Showing posts with label India-Gujarat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India-Gujarat. Show all posts

Thursday 27 February 2020

Lost and Forgotten - Things Big and Little that Disappeared for Centuries

It is Hard to Believe What People can Lose

I rarely lose my car keys (not that the latest iteration has a ‘key’ as such) because I always put them in the same place. Not so my glasses or my glasses' case, these two objects seemingly wander round at will and very rarely together; and Lynne occasionally uses the landline to hunt down her errant mobile. These are commonplace experiences.

Of course our glasses, phones and that pen you put down a minute ago which now seems to have dived into the Bermuda pentangle are not really lost, merely mislaid. Lost means you never see them again, like the carved and painted wooden witch that disappeared on one of our moves.

The Staffordshire Hoard

Visted in Birmingham May 2017 and twice subsequently
Visited Stoke-on-Trent February 2020

Lost and Forgotten is the next notch up in the hierarchy of the vanished. Sometime in the 7th century someone buried a hoard of precious objects in a field near Lichfield. Perhaps the burier came back but could not find them, perhaps they perished in the emergency that prompted the burial, we shall never know. They lay lost and forgotten for well over a thousand years, until July 2009 when Terry Herbert came along with his metal detector. Metal detectorist and landowner shared £3.3m and the Birmingham and Potteries Museums now share the hoard. It is worth seeing if you are in the area, but no rush, it won’t get lost again - not in the foreseeable future, anyway.

Gold sword hilt with cloisssoné garnet inlay, still with Staffordshire soil attached
Photo, Daniel Buxton, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, part of the Portableantiquites project

The hoard may well have been loot, most of it is high status weaponry and armour, that had been broken up before burial.

Gold cheek piece from a helmet
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Reconstruction of the helmet
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent





During conservation many of the pieces were digitally fitted back together in an elaborate 3D golden jigsaw, enabling the construction of replicas of several of the artefacts as they would have been in their prime.










Fishbourne Roman Palace, West Sussex

Visited September 2008

Houses cannot be mislayed, but they can be lost and forgotten. Fishbourne Roman Palace was built around 75 CE only 32 years after the conquest of Britain started and 12 years before its completion. It was not just a Roman villa, it really was a palace, the size of Nero’s Golden House in Rome and the largest known Roman residence north of the Alps.

Fishbourne Roman Palace - Model from the Fishbourne Museum
Photo by Immanuel Giel who has helpfully placed it in the Public Domain

It may have been built for King Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus of the local Atrebates tribe who were among the first to spot the benefits of sucking up to the Romans – and of adopting Roman names. Grand as his palace may have been his successors made it grander, replacing the black and white mosaics with coloured tiles. The palace burnt down in 275 and was abandoned and eventually forgotten.

Underfloor heating - one of the benefits of being nice to the Romans, Fishbourne Roman Palace

It was rediscovered in 1960 when Aubrey Barrett was digging a ditch for a new water main. Unearthing a massive foundation wall, he reported his find to local archaeologists, and after eight years of painstaking excavations Fishbourne opened to the public.

The walls and ceilings may have gone, the garden might be a modern planting….

The 'Roman Garden', Fishbourne

…but the original mosaics look almost as fresh now as they did nearly 2000 years ago.

Boy riding a dolphin, one of several mosaics, in fine condition and in situ, Fishbourne Roman Palace

Houei Tomo (or Houaytomo), Laos

Visted November 2015

Wat Phou has never been lost; originally a Hindu Khmer temple complex of unknown antiquity, it converted to Buddhism, along with the rest of the Khmer Empire in the late 12th century, became a centre for Theravada Buddhism, and remains so today. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it lies in the remote corner of Southern Laos that is on the west side of the Mekong.

Houei Tomo is a few kilometres north of Si Phan Dong, a short walk from a side road off Route 13. It is a day’s travel from Wat Phou by foot and ferry and its temple, known as Oup (or Oum) Mong (or Muang or Muong) is thought to have been a 10th century pilgrims’ rest house. It fell into disuse with the demise of the Khmer Empire in the 14th century and was reclaimed by the jungle.

