Members of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Bengaluru are going back to school these days. Not to study but to teach children about historical narratives of the city that extends beyond Kempe Gowda and Tipu Sultan. They have launched a pilot six-week module for Class VII students at the Government Urdu School in Goripalya, which uses storytelling, games, maps, field trips and visual materials to talk about the value of heritage. A wide spectrum of themes will be discussed ranging from life in the British cantonment and people who shaped the city to the preservation of lakes and tree and understand their importance. The intention is already there but most schools don’t quite know what to do to teach local history and heritage,” said Meera Iyer, convenor, INTACH. The organisation is working with Mantra4Change, a nonprofit in the education sector, to identify more schools like the one in Goripalya. Given the absence of strong regulatory framework for heritage preservation in Bengaluru, experts and enthusiasts are realising the importance of educating children about the importance of local history from a young age. While the draft Heritage Regulation Bill gathers dust, they are aggressively collaborating with educational institutions to help youngsters take ownership of their collective past. “Children are the future of the city and if they become guides and ambassadors of local history, it will ensure that officials take conservation seriously,” said Githa U Badikillaya, founder, Destination Heritage. After conducting heritage walks for over 180 students in Christ University (the next one is in Basavanagudi this Saturday), she is in talks with the management about introducing local history as part of the curriculum. She is also expected to launch heritage walks for the students of PES University and Jyoti Nivas College soon. Rajeev Nrupathunga, founder, Revival Heritage Hub (RHH), is taking pre-university and masters students on field trips where he also teaches them research methodologies and conservation. What started as a small initiative with six-odd students at the Oxford Group of Institutions (where Nrupathunga is a history professor) has now expanded to include SSMRV College, Surana College, two schools and three government colleges in Kanakapura. Apart from field trips, students are also involved in creating scale-models of heritage structures for public exhibitions and preserving inscription stones. “Studying history theoretically does not always get people to care about them. Actively involving them in conservation efforts will have greater impact,” he said. Prashanth Vepuri is one such youngster who was inspired after studying local history with Nrupathunga’s help. The 22-year-old M.Com student at SRN Adarsh College said that he now convinces fellow students, parents and teachers to join the movement.

- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/heritage-experts-reach-out-to-school-children-add-bengalurus-history-to-academics/articleshow/65668980.cms, Sep 4, 2018

The heritage conservation department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) expects to complete restoration work on the historic Flora Fountain by the end of this year. Vikas Dilawari, the conservation architect supervising the project, told The Free Press Journal, the second phase of beautification work is under way. “This includes dismantling the steps of the surrounding garden area and illumination work,” Dilawari said. The estimated cost for phase-II is Rs 2.6 crore, since the BMC could not get architects to bid for this project. Right now, the contract has been given to Hi-Tech architecture firm. “After inviting tenders seven times, the BMC managed to get only one bidder for this project. Hence the work set deadline extended,” said an official from heritage conservation committee. The first phase is complete, with only last-minute touches remaining. “The fountain and the statue will be coated with a chemical and then the monument must be covered and it must not get wet, hence we are waiting for the monsoon to get over,” said the architect. Vapour treatment is the technique which will breathe new life into the heritage monument. The technique involves using steam on the structure to remove algae and dust in order to restore its original glory. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), had undertaken the first phase of the project, which included the restoration of Flora Fountain at an estimated cost of Rs 1.51 crore. They were given the contract in June 2016 and were expected to complete the work by June 2017. Flora Fountain stands in the centre of Fort area, and was inaugurated in 1869. The water fountain is made of Portland stone and was dedicated to the then Governor of Bombay, Bartle Frere. It was commissioned by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India and built at a total cost of Rs 47,000 at that time. The design was by R Norman Shaw and the fountain was sculpted by James Forsythe, who was among the finest sculptors of Britain at the time.

- http://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/rejuvenated-flora-fountain-to-be-ready-for-public-display-by-2018-end/1347608, Sep 4, 2018

Raghunath Rath, a reputed scholar of tribal studies, breathed his last at his residence here today. He was 77. His final rites were performed at the Swargadwar in Puri. A self-trained anthropologist and tribal activist, his passion was the study of the history, culture and traditions of the Kondh tribals (locally called as Kandha). He spent many years of his life with the Kondh tribals and had mastered the Kui language. His research and studies were based on firsthand experience. In his lifetime, he had traveled the length and breadth, or rather the hills, forests and hamlets of Kandhamal and has written many original works. Most of his writings were empirical and path breaking, hitherto they had not been reported earlier anywhere. Rath has written more than a dozen books. His book “The Kandhs and Kandhamal” is an important study in the history and culture of the region. He was the first scholar to translate and decipher the unique Kui Riddles. Rath had, during his lifetime guided many scholars from Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Sambalpur and Utkal Universities besides researchers from Oxford and Cambridge universities. He was conferred with many awards during his lifetime including the Sahitya Academy and the Itihas Sankalan Samity award. According to historian Anil Dhir, Rath was the present day Verrier Elwin, whose works should be compiled and published. Although he had written most of his papers in Odia, they find references in many books and works. Dhir also said that Raghunath Rath has willed his entire library comprising, of more than 5000 rare books and journals to the National Archives of India. Rath was a humble and down to earth man, who spent his entire lifetime working for the upliftment of the Kondhs, Dhir added. Amiya Bhusan Tripathy, Convener of INTACH Odisha, condoled the death of Raghunath Rath and called him a true scholar who, in his lifetime, did not get the recognition that he deserved.

- http://odishasuntimes.com/eminent-scholar-and-kui-researcher-raghunath-rath-no-more/, Sep 4, 2018

Lives in the Himalayas are going cheap. In the mountains of Uttarakhand, we have obstinately refused to learn from repetitive disasters, the last one taking an uncountable toll of human lives. In normal circumstances, for a ruling dispensation founded on a particular religious sentiment, disruption of lives and ecologies around some of its most sacred sites would have been political suicide. But we live in extraordinary times, and the social fabric here, as in other parts of the country, has been so torn to shreds that the land of the fierce Chipko and anti-dam movements, fails to even notice the destruction being unleashed on it. In fact, most people and sections of the media dismiss landslides as a temporary inconvenience. "Landslides rising" is not merely a spoof on the Government slogan of a nation's imagined rise to glory, but a horrific reality in the mountainsides. Across the Char Dham, on roads leading to the four sacred sites—Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri—hill cutting, tree felling and dumping of debris are combining lethally to cause massive landslides this monsoon season. People of Uttarakhand are paying a heavy price for the ill-conceived all-weather road that is being built, in complete disregard to environmental safety. What is really happening, in complete contravention to all environmental safeguards, is nothing short of criminal. The Government of India has successfully demonstrated that it is very easy to circumvent safeguards laid down by its own agencies. To avoid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Char Dham Mahamarg road expansion was split into 53 segments, each less than 100 kilometres long. Any project less than 100 kilometres does not need an EIA. The EIA, like a fuse, provides surge-protection during monsoon, earthquakes and landslides. Since no environmental safeguards were taken before the project was implemented, the project has led to miserable conditions for people, ecology and economy of Uttarakhand. 25,303 trees, most of them Peepal trees on the pilgrimage routes, planted years ago in memory of ancestors have already been felled across 356 km of forest land, for road widening. No count exists for trees less than 30 cm in diameter, or other vegetation that the mountains have been stripped of. Landslides have crushed thousands of trees. Vegetation on the hill slopes, critical to stabilising slopes, is being removed with impunity, leaving mud exposed for erosion during monsoon, triggering massive landslides. With all the debris entering the river systems, damage caused to the river systems downstream is also immense. In fact, for the all-weather road, many mountain sides have been cut at a perilous ninety degrees. With heavy downpours that the mountains have been experiencing regularly, these straight cuts are resulting in massive landslides. Over 500 landslides have formed across the Char Dham routes owing to inappropriate road cutting. Clearing operations have caused debris dumping and vegetation stripping and several lives, livelihoods, homes and agricultural fields have been lost. It is also a known fact that young mountains in the Himalayas, once destabilised, are almost impossible to cure. The case of Varunavat mountain in Uttarkashi, which despite best human efforts is still raining rocks on this disaster prone town, is well known. But the apathy is not just limited to the forested mountain slopes. Urban spaces, especially hill stations, are also on the brink. Recently, a large section of Nainital’s lower Mall Road collapsed, fuelling anxiety about the fate of this heritage pathway built in the 19th century, by the British. Geologists have raised concerns over the entire incident and said that about 165 metre of the 1.5 km long road is unsafe. The local administration has now been urged to strengthen the road to prevent any future damage. This is the second such incident, which has taken place within a week. In 2003-2004, a team from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had observed that old street lamps and trees on the Lower Mall, especially below Grand Hotel, were tilting towards the Naini Lake. Further research showed that the Sher-Ka-Danda Hill had a proclivity to slide towards the lake. To keep such this hill safe, learning from the massive landslip of 1880, the British had erected telltale pillars on the hillside in order to keep mountainsides under close observation. A slight tilt in the pillars would indicate an impending landslide. At the time, PWD officials had admitted to the then District Magistrate, that they were no longer observing this practice, as there had been no emergency. The DM had then questioned them whether they were actually awaiting a disaster before taking precautions. The old records also showed that the drainage of the hill was to be kept north-south, preventing rain water seepage into the upper strata. With the passage of time, all lessons from history have been conveniently forgotten. In Nainital, a seasoned geo-investigation expert, Manoj Kumar, had advised after a field visit that a detailed geological investigation of the hill needed to be carried out and, thereafter, the surface strata could be stitched across the sliding plane to the bedrock. In answer to the DM's question as to when the hill could slide, he responded that, "it could happen tomorrow, or in a hundred years". It is unfortunate that the current collapse is likely to be seen, not as a wake up call but as an opportunity for another major civil repair project to reward contractors close to the powers that be. All over the country, we are witnessing disasters from natural phenomena for which the cumulative impact of human activity and excessive construction in fragile areas is responsible. The Himalayas, however, being the water towers for the country, will only be neglected at the peril of the entire nation.

(The writer is an anthropologist, author, traveler & activist who also runs a public walking group called Been There, Doon That?)

- https://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/all-weather-disasters-in-the-making.html, Sep 4, 2018

From the archaeological remains at Hastinapur and Sanauli, and from archaeologists BB Lal and SK Manjul, the aim to ascertain the exact date of Mahabharata remains the same. But in that pursuit the cultural relations of archaeology have changed, thereby opening the possibilities for exploring the dates of Mahabharata somewhere between 1100 BC and 2000 BC. Spate of excavations in Uttar Pradesh’s Sanauli and Chandayana have thrown open possibilities of new cultures for the current archaeologists and they differ from Lal’s hypothesis. Lal correlated the ‘Painted Grey Ware Culture’ of archaeology to Mahabharata and bracketed it in the 1100 BC time frame. The new hypothesis now strikes the correlation between Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) with the Mahabharata Culture, which brackets it in 2000 BC. Based on the excavations conducted under him in Sanauli, where a chariot was found in June, SK Manjul, the director of Institute of Archaeology, under Archaeological Survey of India, delivered a lecture in July 2018 in Delhi. The title of the talk was “Mahabharata and Archaeology: PGW vis a vis OCP/Copper Hoard Culture.” In the lecture, Manjul made a case for OCP as a culture relation to Mahabharata. The presentation was: “The hypothesis given by BB Lal and others on the basis of archaeological findings in the lower strata at Hastinapur and similar findings from other sites mentioned in the Mahabharata correlated Painted Grey Ware Culture with the Mahabharata Era.” Lal noticed Painted Grey Ware from important sites mentioned in Mahabharata and time bracket of war suggested around 1000-900 BCE. But recent excavations in Sanauli, Barnawa and Chandayana have a different story to tell - that of much earlier culture OCP. Archaeology of Mahabharata: Then and Now The early hypothesis in post independent India suggested time 1000 BCE with cultural relation of PGW. And the New Hypothesis suggested time 2000 BCE with Cultural relation: OCP/ Copper Hoard, according to Manjul. As per the archaeologists, who are votaries of the New Hypothesis, PGW is marked with “rural settlements, pit dwellings and hut. There are weapons, arrow, head small, spear head, agriculture tools, bone points, metal iron. No chariots found. It shows limited and distinct pottery traditions. It has very less information on Vedic rituals and traditions.” On the other hand, the archaeologists say that the OCP is marked with “Advanced weapons and tools, antenna sword Harapoon celts, dagger and shield, metal copper and advance chariot found. Advance pottery tradition including metal pots. Also, it has similarity with Vedic rituals.” Hastinapur is mentioned in Mahabharata while Sanauli is not. But for the New Hypothesis, Sanauli became significant because of its findings - a chariot was excavated from the royal burial pits in June 2018. “The Mahabharat clearly belongs to a heroic age, mentions the use of many weapons extensive use of chariots as war vehicles contact and relations with other territories sophisticated lifestyle and Vedic beliefs. The evidence found from Sanauli shows similar cultural affinities as narrated in the Mahabhrata,” Manjul said. Sanauli is OCP site of Ganga Jamuna Doab and its tributaries were the core zone of OCP/Copper Hoard Culture, contemporary to Harappan civilisation. Manjul and his team, which also includes his partner Arvin Manjul, the co-director at Sanauli excavations, also conducted excavations in Barnawa to find the House of Lacs but it showed no evidence to support the myth but is PGW site. “We need collective excavations for understanding the complete cultural scenario, review the date of society mentioned in Mahabharata related to PGW or OCP Copper Hoard,” he said. News 18 contacted BB Lal who propounded the correlation between the PGW and Mahabharata. He is not convinced with the New Hypothesis because Sanauli is not the site mentioned in the text, “There is no evidence to link it to Mahabharata culture, these sites are not mentioned in the texts,” he said.

