carved wooden facades in traditional Gujarati architectural style.
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| Changing times
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In earlier times chabutras were an important element of urban design and served to enhance the utilization of space judiciously and aesthetically in pols i.e. traditional urban settlements in Gujarat. Even now, old chabutras in villages and pols are located very prominently in the centre—the place where most community interactions and the celebration of festivals take place.
One can imagine that in the days when community life in the pols was much more vibrant than it is now, chabutras would have had great relevance. But now, as the human population is increasing in size, people are living in box shaped housing colonies in the newer parts of the town. Naturally, everything that was in vogue traditionally is now also going out of favour including chabutras.
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