HISTORIC PRESERVATION PUNJAB

PRESERVATION.
 This topic is about preservation and mostly talking about Sikh Gurdwaras. It needs understanding of history, culture and many other espects of life to write about preserving some thing. Once again I have to remind the readers that I do not claim to be a scholar or historian. Trained as architect and city planner I am expressing my thoughts about some things I saw in my younger days. I am making a picture for you to look at. It is just like an architect after understanding the complexity of a project and the client, makes a sketch or a model.
There are several topics that I have been thinking about for more than forty years. I have never been able to express those thoughts in writing. A few of those topics that have connection with each other are :-
1. Partition of India. impact of what I saw with my own eyes in my childhood.
2. As Architect and planner I am looking at the structures in ruins. Besides human sufferings the loss of these historical buildings was hard to bear by the community. For the Sikh community this loss had the greatest impact. Sikh daily prayer (Ardas) after the partition was amended to include the wish of the community for the management or taking care of historical shrines left in Pakistan.
Here I am not talking of the Gurdwars left in Pakistan. I will be discussing the gurdwaras left in India that I visited after the partition. All of the photographs were taken my me around year 1960.
 3. After writing or graphically expressing my thoughts I would like to see what can be done to preserve for the sake of future generations. 

GURDWARA KANDH SAHIB

This is one of the Gurdwaras in India which I visited few years after Partition. Located in the town of Batala, twenty five miles away from Amritsar India. This is where marriage ceremony of Guru Nanak took place. As muslim population around this place moved to Pakistan the area around seemed to be partially in ruins. I saw a mud wall one story tall, standing on one edge of a court yard. According to common belief Guru Sahib as bridegroom was given a seat next to the wall. Some one told the Guru Sahib that this wall is about to fall and he should move away. In response he is believed to have said that "the wall will stay for centuries". This wall stood there for centuries. On my next visit to this place I saw a gurdwara in place and a small piece of this wall in a glass box in the lower level of the building. I have been thinking of this wall for half of a century. I wish this wall had been preserved as I saw it. I have no idea as to what happened to the wall. This wall could be the end wall of a room and facing the court yard. Mud walls are normally plastered with mud every year. The area suffered because of partition with Hindu Muslim riots. There could have been a period of no maintenance in those days. I would like to see any photographs of the area before partition. This place obviously was the house of Guru Ji's father in law some five centuries ago. If it was converted to a gurdwara or how it looked before the present Gurdwara is unknown to me. But I would like to know 

This is a sketch of the wall prepared my me out of my memory. The wall is shown here with two persons standing in front. The other walls around this court yard were in ruins. The courtyard may be about about 15 ft above the street level. I do not remember any further details but I am sure this is the kandh (Wall) giving Kandh Sahib as the name of this historical place and it is not there now. Preservation of the actual wall in its place, perhaps with a structure enclosing it could have been appropriate solution. For building a Gurdwara, there were plenty of land around to acquire at a reasonable cost at that time. Resources of the community and other implications may be the justification for the the present solution. 

SULTAN PUR GURDWARAS

                             MAP OF SULTANPUR TOWN

 Sultan pur is a small town where Guru Nanak spent 14 years of his life. It is considered as second Nankana Sahib by the devotees. The map is prepared from the information received from SGPC Library of Harmandar Sahib. In connection with my thesis year 1960, I visited Harmandar sahib and received permission to photograph the interior of Harmandar sahib, literature and other objects. The names shown on the map are in punjabi script. Labels in english is my addition. 

On visiting Sultanpur I walked through a small village like complex of ruins. There were mud walls standing without any roofs. Streets were very narrow and not paved. Among the ruins there were couple of places where I saw Darbar Sahib properly installed in the room and attended by a granthi. Those were the places of historic significance called Gurdwaras.
What I read about Town of Sultanpur as center of of Muslim culture during mughal regime is different from Sultanpur I visited. Bein which is mentioned as a river , looked like a canal. No matter what we call it, this is a place where Guru Nanak brought a new message for the mankind that "there is no Hindu and no Musalman" a messsage of universal brotherhood. A memorial gurdwara is built on the bank of Bein. At the time of my visit there were no steps leading to the water edge,which I have seen in later photographs. Recently there was news about a master plan that is being made. It is a good idea and I have no knowledge of what is being planned. I do not know whether they are planning for sikh buildings only or preparing a comprehensive master plan for the city
My thoughts about preservation of this historical place are:-
a) At one time I thought of preserving the ruins described before. Such thoughts need to be studied with community participation, before making a rushed judgment. Preservation can be as simple as a model of the old town, placed in local museum, or a documentary film shown at the same place showing how the things were in 1947 and before. It can be more complex as building a technical educational institution at the site. It could be creation of a new environment where people of all faiths can assemble and exchange their views for the benefit of society. Guru Nanak set an example of living in the hub of muslim culture and created a dialogue with people of different ideologies. There are no Muslims in the town now, but diversity of thought is always there. There is a need to create towns and neighborhoods where people can live and work in harmony, peace and tranquility. Planning tools are used to plan beyond a group of buildings of one community.
b) Preservation of this pace however revolves around THE BEIN. One of the starting point of the preservation process be, to control both the edges of Bein. In the map one side is marked as Bagh. The other side can  be designated or zoned open space allowing only certain types of structures. Central park of New York and open space created between the lake and Michigan Ave in Chicago are the great examples of urban planning. It will not be possible to do that when the town grows to half a million population.
c) Building steps on the water edge is not enough. If we leave the water edge alone and let the water flow as it has been for five centuries, that is the kind of preservation I am talking  about. I know some one will argue that the edge of Bein is so sacred that we should  pave it with marble. They will give the example of Harmandar Sahib Sarover which was a pond as shown in old sketches. These are two different situations and can not be treated the same way. The edge of Bein is a place where some thing happened five centuries ago. You may compare it with a place like Valley Forge ( Batttle ground of American civil War) marked with historic markers and the grounds preserved as they were. This is the edge of Bein where Guru Nanak used to go early morning have a dip in the water and sit in meditation under berry tree. The berry tree stands there even now and Gurdwara Ber Sahib is named after the tree. There is a beautiful imposing building and paved area steps to the edge of water. It is interesting to know that nature helped tree to survive for five centuries. Finally we as human beings woke up after five centuries and destroyed the edge with pavings. It looks like preserving the tree or the Bein or the existing  environment was not the main theme. 

