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| Lehripura-gate,Vadadora ,Gujarat, Alamy.com |
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| Back part of Lehripura gate, Vadadora wikimapia.org |
Lehripura Gate, built in 1558, close to Nyay Mandir in the busy Chardarwaja area of Vadadora, formerly Baroda of Gujarat state is a towering structure with beautiful arches. It is the most ornamental gate among the four gates in this old part of the city - the Champaner, Gendigate and Panigate, that served as entry points to the erstwhile old city of Vadodara with Mandvi gate being at the center of the city.
The present day Laheripura Darwaja (Gate) is part of Western Rampants of the Kila-e-Daulatabad fort that was built by Sultan Khalil Khan who ascended the throne in 1511 CE after his father's death. The old name Vadpatraka changed into Vadodara (Baroda) over a period of time. The name Leheripura evolved from Laharis - groups of coppersmith communities residing in that area. Presently, this area is popular for for traditional Gujarati and Marwari artifacts.
The city records do not mention when the gate was constructed but it has been around since the pre-Mughal period. In the present version, all the three arches are well decorated with cusped arches. On either side at the end one can see a tower like feature with a cap on it. The large Jharokha on the walled space on the central archway and the small ones are well decorated. It is said that Robert Chisholm, the British architect who designed many structures in Baroda during the reign of Maharajah Seyajirao Gaekwad III was very much impressed by the gate and and got some inspiration from it during his stay here.
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| Lehripura-gate,Vadadora tandfonline.com |
Above image: Vintage image of Lehripura-gate,Vadadora, GJ: First modified in 1879 on the happy occasion of the wedding of maharajah Sayajirao Gaekwad III with Maharani Chimnabai. The three gateways had no ornamentation or decoration, the center one being large. There were motifs and paintings. The stucco works in the spandrels (triangular gap: see the image) of the arches are faded way due to time and vagaries of weather. The upper level of the gate has projected balcony with a roof cove above.
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| Spandrels en.wikipedia.org |
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| 1890ehripura-gate,Vadadora in.pinterest.com |
Tit-bits:
Collapse of a small roof of Lehripura-gate,
Vadadora, GJ
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| pre-mughal-era-Lehripura-gate,Vadadora /indianexpress.com |
Above images; Back portion of the Lehripura Gate with 5 simple arches with a parapet wall all along with a series of small vertical openings. In the 3rd week of Sept, 2021 part of the ceiling collapsed due to heavy rains. Though the gate is not on the list of ASI's protected monument list, in 2014 it was restored by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) along with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). ASI replaced the damaged stones from arches, refurbished the lime concrete and did chemical treatment. In addition, they restructured the the support pillars and walls. The ASI officials visited this Chardarwaja area later to assess the structural damages. Both the VMC and the ASI, however, refused to attribute any reason for the collapse. As usual it could be due to negligence on the part of he city authorities. A sum of Rs, 75 lakhs was sanctioned to restore it.................................
http://wikimapia.org/1249506/Laheripura-Gate.
https://historyofvadodara.in/lehripura-gate
