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Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

Priceless A view of the preamble and the signature page

Though we all know that B.R. Ambedkar was the architect of the constitution, one man can be held responsible for literally writing the constitution in his own inimitable calligraphy. Little is known about Prem Behari Narain Raizada (Saxena) of Delhi, although the family originated from Rampur.

The 16 by 12 inches hardbound book that weighs around 3.75 kg is a piece of art by itself, thanks to the calligraphy of Prem Behari and the embellishment done by painter Nandlal Bose of Santiniketan.

Nandalal Bose’s outstanding piece of art can be seen only by those who have access to it.

He had depicted some of our historic scenes all along the pages in the form of headers, illustrations, backdrops and borders.

The eminent artist had left no stone unturned in depicting our culture and heritage. Through miniature artworks, he has covered various periods and personalities in the Indian history like Vedic period, Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilisation, Ramayana and Mahabharata, Ashoka’s rule, Akbar, Sivaji, Guru Gobind Singh and Tipu Sultan. Gandhi’s Dandi march and tour to Naokhali are also covered by him.

Even the decorations used for the borders exemplify the Santiniketan style.

The constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949 and was officially put into force on January 26, 1950.

At that time, it contained eight schedules and 395 articles and today it contains 12 schedules but the articles remain the same.

Just below the list of languages in the Eight Schedule, the book contains the signatures of all the 348 members of the Constituent Assembly and it runs into 11 pages. The signatures start with Jawaharlal Nehru and end with Feroze Gandhi.

For some reason, the first page of signatures seem to have a preponderance for Constitution makers from the south, as it has the signatures of B. Patthabhi Sitaramayya, N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, O.P. Ramaswamy Reddy, Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer, Ammu Swaminathan, T. Prakasam, K. Santhanam, K. Venkata Rao, G. Durgabai, M. Thrumala Rau, M. Anantasayanam Iyengar and N. Sanjiva Reddy.

Though most of them have signed in English, a few leaders including the President of the Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad and Purushottam Das Tandon signed in Devanagari script. Abul Kalam Azad signed in urdu.

While most of them managed to sign within the border, a couple of members extended well into the border. One such signature is that of Sachchidananda Sinha for whom the border had to be extended.

Proudly embracing the book, Prof. Venkat Rao says, “It is the prized possession of the Law College and I show it to the students to motivate them and remind them about the people to whom we owe the priceless freedom.”

The law college was started in 1945 by the then Vice-Chancellor of the University C.R. Reddy and its first Principal was S. Venkataraman. Till date it had produced many stalwarts to its credit.

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