Today's post is a true story that will touch one's heart. Get ready to start the journey from here.
The following is the 'PhotoStory' of a lesser known offbeat
place that has the enigma of a fiction, the charm of a hiking trip and the
poignancy of a tragedy.
It all happened from a chance visit on 25th Dec, 2009 to a
palace that most of us might not have heard about, leave alone visiting. Its
called 'Garpanchokot' and this first visit resulted in a very strange kind of
attraction and made me realize that I must visit this place a lot more. I
thought about doing something about this place and save the history for our
future generation.
GEOGRAPHY &TOPGRAPHY
Located by the side of NH2,some 230 Kms from Calcutta, in
the district of Purulia of West Bengal.
The Panchet Hill is towering over the entire border of
WestBengal and Jharkhand.
On one side of this hill is a well known week-end tourist
spot, that has a resort
maintained by the Forest Development Corporation of West
Bengal, and on the other side of the hill, in fact at its foot, is this site of
Garpanchokot, while in the distance, is the
Panchet Dam of Damodar Valley Corporation(DVC),that is another
picturesque place to visit.
ARCHEOLOGY:
As the name itself suggest Garpanchokot, though in ruins, it
has more to offer than just a 'garh', meaning 'Fortress' in Bengali.
There are basically three different types of ruins - ruins
of palace structure, ruins of terracotta temple and ruins of stone structures
and temples.
While the first two types are located at the foot of the
hill, the third variety is not visible easily, and one has to do a good amount
of hiking up the steep slopes of Panchet hill and cross overgrown vegetation
and plants to reach the spot, with the assistance of any local villager as a
guide.
I have thus classified the first two types of ruins - the
palace structures ann the terracotta temples - as '1st Set', and the rest stone
structures and temples on the top of the hill as '2nd Set'.The attached
pictures are accordingly marked for better understanding.
Of particular importance are two temple structures that have
exquisite terracotta carvings on them.
One is a temple that has become the 'landmark' for this
site. As you can see in the attached 'Panoramic view' picture, this temple
structure is unique not only for its terracotta carvings, but also for its
distinct and unusual architectural style that bear the confluence of Muslim
architectural style with traditional temple structure styles, as evident from
the four domes on the top.
The other one is a tall Minaret, with terracotta carvings
that glow golden in color, when the last sunrays of the day fall on them,as you
can see in the picture.
The second set of ruins are those stone structures that are
located some half a kilometre up the steep slope of Panchet hill. We wonder
about Egypt, and how its Pyramids were built. But equally amazing is how these
people brought such huge granite
stones up the hill to built these temples? These stones are
not found locally and must have been brought from far away and then pulled up.
Those steep gradient, where they were placed one on the top
of another to built such a marvellous structure.
HISTORY:
This place might not boast of a great history of a king and
its kingdom, but according to local legend, there was a king, locally known as
king of Kashipur who lived here with his seven queens and the ruins of the palace
and temples is what remain from their glorious days.
But as it says 'all good things come to an end', so did it
happen, to the king ,his seven Queens, their sprawling Palace and terracotta
temples, when it was attacked by the ‘Borgies’ (conquerors from the
western region of India), known for their ruthlessness and
vandalism,quite similar to the 'Huns' of Europe.
The palace and the temple structures were razed to the
ground and the King fled, leaving his queens to commit suicide, by jumping into
a massive
well within the palace compound, the ruins of which was
still visible even a few years back.
PRESENT CONDITION:
The ruins of Garpanchokot consisting of the palace structure
and terracotta temple are all scattered at the foot hill, while the ruins of
the stone temple and stone structures are up there, on the hill side.
As for the palace, one can still see majestic Archways and
pillars, all in ruins and covered with overgrown vegetation, reminding of the
bygone era and its glorious time, as you may see from the pictures.
The terracotta temples, about which I would like to draw
everybody's kind attention and request your help, for urgently creating some
awareness of its plight and start a movement to save them, since we are fast
losing time.
When I first visited in 2009, I had fear about the fate of
these two terracotta structures,as they were in quite bad shape. With my each
visit the fear increased as each passing year kept on taking a heavy toll, and
then finally this year on 26th January, I found that the right side of the main
temple facade has completely got subsided due to heavy rainfall from last
monsoon.
EFFORTS DONE SO FAR:
Way back in 2009 on my first visit to this place, I wrote
back to Archaeological Survey of India New Delhi, addressing this issue and
requesting their help for necessary renovation efforts.
But there was no reply from them.
Then again this year on 26th January,I logged on to the ASI
website and shared my concern about this place, and its current condition, in
their website's 'Response/ Feedback' section. Though I received an 'automated'
reply immediately, but there wasn't anything further from their end.
Of late, I have used different forums, mainly in the online
domain, like the Facebook Group - Bongbook(Bengalis on Facebook), and shared
pictures appealing to people for ways to save these structures, but there was
very lukewarm response.
I would also like to mention the name of Mr.Subhash Saha and
thank him for suggesting me to share a 'PhotoStory' about 'Garpanchokot' at
this Group's blog.
Looking forward to a fruitful response, as a way forward in saving these heritages.
Lovely Garpanchokot through the lens..
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