The only standing builing in Houei Tomo

Rediscovered in the early 20th century by a French explorer, it is has yet to be thoroughly investigated, but above ground there is not much to see; one recognisable building and a few walls and foundations….

Walls and foundations, Houei Tomo

…and a lot of moss-covered stones.

Moss covered stones which once must have had a purpose, Houei Tomo

We had the place to ourselves; quiet, tranquil and just a little mysterious.

Stepwell, Patan, Gujarat, India

Visited March 2019

Stepwells can be found in various parts of India, but the finest and most elaborate are in Gujarat, and the finest in Gujarat is the Ran Ki Vav (The Queen’s Stepwell) in the town of Patan.

Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The concept is simple, instead of dropping a bucket on a chain into a well, a much larger excavation is made and Jack and Jill go down the steps to fetch their pail of water.

Descending the Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The largest stepwells (Ran Ki Vav is 27m deep and 64m long) are elaborate, the descent passing through a series of richly decorated storeys, each supported by elaborately carved stone pillars. This is not just a well, it is a place for celebrations and religious observances; Ran Ki Vav has been described as a ‘inverted temple’.

Carvings in the Ran Ki Vav, Patan

Ancient texts suggest Ran Ki Vav was built between 1063 and 1083 on the orders of Queen Udyamati, widow of the Chaulukya King Bhima I. But small kingdoms and their dynasties came and went in medieval India. The Gujarat Chaulukyas ran out of time in 1244, a new dynasty means a new capital and Patan and its stepwell declined in importance. Regular flooding of the nearby Saraswati River deposited more and more silt, eventually filling the stepwell, so despite its size it was lost and forgotten by the end of the middle ages.

Carvings of female figures, Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The well was rediscovered in 1940 and was the subject of a major excavation and restoration by the Indian Archaeological Survey in the 1980s.

Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil at Dur-Untash, Khuzestan Province, Iran

Visited July 2000

Heading for Ahvaz and the tip of the Persian Gulf, we lunched in Shush – a chicken sausage fried on a griddle and chucked in a bun - before taking a thirty-kilometre detour to Chogha Zanbil. We followed a straight road that apparently arrowed deep into the desert, but as we topped the rise before the village, we saw green, wooded land to the east along the banks of the Dez River.

Shush, Khuzestan, Iran

The mighty ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil now standing alone in the desert, was once the centrepiece of the Elamite religious city of Dur Untash. Migrating from the mountains of the north the Elamites adapted well to life on the plains, but their gods were less happy. Deities must be made to feel at home or they stop sending the rain and making the crops grow, so around 1300 BCE (± 50 years) King Untash-Napirisha constructed them an artificial mountain. The ziggurat was originally some 53m high but was lowered from five storeys to three when Dur-Untash was sacked by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in 640 BCE.

The Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, Khuzestan, Iran

It is hard to believe this huge edifice could disappear beneath the sand, but it was lost and forgotten for 2,000 years. It was rediscovered in 1935 during an Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP, now BP-Amoco) aerial survey searching for oil bearing rock formations. My father worked for Anglo-Iranian from 1945 to 51, which accounts for me being born in Abadan beside the Persian Gulf in 1950, so I feel personally responsible for this one.

Lynne and I at the Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, Khuezestan, Iran

I might also add, this was the hottest place we have ever been, and having survived a summer in Khartoum, and visited Death Valley in July (with no air-con in car or tent) I know whereof I speak. Even N, our driver/guide, a native of Tehran where an average July day reaches 34° said: “If I knew your telephone number before you came and you say you want to come here, I would have called you and asked you why. This is not hot, this is fire.” The Iranian dress code made the situation worse for Lynne, for all must heed the wise words of the late Ayatollah Khomenei. On the other hand, arriving in the hottest month of the year at the hottest time of day guarantees 1) that the ticket seller will question your sanity and 2) you will have the place to yourself.

Lynne and the wise words of the Ayatollah, Tomb of Daniel, Shush

The City of Sumharam, Oman

Visited November 2018

Sand is good at swallowing things, a giant ziggurat is easy, so why not a whole city.

