Purohit Ji ka Katla – Jaipur’s Wholesale hub for Wedding Shopping

The Wedding season is right upon us and we know you can’t wait to shop! Although Jaipur has become a big name when it comes to wedding shopping destination with the growth of major fashion brands, retail chains and amazing concept stores in the city. But there’s one place that still holds a magnetic charm for all the good things it offers to the shoppers- Purohitji Ka Katla! .

Okay, if we can ignore its suffocating entry points, Purohit Ji Ka Katla, by far is one of the most wonderful shopping destinations for the wedding shoppers in the Pink City!

Though, the most complicated market space in the city, Purohit Ji Ka Katla after so many years, still holds its traditional market charm, which can be seen in the passion with which each local steps inside the lanes and makes their way through the pouring crowd.  Majority of the buyers seen here are the locals and rural people from nearby areas of Jaipur, as tourists could never really reach THIS market of the walled city. A wholesale market hidden within the Johri Bazaar is the shopping hub for cheapest goods, hence the people from villages nearby come here to shop products in bulk.

Intrigued by the glitz and glitter of wedding fabrics, dresses and sherwanis hanging on the entrance of the market, out team at Jaipur beat decided to give this Katla a shot. So we are here with our first hand experience of ‘Purohit Ji ka Katla’

Let us take you to the back story of the ‘Katla’ as it is fondly called by the locals. Even though this market is decades old but we are good at digging roots and found out that  this particular area was actually a place to keep the horses and carriages belonging to the royal family, sounds interesting! Oh yes, as we moved further we noticed it to be a huge compound, very spacious to manage the horses. Each shop has steps that lead to a room, which was the place where the horses were kept. Now the shopkeepers use it as a store to keep goods. Some of these rooms were surprisingly  bigger than the shops.

In spite of the old world traditional practices, we observed best of the both worlds (modern and traditional) in Katla. If you are tired of sitting in the old traditional shops with “gaddas” and about to have a heat stroke you can quickly move to the fancy upmarket fully air-conditioned shops within the Katla.  All these shops are run by families who have been involved in the same business for generations. It’s heart warming to see the “peedhiyas” keeping the traditions intact and showing family traditions of business run by generations after generation with same zeal and enthusiasm.

The market houses some of the most traditional shops of the city. There are cozy, beautiful lanes that are amazingly organized in geometrical shapes with everything from fabrics, raw materials, accessories, jewellery, nick knacks to utensils, toys, stationery, party suppliers, decorations, plastic stuff and house hold items to offer. Interestingly, the market also has makeshift shops, which are seasonal according to the festivals. As Raksha Bandhan is the closest festival right? Hence these shops change their products and stock doris, loomis and rakhis.

This is the hub for wedding shopping in the city and the beautiful saree shops attract one’s eyes!  These are manufactured in nearby villages and further sold to retailer shopkeepers and customers. Most of the material found here is brocade, cotton, while Lehariya and bandhej dominate the market. The Sarees and lehangas sold here are also imported from Kolkata  for its handwork and Surat for machine work.

This is this beautiful shop of Gopal Lal Radharam Safewala which is one of the many shops from where you can rent sherwani’s starting at the price of 2000 and going on till 25,000. A mirage of multicolored safas , torans, varmala are few of the hundreds of wedding things you can find in Purohit Ji ka katla. Ramsahay Banshidhar is a shop specializing in tassels used in dresses and items used for Baraat Swagat in weddings.

 

The most number of customers visit Katla during festive season and in month before the wedding time which is locally termed as  ‘Saawah’. Since the prices of the all the things are very low you would not even feel like bargaining. The special wedding mala for grooms caught our attention which is designed and decked up with currency notes and it is only found in Purohit Ji ka Katla.

Mukesh tailor is one of the oldest tailors in the market. Currently the fourth generation of the family is involved in stitching of poshaks for all the main temples in the city like the Govind Dev ji temple. The shop is very small but has been the workplace for this family for the past 50 years.

M.B Dresses which is also a 60 year old shop is involved in retail of different kinds of materials. Their customers include boutiques and event management companies of Jaipur. Major high end boutiques of the city shop for raw material like borders, boutis and latkans from katla. These materials which are made by hand are also exported to various parts of the country. You will get to see a lot of Gotta Patti work in these shops.

The shop owners in the katla are endearingly called Sethjis and they claim to be coming to their shop on a regular basis for more than 30 years.

Purohit Ji Ka Katla is an experience altogether! There are innumerable shops to see and you need atleast 2-3 hours to explore this market. The market opens at 11.00- 11:30 am and you can shop till 8-8:30 pm except Sundays .

So if you are planning to  pay a visit to the Purohit Ji ka Katla then here’s Jaipur Beat’s quick tip for you- Stay hydrated 😀  However, once you enter the lanes the weather wouldn’t even matter as it’s much cooler inside with the riot of colours. Warning for claustrophobic  It will be very crowded but it’s definitely worth a visit.

 

HOW TO REACH:

As there are a lot of entrances to the market, but the best way is to go towards Badi Chaupad from Johari Bazaar and ask the passers by to guide you till the entrance 😉

Pick up your tote, a water bottle and drive down to Purohit Ji Ka Katla to witness the real charm of the market as the best time to visit this place is now 😀

Blog Credit- Anjali Sarda (Intern at Jaipur Beat)

Editing – Team Jaipur Beat