Transposition-1

Governor’s Residence
Gwalior August 1870

Yesterday, Ramdin the caretaker had quipped “Destiny wills Sarkar to go on a tour” based on how Man had unbuckled his riding boots. The letter in his hand today morning told him to report in Panna as Architect and Incharge of Public Works. (“Damn! These psychic natives!”). Man knew Panna to be hostile ground protected by the fierce Bundelas but did not know whether to expect native hostility or hospitality. His role was to facilitate a Vision as an Architect. The “progressive visionary” quotient had invoked a Gora Sahib as the Architect of a local temple because the people had envisoned the desire, the Sarpanch its need, the Maharaja its modernity and thus his immortality, while Man just said “I will do it” to his superior while eyeing a promotion.

Man was a seasoned visitor on the circuit of Rajput principalities. A reception by a bejeweled Maharaja in an overtly ornate durbar, shikaar for the next two days followed by the formal intent of his visit and an elaborate farewell overseen by the ruler- He had seen it all and knew the sequence by heart. This one would be no different. The sights and sounds of the retinue around the much loved Maharajah- Rudra Pratap Singh Ju Deo Bahadur overwhelmed Man, but habit made him realize that He was the one overwhelming everyone around him- prince and pauper alike.

The appointed day saw Him, the Maharaja and the hangers-on make their way to the site much ahead of time only to reach three hours after the prescribed time. It was considered inauspicious to shoo away a cow and there she was, masticating in repose right in the middle of the access path to the site. Later, as the Maharaja busied himself with the consecration rites with choral utterances of "Swaha!", Man was surveying the site, his eyes darting between the expanse of the land and the neatly rendered drawing that he had unrolled. The joy was evident in his eyes. His design would fit the site.

Borrowing liberally from the West, Man’s design spoke about his European fixation that grafted shrewdly upon the Indian lust for “Modern”, even if he was now designing a temple for the Maharaja. The beliefs which his buildings would house were beyond his comprehension and interest. But the Maharaja had told Man that he could do whatever he liked. All that Man had to therefore do was to direct Mukadam-the Contractor who would extract work from the masons. The masons were the best in the region. Their forefathers had shaped the Khajuraho temples and the Man-Mandir but these people were now content and even proud to be in service of a Gora Sahib, shaping his decorative wreaths on pilasters.

To the Maharaja, the design seemed the epitome of grandeur with its imported concept. The circulation was in excess to the general requirement for such a typology of building. The façade was a pin-up showcasing Man’s familiarity with a range of Classical forms carefully chosen by sifting through his catalogue-Sir Banister Fletcher’s tome on the History of Architecture. The turreted building sitting within a false cloister, with its pedimented entrance porch accessed by a flight of steps, was meant to be viewed from the front alone. The farthest end of the building was rounded off into a semicircular niche. The Central bay with its flanking aisles was spanned by a Jack-arched roof which was accessible through the corner turrets. Windows with triangular pediments rose in two registers giving the outward impression of a double-storeyed building. He built what he saw in his catalogue.

The Bronze Baldacchino which covered the altar in St. Peter, would take a regionalist meaning in this temple when the stone masons mould the Makrana marble into a domical chattri to form a canopy over the sanctum. The marble chattri would not be a mere umbrella. Its finiteness would represent the infinite canopy of the Universe. Under this would commence, on a daily basis, beatifications, rituals, ceremonies and prayers presided over by the gold painted figurines of three of the thirty three crore manifestations of God in the Hindu Pantheon. The wide central bay would be plastered to achieve a vaulted ceiling effect that channeled the eye towards the marble edifice. If this did not happen voluntarily, the Pandit- in-residence would point it out to the visitor. Either ways the effect would be achieved.

The high compound wall with its battlements, walled-in arcades and pilasters was conceived as a cloister and a protective shell for the delicate Western creation that lay within its confines since the surrounding urban form did not measure up to it and no permissions were given to break those down and re-build them. As a result, the Church-like temple made no impact on the street. This building is to be viewed only in relation to its enclosure and the streetscape. Just like Bernini’s Piazza for St. Peters... only a little smaller in scale.

But Man sensed something was amiss. A Vertical element. An Aspirational embellishment.

