Remains of fort found in Majitha gives rise to call for its preservation

About 15 years after a conservation architect and a faculty in the Architecture Department of Guru Nanak Dev University located the site of a fort probably dating back to 18th century and belonging to the famous Majithia clan in the nearby township of Majitha, no attempt was made to unearth and conserve it for posterity.

Players in the hospitality sector feel that it could be added to the list of places for sightseeing in Amritsar for tourists. Land formations, suggesting the presence of four bastions of the fort surrounded by a double layer of moat which runs parallel to the site in the typical shape of a fort, was discovered through Google images. The fort had a double layer of moat, used as a defence strategy. At present, some families stay around the site and earn their livelihood by cultivating Singharas (water chestnut) in the moat.

Harjit Singh, who resides close to the remains of the fort, said, "Born and brought up here, I know this place as Quila Dyal Singh and it was raised in the times of Desa Singh Majithia, who belonged to the well-known and illustrious family of the Majithias (of Majitha town)." Incidentally, Desa Singh Majithia was the grandfather of The Tribune's founder Dyal Singh Majithia.

He recollected that during his childhood days, he had seen 'dyodhi' (entrance gateway) of the fort close to its north bastion and a dilapidated structure near its south bastion. However, with the passage of time, the remains of the structure vanished as people took away the bricks." Even the houses situated on and around the site are made of bricks taken out from the structures inside the fort.

Residents of the area stated that the moat was once up to 18 to 20 feet deep at one point of time and they would often go fishing on a boat once it received rainwater from Alliwal and Jijeana villages.

Getting the site restored by a professional agency remains a dream, said hotelier Surinder Singh. He said connecting it to a tourist circuit with sites spread across the holy city, including Gobindgarh Fort, Partition Museum and War Museum would prolong the stay of tourists here.

How it was discovered

Rawal Singh, a lecturer at GNDU, and Rachanpuneet Singh, a conservation architect had stumbled upon the fort while they were working on a re-use plan for a police station in Majitha.

Rachanpuneet recollected: "We were working out the site plan on Google Earth when we zeroed in on a fort-like outline on it. We visited this site and were amazed to see the prominent land forms on four corners of the land located inside the moat." The fort was supposedly built by the ancestors of a Sikh chieftain.

He said all these years, he only got a call from officials of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board and no other positive development came out.

After the discovery of Majitha fort in a state of ruins, it is a challenge to restore the fort and introduce a condition for the best adaptable function, he observes. But the 'Majitha Fort' opens up the possibility of different typology, at least in the context of its location and scale. Being in an abandoned state for a long time period in history, the invention of such fort should not have been further ignored, he said.

Most of the historic building fabric has been already damaged and whatever is left is deteriorating due to human action. The remains of structures are lying underneath the earth's surface and are partially exposed to natural environment. The physical form of fort, visible as profile of bastions, fortification walls and moats are all mud structures. This living proof of fort is also being eroded due to the combined actions of man and weather.

The total area of the fort is approximately 6.5 acres. The most important components of the fort design existing today are found in the form of mud mounds only, but profile and land form of these elements clearly delineates the existence of a typical fort design.

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