The Critics of Correlation of Archaeological trends with Mahabharata

Lal’s “Excavation at Hastinapur and Other Explorations” was the first systematic description of the Culture. Irfan Habib, the Marxist historian, had written in article “Unreason and Archaeology: The Painted Grey Ware and Beyond” questioning archaeologist BB Lal’s report, which “owed its popularity in part to his attempt to find the PGW a proof of the historicity of the sacred epic literature.” The above mentioned article appeared in journal Social Scientists. Habib wrote that Lal knew of the dates calculated for Mahabharata. Different dates of Mahabharata have been given by different historians. There was 3,102 BC calculated by PC Sengupta, 1424 BC by KP Jayaswal, 1400 BC by AS Altekar, 1152 BC by SN Pradhan, and 9th century BC by HC Raychaudhuri. But Lal picked up 950 BC given by FE Pargiter. “So he could rhetorically ask: Is it a mere chance that the date of the Mahabharata falls within Period II of Hastinapur?” (Period II being that of Painted Grey Ware). According to Habib “Lal gave very high time values to the accumulation of deposits below the Northern Black Polished Ware levels, which themselves could not be dated beyond 600 BC.” There have been other critics of correlation between PGW and Mahabharata, for instance DH Gordon in his book “The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture” doubted Lal’s estimates by saying, “The presence of PGW could not be put beyond 650 BC.” Mortimer Wheeler in “Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka” stated that deposit of PGW at Hastinapur could not be made to carry the beginning of the ware to beyond 800 BC. On the correlation between archaeology and Mahabharata, Meera Visvanathan, Assistant Professor Department of History School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shiv Nadar University spoke to News 18. She said, “The sites mentioned in Mahabharata fall into the region of Indo-Gangetic divide, where Indo-Aryans moved into India and set up their first settlement – Kurukshetra. Mahabharata is tied up with this process.” BB Lal associates archaeological culture relations at various sites with the Mahabharata, but “Mahabharata as a story is far grander. The process of storytelling took its own time. What we have today is not a contemporary chronicle to that original event. It is more a product of poetic imagination. These correlations between the text and archaeology have been common but not much has been derived from it.” The dating of the Mahabharata War has often been challenging and controversial. Manjul said, "European scholars have maintained that the events described in ancient Sanskrit texts are imaginary. Subsequently, the Mahabharata has been derived to be a fictitious tale of war fought between two rivals – the Pandavasand the Kauravas. The heart of the story is very ancient.” He added, “On the contrary, many Indian scholars have vehemently maintained the actual occurrence of the Mahabharata War. On the basis of planetary positions recorded in the Mahabharata and literary evidence from Puranic and Vedic texts Prof CV Vaidya and Prof Apte had derived the date to be 3101 BC; Kota Venkatachalam reckoned it to be 3139 BC; Dr Vartak derived the date of the initiation of the Mahabharata War to be 16thOctober 5561 BC.” Batting for the New Hypothesis is KN Dikshit. He was the head of the panel set up by the Ministry of Culture to have a holistic study on the Indian past over 12,000 years. He said, “The possibilities of dating Mahabharata are open. Perhaps, Hastinapur should be re-excavated to know its earliest culture.”

- https://www.news18.com/news/india/dating-the-mahabharata-to-2000-bc-archaeologists-shift-from-painted-grey-ware-to-ochre-coloured-pottery-1864423.html, Sep 4, 2018

Khichdi, the humble member of our culinary company, has been playing a long, long inning in the taste match. It's score: Nearly 2,000 years. Archaeologists have found burnt pieces of rice and green gram, aka moong dal, that were cooked together in Maharashtra in 1st century AD, indicating that the comfort food was equally savoured back then. The site of the discovery – Ter in Osmanabad district – was a mercantile centre and part of India's ancient trade with Rome, another clue that the lentil-rice dish was prepared in large quantities. "We found two broken terracotta pots with traces of rice and moong dal cooked together in bulk. The grains were burnt and converted to carbon. This gives us an insight into the culture and eating habits of people 2,000 years ago," said Maya Patil (Shahapurkar), head, department of archaeology, Solapur University. Arrival of chilli, potato, and tomato in the past few centuries, and more recently Chinese cuisine, may have expanded choices for Indian palates, but the savoury combination of rice and dal continues to be the first choice for those under the weather and is synonymous with simple-eating. In 2015, Patil, the then deputy director at the state department of museums and archaeology, led excavations the site, about 450 km from Mumbai. A report on their findings was submitted to the government recently. Ter, called 'Tagar' in ancient times, is mentioned in the works of the Chinese traveller Hsuan-Tsang and was populated from 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD through the pre-Satavahana, Satavahana, later-Satavahana and Vakataka period. It attained the pinnacle of its glory during Satavahana rule. It is said that Ter gradually became uninhabitable due to drought during the Rashtrakuta era. The Marathwada region, which includes Osmanabad, is drought-affected. "Rice is not widely cultivated here. This means the region had good rainfall in that period with abundant water," said Patil. Though traces of rice were found in late-Harappan Chalcolithic sites in Maharashtra like Inamgaon and Daymabad, this was probably the first instance where rice and moong dal were found to be cooked together. The team also found burnt pieces of wheat, jowar, bajra and tur dal and jujube seeds. Amol Gote, assistant archaeologist and another member of the team, said this could be among the oldest evidence of khichdi being prepared. "We found a number of terracotta bowls. We unearthed small stone mortars and pestles. Grains may have been soaked at night and crushed in the morning and eaten as stone grinders were used only after the Satavahana era. A cookery book penned by Chalukya king Someshwara II mentions gruel," said Patil. The people of ancient Ter ate vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian food as revealed by bones of fish and animals like sheep and goats that were dug up by the archaeologists. Among other discoveries of historical importance, the team found traces of around two-meter tall wooden ramparts protecting the city and terracotta spindles or bobbins used to wind cotton fabric or muslin which was India's famous ancient export. "We found pieces of Mauryan-era northern blackware pottery which may have been brought by Buddhist monks as Ter was a major Buddhist centre," she said. Ter has the 4th-century Trivikram temple, which is the oldest surviving brick temple in Maharashtra, and the 6th-century Uttareshwar and Kaleshwar temples.

THE DISCOVERY

Traces of burnt rice and moong dal cooked together in 1st century AD found at Ter in Maharashtra Ter was a business hub and part of India's trade with Rome, another clue that it was cooked in large quantities Archaeologists say this could be the oldest evidence of khichdi being prepared THE CULINARY DISCOVERY

History: Ter, or Tagar as it was called, is among the richest archaeological sites in Maharashtra. It finds a mention in the works of Pliny the Elder and 'Periplus of the Erythraean Sea' (a navigation document) Some ancient trade routes: Nashik- Junnar- Naneghat- Kalyan- Ter Machilipatnam- Vinukonda- Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad)- Ter- Paithan ( Prathisthan, the capital of the Satavahanas)- Kalyan- Nashik- Surat- Bharuch (or Barigaza as it was called then). Excavations: An exploration was conducted by Henry Cousens (1901-5), later excavations include K.N Dikshit (1958), B.N Chaphekar (1967-68), S.P Deo (1974-75) and by the state archaeology directorate Some archaeological finds: Shell bangles, ivory eyebrow pencils used to apply kajal, megarianware decorated pottery, black ware and red ware, terracotta bowls, remains of a stupa, chaitya and houses, figurines of Lajjagauri (Mother Goddess), terracotta toys including wheels, figurines of animals like elephants and bulls, fragments of amphoras that may have contained wine from Rome Threats: Rampant use of white sand found there for farming, brick kilns.

- https://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/all-weather-disasters-in-the-making.html, Sep 4, 2018

Empress Nur Jahan was the most powerful woman in 17th Century India. She played an unprecedented role in running the vast Mughal empire. Historian Ruby Lal explains why the history of her leadership is important to understand today. She was named Mihr un-Nisa at birth and was later named Nur Jahan (light of the world) by her husband, the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. She was born only a few decades after Queen Elizabeth I, yet she ruled a territory far more diverse than that of her British counterpart. The Mughals ruled much of the Indian subcontinent for more than 300 years after they came to power early in the 16th century. It was one of India's biggest and most powerful dynasties. Many of its emperors and royal women, including Nur Jahan, were patrons of art, music and architecture - they built grand cities and majestic forts, mosques and tombs. And as the dynast's only woman ruler, Nur Jahan is omnipresent in the folklore of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Stories about her abound in the homes, and near monuments, in Agra in northern Indian and Lahore in northern Pakistan - two major cities in the Mughal era, especially during her reign. Older men and women, tour guides and history aficionados tell stories of how Nur and Jahangir met and fell in love; of how she saved a village tormented by a man-eating tiger - she shot it deadwith a musket from her perch on top of an elephant. Though people have heard stories about her romance and, infrequently, of her bravery, little is known about her dynamic world, political acumen and powerful ambitions. She was a fascinating woman who came to rule an empire against extraordinary odds. She was a poet, an expert hunter and an innovative architect. Her design for her parents' tomb in Agra later inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal. A remarkable leader in a male-dominated world, Nur didn't come from royalty. Yet she ascended from the emperor's harem to great heights as an astute politician and the favourite wife of Jahangir, ruling the vast Mughal empire as a co-sovereign. But how did she become so powerful at a time when women rarely occupied public space? There is a lot to be said about her upbringing, the supportive network of men and women by her side, the special relationship she enjoyed with Jahangir, her ambition, and her land and its people. The plural, rich and tolerant culture of Al-Hind - the land beyond the river Indus, as the Arabs and Persians called northern India then - allowed different sensibilities, religions and traditions to coexist. Nur was born in 1577 near Kandahar (in present-day Afghanistan) to eminent Persian nobles who had left their home in Iran amid increasing intolerance under the Safavid dynasty to seek refuge in the more liberal Mughal empire.

An admiring portrait

Raised in a blend of traditions from her parents' birthplace and their adopted homeland, Nur first married a Mughal government official and former military officer in 1594. She moved with him to Bengal, a rich province in eastern India, and gave birth to her only child. When her husband was suspected of participating in a plot against Jahangir, the emperor ordered the governor of Bengal to bring him to his royal court in Agra. But Nur's husband was killed in a battle with the governor's men. The widowed Nur was given refuge in Jahangir's harem, where other women gradually started to trust and admire her. She married Jahangir in 1611, becoming his 20th and final wife. Though few women were mentioned in official court records at the time, Jahangir's memoirs from 1614 onward confirm his special relationship with Nur. And he painted an admiring portrait of her - as a sensitive companion, a superb caregiver, an accomplished adviser, a skilled hunter, a diplomat and an art lover. Many historians believe that Jahangir was an ailing drunkard who no longer had the stamina or focus to rule, and that is why he gave up the control of his kingdom to Nur. But that is not entirely true. Yes, the emperor was a drunkard and he smoked opium. Yes, he was deeply in love with his wife. But that's not why Nur became a ruler to be reckoned with. In fact, Nur and Jahangir complemented each other, and the emperor never felt uncomfortable with his wife's burgeoning influence as co-sovereign. Soon after their marriage, she issued her first royal order to protect the land rights of an employee. Her signature in the order read, Nur Jahan Padshah Begum, which translates as Nur Jahan, the Lady Emperor. It was a sign of sovereignty and an indication that her power was growing. In 1617, gold and silver coins, which bore her name opposite that of Jahangir, started circulating. Court chroniclers, foreign diplomats, tradesmen and visitors soon started to note her unique status. One courtier described an incident where she surprised many by appearing in the imperial balcony, which was reserved for men only. This was not her only act of defiance. Be it hunting, issuing imperial orders and coins, designing public buildings, taking measures to support poor women or champion the disadvantaged, Nur lived a life that was unusual among women at the time. She also led an army to save the emperor when he was taken captive - a daring act which ensured that her name was etched indelibly in public imagination, and in history. Historian Ruby Lal teaches at Emory University and is the author, most recently of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, published by WW Norton in US; and Penguin India, in India.

- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45319055, Sep 4, 2018

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) – Jammu Chapter in collaboration with Centre for Women’s Studies (CWS), University of Jammu, Centre for History and Culture of Jammu & Ladakh Regions (CHCJLR), University of Jammu and Department of Handicraft, J&K Government started a two-week workshop for skill enhancement of calico printing commonly known as Samba prints of Jammu. Twenty participants include trainers of Handicraft Department, unemployed women folk who have already acquired the knowledge of calico printing in the training centres of the Handicraft Department. Prof Suman Jamwal, Director, CWS, University of Jammu, formally welcomed the participants, faculty / trainers from Ahemdabad, Anju Gupta, Joint Director, Department of Handicraft, Jammu, Prof Anita Billawaria, Director, CHCJLR, University of Jammu and S.M Sahni, Convenor, INTACH- Jammu Chapter. Anju Gupta briefed the participants about the various initiatives of the Handicraft Department for encouraging the calico printing craft of Samba, Jammu. She expressed her gratitude to INTACH- Jammu Chapter as well as to the master trainers -Sajid Bhai Udaipuri and Sajid Chheepa for taking keen interest and efforts to start the workshop. Prof Anita Billawaria dwelt upon the socio-historical background of Calico craft of Samba, Jammu which had gained its importance at all the royal Dogra ceremonial functions. S.M Sahni, Convenor, INTACH- Jammu Chapter, explained about this intangible Dogra heritage of Jammu (Samba Prints) to the participants as it seems to be dying craft and needs to be conserved, preserved and promoted with new innovative ideas for which master trainers from Ahmadabad have been invited. Among others present in the workshop were Kuldeep Wahi, Co-Convenor, INTACH-Jammu Chapter, Sandeep Singh Pathania, Program Coordinator, INTACH- Jammu Chapter, Dr Priyanka Katoch, Saranjit Kaur, Faculty of Centre for Women’s Studies, Abhimanyu Dev Singh Billawaria and S.S Rissam, Moderator of the Workshop.

- http://news.statetimes.in/workshop-on-skill-enhancement-new-product-development-organised/, Sep 5, 2018

In the third edition of this series on Indian monuments by Sahapedia, we look at the popular Ellora Caves, which is perhaps one of the most fascinating sites in India. Built over 500 years, nowhere else would you be able to find such a congregation of all the major religions of ancient India in one place.

By Navina Lamba & Shruti Chakraborty

The rock-cut Ajanta and Ellora Caves (often visited together) are not only a popular tourist destination in central India, but are an important part of India’s religious and architectural heritage. But what makes the 34 rock-cut caves of Ellora particularly unique is that they house monasteries and temples of the three major religions of ancient India—Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. This architectural marvel stands as a symbol of religious tolerance characteristic to ancient India and brings the ancient civilisation to life. This is the reason why art historian and sculptor Prof. Deepak Kannal, in an interview with Sahapedia, calls Ellora “one of the most fascinating sites in India”. UNESCO recognised both the Ajanta and Ellora caves as World Heritage Sites as early as 1983, calling the latter “a unique artistic creation and a technological exploit”. In fact, Ellora was not just a religious site; its location on an ancient South Asian trade route made it an important economic and commercial centre as well. The site finds mention in several ancient texts, often as Elapura, as it was once known. The Ellora Caves also show a synchronisation of many different architectural and aesthetic languages. Although the exact date of when work at Ellora began has not been identified, it is known that the site was a centre of art activity from the 5th to the 11th centuries, patronised by many dynasties, including the Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Kalachuris and many others. There are also some records of the caves being used by Jain visitors up until the 13th century, after which the region came under Islamic rule.

