The Architectural Journey of Jharkhand
The Indian Institute of Architects Jharkhand Chapter
Thoroughly delighted to receive the book “Beyond the Forest – The Architectural Journey of Jharkhand” a first hand documentation by Aman Rupesh Xaxa and his team, with actual site pictures and details. This book talks about layers of history across a timeline encompassing the built and unbuilt heritage of Jharkhand starting from the prehistoric age with Isko Caves, Megalithic period caves to various temples in the forest to contemporary concrete structures. The very first settlers of this land – the indigenous tribes the Munda, Santhali, Oraon hold an important cultural part of Jharkhand. This land was not only inhabited by diverse tribes but it has a plethora of monument traces from the Mughal period to the British Raaj.
I deeply congratulate the team of expert researchers who came up with such an interesting thought to document the heritage & cultural aspects of a state through its architectural edifices and help understand Jharkhand’s unique and original visual essence. The structures encompasses the broad aspects of how people interact with its surrounding and space.
Another thoughtful approach to this book is adding QR codes with exact location of the listed building/ structure, which makes it easy to navigate with the help of Google maps, if any one wishes to visit these unexplored hidden gems. The book is wonderfully designed with its alluring photographs and balanced layouts. Every spread has markers with subheadings describing the Type of Building and their patrons. It showcases huge spreads covering birds eye views (drone shots), architectural closeups and the neighbouring landscape which are a rare part of this book and talks about the
hardwork and pain taken by its makers. Being a Researcher and Designer myself, I know It takes considerable effort to design a 320+ page book and the hard work is commendable.