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NEWS : Neglect and decay of ancient temples
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To: SRH <ghen@netcom.com>
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Subject: NEWS : Neglect and decay of ancient temples
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From: ashok <ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in>
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Date: Mon, 29 Jul 96 20:17:23 PDT
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Priority: Normal
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ReSent-Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 03:06:51 -0400 (EDT)
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Resent-From: lists@rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu
Title : Neglect and decay of ancient temples
Author : Rizwan Salim
Publication : Hindustan Times
Date : July 21, 1996
Since 1988, I have been travelling extensively all over
India because, I find the sight of ancient Hindu temple
architecture deeply pleasing. If a temple built before
the year 1700 and endowed with the least bit of
architeture beauty survives, anywhere in India even as a
crumbling pile of stones, very likely I have seen it.
What did I find and what did I learn on my endless
journeys ?
Over the past 1500 years, the rajas and maharajas of
Hindustan may have created magnificent temples in greater
number than any other ancient civilisation built its own
religious edifices, but most surviving Hindu temples have
been simply abandoned for decades to water and wild
vegetation, cattle and wild birds, vandals and sculpture
thieves. Precious temples haven been silently
disintegrating into piles of stone blocks.
A lot of ancient temple architeture in India perished at
the hands of Muslim iconoclasts and plunderers, Indian
and British robbers of art and antiquities, Indian
temples continue to be raided by sculpture thieves and
damaged by vandals. Still, what survives today is
incomparable. (A certain number of Hindu temples erected
during 5OO-1000 AD and even later don't survive today
because of the cumulative damage over the centuries.) it
is a mental effort to imagine what Hindustan would have
looked like if every temple ever built had survived.
Thousands of magnificent temples, each more impressive
than the other, would have dazzled the people. But only
about 200 Ancieni and old temples intact or ruined can he
found in India today.
So large is India's architectural legacy that the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), more than 40 years
after the British left still has not catalogued every
significant monument that ought to be protected,
restored, and preserved for the delight and pride of the
present and future generations. Most ancient Hindu
temples identified as historically and architecturally
significant is protected only by a blue enamelled plaque
on an iron pole and a metal wire fence. There is no
full-time watchmen at the
sites.
Conservation and restoration efforts are hopelessly
inadequate or non-existent at these temples. Even at the
small number of sites actively managed by ASI (eg.
Khajuraho; Chittorgarh, Hampi) the restoration is not
adequate. The effort does not include every ruined
temple on the site or utilise the best available
conservation technologies. Officials of the Central
bureaucracy have been criticised for using short-sighted
preservation methods at World Heritage sites of Ajanta
and Ellora, Khajuraho and Konark. The incomparably
beautiful coloured frescoes in Bagh caves (near Indore)
were destroyed because of long neglect and incompetence.
Even at the rare site where ASI seems determined to
restore a damaged temple, the additions seem to be
uninspired and lack artistic vigour. (Hindu temple
artisans today don'rhave the intensity and the feel for
stone their ancestors did).
Since 1950, ASI has done major repairs and rebuilding at
only a few grand temples which had the potential for
becoming tourist magnets. Smaller, more extensively
damaged temples at remote locations have been totally
abandoned.
Ancient Hindu temples in a ruined or semi-ruined state
can be found forsaken all over India, but mostly in
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Praaesh (less frequently in
Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.)
Ancient and old Hindu temples are not just abandoned or
ill-maintained, theft of priceless sculpture from
temples, ASI's antiquity storage rooms and even
archaeological museums is a continuing and widespread
problem. A lot of valuable sculpture (intact or only a
little damaged) from dilapidated temples is often removed
by ASI either to obscure museums in small towns (Gwalior,
Kota) or on-site store rooms. In-valuable Hindu art
works have been stolen-and continue to be stole-from
ASI's museums and stores. Very often choice items of
religious art are bribed out of official possession.
Irreplaceable sculptures of extraordinary imaginative
power are also being stolen from functioning temples all
over India every month-often with the connivance of
Government officials-and smuggled abroad (usually) to the
US or (less often) to France, England and Germany.
At the esoteric Chausath Yogini mandir at Khajuraho every
beautiful statue of the Motiier Goddess attendants has
been missing for years.
The Central Government must order immediately a complete
inventory of sculptures ana statues officially removed
from temples or found in archeological excavations. A
clear photographic record of items displayed in museums
and kept in stores must be maintained. If a recorded
item is lost, those charged with its safekeeping must be
punished severely. Existin laws must he revised to
punish with death convicted art thieves and those who
facilitate art smugpline. Senior law enforcement
officials must shame and energise theirsubordinates to be
vigilent against the smuggling of priceless Indian art
overseas. Government officials must work up courage to
demand off the US and European nations. that stolen
Indian art in private or museum possession be returned to
India.
Legends say the Emperor Ashoka ordered the creation of
80,000 sculpture; the kingdom of Kalinga (present day
Orissa) that he conquered was said to contain more than
800 temples. What must have been the effect of so much
awe-inspiring art on people's consciousness ? I cannot
believe any living Indian can even begin to form a mental
conception of how intense the imagination's pleasures and
how fervent the religious devotion would how been had
every Hindu temple ever built remained intact.