ARCHITECTURE AND STRUCTURE

Extending over two kilometres, the 34 caves are divided into three sections — almost one-third are distinctly Buddhist, caves 14-29 depict Hindu iconography and the last five are attributed to Jainism. Kannal divides the art activity at the Ellora caves into two phases—the Early Phase (5th to 6th centuries) and the Rashtrakuta Phase (around the 7th century onwards). It is imperative to note here that though only 34 caves are accessible to the public today, it is said that there are over 100 caves in total on the site. Prof. Shrikant Ganvir, an expert on ancient Indian history and culture, says that Ellora was an important centre of tantric Buddhism. “The religious imagery at Ellora shows that tantric Buddhism was very much developed by this time in the western Deccan and flourished from the 7th century onwards till the early 10th century… The tantric Buddhist imagery which we get at Ellora is quite interesting as some of the icons do not match with the textual description. So it can be suggested that tantric Buddhist icons at Ellora were excavated even before standard Buddhist tantric texts were codified or were being circulated,” he says in his extensive interview for Sahapedia. The Rameshvara (Cave 2) is considered to be the finest caves at Ellora from the first phase. From Rameshvara to Ravan ki Khai (Cave 14), one sees an obvious similarity in the ground plan. However, the architectural alterations, like the circumambulatory path around the garbhagriha (the sanctum sanctorum of temples), shows the evolving architectural and aesthetic sensibility of this phase. It was these interactions between different visual languages of guilds of different dynasties that allowed the surfacing of a composite style in the later phase of Ellora. An important temple in the complex is the Kailashnatha monolith, which is not only one of the largest temples in Ellora but is arguably the largest monolith temple in the world. Situated outside Dashavatara (Cave 15), the monolith is said to have been built in the 8th century.

ELLORA, AJANTA AND ELEPHANTA

Another thing that makes the Ellora Caves fascinating is its architectural similarities with other, non-contemporaneous cave structures, such as Ajanta and Elephanta. While the Ellora Buddhist cave architecture is simpler, it is grander in scale than Ajanta. Stylistically, there’s a similarity between the two, especially in the Buddhist caves. That is why many see Ellora as a sequel to Ajanta. Scholars also believe that the Ellora caves share similarities with the ones found at Elephanta (close to Mumbai, Maharashtra, and also said to have been built between the 5th and 9th centuries), especially Dhumarlena (Cave 29)—the last cave, both physically and chronologically, from the early phase. It follows the ground plan and the sculptural type of Elephanta quite faithfully and the Kalachuri lineage is quite discernible. A POEM CARVED IN STONE According to Kannal, “Marathi scholars believe that the inscription found in Jnaneshvara’s Kuta Kavya is puzzle poetry or mysterious poetry. He says, ‘Chinchechya pani ek mandira bandhile, Adhi kalas mag paya re’, or ‘A temple was constructed on a tamarind leaf and the finial was built first and then the foundation was excavated.’ This is very interesting imagery. People believe that Jnaneshvara must have visited this place. I personally think that Ellora itself is a Kuta Kavya. Ellora itself is a mysterious poem carved in stone.”

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DID YOU KNOW?

– Not known to many, Ellora was an important centre of Tantric Buddhism, especially in the western Deccan region.

– Nowhere else in India would you be able to find the monuments of three major religions of ancient India—Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism—in one place.

– The Kailasanath mandapa from the Rashtrakuta phase was the first successful attempt at carving a proper monolith. In fact, it is said to be the largest Buddhist monolith temple in the world.

– The Jain caves (Caves 30-34) are collectively called Indrasabha because they are actually one cave with several entrances.

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– While visiting, pay particular attention to Caves 2 (one of the finest at the site), 10 (Buddhist mantra cave), 11-12 (storeyed caves; No. 12 depicts a host of Buddhist female deities such as Tara, Janguli, Chunda, Bhrikuti, etc.), 15 (still incomplete, one can see different styles here), 16 (Kailasa, enough has been said about this), and 30-34 (collectively called Indrasabha because they are actually one cave with several entrances). (This article is based on the module on Ellora Caves on www.sahapedia.org, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India. Sahapedia offers encyclopedic content on India’s vast and diverse heritage in multimedia format, authored by scholars and curated by experts to creatively engage with culture and history to reveal connections for a wide public using digital media.)

- https://indianexpress.com/article/parenting/events-things-to-do/know-your-monument-ellora-caves-5338968/, Sep 5, 2018

A two-week workshop for skill enhancement of calico printing, commonly known as Samba prints of Jammu, started on Tuesday. The workshop was organised by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage-Jammu chapter. In all, 20 participants attended the workshop which also included trainers of handicraft department. Prof Suman Jamwal, Director, Centre for Women’s Studies, explained the importance of calico printing in India.

- https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu-kashmir/workshop-on-calico-printing-kicks-off/647735.html, Sep 5, 2018

Sparrows, peacocks, squirrels and cows inhabit the world of Sohrai and Khovar paintings. Popular in Hazaribagh region of Jharkhand, the folk art draws heavily from the forest life. The clean lines reflect a naivety that came alive on canvasses that were exhibited last month at the India International Centre, New Delhi. Though all the paintings appear similar, on close observation one can see the distinct beauty of each. The exhibition was organised by Virasat Trust, founded by Justin Imam and his wife Alka in 2008. Justin, the son of Bulu Imam, INTACH Convener, Hazaribagh, was the first to bring to light these paintings. He has been the force behind the conservation and preservation of this style of painting from the early 1990s. It is an art form practised by women at home, usually the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law combine. The exhibition aimed to create awareness about this painting style even while making the practitioners proud of their heritage. The story of the discovery of the paintings and getting them on to a canvas is interesting. “In Hazaribagh you can see around 10 painted villages within a 50 km radius. Each village belongs to a different community or tribe. Hence their motifs and style of drawing is different,” says Justin. Khovar refers to the decoration of the marriage chambers and Sohrai is the harvest painting on the mud houses, repairing it after the rains and offering a thanksgiving to the forces of Nature. The region has about 11 communities including, Oraon, Munda, Santhal, Prajapati and Khurmi. When the painted villages were discovered, it was a challenge to get these paintings on to a canvas, so that they could be exhibited. Getting visitors there to tell this story to the outside world was the first step. This was done initially through a cooperative called Tribal Women’s Artist’s Cooperative, (TWAC) founded in 1995. The next big challenge was to translate the huge paintings onto handmade papers and canvasses. Brush or broken comb is used to paint. Natural ochre colours make up the palette — dhudhi mitti (white in colour), lal mitti or red oxide from the local mines, kaali mitti or manganese black and peeli mitti or yellow ochre. These colours are collected in the form of lumps and powdered. They are then mixed with water and glue and applied on the canvas or handmade paper. “There are two major stylistic divisions based on the marriage and harvest seasons, while the four major painting techniques include scraping with four fingers, scraping with broken pieces of combs, twig-brush and cloth swab,” says Justin. He explains about the efforts to preserve the wall art and keep alive the tradition. “In recent years, the Khovar and Sohrai art seem to be vanishing in the villages since mud walls are being replaced by brick and cement plaster. Also, young girls are reluctant to undertake the strenuous work of painting alongside their studies. Increasing migration to cities is another major reason. Displacement of agricultural settlements because of mining activities and large thermal power projects constitute a major threat to the continuance of the age-old practices of Jharkhand’s rural communities. “Virasat Trust supplies free red oxide and yellow ochre to the villagersThey are also given blankets, sarees, led bulbs and wall clocks every year as gifts for keeping this art alive. The Trust is now working with 260 women . Since it is not an income generating exercise, most of these women sell vegetables or work on farms. These women then act as change leaders within their community and enthuse others to keep alive the art,” says Justin.

- https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/the-beauty-of-sohrai-and-khovar-paintings/article24881453.ece, Sep 6, 2018

Exhibition by Kandula Venkatesh has rare coins on display It was not less than a treat for the numismatic collectors and enthusiasts in the city as they descended on the Andhra University campus to the coin exhibition by numismatist Kandula Venkatesh on Thursday. Inaugurating the exhibition, Andhra University Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao said that coins had been the mirror of civilisations and a vital part of every civilisation.

A slice of history

“The human civilisation has seen it all. First barter system, then exchange of goods for various types of coins and finally currency notes. This tells a lot about the evolution of human civilisations in different eras,” Mr. Nageswara Rao said and encouraged the history students to do research on coins. Numismatist Kandula Venkatesh, who exhibited a vast collection of coins and currencies of various countries, said that India was among the countries that used coins in ancient days. Along with the coins issued by the British, the folders of the numismatist also contained coins issued by Portuguese and French. College of Arts and Commerce, AU, principal K. Ramamohana Rao said maintaining the collection of rare coins needed certain level of dexterity. INTACH, Visakhapatnam Chapter convenor Mayank Kumari Deo was present.

- https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/a-treat-for-numismatic-enthusiasts/article24886664.ece, Sep 6, 2018

If you were to visit the heritage sites in the historically-rich town of Farrukhnagar, an old man with a fringe of grey hair around his balding scalp, a slightly hunched back, and a slow gait might catch your attention. For the past ten years, 79-year-old Raj Kanwar Gupta, a retired school teacher, visits these monuments almost daily. A heritage enthusiast, Gupta is the go-to person for anyone and everyone who takes the slightest interest in the history of the octagonally enclosed town of Farrukhnagar. Peppered with historical structures such as the Shish Mahal and Dilli Darwaja that go back at least 300 years, Farrukhnagar is an important contributor to the pool of heritage sites within the ambit of Gurugram district. Gupta, for all practical purposes, can easily qualify as the heritage man of Farrukhnagar. He is the one person people can bank on for getting the doors of the Shish Mahal opened. Schools and universities often approach him to act as a guide for tourists visiting the area. Armed with a personal diary and a stick for support, Gupta is a walking repository of the town’s history. “Around 300 years ago, the land around Farrukhnagar used to be rich in salt. A place without any electricity, roads or facilities was naturally producing salt back in those days,” Gupta enthusiastically tells visitors. Gupta is not a qualified historian but grew up listening to the stories of the kings and queens that once lived. His childhood years of growing amid these monuments fuelled a sense of inquisitiveness in him. Later on, a chance encounter with a heritage experts’ team gave him an opportunity to get associated with the heritage body Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. “Around ten years ago, there was an event here to mark the renovation of the Dilli Gate. A team of experts was visiting the area. I went up to them and enquired if I could get involved in preserving the history of my land. Seeing my enthusiasm, they readily said yes. I filled the form, made a small payment, and today I am a lifelong member of the heritage body, INTACH,” Gupta said. Heritage experts also swear by his name. Parul Munjal, associate professor, Sushant School of Art and Architecture, said that Gupta played the role of a universal host for Farrukhnagar. “He is always inviting people to explore the region and makes lifelong connections with them. The stories about Farrukhnagar’s salt manufacturing history and so many others are essentially alive because of him. He is a valuable asset to Farrukhnagar,” Munjal added. Gupta taught art and crafts to children in class 6-10 in the government senior secondary school for 20 years before retiring in 1995. Retirement from service, however, didn’t deter him from doing what he loves most — teaching. “I always had an interest in history and teaching. Sharing knowledge with others excites me even today. It brings me great joy to know that people have fond recollections about me whenever they talk about Farrukhnagar. Even after retirement, I have made myself available to serve the people,” Gupta said. Gupta runs a small shop near the Shish Mahal where he has preserved memorabilia associated with the town’s history. Old maps, photographs, and paintings adorn the walls of his shop where he spends a few hours daily. Alluding to his old age, Gupta says that he has few years of service left. “I don’t have much time left now but I will continue to do whatever little I can do. People may not remember me once I die but, at least, they would think of me when they want to know about the history of this town. I want the stories of Farrukhnagar to outlive me,” he said. Earlier last month, Hindustan Times had done a story outlining the poor state of heritage structures in Farrukhnagar. Damaged by the vagaries of time and human apathy, remnants of history in the town are gradually perishing. In such a scenario, Gupta’s role as a chronicler of the town’s lore assumes significance. For many first-time visitors, Gupta is the one ensuring that their visit doesn’t turn out to be a dampener. He is the one people bank on for getting the doors of Shish Mahal opened, which otherwise remains locked by the caretaker from the Department of Archaeology and Museums. “The caretakers hardly know anything. They simply call me and ask me to come whenever there are visitors. I don’t mind since I want people to keep coming back here. I am always ready to serve people and share whatever little I can,” Gupta said.

- https://www.hindustantimes.com/gurugram/meet-the-man-who-tells-tales-of-farrukhnagar-the-historically-rich-haryana-town/story-24xfMlOAx15YXm3TzV2cPM.html, Sep 6, 2018

