Indian art and innovative architecture make this Mississippi home a relaxing getaway

by Denise Trowbridge, At Home in New Orleans, July 2003

Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, a local cardiologist,has a passion for antique Welsh furnishings and rural English homesteads. Naturally, when he purchased a 300-acre parcel of land dotted with rolling hills and pine trees in Poplarville, Mississippi, he knew exactly what type of getaway he wanted to build there. "I called architect Arthur Davis and told him I wanted a 15th-century English cottage with low ceilings, a big fireplace and large beams," he says. "Something really dark and really cozy."

When he walked into the architect's office to see the proposed design, he was shocked. "He had a rectangular piece of glass on his desk," Bhansali says. "I said, 'You're joking, right?' to which Davis replied, 'You don't want a dark cottage on top of a hill— you need a view of the vistas.'" The result of their many compromises is a second home that is an eclectic combination of elements—a secluded, rustic, yet modern retreat where the Mississippi countryside mingles with Welsh furniture and Indian artifacts.

The 4,200 square-foot home, which is made of old Chicago brick and board-and-batten cypress, is divided into two sections—a two-story private area that includes the master suite and guest bedrooms, and a single-story living and dining space. The home's unusual V-shape and grand-scale windows fill the bedrooms with magenta-hued sunlight in the morning and the dining room with orange tones at sunset. Rough-sawn beams accent the living area's gabled ceiling, while an exposed-brick fireplace and aged-pine floors create a rustic backdrop for Bhansali's prized collections of folk objects from western India and 17th- and 18th-century Welsh chairs. The dining room, which is just a short flight of stairs away, is a geometrist's fantasyland, with windows in a variety of shapes—one round, one square and several rectangular—set against bright blue-green walls.

Bhansali's Jain heritage manifests itself in the art adorning the walls and mantels, as well as in the very structure of the residence. The ornate entryway is a 16th-century polychrome-painted temple door from Gujarat, with the eight sacred images ofJainism carved into the lintel, while a coffee table made from 17th-century south Indian woodcarvings stands opposite a pieta from the Portuguese settlement of Goa. His primary residence in Uptown New Orleans also houses an impressive assortment of Indian art and artifacts that Bhansali regularly loans to museums and exhibitions worldwide. "When I lived in India, I felt like I walked around with blinders on," he says. "It wasn't until I was living in the West that I began to appreciate and collect Indian art."

Named Shivpuri—meaning a place so heavenly that the Hindu god Shiva would happily call it home—Bhansali's Poplarville retreat is the perfect respite from the hectic pace of city life and the demanding schedule of his medical practice. He shares the property with his three children, six horses and four Rottweilers and often spends Saturdays eating home-cooked meals with the neighbors. And in the evening, he can usually be found horseback riding across the pastoral Mississippi landscape. "I had originally wanted to buy land in Louisiana, but it was too flat," he says. "Riding horses on hilly ground is much more enjoyable." For Bhansali, his not-so-humble abode is everything that its name suggests—a divine, sun-filled escape.