Monumental Apathy

The uproar over the shifting of a statue brings in focus the appalling state the heritage structures of Vadodara are in

PICTURE SPEAK

LOST SHEEN: Ranjitsinh garlands the marble statue of Chimnabai

The Nyayamandir building, an exquisite structure in itself, now houses the Vadodara district court. When Sayajirao’s great grandson Ranjitsinh was granted permission by the Government to shift the statue to the Gaekwad family’s private Fatehsinh Museum two weeks ago, he faced resistance from an unexpected quarter—the lawyers. It took seven years for the Government to grant his plea for shifting the statue, but when he and his wife Shubhanginirage went to the Nyaya- mandir, they were cornered by lawyers, led by Baroda Bar Association president Narendra Tiwari. Their grievance: the statue cannot be removed “because the lawyers are emotionally attached to it”. The question that arose was put squarely by Amit Pradhan, a local academic: “If they had so much respect for the statue why was it lying in utter neglect all these years?”

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Except for a few structures that are being maintained, the architectural heritage of Vadodara is fast eroding.

The controversy over the shifting of the statue also brings in focus the state of other neglected monuments in Vadodara. Except for a few important structures that still get some attention, the architectural heritage of the city is fast eroding, and neither the authorities nor the locals seem to care. Examples of such neglect are not difficult to find. The beautiful murals of the Kamnath Mahadev temple complex have been buried under thick layers of paint; many of the idols that adorned the pillars of the magnificent Suryanarayan temple in the middle of the city are missing; the statue of the “Brave hunting boy of Amreli”—a village boy who had come to Sayajirao’s rescue when the latter was in danger on a hunting trip—is left holding only the arrow as the bow has gone missing; the maintenance of the Vadodara Central Library, one of the finest in the state with its Belgian glass work, they all leave much to be desired. The Aggad, an arena with pavilions around it where elephant and bullock fights used to take place, has virtually disappeared; the statue of Ranjitsinh’s father Pratapsinhrao is missing from the Pratapnagar railway station and nobody knows what happened to it; the Nyayamandir itself looks like a dumping ground.

Disgusted with what he saw around him, Ranjitsinh took matters in his own hands and restored some of the temples under the control of his family trust. He also got hold of a rare miniature steam engine. An antique collector’s item today, it is one of the tiniest steam engines in the world. “Clearly, modern Vadodara has done quite a shabby job of protecting its heritage,” says Ranjitsinh.

A famous Marathi poet, Kavi Yashwant, who saw the city during the princely era once paid tribute to the splendour of Vadodara by calling it “Maharashtra’s Mahalaxmi”. However, that seems like a cruel joke today.

-By Uday Mahurkar

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