hether history repeats itself remains to be seen. But sometimes it does whisper warnings. And the clear message from the apex court now is: heed the warnings of history. Taking a cue from the August 29 Supreme Court order, we set out on a pictorial walk through the Taj Mahal complex, keeping the larger picture in mind: that is, we approach the Taj, not as the present-day visitor does, descending on the monument one fine day, but as a visitor would have done in the 17th century: experiencing the larger Taj complex. Our purpose is to look, with photographic evidence, at visual pollution, years of deterioration, vandalism, shoddy oversight and neglect of a magnificent heritage. So let's start the journey to the Taj: Night has fallen over the Taj Mahal. In its backyard, the 400-year-old bazaar, Taj Ganj, has gone quiet. The cacophony of hawkers, shoppers, animals, carts, auto-rickshaws and shopkeepers selling Taj souvenirs is fading into different sounds: the chatter of men sitting outside their closed shops, children laughing, women grinding spice in the kitchen. The pungent stench of sweat, garbage, dung and open drains has waned. The sugary aroma of freshly-made jalebis now hangs in the air. Crumbling old havelis hide in the darkness. Rooftop cafes with a panoramic view of the Taj by moonlight twinkle dimly. How many visitors know that Taj Ganj is meant to be an integral part of the Taj Mahal? Is that what the Supreme Court meant through its order on August 29? Keep the larger picture in mind, ordered the bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta. They asked Professor Meenakshi Dhote of Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture to finalise the Taj Mahal vision document within a month, collaborate with renowned experts and seek the court's help, if necessary: she was earlier given wrong information on the number of industries in the eco-sensitive zone around the monument. If the Taj Mahal goes, you will not get a second chance to retrieve it, the judges hammered home the hard truth. COLONIAL CONSERVATION According to the Padshahnama, emperor Shah Jahan set up Mumtazabad (now Taj Ganj) in 1631 as the entryway to the Taj Mahal, which was also commissioned the same year. The idea was Quranic: the world of the senses leading up to the realm of the spirit; or a chaotic marketplace opening into paradise. He bestowed 50 lakh Shahjahani rupees to build roads, markets and four kataras or inns, each with provision for about a thousand visitors. Shah Jahan's historian, Abdul Hamid Lahauri, wrote in 1651: On the south side of the forecourt there is a cross-axial market founded for all eternity, which has become a large city, called Mumtazabad. A neighbourhood of wealthy merchants as well as the craftsmen who created the Taj, the bazaar contributed financially to the upkeep of the mausoleum. Taj Ganj lost its shine between 1899 and 1905, when British viceroy Lord Curzon, clueless about its significance, detached it from the Taj. For more than a century, the Archaeological Survey of India continued the same colonial policy: the overall area of the Taj complex measures 896.1 metres x 300.84 m, and only an area measuring 561.2 m x 300.84 m has been preserved, leaving the bazaar area of 334.9 m, barring a few islands, unpreserved as recorded in The Complete Taj Mahal by art historian Ebba Koch. A team from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, which undertook a two-month-long research (Taj Ganj: Taking Our Heritage Forward) in 2011, noted a near-complete lack of tourist information about the Taj Ganj in brochures, maps, signage, at the Taj Museum, in the Shilpgram complex near the East gate, and in the exhibitions and cultural programmes held during the annual Taj Mahotsav. They recommended that Taj Ganj needed to be recognised as a heritage precinct in its own right and that accessing the Taj through this historic setting should be tried as a unique visitor experience. Instead, Taj Ganj received a death knell this February, when the ASI banned entry through the South gate, for the first time in the Taj's history, diverting further from the original plan. VISUAL POLLUTION It has taken massive intervention in the form of writ petitions, public interest litigations and RTIs by conservationists, environmentalists, lawyers and historians in the past 40 years, largely by M.C. Mehta, Rajkumar Singh, the late D.K. Joshi, Bhim Singh Sagar, Surendra Sharma, Ram Nath, to focus attention on the protection and preservation of the Taj Mahal. Mehta, whose PIL led to the landmark judgment on saving the Taj from air pollution (M.C. Mehta vs Union of India, 1996), has, in a fresh application, alleged that a combination of anthropogenic factors are leading to the deterioration of the Taj, mostly the result of rapid urbanisation and development in the city, giving rise to new types of pollution. In fact, it is believed that all the various types of pollution, air, soil, water, noise, light and biochemical, can lead to a newer and little-understood phenomenon: visual pollution. Its a type of pollution that impairs one's ability to enjoy a view, says Navin Piplani, conservation architect and principal director of the INTACH Heritage Academy in Delhi. Piplani, who has worked as a core member of the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative since 2002, says anything that creates a sense of clutter, disorder or misfit, from street furniture to high voltage lines, advertising to signage to plastic bags to administrative negligence, and leads to visible deterioration of landscapes and living environments, can be called visual pollution. The tool to fight visual pollution is yet another idea doing the rounds in conservation circles. Today, it is believed that the concept of authenticity is the ethical premise for the conservation of cultural heritage, he says. The truthfulness of design, material, craftsmanship and experience, particularly as the Taj is a World Heritage Site, should define the authenticity of the values and attributes that define the heritage. The way to go about it, according to Piplani, is to preserve the historic core, recognise the value of heritage and safeguard its authenticity. RANDOM PROTECTION Walk a few steps down the winding gullies of Taj Ganj and you'll be in front of a cavernous gateway. A blue signboard on it reads: Dakhini Darwaza. Archaeological Survey of India. Protected Monument. The Taj Ganj is aligned on axis to the southern entrance gate of the Taj, the Sidhi or Sirhi Darwaza. Each katara was fronted by a darwaza. Today, the ASI protects just the gateways, not the kataras. But even that claim of protection seems exaggerated. The bare walls of the gateway have lost plaster and cladding, the ceiling is crumbling, haphazard constructions stand around it in total disregard. A tin hoarding of a pathology lab is nailed to the walls. An old two-storeyed haveli with a spectacular roof stands at a distance. Right above the gated entrance on the ground floor, Parshwanath Jain Mandir is engraved on the wall. The second floor has a roof-shaped marble pavilion with chhajjas (eaves), golden decorations, all characteristic of 17th century Mughal architecture. Behind that hybrid architecture, 400 years of history whisper through the photo-lined walls and unusual statuettes on display inside. Ask around and you'll be told it is the house of Munshi Banarsi Das, a Jain philosopher, scholar, merchant, Shah Jahan's courtier, and the man who wrote Ardhakathanak, the first autobiography in an Indian language apart from various Jain texts. This is the house where Shah Jahan used to come for a game of chaupad with his munshi. The chaupad board, inlaid with intricate pietra dura flowers, still exists here. If cultural heritage involves a bridge between a community's identity, history and future, can one ask the ASI why it is not a protected monument? Especially, when it forbids even the repair of buildings within 300 metres of any registered monument?

- https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/nation/story/20180917-monumental-mismanagement-1333212-2018-09-07, Sep 7, 2018

The state government is contemplating to extend the jurisdiction of the Shimla Heritage Advisory Committee to the entire state so as to preserve and conserve the precious heritage monuments, especially of the British era. A proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the advisory committee has been submitted before Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department. The committee at its last meeting had expressed the need for bringing the rest of the state under a heritage advisory committee. All restoration and conservation projects of any heritage building in the state capital have to be approved by the Heritage Advisory Committee before work can begin. Whether it was the conservation of the landmark Gaiety Theatre or the Town Hall building on The Mall here, the nod of the Heritage Advisory Committee was taken before starting work. “It is very much in the fitness of things to have a state level Heritage Advisory Committee as we have priceless heritage dotted all over the town. We have already submitted a proposal in this regard to the government,” revealed Rajeshwar Goel, Director, TCP. BS Malhans, a writer and an environmentalist, who is a member of the Shimla Heritage Advisory Committee, echoed similar sentiments. “It is essential that we bring our priceless heritage, be it built up or natural, under the ambit of a state level committee, as such structures need special care, attention and restoration,” he said. The dilapidated and fast crumbling situation of some of the historical structures like Akhand Chandi Palace in Chamba and many buildings in Mandi town has caused concern among citizens. It is being felt that it is when there is a state level body that such structures can be taken care of properly. The TCP Department has notified a Heritage Zone in the state capital extending from the secretariat in Chotta Shimla till the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. The INTACH has identified 329 heritage buildings in the town out of which more than 100 have been notified for regulatory control purpose. The Town and Country Planning Department has notified a list of heritage buildings in the town, be it government or private. Prominent among them are the imperial Viceregal Lodge, Christ Church, Raj Bhawan, Oak Over, the official residence of the Chief Minister, hotels and many other private as well as Government buildings. Most of the hospital building and famous public schools and convents in the town also fall in the category of century old heritage buildings. The government has also initiated the process of shifting and relocation of state government offices from heritage buildings in Mall area and revitalization of these buildings for appropriate adaptive reuse. Similar exercise could be done to save other heritage structures all over the town.

- https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/state-body-to-conserve-heritage-buildings/650309.html, Sep 10, 2018

From Dhaula Kuan to Siri Fort, the stories behind the names of Delhi localities provide an insight into the history of the megapolis. If you close your eyes and imagine the streets and winding lanes that vein Delhi, their names function as chapters in its multi-layered narrative. Even for those who have inhabited this city for decades, the majestic ruins scattered across it may have gone unnoticed. It is in these ruins that stories of invasion, victory and defeat crouch. Delhi is not a walking-friendly city. You may tour its innards and learn of its contours on buses or in auto rides, but it is seldom that you’d know the story behind the naming of a street or a certain locality. Take Chandni Chowk, for instance. Situated within the walled city of Shahjahanabad (what is today known as Old Delhi), Chandni Chowk was a 19m wide and 1.4km long road that connected the Red Fort’s Lahori gate to the Lahori gate at the city’s walled circumference. Back then, at its centre, was a lone water tank. On a full moon night, the water would reflect the pale moonlight and set the surrounding areas aglow. Thus the name ‘Moonlight Square’. In the 18th century, this once-decorated thoroughfare was quite popular among the elite. A paper titled “Economy of the City of Delhi: 1707-1761”, published by the Indian History Congress, quotes a Dargah Quli Khan who visited the market in 1738: “Chandni Chowk is a place where important people come for entertainment and pleasure, and sight-seeing for beauty and elegance. Articles of every description are found in its adjoining streets… on one street are jewelers where rubies and pearls and all the gems are available in plenty. On another side are the perfumeries, oil apothecaries.” Today, the entire locality is known as Chandni Chowk. In its swollen arteries, people wander at an alarmingly unhurried pace. It is a theatrical setting: in a corner, a streetside ear-cleaner peers into the ear canal of a customer; men cycle by carrying cotton candy bouquets; overcrowded rickshaws pedal through tiny by-lanes; goats are dragged on a leash; and men wearing rings made of semi-precious stones walk by with caged parakeets. The streets are swarming—too many feet, too many eyes, and if you are a lone woman walking about with a camera around your neck, too many wagging tongues. Shuttle across seven metro stations towards the heart of modern Delhi, from Chandni Chowk to Jor Bagh, and you will find yourself in close proximity to Lodhi Gardens. A city landmark today, this park was not always called so. On the same land once lay the village of Khairpur. “Khair means ‘well-wisher’ or ‘good’,” explains Vikramjit Singh Rooprai, a city historian who has been studying Delhi and its past since 2009. The village was uprooted and relocated in the 1930s by the British and a vast manicured park was built in its place, orchestrated by Lady Willingdon, the wife of Lord Willingdon, the then Viceroy of India. “If you enter Lodhi Gardens from Rajesh Pilot Marg, the original gate built during the inauguration is still there. The stone still has ‘Lady Willingdon Park 1936’ inscribed on it,” says Rooprai. As part of the area’s beautification process, a baoli (step-well) disappeared along with the village. Once an important water source for the village, it was buried and forgotten. In the years to follow, the park was re-sculpted and landscaped by foreign architects like Joseph Allen Stein (who also designed the adjacent India International Centre and the Triveni Kala Sangam, a 10-minute drive away). Over the years, the 15th-century tombs of emperors belonging to the Lodhi and Sayyid dynasties were carefully enveloped by trees and ponds. After Independence, the gardens were renamed as Lodhi Gardens, and gave their name to Lodhi Road, the thoroughfare that skirts the park to the south. Next, hop into an auto rickshaw and request the driver to take you to Siri Fort. He will negotiate his way through the closely-stacked coral-hued buildings of Andrews Ganj, turn out towards Ansal Plaza (the first mall in the city, opened in 1999), breeze through August Kranti Marg, hemmed in by jamun, neem and gulmohar trees, and drop you off near Siri Fort Auditorium. It is likely that the driver wouldn’t know where the actual fort is. Even fewer know why the place is called Siri. “You’ll have to turn to the history books, not me,” says 50-year-old auto driver Bikhan Ram, smiling behind his walrus moustache. “I’ve been working for the last 30 years and have passed this place many times. Never once thought about its name.” Historians offer a fable: It is said that the name of Siri Fort—which once contained an entire city within it—is soaked in the blood of 8,000 severed heads. Sir and sar translates to “head” in Urdu and Hindi respectively. In her book The Forgotten Cities Of Delhi, historian Rana Safvi writes on the city of Siri (which was called Dar-ul-Khilafat, or Seat of the Caliph): “Sultan Alauddin Khilji (1296-1316) built this city between 1297 and 1307 AD to defend his kingdom against Mongol invaders.” At the time, his army chief Ghazi Malik successfully defended Khilji’s empire from the foreign invasion. It is said that the heads of the defeated Mongols were later embedded into the city’s walls. Today’s neighbourhoods of Hauz Khas, Green Park and Shahpur Jat fall in the area that was once located directly outside the fort. “The remaining Mongols who escaped Khilji’s wrath scrambled to take refuge far away. They hand-built a small settlement that today has grown into a locality known as Mongol Pur Kalan in north-west Delhi,” says Rooprai. Ghazi Malik would go on to be known as Ghiyas-ud-din-Tughlaq—the man who began the reign of the Tughlaq dynasty, which ruled for almost a hundred years. He ordered the construction of Tughlaqabad, the fourth city of Delhi. The remnants of Siri Fort—its once marvellous bastions—are now dwarfed and weathered down. Five kilometres away, nestled within the leafy R-block residential area in Hauz Khas (which itself was named after a 13th century royal water reservoir—in Urdu, hauz means a water tank, while khas refers to something special), sits Chor Minar, a monument made of rubble masonry that looks like an overturned cup placed on top of a rectangular platform. There is an equally brutal story behind the Chor Minar. Built during Khilji’s reign, 225 holes dot the circular structure like vacant eyes. It stands in the middle of a small, gated lawn, where children play on cool evenings with their plump dachshunds and hula hoops. Centuries ago though, this location would not be a place for children; this was where the decapitated heads of criminals would be suspended from the bamboo poles which used to be inserted in the minaret’s holes. The macabre sight was meant to strike fear in the hearts of thieves and frauds. “Khilji came to the throne of Delhi Sultanate at a time when the Mongol threat was escalating and he had to maintain a huge army,” writes Safvi. “He could not therefore afford mismanagement, inflation, cheating and deceit.” Today, Chor Minar stands quietly by itself. Walk slowly around it and all you’d hear is the staccato of shrieks from a coterie of bats. About 10km to the north-west of Hauz Khas is Dhaula Kuan. It is one of the busiest road intersections in the city and spills vehicular traffic towards Gurugram in Haryana. The place adopted its name from a landmark that was built possibly 200 years ago—it was where travellers would stop to take rest. “Dhaula means ‘white’ and kuan means ‘well’,” explains city historian Dr. Swapna Liddle of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach). According to Liddle, the stones of the once-famed well were white in colour. The 40-50-foot-deep well, now defunct, still exists. It is hidden in the corner of a 70-acre lawn, and is now under the supervision of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). After a 5-minute walk from the Dhaula Kuan metro station (on the road that leads to Indira Gandhi International Airport), turn left onto a dirt track through a broken-down grill gate. In a corner, there is Mahadev Chai Stall, where rickshaw and taxi drivers converge for tea-breaks. A wooden board, dislocated and cast away as garbage, rests on the side. It reads in Hindi: “Your safety is in your hands”. Fifty two-year-old Mahavir, with closely-trimmed hair, is a maali. He has been the caretaker of the lawn since 1982. The lawn is often visited by labourers who, in the evenings, settle under a tree, slip out their bottles, play cards or rest. Mahavir curiously peeps out of his small office window when he sees a new visitor approaching. He is reticent at first but when nudged slightly, begins to talk about the well’s recent history. “They call it the white well because there used to be white water in it,” he grunts in Hindi. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” he adds. The said water was possibly white because of the mica minerals that laced the stones in the surrounding area. When the water receded completely nine years ago, the well was closed. Today, it is covered by a flat, rusted circular grill. “This used to be an important water source for travellers. Between Karol Bagh in West Delhi and here (a distance of about 12km today), this was the only well,” says Mahavir. “Today, nobody comes here. It’s forgotten like many other places which were once the lifeline for many.”

