Lakha Medi Stupa Junagarh Girnar

[Nagarjuna]

A Monumental Error - HT - Nayanjot Lahiri

What is it about this photograph of parallel brick walls in a setting
somewhat reminiscent of the visuals in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider that is
worth contemplating? Why is a man walking through the passage? And why
should Hindustan Times readers, who know nothing about this place, be
a
sked to think about it?
The masses of bricks are found near Junagadh, a town in Gujarat famous
for reasons that have little to do with the relict walls in the
photograph. For one, Junagadh is located close to the majestic Girnar,
the highest mountain in Gujarat in whose vicinity stands the historic
rock where three ancient monarchs, starting with Asoka, got their
edicts inscribed. For another, from the medieval centuries onwards,
Junagadh became a centre of worship for Hindu and Jaina pilgrims. The
parikrama around Girnar, which such pilgrims undertake from November
onwards, remains the most important event in the sacred calendar of
the town.
Much before its medieval fame as a centre of Jaina and Hindu worship,
the hills of Girnar and the area of Junagadh was sacred to the
Buddhists. There are several ancient rock hewn caves in and around it
with dwelling chambers and water tanks for monks. Impressive
foundations of brick built monasteries have also survived and one of
these, at Intwa, was set up by the Saka ruler Rudrasena (c. 2nd
century AD) for the bhikshu samgha there. These are monuments that are
protected and conserved by the Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI).What have been practically forgotten, however, are a couple of
Buddhist stupas that still stand in the Girnar forest. The walls in
the photograph form part of the most impressive of them, known locally
as Lakha Medi.
The Lakha Medi stupa is built on a rocky knoll, about seven kilometres
to the east of Junagadh, in a delightfully secluded valley from where
the rugged Girnar and the Datar hill, the highest after Girnar, can be
seen. The valley is visited by those who come to pay obeisance at the
Bhor Devi temple there. Hardly anyone, though, remembers the presence
of a colossal stupa in the jungle adjacent to the temple, originally
as large as the great stupa at Sanchi, and one which was excavated in
1889 by JM Campbell of the Bombay Civil Service. Campbell is generally
remembered as the compiler of the Bombay District Gazetteers. Less
known is the massive cutting that Campbell left behind at Lakha Medi
as a consequence of his excavations at the stupa. From the available
account of that excavation, it seems that first, the top of Lakha Medi
was sliced off to a depth of 22 feet, then a trench 20 feet wide was
driven across the stupa (seen in this photograph), followed by further
digging, which revealed a stone coffer containing a stone pot in which
was found a little copper pot, then a silver box and finally a little
gold box. In the gold box were an aquamarine bead, a ruby, a sapphire,
an emerald, some coaly grit and a ‘relic’ described as a flake of
burnt stone ware. No inscription was found, but from the still
standing solid mass of brick work in herring-bone bond, this seems to
be a late centuries BC stupa.
No further excavations took place at Lakha Medi. But nor was it
repaired. Now its ancient bricks are being used to expand the modern
Bhor Devi temple. That it has survived in this cut up contorted way is
because the jungle clad knoll where it is situated has survived,
forming part of the reserve forest of Girnar. In the Girnar jungles,
incidentally, it is state foresters and freelance naturalists who know
more about the location and state of ancient monuments than
archaeologists. My own tryst with the Lakha Medi stupa was made
possible because Junagadh’s well known nature man, Rasik Bhatt (who
can be seen in the photograph) had roamed these forests looking for
medicinal herbs and plants.
Of course, Lakha Medi’s fate — where those who discovered and explored
it did it in a way that disfigured and half-ruined it — is not an
isolated one. This is true for many stupas across India, including
those at Sanchi where the extent of damage was so considerable that a
British officer in the 19th century, in discussing the work of the
archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, is known to have commented that “a
thousand years of time and weather have not done so much injury to the
invaluable Topes at Sanchi as was caused by the action of major-
general Cunningham.....who years ago mined deep into the Topes in the
vain search for coins or inscriptions, and never filled in his
excavations.”
The difference, though is, that by the time Lakha Medi was dug into,
repairs at the Sanchi monuments had begun and, what we see there today
— large exposed and conserved stupas and shrines — had been more or
less completed by 1919 or so. Sultan Jahan Begun, the ruler of the
Bhopal Darbar, was Sanchi’s main benefactor. The conservation work
undertaken there by John Marshall, director general of the ASI, the
construction of the Sanchi museum and the publication of the Sanchi
volumes were largely financed by her Darbar.
Sanchi is now a World Heritage site but Lakha Medi still remains
forgotten. Surely, with so many programmes that speak of adopting
monuments, can an archaeological saviour for this forgotten stupa step
forward? Such a saviour is urgently required if future generations are
to remember Girnar not only for the wildlife that thrives in its
beautiful forests but also for the historic heritage that these
forests have protected.
Nayanjot Lahiri is professor at the Department of History, University
of Delhi. The views expressed by the author are personal.