Taking history out of the books

Photo Credits: sunday page 1

Photo Credit: (Betul photos – Bharati Pawaskar) (Chapora and Halarn photos – Vincent Braganza)

Betul, a picturesque fishing village in Quepem boasts of its historical fort, the remnants of which still stand, though in a dilapidated state, overlooking the meeting point where the Arabian Sea embraces River Sal. Built by the Hawaldar of Balli on orders of the great Maratha warrior king Shivaji at this crucial junction in 1679, Betul Fort seems to be straight out of the history book. It needs a special mention as a witness of the glorious past.

River Sal drew the boundary line between the Portuguese rulers and Chatrapati Shivaji’s territory. Known as the father of the Indian navy, Shivaji, had the vision to perceive the importance of the crisscross location at the mouth of the River Sal which – hugging the rocky edges of Velli and Betul on one side and kissing the sandy beach of Mobor on the other – finally, flows into the sea. Today, the lone cannon sitting on the remnants of this fort await its restoration as the decision in the assembly to start the restoration process immediately has raised hopes in the locals.

“If the promised restoration translates into reality, the face and fate of Betul will change for the better and forever,” believes Sudhakar Joshi, ex-sarpanch and a social activist who has extended his support to the government’s recent decision for the restoration following local demand and the pressure from the History Lovers Group who took the initiative to unearth the hidden watchtower of the Betul fort and create an awareness among the locals inhabitants regarding its importance. “Since then we have hoisted the tricolour here thrice – on August 15 and December 19, last year and on January 26, this year,” shares Joshi.

“It is the last fort that Shivaji built, as within a year, in 1680, the great king passed away. This also marks the fort as an important milestone in the history of Maratha, Portuguese and Adil Shah's rules,” states Yogesh Nagvekar, of History Lovers Group (HLG). Yogesh and his team – Raghavendra Bhujle, Sampada Nagvekar, Siddhesh Kamulkar, Amey Hegde Dessai, Rohan Bandekar and Gaurav Mahambre work towards digging up history and historical monuments, involving locals in the cleaning campaigns and thus creating an awareness among in public as well as administration to preserve and conserve it.

It’s heart-warming that the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology has undertaken the restoration of four forts in Goa along with a temple and a church to be initiated this year. “We shall begin with the 17th century built Chapora Fort, which is on a hillock. The first thing we need to do before restoration is to build an access road to the top,” states Varad Sabnis, Assistant Superintending Archaeologist at the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology, Government of Goa. Sabnis highlights that the Betul Fort will be restored on priority basis along with two others – Cabo de Ram (cape of Ram) and Halarn. The department will also be restoring Shree Saptakoteshwar Temple at Narve and St Anne Church at Talaulim near Merces.

Chapora Fort stands tall, overlooking the Morjim Beach on the opposite bank of the River Chapora which flows and falls into the arms of the Arabian Sea. Indeed, Chapora Fort could turn into an eye catching site for heritage tourism, especially after it gained popularity as an ideal location for shooting films. A good number of footfalls of domestic as well as foreign tourists are witnessed here even during weekdays – though the uphill road to the fort is a brief but tough climb. Once inside the spacious fort, the view from all four sides is mesmerising. The strong walls of the fort built in the 17th century have not given away completely even after hundreds of years. But one feels that this neglected site serves as a den for anti-social elements, especially after dusk, as there is no security at the doorway. Vendors are seen openly selling beer bottles outside the premises and coaxing the tourists to buy a chilled beer to beat the heat. Inside, there is litter of plastic, broken glass pieces and empty beer bottles and cans. It looks like the fort has been hijacked by public for various purposes.

A victim of total neglect, Halarn Fort, is not an exception to the general rule of lethargy and misuse that prevails and predominates most of our heritage sites. While the heavily rusted and broken iron doors were simply tied down with a plastic wire, inside were trapped three buffaloes who seeing unknown faces, rush to greet them. There’s a modern structure built inside the fort with rooms having no doors and also a rusted machine and three cement tanks. This fort seems to have no visitors for days and is rather misused as a cowshed by the locals.