- https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/5FmwbFRVKbIfmzNBTl95bN/When-the-moon-shone-on-Chandni-Chowk.html, Sep 10, 2018

The state government is contemplating to extend the jurisdiction of the Shimla Heritage Advisory Committee to the entire state so as to preserve and conserve the precious heritage monuments, especially of the British era. A proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the advisory committee has been submitted before Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department. The committee at its last meeting had expressed the need for bringing the rest of the state under a heritage advisory committee. All restoration and conservation projects of any heritage building in the state capital have to be approved by the Heritage Advisory Committee before work can begin. Whether it was the conservation of the landmark Gaiety Theatre or the Town Hall building on The Mall here, the nod of the Heritage Advisory Committee was taken before starting work. “It is very much in the fitness of things to have a state level Heritage Advisory Committee as we have priceless heritage dotted all over the town. We have already submitted a proposal in this regard to the government,” revealed Rajeshwar Goel, Director, TCP. BS Malhans, a writer and an environmentalist, who is a member of the Shimla Heritage Advisory Committee, echoed similar sentiments. “It is essential that we bring our priceless heritage, be it built up or natural, under the ambit of a state level committee, as such structures need special care, attention and restoration,” he said. The dilapidated and fast crumbling situation of some of the historical structures like Akhand Chandi Palace in Chamba and many buildings in Mandi town has caused concern among citizens. It is being felt that it is when there is a state level body that such structures can be taken care of properly. The TCP Department has notified a Heritage Zone in the state capital extending from the secretariat in Chotta Shimla till the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. The INTACH has identified 329 heritage buildings in the town out of which more than 100 have been notified for regulatory control purpose. The Town and Country Planning Department has notified a list of heritage buildings in the town, be it government or private. Prominent among them are the imperial Viceregal Lodge, Christ Church, Raj Bhawan, Oak Over, the official residence of the Chief Minister, hotels and many other private as well as Government buildings. Most of the hospital building and famous public schools and convents in the town also fall in the category of century old heritage buildings. The government has also initiated the process of shifting and relocation of state government offices from heritage buildings in Mall area and revitalization of these buildings for appropriate adaptive reuse. Similar exercise could be done to save other heritage structures all over the town.

- https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/state-body-to-conserve-heritage-buildings/650309.html, Sep 10, 2018

The Indian National Trust for Architectural and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has moved the Karnataka High Court seeking directions to the state government to protect and conserve the Asiatic Building ‘Janatha Bazaar’ situated on Kempe Gowda Road, as heritage building. After hearing the petition, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S G Pandit asked the government advocate to seek instructions from the state government on the matter. The INTACH stated that Janatha Bazaar building was inaugurated on September 11, 1935 by erstwhile Yuvaraja of the State of Mysore, Sri Kantirava Narasimharaja Wodeyar, to house the Asiatic Company. The buildings was one of the earliest multi-storied commercial complexes in city. Upon expiry of the tenancy agreement between the PWD and the occupants of the Asiatic Building in 2014, the PWD has not renewed the agreement and has asked occupants to vacate the ‘Asiatic Building’ by issuing eviction notices. In the said notice, the Chief Engineer of the PWD had made a proposal to the Principal Secretary of the department. The Chief Engineer stated that a 14-floor commercial complex and multi storey parking complex was proposed at the same location as ‘Asiatic Building’. The said notices recite that the proposal was sanctioned by the government on December 27, 2016, INTACH said. It was also explained that the PWD has placed a plaque stating that the ‘Asiatic Building’ is weak and not fit for occupation. The PWD has also barricaded the building. The demolition work had been postponed on account of the recently-held assembly elections. In view of the conclusion of the elections, there is an immediate apprehension that the Asiatic Building might be demolished with no prior notice.

'Building is safe and stable'

INTACH stated in the petition that the building is safe and stable and is only in need of minor repairs to take care of seepage and rusting. These issues can be dealt with, without compromising the safety of the building, INTACH said while voluntarily extending its support to restore the building.

HC imposes costs, orders inquiry into tampering of records

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court dismissed petitions filed by two stone crushing units in Haveri district, imposing exemplary cost of `1 lakh each, for allegedly tampering court records. The court also ordered inquiry to identify the staff responsible for tampering of records. Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R Devdas ordered inquiry while dismissing the petitions filed by Amba Bhavani Stone Crusher and Channabasaveshwara Stone crusher, imposing costs. They had challenged the directions issued by the KSPCB to stop the stone crushing units, as these units were not provided with water sprinklers, internal road and the approach roads were not asphalted. During the hearing, the court noticed that the court records have apparently been tampered with.

- http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2018/sep/11/intach-moves-hc-against-proposed-demolition-of-janatha-bazaar-1870433.html, Sep 11, 2018

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) has moved the high court seeking conservation of the Janata Bazaar building on Kempegowda Road as an ‘Asiatic heritage building’. The petitioner claimed the public works department, which owns the building, has issued notices to the occupants following its December 27, 2016 sanction order for demolition. The petitioner feared since PWD has sealed off the building entrance and barricaded it, it might be planning to demolish the structure immediately. The ‘Asiatic Building’ was inaugurated on September 11, 1935 by the erstwhile yuvaraja of Mysore, Sri Kantirava Narasimharaja Wadiyar, to house Asiatic Company, a life insurance pioneer set up in June 1913. According to the petitioner, an Asiatic building is a heritage structure under Section 2 (iea) of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961, and hence needs to be protected. A division bench adjourned the hearing by two weeks as the government advocate sought time to seek instructions on the issue.

- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/intach-moves-karnataka-high-court-to-save-janata-bazaar/articleshow/65765874.cms, Sep 12, 2018

SANAULI in Baghpat district in western Uttar Pradesh, about 80 km from New Delhi, has been making waves in archaeological circles across the country with spectacular discoveries of coffin burials and chariots with burial goods such as copper helmets, copper antenna swords and red vases with flaring rims. Seven burials have been excavated so far, and spectacular among them is a royal burial with a wooden coffin with a lid that has carvings in high relief with a series of anthropomorphic figures, all of which have headgear that has two horns and a peepal leaf in the centre. Besides the face, the figures have broad shoulders and a torso. The sides of the coffins have running floral motifs and they are covered by copper plating that runs around the coffins. The wooden coffin, too, has a copper sheet of around 3 mm thickness. It stands on four wooden legs, which too are covered with copper sheathing with carvings, and looks virtually like a sarcophagus. The coffin itself is more than 8 feet (2.4 metres) long and has a height of about 40 cm. Inside the coffin lay the body of a man, probably a royal, oriented in the north-west and south-east direction, with the head facing the north-west. The pit that held the royal coffin also had two full-sized chariots, besides other artefacts. “For the first time in the Indian subcontinent, chariots have been recovered from any excavation,” said Sanjay Kumar Manjul, Director, Institute of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Director of the excavation. Arvin Manjul, Superintending Archaeologist, Excavation Branch-II, ASI, New Delhi, was co-director of the excavation. The teams that undertook the excavation were from the Institute of Archaeology, the academic wing of the ASI that conducts a two-year programme in archaeology for postgraduates in history and archaeology, and the Excavation Branch II. One of the discoveries they made in the grave pits with wooden coffin burials was a couple of “antenna swords” that were 40 cm long. One of them had a wooden hilt with copper spiral wiring around it. “In the entire copper hoard culture, this is the first discovery of a sword with a wooden hilt wound around with a copper wire. These are typical objects of the copper hoard culture,” said Arvin Manjul. “They could have made sacrifices, using the sword with full force,” she added. But the most amazing discovery was of three full-sized chariots, two in the royal burial and the third in another burial with a wooden coffin. The chariots were made of wood, which has perished and commingled with mud. The wheels are decorated with three rows of copper triangles radiating from the centre. The whole composition looks like the sun’s emanating rays. The chassis of the chariot was made of wood and was covered with thick copper sheets. The frame of the seat was made of copper pipes, including a pipe for the attachment of an umbrella (chhatravali), and the seat itself seemed to be semi-circular. Sanjay Manjul called the excavation of the coffin burials and the chariots “a unique discovery in the entire subcontinent”. They could be dated to “around 2000 BCE” and were “contemporary to Harappan culture”, he said. He claimed that the discovery of chariots put India on a par with ancient civilisations in Mesopotamia and Greece, where chariots were used extensively. “We are now sure that around 2000 BCE, when the Mesopotamians were using chariots, swords and helmets in war, a warrior tribe here was using them as well.” Sanjay Manjul was sure that it was a royal burial. “Otherwise, it is not possible to have so many intricate carvings on the coffin and other objects. They also show the sophistication and the high degree of craftsmanship of the artisan. Without copper plating around it, it would have been difficult to identify the wooden coffin because wood is 100 per cent decomposed and you cannot see the wood with the naked eye. We have found evidence of a textile impression on top of the coffin. All these show that they performed the rituals first and installed the coffin next.” Besides, the helmets, the triangles on the wheels and the antenna swords, all made of copper, had strikingly beautiful designs and patterns.

- https://www.frontline.in/arts-and-culture/heritage/article24923229.ece, Sep 13, 2018

To delve into and research Maharashtra's pre-history, the state Directorate of Archaeology and Museums is planning to conduct excavations at a Chalcolithic-era site in Aurangabad. A senior official from the state department of culture told DNA that they were planning to apply to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for licenses to begin scientific clearances at the site located at Hatnur in Aurangabad district. "The site is located on the border of Khandesh and Marathwada. This was discovered in 2015 during a survey where Chalcolithic pottery was found," the official explained. He added that some other Chacolithic-era sites in Maharashtra included Prakasha in Nandurbar, which was located in the Tapi valley and Inamgaon at Shirur in Pune district. "This will enhance our understanding of Maharashtra's pre-history and evolution. For instance, the history of Aurangabad, which is believed to have begun with the Satavahana dynasty, will go back from about 200 BC to around 2,000 BC," the official noted. "We are planning to collaborate with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (BAMU), Aurangabad, to ensure that their students get training and first-hand experience of archaeological excavations," the official said. The directorate is also planning to undertake work on another pre-historic site —Patne in Jalgaon — which has evidence of upper Paleolithic settlements. It is looking at a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, in the project. Located near Chalisgaon in Jalgaon, Patne has evidence of upper Paleolithic settlements. Excavations by archaeologist Shankarrao Sali in the 1970s had revealed stone tools, bones and even ostrich eggshells, which showed the existence of ostriches in this area around 25,000 to 40,000 years ago. "We will also use carbon dating and thermo-luminescence to date the material found in the excavation. This may lead to a new understanding of our pre-history," the official added. For almost 20 years, the directorate has not been given a separate head in the budget for conducting archaeological excavations, which has impacted its mandate for conducting excavations. In the 1980s, Arvind Jamkhedkar, archaeologist and Indologist, who was the director of the department, had conducted excavations at the Rashtrakuta-era Kandhar fort at Nanded. The directorate has also conducted excavations at Nagardhan near Nagpur, which was the capital of the Vakataka dynasty, which ruled from the mid-third to the fifth century BC and the Satavahan-era site of Ter in Osmanabad. Called Tagar in ancient times, Ter was populated during the pre-Satavahana, Satavahana, later-Satavahana and Vakataka period and conducted trade with the Romans.

- https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-archaeological-department-to-excavate-a-chalcolithic-era-site-in-aurangabad-to-dig-deeper-into-maharashtra-s-history-2662591, Sep 13, 2018

Ganesh Chaturthi—or Vinayaka Chaturthi, Chavath, or Lambodhara Piranalu, depending on where you live—is one of India’s biggest Hindu festivals. Observed as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, it is marked by processions, prayers, food, and community activities for up to ten days. The end of the festival is marked by visarjan: the ceremonial submerging of tens of thousands of idols in large water bodies, usually lakes, ponds or the sea. However, the enduring appeal of this festival has also been affected by commercialisation and concerns around pollution. The immersion of the idols, especially those made from non-biodegradable materials, takes a toll on water bodies. And then there’s the festival waste, from plastic wrappers to decorations that litter our streets, and the noise emanating from the pandals and processions. These have been major concerns for authorities for many years. This Ganesh Chaturthi, be the change you want to see in the world and celebrate this great festival, while keeping the environment in mind. During visarjan, Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) are routinely immersed into water bodies. Because of their affordability, lightweight nature, and variety in design, idols made of PoP have always been popular among buyers. However, PoP is not a naturally found substance. It is actually calcium sulfate hemihydrate, and takes anything between several months to years to completely dissolve and decompose in water. PoP also reduces oxygen levels and increases the acid content of water, harming fishes and other aquatic organisms. And let’s not forget the paints used on the idols, which contain heavy metals like lead and mercury that can seep into the water and cause even more contamination. Careless dumping of idols in just about any nearby water body can also block the natural flow of water and breed mosquitoes and other harmful pests. Ditching Ganesha idols made of PoP is one of the quickest and easiest ways to celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi. You can go the DIY way and create a Ganesha idol at home with clay, or you can buy one of the many environment-friendly idols available in the market. In recent years, many citizens have made a conscious decision to forego environmentally-damaging idols. In addition, bans on PoP idols have been announced in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat, though enforcement of these bans remains an issue. Newer, eco-friendly alternatives have emerged. Plan a Plant is a Hyderabad based startup that offers biodegradable Ganesha idols that dissolve in just 3 days and when put in soil, germinate into tomato, brinjal or okra plants. Sprouts is a trust in Mumbai that provides idols that degrade into fish food, so that you can submerge your idols in water, knowing that they are helping marine life. While opting for an eco-friendly idol is a big part of the process, there are several other things that you can do to decrease your ecological footprint during Ganesh Chaturthi, starting with the decorations you use. Instead of plastic confetti or other plastic decorations for your Ganesha pooja, only go for organic flowers that are easily biodegradable. When you are about to take your Ganesha idol for submersion, make sure that you aren’t using any plastic bags. Immerse idols in artificial tanks instead of large water bodies to reduce pollution. A symbolic immersion is a better option, where you can use a metal or stone idol and immerse it in a bucket of water or sprinkle a few water droplets on it during the immersion ritual, then pack it away for next year's use or donate it. In these ways, a few simple changes in the way you celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi can make a big difference to the environment for a long time to come.

