Egmore,
located on the northern banks of Chennai's so called Cooum river
(Considered as the the most polluted river of India) is one of the
busiest neighbourhoods of the city. My three wheeler 'Autoriksha'
keeps moving through unfamiliar small roads and lanes with one common
factor. They are all jam packed with late morning traffic. Soon, I
can see a board declaring that we are on Pantheon Road. I really do
not know why this road has been given a Roman name but I am told that
this is probably so because of the presence of a large estate known
as Pantheon Complex,
that once existed along this road. The Egmore Museum was one of the
first notable monuments to be constructed in this Pantheon Complex in
1854. The Connemara Library, which still functions, was created as an
annex housing the Museum's vast book collection and became
operational in 1896. Many additions to the original museum building
were constructed between 1864 and 1890.
The
Autoriksha stops near the gate and I get down, directly in front of
me, is a large complex consisting of several buildings. I buy entry
tickets for my self and my camera, which requires an entrance fee of
Rupees 200 against entrance fee of Rupees 10 for myself. There is
cloak room nearby with lockers. You are not allowed to carry anything
inside the museum. I slowly walk towards front building. A red
coloured circular building with Pillars all around. The facade is
superb and reminds of the federal parliament building in Delhi. A
building on the left has a facade, reminiscent of a typical Mughal
architecture structure, unbelievably grand. The grandeur of the front
building looks completely spoiled because of a large billboard hung
from two pillars. The billboard is in Tamil but I do recognize the
smiling face of the chief minister. I can see number of old cannons
used in historical wars all along the perimeter of the main building.
In a
typical bureaucratic way, the grand front entrance to the front
building is locked and sealed. The building carries only a small
section on Indus civilization, which can be approached from a small
gate at the rear and which mainly consists of replicas of original
objects, displayed in National museum New Delhi and another wing,
which consists of some arms and guns displayed. The present day
museum entrance is further to the right of the front building, but
eventually leads to the main museum building, located right behind
the front building (Reads highly confusing but it is not.) The facade
of this building has a huge red coloured wall with white painted
animal and birds on it, creating a garish kind of appearance. The
entrance again has metal detectors and security guards, however
things appear quite lax. There is a book shop right at the entrance
and it leads to the Archeology wing, which is divided in number of
individual wings with displays of Hindu Sculptures, Buddhist
Sculptures, Jain Sculptures, Hero Stones, Memorial Stones, Sati
Stone, Inscriptions and Copper plates, quite a mouthful I feel.
The facade near the entrance; bold and garish
I walk
along a long corridor with many stone sculptures, adorning otherwise
a drab corridor. At the end of the corridor is the wing that displays
the Hindu sculptures. I walk through and the next wing consists of
Buddhist sculpture displays. In this wing, there is a separate
enclosure made with polished wooden panelling. This enclosure
consists the Amravati Stones. I have come all the way really to seen
them.
There
is an interesting bit of history, how these stones finally landed in
this museum. I quote from the museum handouts.
“The
collection of the early Buddhist sculptures includes the large group
of sculptures received from the ruined stupa at Amaravati in the
Krishna valley in the Andhra country wherein an excavation was
conducted in the 1801 and later. Colonel.Colin Mackenzie of the
Trigonometrical Survey of India first heard of the mound in the area
and visited the site and found it was very interesting as it had
specimens of early Christian era art. Then he drew sketches of the
site and left. Later in 1830 some of the sculptured slabs were
brought to Masulipatnam to beautify a square named after Robertson,
the District Collector. During the course of his visit to this place
in 1835, Sir Frederick Adam, Governor of Madras, saw the slabs and
ordered that these to be sent to Madras for preservation in the
Museum of the Madras Literary Society. Dr.Balfour, soon after taking
charge of the Madras Central Museum, began his efforts in getting the
aforesaid slabs and the first batch arrived here in 1856. Other
batches of sculptures were secured during Dr.Bidie's time and they
were set up in their present location in the Museum. On the question
of the arrangement and display of these Amaravati marbles in the
Madras Museum in 1884-85, Dr.Bidie had to cross swords with no less a
person than Burgess of the Archaeological Department of the
Government of India, but while the distinguished archaeologist
demonstrated more of dogmatism and heat, Dr.Bidie showed himself that
he was the master of the situation and what he did was only
practicable way of dealing with the sculptures.”
Departure of the Buddha( shown symbolically by a horse without a rider) from Kapilavastu
I feel
like thanking Dr. Bidie, because only his efforts had made the
marble slabs removed from grand Stupa at Amaravati, remain at Chennai
and we can see them even today. There was every possibility otherwise
that these would have been sent to England as was done with a few
others. (Actually the number is not a few but a huge quantity of 121)
So how
did the great Stupa looked like? Just like the Taj Mahal, it could be
described as a poetry in marble. Standing tall, this ninety feet high
marble-encased cupola surmounted by big stone umbrellas, the series
of tall slender marble columns on the platforms marking four cardinal
points, the four festooned gateways flanked by lion-topped columns
and the fourteen feet high, sculptured railing round the stupa, all
of which, together, must have been a sight of glory! The Stupa
perhaps was the biggest symbol of the grandeur and wealth of the
Satavahana empire.
The
sculpturing around the central cupola and the fourteen feet high
railing were done in four periods that can be roughly put in a time
span as Period I - 200 to 100 BC; Period II - 100 AD; Period III -
150 AD and Period IV - 200 to 250 AD. This means that it covers both
the Hinayana and Mahayana periods and that is why, images of Buddha
appear only at certain places, probably sculptured during Mahayana
phase.
A king on his throne
Museum
had arranged the display of Amaravati stones rather well, There are
number of glass enclosed show cases on pedestals as well as those
mounted on the walls. There is also a huge partition that touches the
sealing, with number of open gaps. Many of the smaller stones have
been displayed in these open gaps.
Looking
at the exhibits from the entrance, I feel sad because such a fabulous
monument was destroyed by the over enthusiastic British officers,
keen of excavating the stones and sending them to other places
instead of rebuilding the Stupa to its past glory. It could have
been as glorious a monument as Taj Mahal is considered today.
25th
July 2014
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