Former Glory

While discussing the restoration of art or architectural heritage, newspapers, magazines and podium speakers often refer to restoring things...

While discussing the restoration of art or architectural heritage, newspapers, magazines and podium speakers often refer to restoring things to their 8216;former glory8217;. Though I believe that whereas something close to the miraculous is possible, I cannot define it as the return to 8216;former glory8217;. Let me tell you why.

Think of an ageing beauty who rushes to specialists for help because of her changing looks. They stretch the skin of her face, remove her wrinkles, tighten the soft folds of her throat and give her snapping white dentures. Despite all this effort, how many would really say that this beauty has been brought back to her 8216;former glory8217;? The reason her former glory is no longer possible is because time has intervened and turned everything around, it has drastically altered her beauty while she bemoans her lost splendour.

Similarly, heritage is betrayed by time, as indeed all of us are8212;the beautiful, the damned and the invincible. Time gives it a merry shake-up, helped along by destruction, vandalism and in contemporary times, by profiteers posing as heritage protectors.

What can actually help our ageing beauty is to find inner peace and contentment and thereby bring a glow to her wrinkled skin and a sparkle in her tired eyes. But she is obsessed by what the mirror no longer tells her and looks for quick solutions that do not demand too much of her.

We do the same with heritage by looking for easy methods and slick face-lifts with which to dress up our long-suffering inheritance. Tourism has become important; so we are in a hurry and look for quick and easy formulae after which we commence the hype. Moreover, few are really interested in using conservation the way it should be used, since that requires time, research, dedication and training. What we eventually do is not the ethical and scientific conservation as it is understood elsewhere in the world, but something very different.

No one looks into the details as to why our heritage crumbles, for it is in the detail that the clue to heritage conservation lies. Detail also demands patience and dedication. Illustration A, for example, shows a portion of the Queen8217;s Bath in Hampi, North Karnataka, with open windows, which are like jharokas. The top portions of the jharokas jut into the air. Illustration B shows a detail of the same with a segment surrounded by a black rectangle to define the area. The stones of this segment within the rectangle are held in place because of their relationship with one another. When one slab falls the others will gradually follow. This of course, is happening and three windows have already fallen. The Queen8217;s Bath will soon be stripped of all of them if no one realises the value of detail and how it is possible to work things out if we pay attention to it.

But like the ageing beauty we believe in superficial effects without stopping to understand the problems inherent in the bones and entrails of our architectural wonders. Let us not use heritage only for the profits it gives us but let8217;s also give it the respect that it deserves.