- https://weather.com/en-IN/india/pollution/news/2018-09-12-celebrate-eco-friendly-ganesh-chathurthi, Sep 13, 2018

Ganesh Chaturthi—or Vinayaka Chaturthi, Chavath, or Lambodhara Piranalu, depending on where you live—is one of India’s biggest Hindu festivals. Observed as the birthday of Lord Ganesha, it is marked by processions, prayers, food, and community activities for up to ten days. The end of the festival is marked by visarjan: the ceremonial submerging of tens of thousands of idols in large water bodies, usually lakes, ponds or the sea. However, the enduring appeal of this festival has also been affected by commercialisation and concerns around pollution. The immersion of the idols, especially those made from non-biodegradable materials, takes a toll on water bodies. And then there’s the festival waste, from plastic wrappers to decorations that litter our streets, and the noise emanating from the pandals and processions. These have been major concerns for authorities for many years. This Ganesh Chaturthi, be the change you want to see in the world and celebrate this great festival, while keeping the environment in mind. During visarjan, Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) are routinely immersed into water bodies. Because of their affordability, lightweight nature, and variety in design, idols made of PoP have always been popular among buyers. However, PoP is not a naturally found substance. It is actually calcium sulfate hemihydrate, and takes anything between several months to years to completely dissolve and decompose in water. PoP also reduces oxygen levels and increases the acid content of water, harming fishes and other aquatic organisms. And let’s not forget the paints used on the idols, which contain heavy metals like lead and mercury that can seep into the water and cause even more contamination. Careless dumping of idols in just about any nearby water body can also block the natural flow of water and breed mosquitoes and other harmful pests. Ditching Ganesha idols made of PoP is one of the quickest and easiest ways to celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi. You can go the DIY way and create a Ganesha idol at home with clay, or you can buy one of the many environment-friendly idols available in the market. In recent years, many citizens have made a conscious decision to forego environmentally-damaging idols. In addition, bans on PoP idols have been announced in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat, though enforcement of these bans remains an issue. Newer, eco-friendly alternatives have emerged. Plan a Plant is a Hyderabad based startup that offers biodegradable Ganesha idols that dissolve in just 3 days and when put in soil, germinate into tomato, brinjal or okra plants. Sprouts is a trust in Mumbai that provides idols that degrade into fish food, so that you can submerge your idols in water, knowing that they are helping marine life. While opting for an eco-friendly idol is a big part of the process, there are several other things that you can do to decrease your ecological footprint during Ganesh Chaturthi, starting with the decorations you use. Instead of plastic confetti or other plastic decorations for your Ganesha pooja, only go for organic flowers that are easily biodegradable. When you are about to take your Ganesha idol for submersion, make sure that you aren’t using any plastic bags. Immerse idols in artificial tanks instead of large water bodies to reduce pollution. A symbolic immersion is a better option, where you can use a metal or stone idol and immerse it in a bucket of water or sprinkle a few water droplets on it during the immersion ritual, then pack it away for next year's use or donate it. In these ways, a few simple changes in the way you celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi can make a big difference to the environment for a long time to come.

- https://weather.com/en-IN/india/pollution/news/2018-09-12-celebrate-eco-friendly-ganesh-chathurthi, Sep 14, 2018

With Kashmir's once-popular craft Rafoogari or darning fast sinking into oblivion, authorities have woken up to help revive the art by imparting specialised training among the artisans in the summer capital Srinagar from Monday. Rafoogari is a specialised technique traditionally used to mend holes or worn areas in fabrics, using needle and thread alone. The technique involves matching colour and weave of the fabric so that a repaired patch merges with the rest of the fabric. With Kashmir's once-popular craft Rafoogari or darning fast sinking into oblivion, authorities have woken up to help revive the art by imparting specialised training among the artisans in the summer capital Srinagar from Monday. Rafoogari is a specialised technique traditionally used to mend holes or worn areas in fabrics, using needle and thread alone. The technique involves matching colour and weave of the fabric so that a repaired patch merges with the rest of the fabric. “Rafoogari is a gradually-declining craft especially in Srinagar. As part of our efforts for its revival, we have roped in two expert darners from Najibabad Uttar Pradesh to impart training to shawl weavers and needle work artisans in Srinagar,” convener of the J&K chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Muhammad Saleem Beg, told Greater Kashmir. The INTACH Kashmir chapter in collaboration with Community, Craft and Heritage Division INTACH, New Delhi and SPS Museum is organisingRafoogari workshop from September 17 to 22, at the SPS Museum here. Beg said that Najibabad is popular for Rafoogars who are known for restoring old shawls. “There is huge potential for textile conservation in Srinagar. Due to less availability of Rafoogars, there is growing demand for repairs of costly shawls like Pashmima and Shahtoosh besides Jamavars,” he said. “We want to upgrade skills of existing Rafoogars and needle work artisans to create market for textile conservation in Srinagar and simultaneously generate revenue and employment avenues,” Beg added. In the first phase, 19 persons including embroidery artisans from Srinagar have been selected to undergo the training in the workshop. Saima Iqbal, conservation architect at INTACH said that the artisans will be imparted training in their traditional working conditions. “Besides reviving Rafoogari, it is our endeavour that the craft should pass on to younger generation. We will provide them a platform to promote the craft in a modern way,” she said. Noted columnist and author ZG Muhammad said that Srinagar possessed best darners till 1980. “Manufacturing of woolen chadar was a cottage industry in Kashmir. Roofoogars including women used to repair the torn or burnt chadars and then it was converted into patu for making coats and pheran,” he said. “Rafoogars used to mostly sit outside dry clean shops. They were usually well dressed and donned thick spectacles. Until over three decades ago, Rafoogars were in much demand as clothes were expensive and people usually preferred to repair them due to abject poverty,” he added. Shawl manufacturers have hailed measures to revive the craft of Rafoogari. “The craft is facing threat of extinction as younger generation of Rafoogars did not carry it forward. In absence of Rafoogars in Srinagar, our customers face problems to repair their costly and antique shawls. With no other option here, we have to send shawls to other states for repairs which is time consuming and costly affair,” said prominent handicraft trader, Manzoor Ahmad Wangnoo, suggesting that INTACH should impart Rafoogari training to artisans in villages also. “The craft should be revived at grassroots.”

- https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/curtain-raiser-srinagar-s-dying-craft-rafoogari-to-get-new-lease-of-life/296665.html, Sep 17, 2018

In a move that could give a fillip to tourism in the Gurugram district, the Northern Railways on Saturday flagged off a special heritage train that will run between Farrukhnagar and Garhi Harsaru, 11 kilometres from the city. The train service seeks to revive steam locomotive as well as throw light on these historical towns. The train service will use the BG Steam Locomotive WP 7200 that goes by the popular name of Azad, said RK Rana, PRO, Northern Railways. “Till now, the normal train service used to run only six days a week. From now, the train will be run by a steam engine on Sundays. The cost of one way journey would be Rs 10. The steam engine, Azad, was revived recently, and has been used in several film shoots in the past,” Rana said. Rana added that the launch of the stream locomotive running train, that will cover a stretch of 11 kilometre, would add to the awareness about the towns as well as boost tourism in the area. “We are hopeful that the train service will revive interest in the historically rich towns of Farrukhnagar and Garhi Harsaru. We are expecting tourists from the country and abroad to visit the area. The Farrukhnagar railway station of Northern Railways, built in 1873, is also historically important,” Rana said. The train service will run on a route whose history goes beyond that of the two towns. Peppered with historical structures such as the Shish Mahal and Dilli Darwaja that go back at least 300 years, Farrukhnagar is an important contributor to the pool of heritage sites within the ambit of Gurugram district. The area around the town used to be rich in salt, which was naturally produced from around 300 salt wells. Garhi Harsaru is also home to colonial structures. The railway station at Garhi Harsaru itself is a heritage structure, say experts. “The track between Farrukhnagar and Garhi Harsaru is widely believed to be the world’s oldest commercial metre gauge. A few years back, it was converted into broad gauge,” Subrata Nath, executive director (heritage), Indian Railways, said. The train service was inaugurated in the presence of chairman, railway board, Ashwani Lohani. Lohani had earlier visited Farrukhnagar in March where he had first promised the inauguration of the heritage train service. Heritage experts said that the train service was an innovative attempt and could arouse curiosity about Gururgram’s forgotten towns. “The launch of this train service is a great opportunity that could add to the heritage awareness and activities in Gurugram district. INTACH has inked an MoU with the railway ministry and we are considering getting in touch with them on a proposal for conducting heritage walks. Heritage walks on the train route would introduce the visitors to the history of the two towns,” Shikha Jain, convener INTACH, Haryana chapter, said.

- https://www.hindustantimes.com/gurugram/heritage-train-linking-two-historic-towns-11-km-from-gurugram-flagged-off/story-77EnPSUApeJuklOm8HLpsN.html, Sep 17, 2018

For three days in late August, as visitors explored Dr Bhau Daji Lad (BDL) Museum at Byculla, the city's oldest, they would've barely noticed a group that was closely studying its artefacts and displays, and listening with student-like attention to museum staff members who guided them around the landmark's treasures with equal intent. Turns out, this group, a team of 40 men and women from the city's police force, were participants of the inaugural capacity building and training workshop conducted by the BDL. This programme is the first step towards sensitising and creating awareness for the Mumbai Police Museum and Archives that is scheduled to open to the public next year within the premises of the Police Commissioner's Office near Crawford Market. The session covered areas from management and care of exhibits to preventive conservation outreach programmes, and managing of people.

Heritage in khaki

"Four-five years earlier, I had done a survey of the state's museums after Dr AP Jamkhandekar, noted scholar, had pointed out that training facilities to improve the museums of the state were lacking. A year ago, we (BDL) had written to the Ministry of Culture (Maharashtra) to suggest that our space and 360-degree expertise could be used as a training ground. About three months ago, the then Commissioner of Police (Mumbai) and now state Director General, Dattatray Padsalgikar approached us, suggesting that we plan a programme for their personnel (all at senior police inspector level) in light of the commissioned museum and archives centre," shares Tasneem Mehta, Managing Trustee for Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum and former vice chairman of INTACH, about how the two institutions got associated with each other. "In the late 1980s and 90s, we had a space where artifacts, archives and vintage police uniforms were stored. I felt that such treasures should be a part of our heritage, and so we decided to fructify this idea," shares Padsalgikar. The former Mumbai top cop credits Mehta and the BDL Museum for giving wings to the idea. "We had to start training our staff who would have to help set up this museum from scratch," adds Padsalgikar, who picks the Washington and London Police Museums, and the FBI Museum as most impressive.

Working model

The three-day workshop was conducted in Marathi, and Himanshu Kadam, assistant curator at BDL Museum, who helmed the initiative, was faced with several challenges even before he stood at the podium to welcome these 40 participants. "We had to start from zero as it was an absolutely alien concept. To explain museum terminology and other related glossaries in a simplistic way, we had to break things down at every level. Animation videos were created to offer an idea of the workings of museums. Virtual tours of police museums in London and New York ensured sessions didn't get too theoretical," he recalls, sharing how the museum staff also had certain assumptions that had to be tweaked as sessions progressed. "At the end of each one, I would throw the topic open to them for questions, answer each one, and move ahead," adds Kadam. The group was picked from an internal selection process held at the Commissioner's office, reveals Padsalgikar, and comprised personnel from their late 20s to their 50s. "Naturally, we had to keep this in mind at every stage of the programme, before moving to specifics," Kadam shares. "We had to remind ourselves that they had no background in the arts and history. At the same time, we had to convey the importance of running a sustainable model that also involves aspects like inventory management, digitisation, conservation and the two very critical issues of humidity and poor handling of objects," shares Mehta.

Learn, train

This first workshop turned out to be an eye-opener for both sides. "Our perception about the police force changed. This museum is bound to transform the public's notion about them," relays Kadam, a sentiment echoed by Mehta, and Padsalgikar, who gave the workshop a thumbs-up, going by the feedback that resonated across the corridors of the police headquarters. But the biggest cheers, emerged from the participants: "It [the training] was a mind-blowing experience. It was wonderful to see all the exhibits preserved so well here [at BDL]," shared Pradip Lonandkar, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police and now secretary of the Mumbai Police Museum Trust in a video posted about their experiences on the museum's website. In another video, Rajeev Samant, Senior Police Inspector, felt that the workshop would hold them in good stead in the future, when work commences around the museum and the archives. "Vegle vishay aahe parantu tyat evda easy karun saglya goshti shikavlelya [It was a different subject but they taught all of it to us in an easy format]," he signed off. About the museum

* The museum will be set up on the ground floor of the heritage building within the Commissioner's complex

* It will cover six rooms, including a large corridor

* The museum will highlight important pre and post Independence events that occurred in Bombay, including Gandhiji's arrest from Mani Bhavan on January 4, 1932

* Displays will showcase the city police force's important trials, cases and other historic episodes of its rich legacy

- https://www.mid-day.com/articles/training-workshop-for-mumbai-police-by-dr-bhau-daji-lad-city-museum/19806182, Sep 17, 2018

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will, on September 22, hold a workshop to create awareness about the history of the sprawling havelis in Delhi’s Walled City and the need to conserve the structures. The Walled City has 783 heritage structures, including 229 historical buildings, identified and notified by the state archaeology department. The workshop ‘Conservation of heritage buildings in Shahjahanabad’ is being organised in association with the Shahjahanbad Redevelopment Corporation and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The workshop, to be held at the Town Hall, will have sessions on the significance of havelis and procedures to undertake renovations. North civic body?officials said the workshop is been held in the backdrop of reports about increasing illegal constructions at the heritage buildings. Some matters related to unauthorised construction at these properties are being heard by the Delhi high court. Officials said the civic body officers are inviting owners of almost 500 havelis to attend the workshop. “We are visiting the havelis, which are listed by the Heritage Conservation Committee,” a senior north corporation official said. The official said most people living in these havelis are either not aware about the procedure for making changes or want to avoid the process altogether, fearing refusal of the renovation plan. “The workshop will surely help them to understand the procedure,” said the official. “During the workshop, we will explain owners the benefits of getting these havelis listed as ‘heritage’ and share a hand book highlighting all these points. The other agendas to be discussed during the event has already been finalised,” Swapna Liddle, convenor, INTACH, said.

- https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/workshop-on-need-to-conserve-walled-city-havelis-soon-in-delhi/story-jVrKPk4ZN5JDUR5yR6CSkI.html, Sep 18, 2018

Renovation of the over century-old Veer Surendra Sai Town Hall, popularly known as Victoria Hall, located in the heart of the city, will be completed by November this year. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is renovating the heritage building and work had started in May last year. The Tourism department had sanctioned `1.24 crore for renovation work. Member of INTACH, Sambalpur Chapter, Deepak Panda said renovation of the internal part of the building is almost complete. Currently, work on external side of the building is going on. He said work is being carried out by adopting traditional method. Materials used in plastering of the walls during construction of the heritage building are being used for the renovation. A paste is being prepared by mixing lime, gum of wood apple, wash nut and jaggery, which is used for plastering. Although the renovation work should have been completed by now, it was delayed due to rain. Panda said a museum will be developed in Victoria Hall after completion of the renovation work. The INTACH will provide support for development of the museum, where tradition and history of the region will be exhibited, he said. The foundation stone of the building was laid in 1902 and the then Chief Commissioner of the Central Province, J P Hewety, had inaugurated the building in 1904. The British Government, the kings, landlords and businessmen of the region had contributed funds for construction of the heritage building. It was named as Victoria Hall and renamed as VSS Town Hall after Independence. The then Superintending Engineer of the Central Province, JB Leven Thorpey, had prepared the design of the imposing building. The British Government took the decision to construct buildings in memory of Queen Victoria after she died in 1901 and named the town hall here after her. An amount of `9,417 was contributed by the kings, zamindars and businessmen of the area for construction of the building. Several important meetings were organised in the building as Sambalpur was a major hub during the British rule. Even the then Governor of Bengal Sir Andrew Frazer had convened a meeting of kings of the region in the building in 1908.

