The image of Nataraja, 13the century AD
(Before mutilation)
Do you know where the biggest stone image of Nataraja in India is located? It is preserved in the Assam State Museum, Guwahati. This image (height: 2.11metre), belonging to 13th century AD, considered as one of the masterpieces of Indian art has been severely mutilated recently. The damage was caused when the museum authority unnecessarily renovated the gallery and shifted it to put it on a new pedestal just few metres away from its earlier place of display. Due to its significance in the history of Indian art this image was taken by the Government of India to London where it was displayed in a special exhibition held from 15th July to 18th August,1985, on the occasion the first Cultural Festival of India. After its return from London and before it was returned to the Assam State Museum this image was exhibited in the National Museum, New Delhi for quite some time. It is noteworthy that during its transportation to London and back it did not suffer even a single scratch. Now when the museum authority shifted it just 8 metres away the image has suffered 8 major mutilations on different parts of its body. Beside these eight major mutilations almost the entire body of the image has suffered scratches of different magnitudes.
This image was unearthed in the archaeological excavation at Ambari, Guwahati conducted during 1970-71 by a team consisting Prof. M.C.Goswami, Dr.T.C.Sharma of the Anthropology Department of the Gauhati University, Mr.M.C.Das of the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Assam, Dr.Z.D.Ansari and Dr.M.K.Dhavalikar of the Daccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute, Pune, and Mr.S.K.Mukherjee of the Eastern Circle the Survey, working under the supervision of Prof.M.C.Goswami.
Following are the major mutilations:
1. The right cheek of the image is severely disfigured with multiple deep incisions. To make the condition further worst, cement ghol(cement mixed with water) is painted on the damaged area to cover-up the damage. This is the extreme kind of an outrageous behaviour for any museum.
2. One of the left hand suffered two mutilations. The thumb and the small finger are badly broken
3. The kiritimukuta suffered mutilation in three different areas.
4. The weapon in one of its right hand is badly broken in two areas.
5. The shield in one of its left hand is severely damaged.
Gosain-kapor, (endi silk)
This is the second major damage caused to the valuable object preserved in the Assam State Museum.. In the previous occasion an extremely valuable religious textile (Gosain-kapor) preserved in the museum has been damaged when it was washed like household laundry. It reflects how much we are concerned in Assam about the preservation of our cultural heritage.
When the valuable cultural properties preserved in the museum are subjected to such treatment one can easily guess what would be the fate of those objects which are scattered throughout the country in private collections. While I was working, few years back, in a project for the documentation of the painted manuscripts of Assam I was horrified to find that each and every folio of the beautiful illustrated manuscript of the 10th Book of Bhagavata preserved in the Bali-Satra have been subjected to commercial lamination. As a consequence of this in few years the manuscript will be completely damaged.
10th Book of Bhagavata, (hand-made paper) Bali-Satra
This manuscript was published by H.Duttabarua in 1949 as"Chitra-Bhagavagt". The book is out of print now. Besides the paintings published in that book have many defects due to the limitation of printing technology of that time. It is therefore urgent to make some public effort atleast to have some perfect images of each painting of that manuscript before the chemicals used in the lamination eat away the colour pigments of the paintings.
In Assam people seems to be more concerned about the conservation of the natural environment. There are so many N.G.O.s who are exclusively engaged in it. It is undoubtedly a good endeavour. But the problem is that unless the people are culturally conditioned nothing is going to change. It is the culture which regulates all our behaviour.
this is a very timely post and way to bring it to the notice of many of us who may be unaware of the tragedy unfolding as far as preservation of such magnificent antiquities is concerned. surely the persons in charge of such a "renovation" and those who were charged with moving it 10 meters and caused such extensive and grievous damage to priceless antiquities, as Samiron has said, can be held responsible. has the media been informed about it? if not, they surely should be.
ReplyDeletetrue- this is indeed a tragedy. I still remember how awed I was when I first saw that Nataraja-even to my inexperienced eye it was obvious what a magnificent piece of art it was.
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