The Baroda State Library, now known as the Jaisinhrao Library is the most beautiful and the most silent building one can find amidst the frenzy of government buildings of the Kothi Compound. This library was basically the precursor of the Library Movement in India started by Maharaja sayajirao Gaekwad III.
A new home for an old Library :
The library building seen now was not always the home of the library. When established in 1877, it was housed in the Vernacular Science College. Meant to be a public library with daily newspapers and periodicals and books with every indigenous language one can think of, it was decided to construct a special building for the library.
The building is said to have been designed by Major Charles Mant in what is now known as the indo-saracenic style of architecture. Completed in 1882, even though the building displays the same spirit as that of the other buildings, it is unique in itself.
It is a double storeyed, simple rectangular structure with a tower-like portion housing a staircase, on one side of it’s front facade. On both the floors, the building is enveloped in continuously running veranda on two sides. While the veranda on the upper floor has more of wooden elements, the ground floor veranda has a series of pointed arches running across it’s length. It is entered thru a central porch which leads one the above mentioned arched veranda, which in turn leads one into the main building. The porch is elaborately decorated with stone carved pillars and is topped with a parapet wall embellished with stone finials.
There is an extensive amount of wood, used construction of the building which can be seen in the staircase, doors and windows. The huge windows, that let in the ample amount of light into the interiors have colored glass, which add to the old world charm of the building. The windows as well as architrave have stone “chajjas” supported on stone brackets,while the transoms of the windows and doors have been adorned with wooden “jalis”.
The facade displays exposed brick work adorned with bands of ceramic tiles running across it. Except the porch and the staircase tower, the building has a sloping roof. In the veranda of the top floor, one can see wooden posts supporting a sloping roof, this roof is actually separate and a little lower than the main roof. This leaves a little slit between the two roofs, from where a set of louvered windows grant a passage of fresh air to the inner space. The eaves of these sloping roofs have beautiful wooden eaves boards which further highlight the the geometry of the building.
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