UNESCO
Kachchh Earthquake of 26
January, 2001
PALACE OF A PRINCELY KINGDOM:
THE BHUJ DARBARGARH
Himat Singh, Uncle of the Maharaja of Kutch being interviewed in the Prag Mahal for the Star News "Focus Asia" Program, March 2, 2001
all photographs (except as marked) © by Randolph Langenbach / UNESCO, 2001
Click on photos to enlarge
A NOTE ON THE PANORAMAS:
This and other panoramas on this website were created from the assembly of two or more individual photographs taken with a 24 mm shift lens. The one below is composed of 4 photographs and spans almost 180 degrees. The software, SONY "PanoramaMaker," enabled the joining of the scanned images in the computer. In order to examine the enlarged version, use the scroll bar to view the whole panorama.
BEFORE
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1) Front gate to Darbargarh: (Before photo by Benjamin Tindall, courtesy of Azhar Tyabji.) This image of the main gate is a two section panorama- which gives the illusion of the curve in the wall.
BEFORE:
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2) Front Gate from the interior court. The before picture shows the tops of the gateway before they collapsed. Before photo courtesy of INTACH
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3-4) These are two section panoramas of the main courtyard near the entrance to the Palace complex.
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5) This is a 5 section panorama covering about 270 degrees of the main courtyard in the palace complex, with the Pragmahal at either end, and the Ranivas Palace in the middle.
EXCERPT FROM UNESCO
REPORT: Of those
monuments not under protection,
the most significant ones found on
this mission to be at the greatest
risk are the original “Darbargarhs,”
the city palaces of the former
kings of the princely kingdoms
that at one time made up the
region. The
Darbargarhs
pre-dated the coming of the
British, and thus contain
architecture, art, and
sometimes-even artifacts, dating
back several hundred years with
less influence from Europe. During
the British Raj period, many of
these Maharajas constructed new
palaces on the edges of the cities
and towns, moving out of the
center of their cities and away
from their subjects. As
a result, some of these original
palaces have seen little use for
close to a hundred years. They have remained
essentially in mothballs hidden
away from view except for a few
sections which are open to the
public, such as the Aina Mahal
Museum at the Darbargarh in Bhuj.
While many of the
British period palaces are also
architecturally significant and
damaged as well, it is these older
palaces that have been identified
on this mission to embody the most
cultural and historical
significance to the region and to
India as a whole. At
the time that they were
constructed and over the centuries
that they were used, they formed
the administrative and cultural
center for the princely states.
The Darbargarh
of the Maharaja of Kutch in Bhuj is an
extraordinary complex of buildings
from different historical periods,
dating back hundreds of years,
well before the coming of the
British. Entering
parts of this extensive complex
was like entering a lost world
with extensive evidence of a rich
a varied history, as well as
possessing significant artistic
and architectural details. Artifacts, some with
evidence of not having been
disturbed for more than a
generation or two, were stacked or
arranged in hidden rooms in -
rooms which remained locked and
protected until the earthquake has
now broken them open and placed
the buildings and their contents
at immediate of loss and
destruction.
The state of limbo that the Palaces of the Maharajas are found in today are a product of the vast changes in the political culture which has taken place in India over the course of both the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. With the final loss of power with the founding of the democratic national government, and the uniting of what had been originally been a multitude of small independent kingdoms into modern India, it is not surprising that the heritage of the former kings would be ignored for a time. However, the earthquake has served to bring attention to the fact that behind this recent history lies a significant part of the heritage – not just of the Maharajas – but buildings and artifacts which embody the art and culture of the people of the whole region over the course of hundreds of years.
1) The Ranivas Palace. (17-18th Century)
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10) This is a 4 section panorama of an interior courtyard of the Ranivas Palace. It looks like a fisheye view because the courtyard is small.
11) This photo shows the collapsed library, which is reported to have contained books dating back to the 18th Century.
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12-13) Second interior court (to right of the one in #10). The collapse in #11 is visible in #13 on the right.
2) The Aina Mahal Museum (18th Century)
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14-17) The Aina Mahal Museum suffered damage to parts of its collections when a section of the palace collapsed. The collapse is visible on the left side of the panorama - #5 above.
3) The Pragmahal (19th Century)
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26) Divay Gupta, INTACH, inspecting historic plans and photographs found in tipped over and debris filled cabinets inside an earthquake damaged room in the Pragmahal, March 5, 2001. 24-27 show some of the images found among the debris.
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