History and Heritage: The Afterlife of Monuments

Nothing to See Here: Situating the Study of Nagpur Bhosle Architecture within Indian Heritage and History
Illustrated lecture by Dr. Cathleen Cummings, Associate Professor, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

When the 1904 Ancient Monuments Preservation Act was passed, the temples of the Bhosle family of Nagpur were little more than a century old. Many were still “living sites”, rather than archaeological monuments no longer in active use. The Act, although making provision for Hindu temples still in worship, was overarchingly concerned with the discovery, classification, and preservation of India’s deep historical past. To the present day, almost all of the eighteenth and early nineteen-century temples and wadas if Nagpur remain neglected: it is not under the protection of any heritage “register”; is unknown even to many Nagpurkars; and has been largely left unstudied by historians of art and architecture. As a case study, this presentation explores some of the key ideas affecting our classifications of “heritage”, “history”, “monument”, and “living”, site in India