ANCIENT STRUCTURE

Materials used in plastering of the walls during construction of the heritage building are being used now for the renovation

A museum will be developed in the Victoria Hall after completion of the renovation work

INTACH will provide support for development of the museum, where tradition and history of the region will be exhibited

- http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2018/sep/19/new-look-victoria-hall-to-be-ready-by-november-1874127.html, Sep 19, 2018

Owners of havelis in Old Delhi on Saturday expressed concerns over the government-accorded “heritage” tag to their properties with several claiming they had never been consulted before the decision was made. These concerns were flagged during a workshop titled ‘Conservation of Heritage Buildings in Shahjahanabad’ organised jointly by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) at Town Hall in Chandni Chowk on Saturday. The event was targeted at answering haveli owners’ queries on issues like the due process for seeking permission to carry out repair and restoration of notified heritage structures. During the discussion, several haveli owners complained they had “not been made partners” during the policy-making process for preservation. They claimed the havelis has been handed over “heritage” tags by civic authorities without their consultation. Several others questioned the efforts by civic authorities to improve infrastructure in area. While the haveli owners claimed the tag would not benefit them, architectural experts at the event maintained that such “heritage status” would be an “asset and not a liability” and would help in improving tourism in the area. “The civic agencies are expecting us to follow the traditional norms for restoring havelis and bear the entire expense. They should understand that renovating havelis in the traditional manner is a cumbersome and expensive process. We are not in a position to spend so much money,” said Anand Prakash Bansal, who owns a haveli in Kucha Ghasiram area of Old Delhi. “Zero efforts have been taken by civic agencies to resolve the issues of traffic congestion, illegal construction, dilapidated sewage system, drains and overhead hanging electricity wires in area. In the given circumstances, even if we renovate our havelis as per government norms, tourists wouldn’t come here,” said Ram Dutt Aggarwal, another haveli owner. However, a senior North MCD official said that the government and civic agencies are on verge of finalising various development projects for Shahjahanabad. “But these can only be implemented when people deposit conversion charges and property taxes in large numbers. At main Chandni Chowk Road, department concerned has already initiated task to tightened low overhead hanging wires,” RK Gupta, chief engineer, north corporation. Ruchika Katyal, deputy commissioner of North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s City-Sadar Paharganj Zone, however, insisted that the corporation has been working to simplify the process for renovating havelis. “To get their renovation plans sanctioned, haveli owners need not to go anywhere. They just need to apply with our zonal offices and our officials will forward the plan to the town planner and the heritage conservation committee for the final approvals,” said Katyal. Swapna Liddle, convener of INTACH’s Delhi chapter, said, “The efforts taken by the north corporation is appreciable by bringing different stakeholders on one platform. But we need to understand the situation patiently. We expect that more such events need to be organised in future.” Meanwhile, other experts advised the north civic body to consider rebooting its ‘heritage cell’, constituted years back to deal with such issues. The cell had become redundant after 2012, when the Delhi’s municipal corporations were divided into three parts. At the workshop, Navin Piplani, principal director, INTACH heritage academy, said preservation of built heritage can be incentivised through tax benefits or other revenue-generating model. Currently, there are 783 heritage structures, including 229 historical buildings and 325 havelis, identified and notified by the authorities.

- https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/old-delhi-haveli-owners-express-concern-over-heritage-status/story-DlaC5qUD4sun9GCCh6kCxM.html, Sep 24, 2018

The final round of India INTACH Heritage Quiz will be conducted here on Sunday at the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada & Amaravati (CCVA). School students from cities and towns including Anantapur, Kurnool, Kadapa, Machilipatnam, Guntur, Amalapuram, Tuni, Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam will compete for the top position, according to CCVA CEO E. Siva Nagi Reddy. In a release, he said the winning team would take part in the national-level competition to be held at New Delhi later. Department of Culture Commissioner Vizia Bhaskar, INTACH, A.P. & Telangana convener M. Gopalakrishna, Mr. Siva Nagi Reddy will attend the closing ceremony of the quiz.

- https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/heritage-quiz-at-cultural-centre/article25019022.ece, Sep 24, 2018

Andhra Pradesh Language and Cultural department director D Vizai Bhaskar said that the youth should contribute to save the heritage of the country which has more than 5,000 years of history. He participated as a chief guest and distributed prizes for the winners of the Quiz competition on India Heritage organised by INTACH at the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravathi (CCVA) here on Sunday. AP and TS INTACH convener M Gopalakrishna said that the students should know about the heritage of India and should help to save the heritage. The students from across the state participated in the Quiz competition. Parthasaradhi and Aruna conducted the Quiz. The programme was presided by CCVA CEO, Dr E Sivanagi Reddy. INTACH convener Sesha Kumari and Srinivasa Rao also addressed the gathering. Tummala Pawan and D Vishnu Teja Vidyalayam from Machilipatnam jointly won first prize. T Vivekananda Sai and H Mukesh Behara of Tympany Steel City School mutually won the second prize.

- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2018-09-23/Contribute-to-save-heritage-youth-told-by-D-Vizai-Bhaskar-at-CCVA-in-Vijayawada/413746, Sep 24, 2018

The Indian Government’s decision to nominate the Garo Hills Conservation Area, over 340 square km of rich ecological forests including two national parks and a wildlife sanctuary, for a UNESCO World Heritage Site selection is being seen as a major boost for conservation and protection of the environment at a time when large-scale deforestation and destruction of the fragile ecosystem is taking place in the region. This is the first time in the history of conservation that Garo Hills has been put in a tentative list of the UNESCO for a possible selection as a world Heritage Site. This list is an inventory of properties which each state intends to consider for nomination. To be nominated for a mixed site, it has to comprise of elements of both natural and cultural significance. In the North East there are, so far, only two World Heritage sites in the mixed site category- Kaziranga and Manas National Park in Assam. The permanent delegation of the Indian government to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) nominated, in July this year, the Garo Hills Conservation Area for a place in the World Heritage site in the mixed-site category opening the doors for a major conservation movement of the selected site which lies in the West and South Garo Hills districts. The core area of the Garo Hills Conservation Area includes three legally designated protected areas- Nokrek National Park and Biosphere (49.44 km), Balpakram National Park (220 km) and Siju Wildlife Sanctuary (5.18 km) and also the reserve forests of Tura Peak (4.19 km), Emangiri (8.29 km), Rewak (6.47 km) and Baghmara (43.9 km). The total core area of the proposed nomination is 337.48 km. It will also include the buffer zone comprising of the Baghmara Pitcher Plant Sanctuary (0.027 km), the Angratoli Reserve Forest (30.11 km) and several community owned forests that coincides with the boundary of the Garo Hills Elephant Reserve. The state government, particularly the Forest and Environment department, now have a limited time frame fulfill all required UNESCO formalities and the next few months will be crucial in its efforts to ensure conservation is maintained and protected. The Nokrek National Park, notified in 1986 and declared by the government of India in 1988, and which is part of the Garo Hills Conservation Area, was recognized under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB) in 2009. It houses the National Citrus Gene Sanctuary demarcated for the in-situ conservation of Citrus Indica, recognised at the mother of all citrus fruits in the world. The nomination for selection to a heritage site has come as a pleasant surprise for many. In the submission for a heritage site list, it was made known that the nominated property (GHCA) has unique features that stand out as a fit case for inscription for its “Outstanding Universal Value” and compared it, at the national level, with the Western Ghats of India- a biodiversity hot spot. The plus point for the Garo Hills Conservation area is that the entire Western Ghats are not protected by contiguous protected area network and have many private properties in between resulting in broken connectivity among the sub-clusters and thereby leaving them in isolation. On the other hand, the core area (337.48 km) of the nominated GHCA receives its protection through the network of protected areas, such as the Nokrek National Park. It includes the nationally designated Garo Hills Elephant Reserve (3500 km). The GHCA is home to a vast variety of endangered species of wild animals and holds one of the largest and most threatened populations of the Asian Elephant and other herbivores. It was also in these forests of the conservation area that the first camera-trap record in India of the Small Toothed Palm Civet (Arctogalidn trivirgata) was obtained. There is immense enthusiasm among environmentalists and ecologists that given its rich biodiversity and the threat of destruction, Garo Hills Conservation Area could soon become one of the few World Heritage Sites still brimming with a variety of species endangered or virtually wiped out in other parts of the world.

- http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2018/09/23/unesco-world-heritage-site-opportunity-for-garo-hills-conservation-area/, Sep 24, 2018

Andhra Pradesh Language and Cultural department director D Vizai Bhaskar said that the youth should contribute to save the heritage of the country which has more than 5,000 years of history. He participated as a chief guest and distributed prizes for the winners of the Quiz competition on India Heritage organised by INTACH at the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravathi (CCVA) here on Sunday. AP and TS INTACH convener M Gopalakrishna said that the students should know about the heritage of India and should help to save the heritage. The students from across the state participated in the Quiz competition. Parthasaradhi and Aruna conducted the Quiz. The programme was presided by CCVA CEO, Dr E Sivanagi Reddy. INTACH convener Sesha Kumari and Srinivasa Rao also addressed the gathering. Tummala Pawan and D Vishnu Teja Vidyalayam from Machilipatnam jointly won first prize. T Vivekananda Sai and H Mukesh Behara of Tympany Steel City School mutually won the second prize.

- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2018-09-23/Contribute-to-save-heritage-youth-told-by-D-Vizai-Bhaskar-at-CCVA-in-Vijayawada/413746, Sep 25, 2018

Netaji Nagar in south Delhi has recently been in the news for a large number of trees being felled in the area. However, this government housing colony, that has been earmarked for redevelopment, has far greater historical significance. The India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), has initiated a project to document and map the whole Netaji Nagar area and its old houses as a symbol of Delhi’s mass housing scheme that came up immediately in the post-Independence era. The project is expected to take up to a year's time, and is aimed at helping city residents remember the original layout of Netaji Nagar and how it came up in Delhi in the 1940s, a critical part of the capital’s history. Time is of the essence as all the original houses of Netaji Nagar, residential plus office space, have been earmarked for demolition by NBCC as part of their elaborate redevelopment plans. ``One of the first government housing schemes was the Type II Flats, in Netaji Nagar, built in 1954-56, for government employees. In this particular design, the architect plays with the square in the facades and uses recesses, simple brick surfaces and vertical linear elements to bring a design relief to these very cheaply built houses. The window chhajjas were added later. They became famous as the 'Rahman Type Flats'. Some late housing schemes include multi storey flats at R K Puram (1964). Similarly, each of the other mass housing typologies that we see in Delhi, have a distinctive character. It is important that the evolution of design of mass housing in the post-Independence period in Delhi is documented,’’ said INTACH officials. The documentation project will focus on the mass housing schemes in Delhi that were designed and built by the Central Government of India, soon after Independence and are today facing a threat of demolition, to make way for multi-storied housing and commercial projects. As per experts, other examples of mass housing in Delhi is Lodhi Colony, the last housing pocket designed and built by the British completed just before Independence. South Delhi was mostly all agricultural land in the 1940s. By the 1950s, the government acquired land and started building houses for the large numbers that needed to be accommodated. The CPWD was responsible for the design of most of the housing that was being built and one of the main contributors to the design of the housing was Habib Rahman, a senior architect with the CPWD during the period 1953-70, who then rose to hold the post of chief architect of CPWD from 1970-74. The character of Delhi today, distinguished by the low rise mass housing pockets is largely the work of Habib Rahman,’’ said Annabel Lopez, project consultant with INTACH Delhi chapter. Rahman’s son, noted photographer Ram Rahman told TOI that "At least one block should be saved as an important example of our modernist history." The documentation will highlight how most of the mass housing pockets are today more than 60 years old and some are in a poor state of conservation. The government is proposing to demolish seven of these government residential colonies in Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Thyagaraj Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur, in south Delhi, comprising of type I-IV flats. With this demolition, all traces of the evolution of mass housing in Delhi will effectively be erased. It is imperative therefore that they are photographed and documented, immediately, before the demolition process is completed,’’ said officials. INTACH, Delhi Chapter is taking the initiative of documenting these various typologies of government mass housing in Delhi. According to INTACH Delhi Chapter convener Swapna Liddle, Netaji Nagar represents a time in Delhi, when the city was evolving and forming a new future right after independence. ``Historically, Netaji Nagar shows a side of Delhi where independent India was still adjusting to its new identity. Right after 1947, the role of the Indian government suddenly became vital in managing the city and demands for more and more public servants increased. These officers needed housing, government housing, which was very different from housing for partition refugees. Delhi was suddenly growing in two different ways. Netaji Nagar was a new experiment in mass housing plan, it was time when Delhi was still getting a new feel, where open spaces was given due importance. This type of housing tells us a lot about Delhi’s evolvement since 1947, and we are looking to map and document this housing area so that generations can come will still be able to learn about it,’’ said Liddle. The plan involves INTACH Delhi Chapter to collaborate with architectural colleges to undertake documentation of the mass housing typologies in Delhi, especially of those that are to be demolished shortly.

- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/due-to-be-razed-netaji-nagar-housing-in-south-delhi-to-be-mapped-for-future-generations/articleshow/65935866.cms, Sep 25, 2018

Museum enthusiasts can now admire the rare collections of jewels, antiques, fossils, and biological specimens in India’s oldest and biggest museum without stirring out of their homes. The National Museum in Kolkata, established in 1814, has made some of its prized possessions accessible online. The initiative, titled ‘Online Exhibition: Rare & Precious Antiques from Indian Museum Kolkata Collection’, has over 40 artefacts, with photographs and captions explaining their significance. These include, among others, an emerald bow ring of Shah Jahan, a golden goblet studded with precious stones that belonged to Jehangir, a terracotta vase from Baluchistan dating back to 4,000-3,000 BCE, and a third century crystal casket that is said to have contained the relics of the Buddha.