Sumharam from the edge of the inland plateau

Southern Oman produces most of the world’s frankincense, the sap of the Boswellia tree that oozes through cuts in the bark and dries in the sun. In antiquity, it was much sought-after and extremely expensive, the sort of gift you would give to kings, princes or a son of God.

Lynne and a frankincense tree, the edge of the plateau north of Salalah

In the 1st century BCE the Kingdom of Hadhramaut, which ruled what is now eastern Yemen and south western Oman, identified a large natural harbour to the east of their territory….

Sumharam harbour - though there is now a sand bar across the mouth

…and beside it built the port of Sumharam to control the international frankincense trade.

The defensive zig-zag entrance to Sumharam

The city thrived for several centuries but nothing lasts for ever, Sumharam eventually declined, was deserted and buried by the sands. It was rediscovered in the 1890s by British explorer and archaeologist James Theodore Bent. American excavations in the 1950s and those of the Italian Mission to Oman more recently have established the ground plan of the settlement and found evidence for contacts with the Ḥaḑramite homeland to the west, India and the Mediterranean.

Among the old stones, Sumharam

One of the larger buildings became known early on as The Queen of Sheba’s palace - every archaeological site in and around Yemen has been associated with her at some time or another. The Queen of Sheba is a problematic figure, but if she did exist, she would have met the equally problematic King Solomon several centuries before Sumharam was founded.

Two of the world’s major tourist attractions also come into the ‘lost and found’ category. Well known as they may be a I cannot omit them entirely.

Angkor, Cambodia

Visited February 2014

Angkor Wat is well known, but it is only the centrepiece of Angkor, a vast medieval site and possibly the biggest city in the world in its day. Angkor is immensely important to Cambodians, who see their history as having three periods pre-Angkorian, Angkorian and post-Angkorian.

Angkor Wat on the Cambodian Flag

In 802 CE a local king called Jayavarman II conquered the whole of what is now Cambodia. He moved his court to Angkor, built the first temple and set about creating the Khmer Empire. Suryavarman II (1113 - 1150), the builder of Angkor Wat, kicked off the golden period which ended in 1219 with the death of Jayavarman VII. He had been a prolific builder but after his reign no further stone temples were built; perhaps the switch from Hinduism to Buddhism discouraged temple building or maybe local resources were exhausted.

Angkor Wat

Angkor was sacked by the Thais in 1431 and a down-sized Khmer Empire moved its capital south. They re-inhabited Angkor from 1570 to 1594, but then left it to the jungle and forgot about it. Jungles hide things differently from sand, but equally effectively; Angkor was re-discovered by French missionary Charles-Emille Bouillevaux in 1858.

Ta Prohm was built in 1186 by Jayavarman VII. Once a Buddhist monastery, it is a vast rambling complex and makes the point about jungle encroachment quite spectacularly.

Ta Prohm, Angkor

It is known as the ‘Jungle Temple’ and featured in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

To Prohm, Angkor

…though the lizard men and tyrannosaurus rexs (tyrannosauri reges?) that apparently populate the jungle in the game Lara Croft: Relic Run were notable for their absence.

Ta Prohm, Angkor

and finally,

The Terra Cotta Warriors, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China

Visited July 2004

Ying Zheng became King of Qin, one of seven warring Chinese States in 247 BCE aged 13. Before he was 40, he had united the seven states and declared himself Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor of Qin). He founded the city of Chang’an (now Xi’an), built the first Great Wall of China and ruled his vast empire until his death in 210.

He started building his mausoleum when he came to the throne of Qin – a strange occupation for a 13-year-old – and was buried under a mound at the foot of Mount Li. According to historian Sima Qian the tomb included replicas of palaces and scenic towers, rare utensils and wonderful objects, 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of the heavenly bodies and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in. Sima Qian’s probably fanciful account was written over a century after the event – and mentioned no terracotta warriors.

I am standing in front of a marker which claims it is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang
In the background is the mound under which he us allegedy buried. That is why I look confused

For centuries, occasional reports mentioned pieces of terracotta figures and fragments of roofing tiles being discovered locally. In March 1974 farmers digging a well near the Emperor's tomb hauled up substantial quantities of terracotta heads. They reported their finds to the authorities and subsequent excavations revealed the Terracotta Army we know today.

