Mission monumental
By Kuldip Dhiman

WHAT passion drives him to walk miles and miles into remote inaccessible regions in order to restore a deteriorating historical monument or a temple when he could well be in the comfort of his home in Shimla making pen-and-ink drawings and maps or enjoying an evening on the Mall? Following the steps of his father, he could well have joined the Army after his schooling at Lawrence School of Sanawar. But since his early childhood days, artist and restorer B.S. Malhans was fascinated with the world of colour, form and texture, and this interest was reinforced during his student days at Government College, Dharamsala, where he "saw a lot of Kangra paintings and tried to correlate the landscape, life, and culture of the people of the Kangra valley with the Kangra miniatures."

Malhans’s interest in his country’s heritage made him join the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), and he slowly got interested in making pen-and-ink drawings of historical sites of Gwalior, Shivpuri, Narwar, Jaipur, Udaipur, Agra, Chittorgarh, Jodhpur, Ranthambor, and Shimla. "I began looking at these monuments from the point of view of an artist, architect, craftsman, and the people who live there. But unlike most landscape artists who go to a spot and paint what they see or feel, a lot of research goes into each of his drawings. "Once I decide on it, I visit the place and stay there for 10 or 15 days to get the feel of it. I study the light, take photographs and make a few rough sketches. I use the photographs for detailing later, since pen-and-ink work is almost impossible to do on location. It is a very time-consuming process, but very satisfying nevertheless."

Another field that Malhans specialises in is the rare art of recreating ancient maps. Not many might appreciate the time and effort that goes into this type of work. One of his best maps is the one that he did of Spiti. And for a travel company, he made some maps that showed how people travelled in the nineteenth century. He made a similar map of the hundred-odd heritage sites in Shimla. Making maps of this nature could well mean six to twelve months of research and another four to six months for the actual execution of the drawing.

After depicting ancient cities, he got interested in Chandigarh, for it was a great challenge to draw the rectilinear structures so typical of the city. "Initially I thought, what is there in Chandigarh. The most boring spot is Sector 17, and some of the buildings are just matchboxes. Then I studied Le Corbusier more seriously and tried to understand what he had in mind when he designed Chandigarh. He actually designed very few buildings. I don’t call them very beautiful, but they are certainly original. What he forgot to give Chandigarh is a sacred centre. On the contrary, when Vidyadhar Bhattacharya designed Jaipur, he made sure it had a sacred centre."

As Malhans devoted more and more time to historical monuments, he became convener of the Shimla chapter of INTACH. His first assignment was the successful restoration of the famous Gaiety Theatre. Other than bureaucratic apathy and opposition from some locals, he also faced technical problems. "For example, when we started work on Viceregal Lodge, we faced problems of moisture, corrosion, and so on. While such restoration was being done in urban areas, my interest was more in the remote villages. The alarming rate at which traditional temples are being replaced with ugly cement structures which have no pahari characteristics is something to worry about." With the help of dedicated volunteers, restorers and architects, he took up the monumental task of restoration work in the temples of Himachal Pradesh.

"But any restoration can be done only if one knows what is there in the temples. So we started the back-breaking work of making a catalogue of the objects since there was absolutely no documentation of the temples anywhere in Himachal. There were some brief reports, but no systematic index. I initiated that process, going from village to village. We have already been at it for eight years, but it will take at least four more years. People are very helpful, although there is an attitude problem in certain places where the villagers don’t understand the motive behind the documentation. To them it makes no difference if there are any records or not. But when there is a theft, and you ask them to describe the stolen object, they are at a loss. Quite often they won’t let you photograph the consecrated objects and they won’t even let you make any identification marks on the objects, and that’s the time problems arise. The police is clueless in such a state of affairs."

It is all right to catalogue the objects in a temple, but the exercise will be of no use if there is no one to guard the objects. Malhans feels that officials have to be more responsible. The villagers and the priests have to learn to appreciate the worth of their heritage. "The greatest treasure of a country is its cultural wealth. Never mind the mistakes of history; never mind who ruled over you, wake up now and find your roots. Once the masses are educated, they will be a lot more responsible. For instance take a monastery in Lahaul or Spiti; people there are so aware of their heritage. It will be extremely difficult to make an object disappear there. You have regular storerooms, some objects are taken out only on special occasions. This sort of organisation is not seen in temples. The smaller objects are quite vulnerable to theft. Some officers manage to take out a manuscript on the pretext of taking photographs or photocopies. The unsuspecting priest might oblige. In the end the object may never be replaced or it may be replaced by a fake one."

The problem is further complicated by souvenir hunters and antique smugglers. "Back-packing tourists, especially foreigners, are quite a nuisance. They go into the villages, throw a couple of dollars and take away precious objects. They might stay here for six months or a year, because it is so cheap and they are looked after very well."

But how is all this antique smuggling done? Some of the objects are quite heavy and not easy to remove without being detected. "There is a well-organised network of people who smuggle the objects out for a price. All you have to do is to identify a certain object and pay the money, they will smuggle it out to any part of the world."

With the odds against him, doesn’t he feel let down and disheartened sometimes. "No, people who live mainly to create trouble for others will always be there, and they will try to hamper your progress as much as they can. Why should Ibe deterred by them? I have my conscience, my duty towards my country and my people. I shall go on with my work in spite of the odds."

Quite true to his word, Malhans is now busy with a very ambitious project to document the craftsmanship of the isolated village of Rohroo Chirgaon in the Hatkoti region of Himachal Pradesh. "The wood and stone craftsmanship there is excellent. It shows mixed forms of tribal, Brahamanical and local styles. There are also traces of Tibetan style, so we can call it a mix of Indo-Tibetan style."

It is heartening to see Malhans carry on with his mission without ever giving up, thanks to his friends, and his wife who is always there to give him moral support. We don’t seem to care much for our heritage because we have too much of it. Ask the people of those countries the value of heritage who have lost it for some reason. If we can’t help B.S. Malhans and his colleagues, we should at least try not to hinder the noble task that they have undertaken.