There is no evidence of the architectural mechanism the people of Moenjodaro used to make their house airy. But it is generally believed that they developed an indigenous technique for making their houses airy. They added a wind-catcher or mangh as called in Sindhi. This kept the houses cool even when the temperatures ran as high as 50 Celsius.
However, the introduction of apartment complexes and air conditioners, in recent decades have forced the mangh out of the cities and into Sindh’s rural outback. Today there are only a few towns and villages where manghs can be found — a invaluable loss of Sindhi architectural culture.
Historically it cannot be ascertained when the mangh was introduced. But historians believe that when Mohammad bin Qasim came to Sindh (AD712), houses here already had wind-catchers at the corners of their roofs. He might have been attracted by the unusual part of the living houses, but since it was not his mission he paid little attention and carried out his expedition as planned from Baghdad.
The phenomenon of wind-catchers is not unusual. Many countries falling in the arid and hot zone, have been using this system but with variations. Historical records show that the wind-catchers have been used by the people of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates and India for many centuries. All had their own style depending upon the skill and material used.
Iran’s wind-catchers, badgir in Persian, are said to be among the oldest in the world. Historical records show that they used wind-catchers way back in 300BC. Egypt too used shafts to bring fresh air into their living rooms. Later, Iranians developed them by changing their style and mechanism.
It developed into many shapes and styles. Most of them used shaft which went down up to the basement. Some of the badgirs used to have a small fountain at the basement through which the hot air cooled down and spread throughout the living rooms. The Iranian badgirs were usually a meter or two above the roof level and open from all the four sides ensuring air all year long. Some people in the areas where there was stable weather used to have one side open badgirs similar to the mangh of Sindh.
Yazd, the Iranian city is famous for its badgirs. Lying at junction of three deserts, it has a natural dry and hot weather for most of the year. Founded by King Yazdgard I, the city has some of the most beautiful buildings and badgirs in them. The historical city of Bam, also had beautiful buildings, which embody splendid work of badgirs. The Bam buildings, remained miraculously undamaged by the earthquake. Its badgirs have four-sided open ends ensuring a constant flow of air.
The wind-catcher of the Arabs, called barjeels, was more or less Egyptian in style, except a few that have Iranian origin. Many of them still exist in UAE where the government has ordered to preserve them as a relic of its cultural heritage.
In India the wind-catchers are also found. However, they were not so fanciful as the badgirs were in Persia. Only at one place, Fatehpur Sikri, Mughal Emperor Akbar raised a beautiful palace, Panj Mahal meant for the residence of the women of the ruling family in 1572. It had a highly sophisticated badgir which served as a cooler for the five-story building.
In this palace a new phenomenon was used by adding khas at the entry point of hot air which cooled the air. Khas was also used by the affluent in their houses all over the India.
In Sindh, wind-catchers called mangh were considered to be an essential part of houses and were raised during the very construction of the buildings. Generally, there was one basic form because of the constant wind direction that blew south-west during the hot season.
In lower Sindh, there were two major forms of houses: the kiln-brick houses and the houses built by tekko or the wooden structure. But both used similar style in manghs device. Thatta and Rohri had large and multi-storey houses made of tekko. The rest of Sindh people used brick masonry.
In the mechanism of Sindh’s mangh, the shaft system is used but it normally has a fixed wooden structure facing south-west direction. If the house has more than one storey the shaft becomes necessary with openings at every storey, otherwise there is no need of a shaft. Another characteristic was the wooden cover to open or close the wind-catcher. This is made workable by attaching the cover with a rope hanging down and functions through a pulley at the top. This saves inmates from rain and control the air flow.
The phenomenon attracted many travellers and tourists. English travellers, Richard Burton has specially mentioned mangh in his book Unhappy Valley in 1855 and called them as breeze-catchers. He is so overwhelmed that he defines them as “... diminutive screens of masonry, forming acute angles with the apertures over which they project. The wind rushing down a passage in the wall, enters the rooms by a slit on the level of the floor, ... cooling a bottle of pale ale as it passes.”
In his later book Sindh Revisited (1877) he has again mentioned the mechanism with great admiration.
During the course of its use, artisans developed a number of innovations in the construction of mangh including wooden decorations. It was so essential that many cities and town were distinguished from a distance by their manghs. It has been in practice for quite a long time but the introduction of pigeon-hole apartments has almost brought it to an end.
Electricity and introduction of air conditioners have changed the lifestyle but the unfortunate aspect is that a whole architectural culture has been lost. As in other aspects of life, we have also shown apathy towards losing this heritage. Against this, the Emirates have preserved some of its older buildings with barjeels to remain in that condition so that a cultural history be retained. Same is the case in Iran where many buildings with badgirs, especially in Yazd and Bam have been preserved as architectural pieces.
With us the preservation of this architectural heritage may not involve enough money but it only needs honesty to the objective. One can always expect a positive approach towards the issue but at the same time one is astounded to see our approach towards preserving such archaeological traditions as Moenjodaro and Bhanbhor which are being ravaged at the hands of human neglect and natural vagaries.
There is no evidence of the architectural mechanism the people of Moenjodaro used to make their house airy. But it is generally believed that they developed an indigenous technique for making their houses airy. They added a wind-catcher or mangh as called in Sindhi. This kept the houses cool even when the temperatures ran as high as 50 Celsius.
