ODOP-LC: Photo Story about 'Garpanchokot' by Surjya Sen

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..