HERITAGE

It cannot be denied that 2020 had much to occupy the powers that be and also the rest of us, in this our city of Madras that is Chennai. Given that matters concerning heritage receive scant attention even in normal years, it is no surprise that there has been even less in the one that has just ended. But if we let matters drift this way, we may soon end up having very little to show as far as our built heritage is concerned. Some upsides There have been some positive developments – the Chepauk Palace restoration is going on…

Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society, popularly known as Co-optex, evokes a nostalgic feeling among Chennaites. A saree passed down generations or a bedsheet that has been in a family for over 30 years are common memories attached to the brand. Since its inception in 1935, people's trust in Co-optex has never wavered and it continues to serve its loyal customers. However, after the 1990s, the brand started losing relevance and became less and less popular with the younger demographic.  In 2004-05, after Co-optex recorded a loss of Rs 85 crore, the management scripted a turnaround that brought the brand…

Among the many contributions the remarkable Annie Besant made to Indian nationalism was the establishing in 1914 of the Young Men's Indian Association - a challenge to the YMCA. The purpose of the YMIA was to serve as “a political gymnasium as it were, to equip the youth with a strong body, an informed mind and a noble character". The following year, the YMIA's HQ opened - Gokhale Hall, on Armenian Street in Madras. Annie Besant paid for the construction herself. It took the name of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants…

Kempegowda tower, now located in a park near Raman Research Institute. Pic courtesy: Raman Research Institute Karnataka government recently announced a Rs 111-crore project dedicated to Bengaluru's founding father Kempe Gowda. The project included Rs 70 crores for a statue of the 16th-century chieftain at the Kempegowda International Airport, and Rs 41 crores for the ‘beautification’ of his tomb that was recently discovered in Magadi.  The project understandably came under fire given that we are among the states hit worst by COVID-19.  But the argument presented by the powers-to-be in the public domain was that the project was meant to…

Even as it was grappling with increasing COVID-19 cases, on April 21, the Karnataka government swiftly notified the Zonal Regulations (Amendment), 2020 (ZRA). The new regulations are aimed at conserving heritage sites, buildings, precincts and natural features. They will apply to Zonal Regulations/Master Plans of all local planning areas in the state, including Bengaluru. ZRA specifies rules for identifying and preserving the state’s heritage, and conservationists, by large, have welcomed it. With ZRA, Bengaluru would have a dedicated authority to identify and protect a wide range of heritage sites including natural features. However, there are concerns about the composition of…

Modernity is yet to fully destroy the centuries old flavours of downtown Srinagar. It is still the place to go to, to sample the real taste of Kashmir, known for its traditional craft skills, its architecture, its spiritual sense from some of Kashmir’s most revered shrines sporting pagoda like roofs, especially the historic Jamia Masjid, the seat of power and religious authority of the Mirwaiz family, whose current head Umar Farooq, delivers the Friday sermons here. And, of course, its bazaars at Borhi Kadal, Zaina Kadal and Mahraj Gunj, named after the Maharajas that ruled Kashmir from 1846 to 1947. …

The locality of Chintadripet in Chennai is known for its popular fish market and also as a hub of electrical goods. With the river Cooum forming a horse-shoe shaped boundary to this locality and with only two entry points from Egmore and Anna Salai, this tiny neighbourhood is a storehouse of history. An early morning walk conducted by Madras Inherited -- an initiative of a group of architects and researchers seeking to unravel hidden architectural gems through heritage walks -- unveiled the treasures of this forgotten neighbourhood in Chennai. Chintadripet was originally called 'Chinna tari pettai,' which translates to 'a…

It was the year 1935, when the idea of widening Race Course Road was being discussed. The project would destroy the guardhouse of one the older buildings 'Poorna Prasad' in the stretch, that was built in memory of the first Diwan of Mysore Mir Miran Purnaiah in 1910. So the-then Diwan of Mysore, Mirza Ismail, decided to translocate the portion that would have to be destroyed, brick-by-brick, to another part of Bengaluru. Today we see it at Lalbagh West Gate entrance. I open with this anecdote, because when the powers-to-be put their mind to protect a city and its history, options…

It has suffered decades of neglect: languishing in dilapidated condition for years and later ravaged by fire. But, Humayun Mahal in Chepauk, the world’s first-ever building constructed in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, is now slated for a new lease of life.  The long, creaking sound of walls being drilled into echo across the construction site on a mid-October Friday morning. Scraping the plastering off a wall in the interior of the building, B Raju, a 49-year-old worker wipes the sweat off his face. “We are following the same traditional methods followed to construct the building over 240 years ago,”…

In India’s IT capital Bengaluru, sprinkled within its concrete jungle, are shady peepal trees adorned with serpent stones, bells and sacred threads, standing majestically atop gated, raised platforms. Often a pit-stop for tired travellers or an informal gathering place, these culturally-important open-air tree shrines or ‘kattes’ and temples, with their assemblage of native tree species, offer immense scope to enhance the green infrastructure within rapidly growing megacities, suggests a study. Offering a glimpse into the city’s native trees, the study documents 121 such species thriving in 69 sacred sites in Bengaluru, spread across 36 temples and 33 kattes, a sizeable…