Pratibhasehali Gyanodaya Vidyapeeth, Jabalpur

Being promoted by the highest pontiff of the Digambar sect in the Jain faith, this girls school in Jabalpur is proposed to be run along the lines of a ‘convent’ institution with the purpose of inculcating the highest moral and disciplinarian values amongst its students. The day to day administration and other tasks are to be carried out by a force of in-house Jain nuns readied for the task by the guru himself. The requirements, therefore, demanded a theme of traditional symbolism and planning systems to be incorporated into a modern building design with state-of the- art infrastructure suited to the international school curriculum

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The twenty acre ‘Gyanodaya’ school site, expandable to thirty acres, is one part of the larger site; the other part being the ‘dayodaya’ or the shelter for cattle rescued from slaughter and ill-treatment.

The oblong school site, located in an undulating terrain, slopes down in the north and east directions. The length of the site is laid out along the east-west axis, having all the facilities laid out on either sides of an east-west central axial spine road. The school building itself lies at the end of this axial approach facing eastwards, making a dominant presence on a slightly raised level.

The modular plan of the school building is expandable in all directions. The various functions have been laid out in accordance with the directional guidelines of the ‘navagraha mandala’ as well as Jain cosmology.

An effort has been made to use marble in the facade of the building as is a desired practice in the Jain faith. It is also a reflection of a large presence of this stone in this region as in the marble hills flanking the Narmada at Bhedaghat.