by A. J. PHILIP
Last year, a young journalist friend, Rajeev Mangottil, invited me to speak at the Onam Day celebrations at Jamia Millia Islamia. The name of this venerable institution is derived from the Urdu language in which Jamia means ‘university’ and Millia means ‘national’. That is where I first met the youthful-looking K.K. Muhammed, Director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Rajeev whispered into my ears that Muhammed would soon be retiring and his story on him was scheduled to appear in the Malayala Manorama supplement. Since the Malayalam daily is fond of showcasing every Malayali as an achiever of sorts, I was not greatly impressed.
One reason why I underestimated him was that I have a poor opinion of the ASI. Just last fortnight a friend from Punjab SMSed to say that he had visited Nangal and seen the glass case which commemorates Chinese leader Chou en Lai’s visit and the discussions he had with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru while formulating Panchsheel or the five principles of peaceful co-existence. I had visited the place a couple of times and was shocked by the fashionable sofa in the glass case. I checked and found that the two leaders had used caned, wooden chairs, which the officials concerned did not find impressive enough to be showcased.
In contrast, I saw at Potsdam, near Berlin, the large table and the chairs used by Stalin, Churchill and other victors of the Second World War, while deciding to divide Berlin into four zones and to constitute the United Nations, preserved in the same manner in which they were used, attracting thousands of tourists every year. But the first time I visited Shimla, I was unable to see the table and the chairs used by Indira Gandhi and Z.A. Bhutto for finalizing what is known as the Simla Agreement because no official had any clue about their existence.
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So when I received an invitation for his lecture on the ancient churches of Goa at the Kerala Club, I could not resist the temptation to attend. What makes Muhammed stand out as an archaeologist is the passion he has for archaeology. We have all studied about Akbar the Great and Din-i Ilahi, the divine faith, he propounded by incorporating the best from Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism.
It was at Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, that the Emperor used to hold discussions with religious scholars. Miniature paintings that depict Akbar meeting Christian theologians exist. But where exactly was Ibadat Khana?
Mohammed studied the painting thoroughly and believed that it could be excavated at a particular spot in Fatehpur Sikri. He was in his late twenties and could not, therefore, convince his seniors, who all had a different belief. But he started excavating on the spot and found that the dome, the antechamber, the different layers and the gate depicted in the painting matched his excavation. It was a great archaeological discovery for which then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi congratulated him. What’s more, he also discovered a Christian chapel and a bazar in the same area.
Ask Muhammed and he will tell you that restoration of the 1300-year-old Bateshwar temple in Madhya Pradesh as the high-water mark of his career. He found hundreds of temples in a state of ruin, devastated as they were by an earthquake. Restoring them was a challenging task. Nobody seemed to be bothered. He had heard that dacoits would occasionally drop in to worship at the Hanuman temple there.
One day while returning to his workplace, he found a person smoking beedi in the temple. Muhammed rebuked him for smoking in a sacred place, little knowing that he was none else but dacoit Nirbhay Singh Gujjar! Fortunately, the dacoit did not pull his trigger and he left only after he was told by Muhammed that he belonged to the Gujjar-Pratihara dynasty that had once ruled the region.
He found that he could not carry on his work without the cooperation of the MP government, which was disinterested. Then he hit upon the idea of writing a letter to the then Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) Sarsanghachalak, V.S. Sudarshan, telling him that though the BJP ruled the state, its government was not at all interested in restoring the ancient temples.
The Herald of India for more