ABSTRACT
In Jaipur, a city of much lore and tourism, one does well to be skeptical. If you, for instance, visit the sprawling offices of the Jaipur Public Works Department (JPWD), and proceed to make friends with its innumerable Peons, Draftsmen, Assistant Architects, Senior Architects, Chief Architects, Engineers, and all their subordinates and superiors, then, after innumerable rounds of hot chai, the conversation usually turns to the legendary Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details. Indeed, it is the most junior ranks of the establishment, the Architectural Draftsmen, who will sit you down and insist on narrating the Portfolio’s story with much ceremony. They will tell of the fabulous collections of full-size details drawn with the immaculate penmanship of draftsmen of old. They will also tell of the Jeypore School of Art, where the draftsmen were trained. They will sing the praises of the erstwhile Maharajas of Jaipur who patronized their work. There is awe in their eyes and voices. It all has the familiar nostalgia of “those days gone by.”
