CUTTACK: After lying unattended and neglected for over seven decades, the prized articles used by the architect of modern Orissa Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das finally got their due status when `Madhusmruti', the workplace of the legendary leader turned into a museum on Saturday.

The double-storied house of Madhu Babu, which was till the other day serving as the administrative block of a women's college, was converted into a museum to house the artefacts on his 160th birth anniversary.

Central funds

Inaugurating the two-room museum, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that efforts would be made to upgrade it into a national museum soon. He reiterated his government's decision to relocate the Shailabala Women's College that was running here for last six decades at a new location at Abhinav Bidanasi soon. He said the double-storied building to house the Madhusudan Memorial Museum would be renovated at a cost of Rs. 1.84 crores and adequate central funds would be arranged for the same.

Madhu Babu had built the house after he left his native village in Satyavamapur, about 25 km away from the city, and started staying here since 1889. He lived here till his death on February 4, 1934.

Shailabala Das, his adopted daughter, later handed over the building to the government in 1952 to run a college named after her. As the college was set up in the same year, the articles used by the leader were shifted to the two rooms in the first floor that were separated from the college with a purpose to make it a museum.

Although the government announced to convert the house into a museum in 2003, it took more than three years to make it a reality.

All these years, the precious materials were gathering dust at one corner of the building and many of the artefacts were even ruined. Some of the prized collections were allegedly missing as no effort was made to preserve them.

Prized exhibits

Among the prized exhibits that were on display was a specimen signature of Sir Edwards, then Lt. Governor of Bihar-Orissa, who visited the famous Utkal Tannery set up by Madhu Babu in Cuttack.

The piece of paper was already in a fragile state but received some chemical treatment. About 30-odd rare photographs of the legendary leader dating back to 1880 were also on display at the museum.

The other artefacts included an ivory chessboard, beds, armchairs, four cups, a spinning wheel, chandelier, eight glasses and a box with two magnifying glasses, many of which were used by the leader.

Madhu Babu, who was also known for his love for filigree works, had also collected a few rare pieces of them. A replica of the Taj Mahal and the Puri Jagannath temple made up of fine work of silver wire were the star attraction of the museum. A silver plaque of the Lingaraj temple of Bhubaneswar was reportedly missing from Madhu Babu's collection.

Three almirahs, eight small tables with some tannery work, two century-old turtle skin napkins and a certificate won by Utkal Tannery at the Indian Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition held in 1906 were also on display.

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