Newly pieced together terracotts warriors
Apologies for the poor quality photos. Digital cameras are excellent in low light, but I did not have one in 2004 (few did), flash was strictly forbidden so long hand held exposures were the only option.

The three main pits are believed to contain over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses. Non-military figures - officials, acrobats and strongmen – have been found in separate pits.

The main pit of the terracotta warriors.

The Shaanxi Regional Museum in Xi’an has many examples of grave goods from the period. Men of power and influence regularly took small armies, their houses and servants, even farmyards with strutting cockerels and snuffling pigs, to their graves with them, but they are dolls’ house size. Only Qin Shi Huang had an army of full-sized soldiers, horses and chariots; only Qin Shi Huang had as many soldiers as a real army. What an ego!

Horses and reconstructed terracotta warriors

Having established a ‘ten thousand generation dynasty’, Qin Shi Huang might have been disappointed that his son Qin Er Shi (lit: Second Generation Qin) lasted three years. He was overthrown by Liu Bang who founded the Han dynasty which would survive 400 years.

... but for a final thought: a further category exists; Lost, Forgotten and Never Found. I would struggle to produce a post on them.

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Going to School and Other Entertainments in the Great Rann of Kutch: Gujarat Part 14

Gujarat: The What, Where, When and Who


India
Gujarat
This post covers final full day of a 14-day journey around Gujarat, following our circuit of Rajasthan last year. Smaller than

5,000 years ago, Gujarat was a centre of the Indus Valley civilization and subsequently played its part in most of the major north Indian empires. When Islamic invaders reached northern India in the 9th century Gujarat held out until 1300 when it became part of the Delhi Sultanate.

We sent the nights of the 11th and 12th of March in Hodka in the Kutch district.

An independent Muslim sultan seized power in 1391 and Gujarat maintained its independence until becoming part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century and later the British Empire, though local rulers of a patchwork of Princely States retained considerable autonomy. At independence in 1947 Gujarat was part of the State of Bombay, becoming a state in its own right in 1960.

With a long coast line facing the Arabian sea, Gujaratis have been seafarers and international traders for millennia.

Gujarat is the home state of both Mahatma Gandhi and the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

-o0o0o-

Life in a Bhiradiyara and a Visit to Kala Dunga

Bhirandiyara

After a leisurely start L drove us 10km west to the village of Bhirandiyara which straddles the main road north.

The huts at our resort were for tourists, I was surprised to find the village dwellings were, from outside at least, very similar, both individually…

Decorated house, Bhirandiyara

…and as an ensemble. Each was built on a concrete plinth, keeping it above the sandy surroundings - or muddy (or even flooded) surroundings in the brief rainy season (July and August).

Dwellings, Bhirandiyara

Several houses were selling handicrafts and we were toured round them and made a few purchases.

Bharandiraya Crafts

We bought a small decorated camel from a man who proudly showed us a picture of himself as part of a band of traditional musicians. He told us they had travelled to play at festivals, including one in Brazil.

Camel from Bhirandiyara

At another house we bought a cushion cover and were taken inside to be shown the local technique for sowing tiny mirrors into fabric to give sparkly effects.

To the European eye Bhirandiyara is a strange place. It is a large village (pop 3,500 according to the 2011 census) but has no streets, no obvious centre, no real clustering of dwellings and sprawls over the area of a medium sized town.

Bhirandiyara

Going to School in Bhirandiyara

Although after 10.30, we encountered a stream of children going to school. ‘Let’s follow them,’ said Vijay. Now, where I come from you that would get you arrested.

Going to school, Bhirandiyara

We followed them through the village, over a field, through a broken-down fence – perhaps not the official route but everyone used it – to the school, a collection of tatty single-storey buildings surrounding a dusty playground. Reporting to the nearest classroom we found the teacher happy to break off her preparations for the day and talk to us.