“The machine was once used to mix mortar for the restoration works at various places in Goa. It contained chuna, herbs and other material used in ancient times for cementing the laterite stones,” informs Deepak Ganesh Parab who works at the local panchayat and lives in the vicinity of the fort. Asked if the fort has any visitors on weekends, Parab nods in affirmation, though the site defies this. “It’s been some years that the upper one or two layers of stones were restored and I once acted as makeshift guide to show the fort to the visitors,” says Parab, 54. After the proposed restoration of this fort, the area with scattered houses – 300 odd of which are registered in the panchayat – will surely undergo makeover. “The process is already in the pipeline,” promises Sabnis.

Ketak Nachinolkar has been appointed as conservation architect under whose supervision the restoration of Chapora Fort will be undertaken. Similarly each fort will have a conservation architect. Also the tenders for restoration have been invited from expert parties who have experience of doing this specialised work. The concerned departments have been approached for permissions and monetary grants. Training the persons regarding restoration will also be undertaken as part of the job.

Most forts in Goa are built at the mouth of the rivers, where they meet sea. For example the Gasper Dias Fort (Miramar), Cabo Fort (cabo means cape in Portuguese), Aguada Fort and Reis Magos Fort – all were built at the mouth of River Mandovi where it meets the sea. Many of these forts were meant as watch towers for keeping an eye on the enemy for safety purpose or for trailing the traders who sailed to and fro from Goa for tax collection.

Many of the forts exist in a dilapidated state and need to take care of. While the credit to bring the neglected Betul Fort into limelight goes to HGL, the group also found one 300-year-old cannon in the sea near Cabo de Ram which was later pulled out. In fact, this fort was neither under the ASI or State Archaeology department and did not enjoy any legal protection until the HLG unearthed this spot in November 2014. After the awareness campaign, cleaning of the site with the help of the locals was undertaken by August 2015. It was only after the initiative taken by HGL along with Goa Heritage Action Group (GHAG) that the local inhabitants, local MLA Babu Kavalekar, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology came into action. The papers moved fast towards taking a decision for its restoration.

Restoration, however, takes time, depending on various factors – the condition of the fort, the property where it stands, permissions from various departments (like PWD which gives technical sanction and estimate of the expenses), appointment of the conservation architect as consultant under whose supervision the project is carried on and so on. Sir John Marshel’s conservation manual is referred to while carrying on the restoration.

Affirming that the restoration is a tedious process and each structure is treated exclusively and differently, Sabnis explains that the material (the type of stones, mortar, wood etc) whatever was used to construct the structure is studied and the same type of material is recreated and utilised. “Also to know about the structure, we refer to old documents, books, pictures and descriptions too in various languages – Modi, Marathi, Kannada, English, Arabic, Portuguese, French and Swahili (an African language) and the oldest document available with us in our research library consisting 60,000 rare books, is from 1496,” he asserts.

Goa has 52 forts altogether, out of which the remnants of 40 are available to see. The state has 51 protected monuments comprising of forts, caves, maritime heritage, rock carvings, Jain and Buddhist sites, temples, churches and mosques which are taken care of the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology. “This year (2016-17), we have been sanctioned a grant of Rs 11 crore (for maintenance, restoration and vegetation clearance at these sites). Last year it was Rs 7 crore (2015-16),” mentions Sabnis, adding, “It is not necessary that each of the monuments that we restore or maintain are in our property. Some of them may stand in private property. In such cases, the monument belongs to us and not the property, we are only the caretakers. However, the owner of the property cannot pose any harm to the monument which is national heritage.”

Goa has not yet leveraged its heritage properties adequately but if restored and conserved properly, these cultural hotspots can bring in revenue through tourism is what one can conclude after visiting these sites.

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· Is the caretaker of 51 protected monuments in Goa

· Publishes a journal ‘Purabhilekh Puratatva’ twice a year

· Celebrates Archival week in June

· Invites schools and colleges to the department in June

· Creates public awareness by seminars, lectures, workshops, exhibitions of photos, posters, books and journals

· Sends its officials as guest speakers to schools and colleges

· Uses old, ancient and original techniques for restoration

· Has 60,000 books in its research library

· Has oldest document of 1496