Caravansarai : Short Stories from the GT Road (05)

Tombs Strewn about the fields

Location: Settlement Sirhind and Mahadiyan, District: Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab

Tomb of Mir-Miran, Dera Mir-Miran, Punjab

Most of what I learnt of Conservation Architecture comes from the conversations I had with my seniors during my tenure at CRCI. I remember a few of us gathering one of those few times, and discussing why were we conserving the tombs of Sirhind in the first place? I mean, what was the point? They had lost their association with the present society. They were literally “kheton ke beech mein…” (in the middle of fields) if one had witnessed their plight in reality. They were strewn about the vast agricultural landscape of Sirhind, Mahadiyan and Dera Mira Miran. And sadly, many had just been getting worse over the past few decades. They meant as much to the locals who knew better than to destroy them completely as long as the tombs kept out of the way of their agricultural practices. I remember seeing one of the tombs in Mahadiyan within or almost within which the irrigation/ water-pumping system for a nearby field had been installed- so maybe this tomb had gotten in someone’s way after all?!!

Tomb of Hathi & Ghoda, Talanian

It isn’t that we could really make a huge tourist influx into these locations for the locals to value or safeguard these structures for monetary gains. What is that the people would value and that which would still be manifest in these buildings that would make the people want to be active guardians of their own structures? Granted they may have been important in their day, but compared to so many others, these weren’t architecturally marvelous either. I agree that architectural magnificence can’t be the basis of whether or not we choose to preserve historic structures. The very fact that they have history tied to them is criteria enough for us to have to preserve them. But merely preserving the architecture and letting the history die is also an egg and chicken problem. Maybe in the larger context of the Grand Trunk road and the stories that spun it together, it made sense to have to preserve these to join the narrative dots as one went along. But just looking at some of these architectural pieces, one wondered, how would one ever get the community involved into a space which could not fetch them income, which needed them to invest care and attention, and which over time may even get dilapidated? More so than it already had.

Tomb of Haj-O-Taj, Dera Mir-Miran

But then this brought us many larger issues to debate upon. Had the community been involved in the conservation of these structures from inception as ideally, by now the conservation architects would have moved out of here, knowing that the community could uphold their history. The tombs strewn about the fields of Sirhind or Mahadiyan or Dera Mira Miran remind us that this cannot be a solo game-plan. An architect, a historian, a conservation architect, a sociologist, the panchayat, the community and the government, all are players in the game. It has to be a team effort. Often in our idealistic musings we believe that it is our opinion alone that matters- the strongest opinion. Sorry, but if you stood in those fields for years lecturing the villagers to stop plough-ing around the structures, or maybe just help upkeep them, do you think they would listen? Where was the government and its archaeological authority when Kos Minars were falling off left right and center into fields, or people’s neighborhoods or in some cases right into people’s privately owned land or their front-yards?

Tomb of Ustad as seen from Tomb of Mir-Miran, Dera Mir-Miran

All parties should be made to be a part of the project. I think the approach should be that the communities need our help to comprehend the history and value of these structure and we need theirs to ensure their upkeep. We also need to understand how much a structure means monetarily and how much it means culturally. Neither can function independently. And until we get to understand the system from the people’s point of view and then alter it, change is hard to come by.

Tombs of Ustad and Shagird, Talanian

But then this is just my opinion. Standing in those fields clicking those pictures, I knew it was highly insignificant what I took back from this site, if those who owned those fields took nothing out of this sight. If to them those tombs were just incoherent pieces of history stuck there like museum pieces dissociated with and disowned by the present, then things would just keep getting worse hereon…like tombs getting in the way of agriculture.