The cryptic silence of the ruins of the forlorn Hampi forts in Karnataka, dating back to 1 CE, is shattered by the clucking cries of a troop of monkeys, fighting arduously with another belligerent group, trying to wrest their territory. As they leap from one cyclopean boulder to another, it’s evident that the fight will last long. After all, there is only that much territory left in the ruins to establish control over, since the rest of it has progressively succumbed to changing weather and changing attitudes towards cultural and natural heritage.
This scene plays out everyday in front of R Gopal, Commissioner, Hampi World Heritage Management Authority, who finds not just inhabitants from the animal kingdom but also human encroachers gnawing at the erstwhile fort’s glory. And, they know exactly when he’s going to come. Sensing his arrival, all the hawkers immediately flee. As he sees them running away in the distance, Gopal knows they’ll be back the next morning. Upon closer inspection of the quadrangle they’ve fled from, he finds a large scribbled patch on one side of the stone chariot of the Vittala Temple in the vicinity. Gopal isn’t surprised, and walks away from the destruction.
This chief trading, art and literature centre that flourished immeasurably during the time of the Vijayanagara Empire has been periodically falling prey to ruthless encroachers and neglect by the successive governments. Although, it was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986, alarmingly, only 58 of the 550 monuments come under protection. Each day, materials from the crumbling structures are picked up for construction of houses and shops in the vicinity. Also, incidents of stone quarrying, pollution and unregulated infringement have left Hampi and many other such sites gasping for survival. Just days after the announcement of the Union Budget 2015, promising resources for the restoration of nine heritage sites, we look at many more, outside the realm of the list, that need urgent attention too.
The Elephanta Caves, Kumbhalgarh Fort, Rani ki Vav, Leh Palace, Jallianwala Bagh and others will see restoration work with immediate effect. While these may be priority, there are several others that need funding too, like the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra (meaning two-and-a-half-day building) in Ajmer. Built upon the orders of the first sultan of Delhi, Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak, it was later beautified by sultan Iltutmish. “It displays beautiful double-depth calligraphic inscriptions, and is the epitome of Mughal architectural style.
Encroachers have been found to dirty the complex, visitors are found to scribble on the walls, and there is little or no clean lavatory facility,” says conservationist and owner of a heritage hotel, Dushyant Singh Masuda, who undertook the restoration work of 100-year-old Bijay Niwas Palace in Rajasthan, built by Rao Bijay Singh, the 16th descendant of the erstwhile Masuda Istimrardari (a category higher than jagirdars of Rajputana). It was going to be tricky to restore a heritage property, but exactly how tricky, he would find out later. Ornated with beautiful stucco motifs, his search for stucco artists took him to many cities, but all in vein. After days of hunting, he finally came across a few artists in Gwalior.
He realised that, along with the building, a rare form of art was also becoming endangered. “While it’s good to know that the government is being proactive in wanting to improve the amenities at some of these popular heritage sites, it’s also required to understand that there are many monuments that don’t come under the purview but require touch-ups nonetheless,” he says, highlighting another such important heritage masterpiece—the Taragarh Fort in Ajmer. A magnificent fort with six gates that is said to be one of the oldest hill forts in the world. It’s an imposing structure that beckons everybody’s attention.
In the capital city, vandalism by slum dwellers has turned heritage facades into large canvases for doodling. The Madhi Masjid in Mehrauli, for instance, is a Lodi era mosque with a full-bodied, architectural structure, adorned with bright blue tiles, but is now lost between high rises and busy highways. Another such lesser-known monument in the vicinity called Jahaz Mahal, which is protected by ASI, needs serious notice. “People scratch, scribble, draw and spit on the walls of these monuments, and over a period of time, the footfall decreases,” says Rakshita Swamy, a third-year student of history at the Delhi University. She points out that Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli, perhaps the last structure built by the Mughals, has become the playground of children from slums.
When in 1977, Aman Nath, historian and the youngest founder-member of INTACH and his business partner late Francis Wacziarg, also a founding member of INTACH, decided to take the erstwhile Neemrana fort-palace under their wings, they couldn’t manage to get the labour required to restore the property. Reason was quite simple—the fort was declared haunted. Nath recalls how, for days, he had to convince masons to stop worrying and start working, but they just wouldn’t oblige. So, in an attempt to prove that there were no ghosts in the fort, Nath decided to spend a night in the deepest precincts of the palace, all alone. Deeper into the night, it all began to make sense. The walls of the fort had understandably developed cracks and holes.
When at night, the wind picked up, the air would get sucked into the holes, making loud, bizarre noises. But one thing was established—there were no ghosts, and work could finally commence. Since then, he’s injected life into several heritage properties. “I’ve, first hand, been involved in plumbing, wiring, repainting etc. for old facades. It requires specific expertise which in turn requires money. That’s where the problem lies,” he says. Nath, personally, would like to see the entrance of the Purana Qila redone.
Dr B R Mani, the Additional Director General at Archaeological Survey of India, believes that while they have enough funds, they don’t really have enough skilled hands to deploy labour. “Till a few years ago, we were taking care of just 200-300 sites, but now we have 700-800 sites under our purview. Working on heritage properties requires a certain amount of expertise,” he says, adding, “Presently, our endeavours extend to not just within India, but also abroad in countries like Afghanistan, Egypt, Bhutan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal and others. That means our masons get divided between projects in India and abroad, and therefore, work back home takes longer to finish.”
When Vikas Dilawari, conservation architect based in Mumbai, woke up from his 10-minute power nap, while restoring Craigie Burn Bungalow in Matheran, he found his tools scattered around the bench. “What the hell just happened?” he thought out aloud. A troop of monkeys were prime suspects, who had earlier broken one of the roofs the team had painstakingly repaired. In another instance, when he was working on the restoration of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, an eagle, who had just given birth to a baby, would constantly hover over the area, and unpredictably nosedive towards anybody she thought was creating trouble for her baby.
ASI may be doing great work, but it shies away from accepting that it can do a lot more, according to Dilawari, who has worked towards restoring important properties like the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, which was declared unsafe, but was given the Nationally Protected Monument status by ASI, after restoration. “The UNESCO sites are already well looked-after, but the ones outside its realm are hardly cared for. Majority of the funding goes as the salary of the custodians of these properties, but many times the monuments themselves are neglected. Forts are a big example; those that are perched on hilltops are difficult to tend.
“Some have been encroached, and bastis have mushroomed all around the vicinity. Jogeshwari Caves in Mumbai is one such structure that’s seen a lot of encroachment,” says Dilawari, the conservationist responsible for giving a fresh lease of life to the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the Byculla and the Esplanade House, the original residence of J N Tata, all in Mumbai. An ideal case would be when a monument’s health is looked after in a scientific manner, a good example of which is the restoration of Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, by the Aga Khan Foundation that followed a master plan, he says.
The brain behind which was Projects Director of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India, Ratish Nanda, who vehemently supports the government’s decision to allocate funds for the nine listed sites. “It’s only rarely that conservationists have reason to rejoice. This is one such moment,” he says. Leading a team of conservationists, he helped conserve the Humayun’s Tomb. He argues that the government’s efforts shouldn’t be trivialised by focusing on the heritage sites the finance minister hasn’t included in his budget speech.
Looking closely at unprotected heritage is Divya Gupta and a team of experts led by him. Working as the Principal Director, Architectural Heritage Division with the INTACH, he is compiling a ‘State of Built Heritage’ report that will list all the heritage properties state-wise that need to come under the sphere of protection. “The report will submit challenges and develop strategies for conservation. We’re hoping that many of them will acquire World Heritage Site status,” he says.