Gurdwara Ber sahib Entry side

 

Gurdwara Ber Sahib

                               1965-1967 photograph. Bein is on the back side.

 Free Kitchen and area out side. 

                           Congregation Hall

                        The other end of  Gurdwara Sahib facing Bein


These are the photographs taken by me on my only visit in 1965-1967. The most important 'space' in the whole complex is the one between the building and the Bein with the special tree . That 'space' as mentioned before should have been the focal point which has became secondary space in this plan.The last photograp shows no steps leading to the water as you will see in recent photographs. That is where I concluded that the building program revolved around building a building only. There is no architectural formula that I can give you to express feeling of love for a Place or 'Space ' But there are some places where you do get that feeling. I have no problem with the architecture of gurdwara and I do not know who was the architect. Most of the time we as committee fail to write the program for the architect. Building program is not only rooms and squre feet, it is some thing beyond that. If you tell the Architect that you want a beutiful memorial Gurdwara at the historical place he will make one for you. Now if you tell him the emotional side of the program he might come up with an idea which may not include any building on the site. I have given you the range of architectural creativity. I will discuss it in another chapter. 
BABA BAKALA 
Village Bakala is about 25 miles east of Amritsar on the Grand Trunk Road. This is the place where Guru Teg Bahadur revealed himself as the 9 th Guru. The village is known as Baba Bakala. A gurdwara is built at the place where Guru Teg Bahadur used to meditate. 

This photo was taken by me in 1960. About 30 year later I visited the place. The Road leading to the complex was all built up on both sides. I talked of having control of lands around such places of historic importance. I do not necessarily mean that the management buy every piece of land around. The growth is inevitable and it can be planned growth. In this case a simple a boulevard with pedestrian walkways lined with shade trees  could have been integrated with commercial buildings.  I do not have a current picture of what I observed.

ANANDPUR SAHIB 

 Anandpur sahib is the place where Guru Gobind Singh spent major part of his life. Khalsa Panth was created at this place. The 9th Guru gave the name Anandpur which means "city of bliss". It is interesting to know that the land was purchased from Raja of Kehlur for Rs 75,000. 

The photgraph was taken in 1960 when I visited Anandpur Sahib. Gurdwara Keshgarh is seen in the background. This picture gave me the indication that the land around the main building may not belong to Gurdwara. The Gurdwara as seen has beautiful setting with n Nana Devi mountain range in the background. The foreground raised same questions which I have discussed before, about the need for developing a long range master plan. I have not visited the place after that time. 

RUINS RELATING BANDA BAHADUR
Close to my ancestral village Naushehre Majjh Singh about 32 miles from Amritsar on the Grand Trunk Road is a place which we knew as Banda Bahadur 'Theh". This is the place known to us as the place where Banda Bahaduer had his last battle with the Moghal army. I have never visited this place after my high school days. I was told by one of my relative that a Gurdwara has been built on the site. I do not know what else has been done on the site. The site as I remember is a mound of dirt and debree covering an area that would have been a small village,which was totally demolished to capture Band Bahadur. If the description is true I would like to see some effort made to preserve the place as it was. The area around can be developed to meet the community needs. 

A TRAIN STATION
I am closing this chapter of Historic Preservation Punjab describing another place. It is not a religious place, but a place along the railroad tracks. This was a few months after the partition that I saw remains of human skulls and bones scattered alog the railroad tracks. This was Indian side of the border dividing the country. On the Pakistan side there were similar scenes which are described by other authers in several books but not seen by me. What I saw was floating dead bodies in a canal in our district lyallpur before we left our homes in pakistan. It was such a fear created that people left their homes and formed the last caravan that stretched from Lyallpur ( now Faislabad) to the border.There are many books with photographs of the misery.  What kind of historic preservation can we talk about in this case. A Hitorical Marker on such places can be the least we can do to remind ourselves and the next generations, about inhuman behavior. Religion does not teach us hatred but we teach ourself without understanding religion. Lookig at the map of Sultanpur we see how Hindus and Muslims lived side by side. The message conveyed by Guru Nanak and other Gurus created deeper understanding among people of Punjab. But did not take a long time to forget every thing learned and kill each other. we need some marker to remind us.