Toran - The Auspicious Gateway

Visitors to ITC Narmada are greeted with an elegant installation of a lady with a water pot at the entrance, flanked by decorated wall-screens called the jaali. Behind her stands an arched gateway designed as a toran, symbolizing an auspicious, warm welcome. Toran is a free-standing ornamental or arched gateway for ceremonial purposes seen in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain architecture of the Indian subcontinent. The elevation and structure of ITC draws inspiration from the toran gateway found in Vadnagar, Gujarat. Toran is also a symbolic, decorative, hanging mural that is found at the entrance of almost very traditional Gujarati household. Meant to signify good fortune, positivity and a warm welcome, these torans are made of different materials such as leaves, flowers, paintings, and even precious stones. Hence, toran can mean a small decorative hanging on the entrance, or a gateway to a temple or a village.