Classroom, Bhirandiyara School

We soon found ourselves sitting before a school assembly. A group of girls in front of us led some prayers, the ‘eyes closed, hands together’ technique working as well with Hindu prayers as it did with the Christian prayers of my childhood – and of course a couple of boys were looking round for an opportunity for mischief.

Hands together, eyes closed, Bhirandiyara school

The assembly grew as more children arrived, organising itself from regular practice and light touch supervision with the little ones at the front and the older children at the back. After the prayers there were some readings and singing.

We were introduced, and three children were invited to the front to lead the others in chanting the alphabet, the days of week and months of the year in English. A question and answer session followed mainly of the ‘what do you think of…’ variety, so we said appropriate nice things. One girl told us the name of her village was Bhirandiyara and wanted to know the name of ours.

After a brief photo call, the children went to class and we went to talk to the head. He told us of his attempts to widen the children’s horizons beyond their isolated village; we saw photographs of school trips into the wider world of Kutch, and he showed us teaching material about the even wider world beyond – teaching material we had just become part of.

Bhirandiayar School

But would a couple of retired Indian teachers turning up out of the blue have received the same welcome? Could we still be trading on ‘white privilege’ after 70+ years of Indian independence? I will decline to answer, but as a former teacher I do know that if two such exotic specimens had wandered into my school it would have been a dereliction of my duty not to turn it into a teaching opportunity, and that was what had just happened. But here we also encountered one of the conundrums of tourism. What we did was fine because it was just us, if every European staying at Hodka’s ‘resort hotels’ came to assume it was their right to stroll into school unannounced, the head would soon repair the broken fence we came through.

The ‘Mava of Most Famous Bhirandiyara’

We returned to the main road opposite the ‘Bhirandiyara Mava Center’. ‘Have you tried mava?’ Vijay asked. We hadn’t, so we did. Mava (or mawa or khoya) is available across the sub-continent, but the locals think theirs is particularly fine. The sign offers ‘The Pure sweet & Normal Milk Mava of Most Famous Bhirandiyara’ (sic) – so this is as good as it gets.

The Bhirandiyara Mava Center

Beyond saying it was made from milk, Vijay was not totally clear what mava was. A little googling has since produced two basic recipes, one taking 40 minutes, the other less than four. In the quick version dried milk is mixed with double cream and then microwaved, in the traditional version milk is brought to the boil, then simmered very gently with constant stirring and after 40 minutes what is left may look like yoghurt but it is actually mava. A litre of milk produces one cup of mava. I hope ours was produced the second way – the sign suggests it. It is very pleasant and surprisingly sweet, though not apparently sweetened, but I am not convinced it would be worth 40 minutes stirring if I had to do it myself.

Lynne eating Mava, Bhirandiyara

Bhirandiyara – South End

There is another wing of Bhirandiyara, south of the Mava centre and the side road from Hodka. At the north end the huts are painted and there is an intention to sell handicrafts to tourists even if there are, as yet, no tourists (except us!), the south was more normal rural India. But it is not entirely normal, this is not good land and wringing a living from it is not easy.

No chance of crops, precious little grazing, Bhirandiyara famland

We walked through several small farms. Each had a few cows, most looking healthy enough. These are docile beasts though, not for the first time Lynne managed to entice one to lunge at her; how she does that is a mystery. The cow backed down when confronted, as they always do.

Cattle, Bhirandiyara

A red-wattled lapwing (vanellus indicus) stalked about among the cattle. They are common across northern India and spend much of their time on the ground, making them easy to photograph.

Red wattled lapwing, Bhirandiyara

Our stroll took us past the village shop. The shopkeeper’s daughter (I think) detached herself from the gang of children playing outside, demanded I take her picture, and then resolutely refused to smile. Perhaps she should have been at school.

Unsmiling shopkeeper's daughter, Bhirandiyara

Somehow, we had spent all morning in the village and it was time to find our way back to the car. I had lost my bearings in all our wandering, but fortunately Vijay managed to retrace our steps (well he is a guide!) and L drove us back to Hodka for lunch.

