Conservation2 min read
India's Heritage: The Glory and the Threats
Joseph Beglar was first posted with the Public Works Department (PWD) in 1863 as a probationary assistant engineer, to the Chittagong division. Beglar was interested in photography, a new and emerging
By kvijaykumar•1/4/2024
Joseph Beglar was first posted with the Public Works Department (PWD) in 1863 as a probationary assistant engineer, to the Chittagong division. Beglar was interested in photography, a new and emerging medium. In 1871, when Alexander Cunningham, was the Director-General of the newly created Archaeological Survey of India, Joseph David Beglar was deputed at the Archaeological Department due to his photography skills. Beglar was interested in photography, a medium which had not been widely used in archaeology before - with written descriptions or drawings of monuments and objects thought to be sufficient for most practical purposes.
Beglar produced hundreds of photographs of historic and aesthetic character temples and religious art, of the greater part of the Bengal Presidency (including large areas of Bihar and Orissa), along with the ruins of Delhi, Bundelkhand, Malwa, and the Central Provinces.
One of the monuments he photographed was the Mahabodhi temple of Bodh Gaya in Bihar. The state in which he found the temple is shown in (t)his photograph.
In 1880, J. D. Beglar was transferred back to the Public Works Department and appointed as an Executive Engineer to supervise the repair of the Bodh Gaya Temple. With no records of what the structure originally looked like, Beglar was resigned to simply cementing over the collapsed portions to prevent further damage. Fortuitously, workers clearing rubbish at the site found a tiny model of the temple, apparently a type of souvenir which used to be made to be sold to pilgrims in ancient times. This allowed Beglar to see what the front was originally like and also discover that there was once been a small pinnacle on each of the four corners of the temple’s plinth.
Accordingly, he restored all this to the temple.
The second photograph in this post shows the state of the temple after the completion of Beglar's restoration efforts. The third photograph shows the temple as it stands today.
This example shows the criticality and the enormity of the challenge faced by these monuments - our inheritance.
Beglar produced hundreds of photographs of historic and aesthetic character temples and religious art, of the greater part of the Bengal Presidency (including large areas of Bihar and Orissa), along with the ruins of Delhi, Bundelkhand, Malwa, and the Central Provinces.
One of the monuments he photographed was the Mahabodhi temple of Bodh Gaya in Bihar. The state in which he found the temple is shown in (t)his photograph.
In 1880, J. D. Beglar was transferred back to the Public Works Department and appointed as an Executive Engineer to supervise the repair of the Bodh Gaya Temple. With no records of what the structure originally looked like, Beglar was resigned to simply cementing over the collapsed portions to prevent further damage. Fortuitously, workers clearing rubbish at the site found a tiny model of the temple, apparently a type of souvenir which used to be made to be sold to pilgrims in ancient times. This allowed Beglar to see what the front was originally like and also discover that there was once been a small pinnacle on each of the four corners of the temple’s plinth.
Accordingly, he restored all this to the temple.
The second photograph in this post shows the state of the temple after the completion of Beglar's restoration efforts. The third photograph shows the temple as it stands today.
This example shows the criticality and the enormity of the challenge faced by these monuments - our inheritance.
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kvijaykumar
An expert in traditional crafts and heritage conservation with extensive field experience.