Frescoes at Veer Bhan Da Shivala fading into oblivion

Amritsar, September 7

A good number of rare frescoes, including one depicting Maharaja Ranjit Singh holding his court, on the walls of 182-year-old Veer Bhan Da Shivala are fast fading into oblivion.

Situated in the vicinity of the Golden Temple, the management of the private temple has not carried out restoration work. Instead, at places where plaster is coming off, caretakers have found it convenient to white wash it.

Former Guru Ramdas School of Planning head Prof Balvinder Singh, who studied at the Centre for Conservation Studies Institute of Advanced Architectural studies, University of York, UK, said a number of old buildings situated in the periphery of the Golden Temple had frescos, beautifully carved wooden windows and doors besides the specimen of architecture prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries here.

The influence of colonial and Islamic architectures was perceptible in old buildings of the city. Regrettably, a large number of these buildings were razed to build new ones. Those buildings, which survived, may not be able to keep wall paintings due to the lack of conservation facility. He held that the situation had arisen due to indifferent approach of caretakers and absence of government policy to preserve art in privately owned buildings.

He said there was still hope of revival of those paintings which had turned hazy. It was possible if caretakers still had frescos in their buildings, expert artisans could be engaged to repaint them with natural colours, which were used during those times.

The Shivala’s record suggested that Veer Bhan, a renowned vaid (a practitioner of ayurvedic medicine) had got the Shivala constructed. Maharaja Sher Singh, son of the legendary Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had given him a the title of ‘Misr’. Apart from frescoes depicting Hindu gods and goddesses, the painting of a woman wearing traditional clothes, especially circle shaped big nose pin is cynosure of visitors.

Amit Sharma, a descendent of Veer Bhan, said the temple was jointly owned by the family and they had been maintaining it without seeking any donation. Sharma said he had been contacting experts to preserve wall paintings made in the Kangra style with original colours obtained from natural ingredients. However, he had limited success till date.