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The past lives again
MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY
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Destroyed during the earthquake of 2001, it has taken seven years to restore the Kutch Museum to its former glory.
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Precious artefacts, painstakingly restored: Exhibits at the newly-opened Kutch Museum.
It was the epicentre of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. Bhuj shuddered as nature unleashed its fury on that unfortunate dawn on January 26. Seven years later, it seems like a rebirth for this Kutch district town. New constructions, fresh coats of paints, smooth tar roads and a revived energy. But the ghost of the disaster continues to linger in some parts. The narrow inner lanes still have some un-repaired homes, and the wrecked building of the Circuit House have tales to tell.
This may be a past no one would like to remember. But within that past lay another past, which was nearly lost in the rubble. Are the ancient inscriptions, with many untold stories of our ancestors, artefacts that are an evidence of our evolution and impressions of art that are facing extinction any less precious than human life?
By creating a chronology of our history and preserving it for the future, museums serve as a link between our present and our past identity. And the Kutch Museum was one of the casualties of the earthquake. The building, along with its exhibits, was completely flattened by the earthquake and left nothing much to gather but dust.
But, like the phoenix, the Museum came back to life from its own ashes. It took seven years of toil and research to retrieve the broken pieces of artefacts from the debris and infuse life into them.
During Rann Utsav, a festival organised by Gujarat Tourism in February, the place was reopened to the public by the Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Reassuring facade
Looks wise, nothing has changed. The exterior has been rebuilt exactly the way it used to be, and feels as if nothing ever happened to it. The breeze from Hamisar lake still blows the same side. But Satish Sadashivam, the curator, says it wasn’t that easy a task. “Over 250 exhibits, including ancient inscriptions, were badly damaged. The entire maritime gallery, which traced over 400 years of the sea activities of the region, was reduced to dust. We had to get it remodelled again. The musical instruments were broken into tiny pieces. Thankfully these instruments still exist so we could buy them again. Ultimately, we restored every piece in the museum,” he explains and adds after a pause, “Except for a gold pin, a piece of ornament worn by the Kutch women, which we lost.”
Mammoth task
The Herculean task of restoration involved getting local artisans to work along with scientists and conservationist from the National Museum and officers from other Gujarat Museums. “But the biggest problem was transferring the artefacts to the nearby Sanskrit College till the time the museum building was reconstructed. The items were already damaged, so every piece had to be painstakingly handled. And we had to undergo all of this again while relocating back to the new building,” recollects Satish, who, at that time was the curator of the Baroda Museum and was deployed to Bhuj especially for this task.
Though the exterior of the old building was replicated, the interiors have been given a complete makeover. “Earlier, the place was divided into small compartments; now, it is constructed like a hall so that the showpieces can be displayed comfortably.”
While the World Bank gave Rs. 1 crore towards the construction of the building and Rs. 50 lakhs towards the equipments and display, the government of India contributed Rs. 2.5 lakhs.
Satish agrees that more than money, it takes a lot of political will to implement something of such magnitude. “Generally after a natural calamity, no one bothers too much about museums . It is rare to see the government giving such importance to a museum in a place like Kutch, which is so far away.”
The hard work had paid off but Satish does not think it is over as yet. “It has been a challenging job but I wouldn’t say we have done a great job. A lot still remains to be done.”
Space to grow
Next on the agenda is the expansion of the museum, which has been already sanctioned by the government of Gujarat. “During the restoration process, we also updated our catalogue and, as a result, our artefacts have doubled. We need enough space to accommodate them now. As per the plan, the school building next door will be connected to the museum and made into one single entity. About Rs. 60-80 lakhs will come from the PMO for the purpose,” shares Satish.
The history
The oldest museum in Gujarat, the Kutch Musuem in Bhuj was established back in 1877 by the ruler Maharao Khengarji, as part of the School of Art. In February 1884, an exhibition of 5,897 items of Kutch art and craft was organised and exhibited during Rao Khengarji’s wedding. Out of these, exhibits worth Rs. 3,300 were given to the Museum later. And it is these exhibits that necessitated the construction of a new building.
Since the foundation was laid by Sir James Fergusson, the then Governor of Bombay, the Museum was named after him. The name Kutch Musuem came with usage. Till independence, the museum was opened to the public only on important religious occasions, otherwise it was limited to the special guests of the ruler.
The museum has a rich collection of Kshatrapa inscriptions, very specific to Kutch. The oldest inscription is dated saka eleven (A.D. 89) and is considered to be the most important one, as it mentions the name of the founder of the Saka dynasty, Chastan. The inscription also takes back the Kashatrapa rule by 40 years. Yet another important inscription belongs to the Abhir ruler Ishwardev (A.D 332). It is the only Abhir inscription of Gujarat. The museum also has archaeological sections with pottery, stone tablets and beads from the Indus Valley site, an arms and armaments section, and a section that displays the textiles and embroidery work from over 16 predominant communities of the region.
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