Security upgrade

“The artefacts are priceless. We need to display them with a lot of caution, under strong security surveillance. Until we are able to upgrade our security, the digital interface provides us an opportunity to make more people aware of the collection,” said Rajesh Purohit, director of the Indian Museum. “After the renovation of the website in May 2018 and the launch of the online exhibition, the number of footfalls in the Museum has increased,” he said. Like other museums in the country, the Indian Museum, located in Chowringhee in the heart of Kolkata, is able to display only about 10% of its exhibits physically. “The Museum has about 1.08 lakh objects. Even with 32 galleries, we cannot display more than 10,000 objects,” Mr. Purohit said. “But from these galleries, 15 broad sections can be viewed on the web.” Mr. Purohit said that the museum was in touch with experts at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, to enable a 3D experience for visitors online. The Indian Museum is the eighth oldest museum in the world and the oldest in South Asia. It has exhibits ranging from geology and natural heritage to archaeology and art.

- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-virtual-visit-to-the-indian-museum/article25041937.ece, Sep 26, 2018

From Lucknow we have ugly images of the Gomti river choking on countless Ganesha idols, built with PoP that takes years to decompose, plus paints heavy with lead and mercury that also hurt the river and all life in it. In Ahmedabad wholesale immersions have managed to change the colour of the Sabarmati. Nagpur’s Futala Lake is looking much the worse. In Mumbai thousands of dead turtles and fishes have washed ashore on Dadar and Juhu beaches. In Delhi the Ganesh Chaturthi festival has left the Yamuna foaming toxically. India is a water stressed country today. Conserving and recharging its water bodies is literally a matter of survival for us. But even as our distressed lakes and rivers cry for medicine we are feeding them poison. This month it was Ganesh Chaturthi, next month there will be Durga Puja, in 2019 the Kumbh Mela will take place. In India the cycle of religious festivals is continuous but citizens must learn to celebrate them in environmentally friendly ways. Authorities also must do a more sincere and rigorous job of stopping polluting activities. Stop the slow killing of India’s rivers.

- https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/rivers-and-idol-immersions-stop-the-pollution/, Sep 26, 2018

Rocks are one of the most crucial constituents of the environment. And not all landscapes are blessed with these natural beauties. But, did you know that our city is famous for its rock formations? Hyderabad – the city of rocks! Deccan Plateau is made up of Basalt and granite rocks. A few particular rocks sites in the city are around 2,500 million years old. Unfortunately, however, as the need for accommodation supersedes all the other factors, the majestic rock formations slowly started vanishing. Thanks to ‘Society to Save Rocks’ — a non-profit organisation and its relentless efforts since 1996, the government has declared 15 rock sites as ‘Heritage Precincts’. Also, Hyderabad is the only city in India where rocks are preserved as natural heritage, according to the community. Society to Save Rocks conducts various awareness programmes, among which ‘rock walks’ event has garnered some loyal volunteers. Through these ‘rock walks’, the community aims to impart the knowledge to people about the significance of the rock formations. ‘Rock walks’ happen every third Sunday of the month and it’s a free event. Anybody can walk in and commence the journey with ‘Society to Save Rocks’. It also conducts ‘Rockathons’ — a day-long event every year to expand its reach to a wider audience. This year, ‘Rockathon 2018’ is all set to be conducted in December. “Rocks are the typical features of Hyderabad and we should at least preserve a bit of them. Keeping that as our goal, we started doing awareness programmes of all kinds like conducting painting competition for children, photo exhibitions, the infamous ‘rock walks’, concerts, and many more,” shares Frauke Quader, secretary, Society to Save Rocks. For the youngsters, these walks are more than saving the landscapes. It’s about their self-confidence, personal interest, and other aspects. “Hills and mountains always fascinated me since childhood. I came to know about ‘Society to Save Rocks’ from a friend and I started volunteering for all the ‘rock walk’ events,” says Vijay Kumar, a filmmaker. He also shares that albeit not being a mountaineer as such, he likes to explore as much as he can through these events. The whole motto of the organisation goes like — ‘Rocks are not something which can grow back like trees and it is very important to preserve them’. Well, kudos to ‘Society to Save Rocks’ for consistently reminding us to preserve their rock-y pride! Also, do check out their documentary called Hyderabad – the City of Rocks to get a better perspective on the subject —

- https://telanganatoday.com/rock-the-walk-for-a-cause, Sep 26, 2018

A team of archaeology enthusiasts has found a hero stone from the district, believed to be from the 14th century, installed to honour a slain bodyguard and his wife, who committed sati. The stone was found a few meters away from Kurakutthali-Aaludaiya Nayanar Temple in Sarkar Periyapalayam village, which was under the radar of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Sati, a practice in which wives would commit suicide when their husbands die, was believed to have been practised in the eighth and ninth centuries. “Satikal, a hero stone, was installed to honour a war hero or heroes and their wives, who sacrificed their lives,” said S Ravikumar, team director of the Virarajendran Archaeological and Historical Research Centre. “The hero stone, found near Uthukuli Road in Sarkar Periyapalayam, is 90cm tall and 75cm wide. It depicts a hero, whose hairdo is vertical and there seems to be an arrow on his head. It might indicate that he was killed by it. He is wearing ornaments on hands and legs. He is holding a sword in his right hand and a shield in the other,” Ravikumar told TOI. “More Importantly, a woman, who could be his wife, is depicted alongside him. Her hands are raised. Her right palm is open and on the other hand, she is holding some object. It could be a garland.” “Sundarar, an ancient Tamil poet, had mentioned about trading activities carried out in this region indirectly while writing about KurakutthaliAaludaiya Nayanar Temple in Sarkar Periyapalayam. With such references, the hero stone, which could belong to the 14th century because of its shape, could have been installed to honour a hero, one of the security men hired by traders for their safety,” said Ravikumar. “Adikkeezhthalam was a place where Eriveeras, the bodyguards, stayed. Such places were found in Avinashi, Perumanallur, Palangarai and Naduvaccheri areas in the region. Thavalam was the place where ancient traders stayed. Sixty-four traders, representing as many trade regions, existed in South India. An inscription signed by them has been discovered,” he added.

- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/satikal-honours-memory-of-slain-warrior-his-wifes-sacrifice/articleshow/65972001.cms, Sep 27, 2018

This is the year of the Nila Kurinji, which blooms once in 12 years. As its rare purplish-blue fades across the hills, wild pink Himalayan cherry and fiery reds of poinsettia and dadap burst afresh. At 7,000 ft. touching clouds, Kodaikanal is a sky island that once supported a unique biodiversity. With the introduction of eucalyptus, pine and wattle by the British in the mid-19th century, agriculture and subsequent plantations since the 1970s, the lush grasslands and indigenous Sholas have depleted drastically — finds INTACH’s joint study conducted with IISER and ATREE supported by satellite imaging since 1973. People and ecosystems are linked, habitats and livelihoods are inter-dependent. For nine days this September, funded by INTACH and facilitated by the Kodaikanal International School (KIS), The people of the Palani Hills celebrated community narratives of the Kodaikanal region with a pop-up museum, a film, village performers and a skit by KIS students. Priyashri Mani and Nishita Vasanth worked together in Gudulur, researching indigenous communities. In 2015, they moved to Kodaikanal. At Daily Bread, a popular bakery, they happened to meet INTACH members Sunaina and Anil Choudhry and they found common ground. With INTACH funding, over the course of one year, Mani and Vasanth gathered stories of migration travelling to over 60 villages, covering all 15 gram panchayats of the Kodaikanal block in the lower, middle and upper Palanis. “There is a vast rich history before Western settlers that is undocumented and we wanted to study this,” says Mani, who has a Masters in Development Studies. “Our oral histories and stories of origin are often discounted — they deserve their place,” they assert. Combining their findings with conventional historical sources such as Gazetteer, the duo traced the paths of traditional communities from the arrival of the Paliyans (nomadic hunter-gatherers) and Puliyans (agriculturalists) 700 years ago. Over 60 dolmen sites establish human presence going back to 2,000 years and more. At the end of the year, Mani and Vasanth had a highly comprehensive yet boring black and white report. Wanting to go beyond that, they came up with the idea of a pop-up museum and an illustrated book, emphasising, “Disseminating knowledge is as important as gathering it.”

Bi-lingual museum

Do museums hold memories? Should museums put culture in boxes? Is there a possibility of dialogue? Over the next two years, such questions augured the design behind the bi-lingual museum (English and Tamil) and book — for young adults onwards — with designer Shubra Nayar’s participation. Capturing the forest ambience, colourful stories and artefacts demonstrate co-existence and hierarchies — how the Mannadiars came up and dominated the Puliyans, who had mastered hill agriculture; the Asaris specialise in metal work and Arunthathiyars work with leather. Traditional practices are still kept alive as Vasanth elaborates: “In the forest, honey-gatherers do a ritualistic dance around a tree before smoking the bees out, without harming them. In Moongilpallam, deep inside the forest, homes are built with plastered mud in bamboo and grass roofs. Older members distil lemon grass and go across to Kerala to sell the oil.” Before it was set up as a recreation centre by the British, Kodaikanal was first occupied by the American missionaries in the 1850s, who also started the Kodai School. At the museum’s opening event, presided over by INTACH Chairman Maj.Gen. L.K. Gupta, Corleigh Stixrud, Principal of the KIS, acknowledged the hill-station’s synergy. “Somehow the dynamics of different groups of people bring out the best in the people here,” he observed. Many migrated to the Palanis, which stretch across 2,000 sq.km., to escape famine and drought, or in search of alternative livelihoods. The migrants included communities such as the Thevars, Sri Lankan Tamils, Muslim traders, Mudaliars, Nadars and Kannadiyars. As INTACH member David Thomas puts it, “This potage spiced with so many different kinds of people speaking so many different languages — is the wonder, the beautiful mosaic that is the Kodaikanal hills.” About 18 km from Kodaikanal, at 6,300 ft., the old settlement of Poombarai exemplifies this diversity. “There are 13 to 14 community types in the village,” informs Vasanth. Alongside the pop-up museum, a musical troupe from Poombarai performed traditional dances such as the deer dance and the dance for the Kurinji. “The Kurunji is not to be plucked, only to be seen and savoured,” the performer announced, revealing native wisdom for the fragile ecosystem. “Every community has experienced the Palanis in a different way — the Arunthathiyars different from the British, the Adivasis different from the Mannadiars and so on. Therefore, we cannot say that there is one concise history of the Palani hills,” observes Mani. Their dream is that the Museum finds a permanent space for sharing and fostering a dialogue, presenting multiple perspectives, truly meaningful to all communities involved — a gateway into the soul of this land.

- https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/kodaikanala-with-a-rich-past/article25059132.ece, Sep 28, 2018

The Indian National Trust of Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has organised a workshop on the study, use and conservation of historic ‘lakhori’ bricks which are found in several heritage buildings in the region. The trust’s Hisar chapter has roped in masons and students to spread awareness about the importance of the age-old lime-use technique for the conservation of heritage structures in Hisar. The trust’s Hisar convener Sumita Tayal and co-convener Manju Jain said that 11 students from the INTACH Heritage Academy in Delhi are attending the four-day practical session. Shradha Arora from the academy also accompanied them. Sumita said that 15 masons from the Hisar region have also joined the training session. They would be able to learn about the construction of ancient architecture using ‘lakhori’ bricks. Ram Kishan, a mason who is taking the classes, said that there is scope for work in the preservation of ancient structures. Co-convener Manju Jain said that there were around 100 ancient buildings in Hisar region which had been constructed with ‘lakhori’ bricks and are as old as 120 years. “But there are no masons who can repair the damaged portions of the heritage structures. As a result, people who own these structures prefer to dismantle the entire building and erect a new one. We want to spread awareness and also ensure that there are trained masons who can repair the damaged portions of these beautiful sites,” she added. While imparting training to students and local masons, Ram Kishan, a mason from INTACH, said that instead of cement, ‘lakhori’ bricks need to be interlocked with a mixture of lime, ‘surkhi’ and ‘gur’. “There is lack of knowledge about using traditional methods and materials for masonry and plastering. We are training these students and masons to skill them in using ‘lakhori’ bricks in construction work,” he said.

- https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/training-for-using-historic-lakhori-bricks-imparted/659798.html, Sep 28, 2018

UNESCO World Heritage City Ahmedabad and Mandu were Thursday jointly declared as the 'Best Heritage City', while Qutub Minar bagged the top award in the differently-abled friendly monument category at the National Tourism Awards here. The awards were presented by Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons at a ceremony held at the Vigyan Bhavan. India's first World Heritage City Ahmedabad is well-known for Indo-Islamic monumental art and architecture, intricately carved wooden havelis. Founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 on pre-existing sites of Ashawal and Karnavati, the city was encompassed by massive brick fortification on banks of Sabarmati. "Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is a pioneer in people-centric urban conservation since 1996, with establishment of the first heritage cell in India. This has led to awareness creation, framing of heritage regulations, conservation and restoration of invaluable heritage buildings," the citation for the city read. Mandu, an ancient city in Madhya Pradesh, was also bestowed the 'Best Heritage City' award. The citation described the city as a "celebration in stone of life and joy". "Each of Mandu's structures is an architectural gem. The glory of Mandu lives on, in its palaces and mosques in legends and songs, chronicled for posterity... Serious efforts have been consistently made by the authorities and local people to ensure conservation and cleanliness of Mandu's vivid heritage," it said. ASI's Qutub Minar won the best maintained, differently-abled friendly monument award. Qutbu'd-Din Aibak laid the foundation of the Minar in AD 1199, to which subsequent additions were made by his successor Iltutmish and Firoz Shah Tughlak. The 73-metre tower has five distinct storeys, each marked by a projecting balcony. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Qutub Minar has made best possible efforts to provide amenities to the differently-abled at a World Heritage Site. In the 'Best Heritage Walk' category, INTACH Heritage Walks Delhi chapter and 'Indore Heritage Walk' were jointly declared as winners. "INTACH Heritage Walks introduces citizens as well as tourists to different aspects of monuments and neighbourhoods of rich cultural and architectural heritage," the citation read. Lauding the Indore Heritage Walk, the citation read: It is an effort towards conserving, renovating and promoting the rich heritage of Indore. "It aims to offer the visitors, an exciting and fascinating urban heritage experience. The walk encapsulates the vivacious history of Indore and helps to connect the tourists with its heritage, culture, architecture, food and traditions," the citation read. In 'Most Innovative & Unique Tourism Product' 21 Gun Salute International Vintage Car Really and Concourse Show' and 'Coral Safari' of Chennai were declared as joint winners. 21 Gun Salute rally is a "unique motoring event", and promotes India as a heritage motoring tourism destination. 'Coral Safari', Chennai operates semi-submarine under water safari which is a complete family adventure trip into the ocean to explore the underwater magnificence of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the citation read. KND SMN

- https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/tourism-awards-ahmedabad-best-heritage-city-qutub-minar-best-monument-for-differentlyabled/1392261, Sep 28, 2018