Kala Dungar

In the afternoon, when the heat had abated a little, we set out for Kala Dungar (lit: Black Hill), the highest point in Kutch. Back at Bhirandiyara, L turned north up the main highway through a flat, uninhabited wasteland, the soil arid and salty.

A flat, uninhabited wasteland - north of Birandiyara

After 20km we reached the village of Khavda on the south west corner of Paccham Island. If the July and August rains are plentiful, the land we had just crossed becomes submerged, and so does the salt desert we visited yesterday. Together they form a huge lake and then the rough circle of higher ground known as Paccham Island lives up to its name.

The eastern half of the ‘island’ is hardly above sea level, but a little north of Kavda we turned west onto a minor road into the hillier western side. The land rises gently at first and although it is hardly lush, it looks slightly less inhospitable.

Paccham Island

15 minutes later we passed a strange sign. This is not iron ore country, so there can be no localised magnetic field, and the earth’s magnetic field is everywhere, so why tell me about it here? A 90 second YouTube video of two cars rolling backwards uphill filmed on this stretch of road explains all. The sign and maybe the commentary – it is in Gujarati but I understood the words ‘magnetic field’ if nothing else - attribute the effect to a magnetic field. It is, though an impressive if not a particularly rare optical illusion. A full explanation is available on Wikipedia here.

'Magnetic Hill', Kala Dungar

A little further on, after passing the most palatial of pigeon residences….

Palatial pigeon residence, Kala Dungar

…L parked the car and we walked up to Sunset Point, the top of Kala Dungar, from where there is the most fabulous panoramic view of…well, nothing really.

On Sunset Point, Kala Dungar

From the highest point in Kutch, 458m above sea level and much the same height above the Great Rann, it is difficult to pick out where the salt stops and the sky begins. To our west was Rann of Kutch Lake, it looks big on the map, and it is in the wet season, but in March it is largely a salt pan – I stared at it hard, but had no idea if there was any water there or not.

Beyond the hill there is salt and sky, definitely, and water maybe - but which is which?

To the north, less than 30km away was the Pakistan border. I had rather forgotten the outburst of tit for tat raids that had happened a couple of weeks ago, but the Indian Army hadn’t. An electronic box of tricks sat by the shelter scanning the horizon (it could see it, even if I could not). It relayed its information to a couple of squaddies sitting in a hut with earphones and a screen. Their young officer came over to talk to us. I thought he would instruct us not to take photographs, but all he did was ask us, very politely, not to touch it. We complied.

Sunset Point, Kala Dungar. I am in the shade, the electronic wizardry is just ouside, in front of me and to the left

Back at Hodka, we enjoyed another good dinner, but after two lunches and two dinners we were begining to realise their repertoire was not extensive – no matter, this was our final meal here. Dinner over, there was little to do but retire to our hut, read a book, and sip a nightcap of Chennai-distilled Old Monk rum, bought with our tourists' liquor licence in this otherwise dry state.

13-March-2019

We were up at four to leave at five. The bathroom was a separate building joined to the hut by a short, high-walled but unroofed corridor. When I say ‘short’ I mean one, maybe two paces, just long enough to discover it was raining. Big drops were falling lazily, splashing down like overweight, disorganised drizzle.

By the time we departed the rain had stopped and left no sign of ever having happened. L drove us back to Bhuj and dropped us at the airport for our flight to Mumbai. We said our goodbyes and he and Vijay set off for Ahmedabad by road.

And so ended our Gujarat sojourn.

-o0o00o-

Our thanks to L, a man of few words and none of them in English, but he drove safely, was always in the right place at the right time and had an impressive knowledge of the highways and byways of Gujarat.

Thanks also to Pioneer Travel of Kochi who made all the ground arrangements.

Biggest thanks to Vijay, a very special guide: it is not on every trip that we visit the houses of poor farmers, interview the head of a secondary school, became an ‘assembly’ in a junior school and have tea with royalty.

We flew to Mumbai with Jet Airways. With 124 aircraft serving 37 domestic and 20 international destinations they were a substantial company. On the 19th of April 2019 they went out of business. Still, we were long gone by then, unlike the Monarch airlines debacle in 2017.

The two final posts in this thread will be from Mumbai.