In his catalogue of architectural shopping, all the buildings which were considered timeless had domes- the Taj Mahal, the Pantheon, St. Paul’s, St. Peters’ and Man’s favorite- Hagia Sophia. To Man, the dome was the most appropriate form to create truly celestial spaces. From his research, he concluded that the dome of St Paul’s would suit his design’s need for a vertical visual element. It would be more than 100 years in the future for the common man in Panna to see the real deal in London, so Man had no fear of being labeled a plagiarist. He had to just scale it down in diameter and simplify its triple shell construction. That…was the tricky part.

When repeatedly asked about commencing the work on the dome, Man’s reply was that he was on the lookout for absolute balance, perfection of line and curve, volume and elegance even as he spawned metaphors of the dome with the Maharaja’s turban. The verbal architecture paid off. The people referred to him as Vidyanidhi (Sans. lit. Treasure of Knowledge) and left him alone thereafter to preserve their sanity. After all that theorizing, His conceptual position about the dome was that His dome is "...neither a competitor nor an imitation. It is the same form but in miniature supported by a criss-cross of beams above the terrace levels. The beams are concealed from the inside so that no one can see the dome from the inside, but it would re-appear in the exterior. Its presence and yet its absence will thus play upon the visitors’ mind when they are supposed to be praying to the idols enshrined in the sanctum".

In the end, everyone remained awed and congratulated themselves heartily for being anywhere close to this project. Amidst this, the title of “progressive visionary” percolated right down to the Pandit who was too lazy to clean the premises of the old temple and had wanted a break from it in the first place.Maharaja Rudra Pratap Singh Ju Deo Bahadur was pleased as punch at the final result. In a time span of 30 years, his Gora architect had managed to convey a fiercely personal and aspirational building that had defiantly bucked the trend and the typology.

It seems so "modern", thought the people as they queued up along the battlements - the only place from where the whole building is seen. According to the Maharaja, Man has given the boundary wall a sense of "place". No one argues with the Vidyanidhi.


Thereafter, Rudra Pratap Singh Ju Deo Bahadur invited him to design a Neo-Classical extension to the Rajput-styled main palace.Destiny had once again chosen Man to move entire sections of Renaissance Europe to a gullible and aspirational India hungry for seemingly original ideas and influences.

Actual Citations: The Baldeoji Temple in Panna is a Palladian style, scaled down replica of St. Paul's Cathedral in London under supervision of a certain Mr. Manly, noted in records as an Italian. The temple consists of a large hall called maha mandapa with massive pillars and is built on a raised platform so that one may obtain darshan even from outside the main gate (from the road). The image of Shri Baldeoji is built in black stone (referred to as a Shailgrama stone). Baldeoji temple is the finest building in area and represents the zenith of Panna architecture. (cited from http://www.panna.nic.in/).
Note: The architect/ engineer’s name and credentials are not verifiable at this point.

End note: What was (is) the real extent of the impact of Rudra Pratap Singh’s approach to designing a public temple? Why was it so removed from a well-codified and consecrated typology? Was it because it was for a lesser God- Baldeoji? Was it an acknowledgment of British supremacy? Was it the ultimate recognition- in as early as the 1870’s- of the fixation of the Indian mind with all things foreign, and therefore their unquestionable appropriateness? Or was it the lack of awareness about the richness of one’s own heritage and the inability to look for meanings within it?
The allegory of the chosen subject demonstrates how buildings continue to be realized even today, wherein Architecture is the medium to convey a culturally indistinct but fiercely personal message; heavy on false readings and pretense, fed on allusions ranging from the stylistic to the futuristic. It is no longer a wonder that such trajectories end up projecting everything as clichés and constructs blanketing difficult questions by taking refuge behind “aspirations”.

Disclaimer: This story about the design of the Baldeoji Mandir in Panna is fictitious but without any malice to the warm and hospitable people of Panna and its Royal family. The writing was initiated by a first-hand experience of what the author calls “unconventional” architecture which was also the product of its times, its idea of culture and is now seen as the reflection of the aspirations of the people associated with it. The author visited the Baldeoji Mandir, during a Louis Kahn Trophy site visit while scouting Madhya Pradesh in 1997. Photo credit- SGR