[jyotirmoy]

Old monuments are things that average Delhites take for granted. On my first morning in Delhi I went to the neighbourhood milk booth and found that it was located right opposite a 14th. century tomb. As days passed I hardly looked at this tomb. So when a shanty came up at the Lal Mahal monument built by Ghiyasuddin Balban in 1245 near Nizamuddin no one really noticed. This monument once gave shelter to famous Arab traveler Ibn Batuta.
Quietly a builder moved in and began construction. Last Friday the ASI discovered that this old monument was partially damaged. Its prominent chhatris and red sand stone structure had been pulled down. The builder could not have the gumption to demolish a monument with a grade A certification without the complicity of local authorities.
There are scores of such monuments scattered all over Delhi. Unless the local population care for these the builder mafia would soon take over some of these.

[priya]

It's disgusting that anyone would even contemplate defacing/destroying historical sites!!

[digital drifter]

hey, this is actually par for the course.  The other day, the ASI(Arch. soc. of India) cleaned a temple in South India;  sand blasted the figures, 200 year old murals, everything. the temple is now fresco clean. 100%

admit it, you get a contract to clean a place and you do your money's worth.

If this is the state by an ASI approved contractor, a tomb taken over by some local guy....

I believe the same thing happens in Rome too; too many monuments all over the place, too little money.  So things get lifted, taken over and subsumed.

[dzibead]

  !!!  dd, I was just about to ask what the ASI's role was in protecting these things - so now I know.  

[digital drifter]

http://www.hinduonne...15251606400.htm

don't read, it'll make you weep.

I believe, in this country, Michelangelos are/were dime a dozen.  that's why this abject poverty of preservation techniques.  we can always get some bloke to paint that faded crap, anyway.

See, that makes sense!

[priya]

Weep!!!  Absolutely   What a mess; totally ruined, FOREVER.

Quote

A four-day international seminar titled “Painting Narratives: Mural Painting Traditions in the 13th-19th centuries”, held near Chennai from January 23 to 27, focussed on the magnitude of the problem. The Madras Craft Foundation, Chennai, its heritage museum DakshinaChitra, and INTACH’s Indian Council of Conservation Institutes (ICCI), Lucknow, organised the seminar.

I wonder whether anything positive came out of this seminar, or will the participants be fighting a losing battle?