I have a special relationship with ruins (read
archaeological sites). From childhood, history fascinated me, though I ended up
studying sociology. History for me doesn’t mean the dates and years and
dynasties, but the archaeological sites, the ruins of yesteryears. I was about
eight years old, when I first visited ‘Kumhrar’ near Patna. The Kumhrar archaeological park houses the remains of the ancient
city of Pataliputra, the capital of the Mauryan Empire. For an eight years old
child, there was nothing special! The place looked barren except for excavated
walls, pillars, bricks and other artifacts. But, I was captivated by Kumhrar.
It’s etched in my memories.
During the visit, my father, nonchalantly, told me about Kumhrar’s
importance; the dynasties that ruled from this place and so on. He has a lot of
knowledge about these historical sites. I don’t know how interested I was in
his information sharing, but the thought that this abandoned place might have
been a bustling capital full of people and all kinds of activities many
centuries ago, stayed in my mind. I tried to imagine the people who would have inhabited
this place and carried on their daily activities; who would have walked on the
way I was walking and touched the same walls, bricks and pillars that I was
touching. I tried to picture the place when it was ‘alive’ and full of vitality.
Almost the same thoughts returned when I visited the Amer
Fort near Jaipur recently (October 2012). Again, I was wonderstruck, not so
much by the grandeur of the fort, but by the thought of how much these stones
might have witnessed over a period of time. As mortal humans, we can never
match their longevity and the experience that comes from this longevity. They have
seen civilizations come into existence and vanish; dynasties come and go; and centuries
roll over.
I feel that apart from the known history that these ruins
tell, there might have been numerous untold stories hidden behind the decaying walls
and stones. For a moment, leave aside the battles and wars fought between two
kingdoms! These stones might have been mute spectators to so many unrevealed
intrigues, conspiracies, fights and struggles within the royal families that
inhabited them from time to time.
Almost all the ruins tell their own stories. Archaeologists try
to understand those stories. From the Pharaoh’s pyramids to the Sun and Moon
temples of the Incas to the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization, the history,
as constructed by the archaeologists on the basis of studying the ruins and
artifacts, is still shrouded in mystery.
