Built in 1833, this building came to be known by 3 different names : Residency House (Bungalow), White House (Bungalow) and Sayaji Bhawan (Bhavan) over the years.
Built as the Residency House for the Britishers the building was erected by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad II. Initially known as the Residency House, the building later came to be known as the White House because of it’s white colored exteriors. The double storeyed building is the oldest in the MSU‘s Campus, and was used as a residence and office by the British residents appointed during the British Rule at the erstwhile Baroda state.
The Life of the Building :
The building has been passed down to the university through many hands over the years. What was once a British residency, later became a dance studio for famous artists and is currently a place for the convocation of the students passing out from the University.
At the time of it’s inception, the building has seen the likes of British officers such as Sir Richard John Meade and James Outram and the plaques stating that they stayed here can still be seen in the building. These two officers in particular, became infamous during the Mutiny of 1857 and were known for the harsh punishments given by them to the “Krantikaaris”(rebels). As for the artists who stayed here after the university came up, famous dancers such as Bharat-Natyam Guru Prof. CV Chandrashekhar and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh had stayed and practiced their art in the huge and majestic halls of this building.
After Independence, when the building was allotted to MSU, it served as a make-shift university office. In year 2007, the building’s name was changed again to ‘Sayaji Bhawan’
The Building :
The residency was most popular in 19th Century on account of being a “modern house” equipped with facilities which were still new at the time, such as a fire place. Just like it’s users, the building has also changed over the years and many of the original traits of the building have since been changed into more utilitarian components and extensions and additions have been made.
The building has an imposing facade and is entered through a massive colonnaded porch. It probably also had such porches on the other two sides as well which were converted into rooms over the course of time. The upper portion of this porch is covered by louvered wooden panels, which may have been used for cutting the excess sunlight. The huge circular columns used to support a moderately decorated entablature as is seen in the old photographs of the building. These moulded cornices of the old entablature have now completely vanished and have been replaced by a flat parapet wall. Even the color scheme of the building has changed, although the building was painted white in color the doors the louvered panels were kept in there natural brown color, which are now in all white. As for planning, the building was planned symmetrically along a central axis, the symmetry of which is now broken by the additions of the new blocks.
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An Example :
The building had faced the problem of water accumulation, after which, taking this building as a reference Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III ordered the other buildings of the area to be constructed on a higher plinth so that this problem isn’t faced by any other building in the future.Thus, it became an example for the other buildings to come up in the area !
We lived here in 1964 in the far right corner lower apartment. We had 4 “rooms”… 2 bedrooms, a living room/dining area and a kitchen. My father taught as a guest in residence from the US at the University of Baroda (as it was called at the time). We adopted a local dog called Bundi and she had several puppies. We loved Baroda and our friends from the University.