Bengaluru: Sarjapur, Doddakannelli, is a bustling hub of commerce, with thousands of people making their way to and from the area each day.
This thriving neighbourhood dates back 1,100 years, however, made known by an exquisitely carved herostone or veeragallu, which stands almost unnoticed in the corridors of a building.
The carvings pay tribute to a warrior who died fighting for the area, which was named Doddakannelli as far back as 900 AD! This is the sort of discovery you're likely to make at Inscription Stones of Bangalore, a first-of-its-kind exhibition that opens on November 14 at the Government Museum on Kasturba Road.
The citizen-funded, citizen-driven effort, led by history buff Udaya Kumar, comprises exhibits of 28 inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and Telegu, all found across the city.
Over 70 per cent of the inscriptions found in and around Bengaluru, mapped by celebrated historian Benjamin Lewis Rice, have now disappeared. Only a handful remain and these bear the risk of disappearing too, as rampant development meets a lack of awareness. Dating back to the fifth century AD, these stones tell us stories of wars and conquests, temples, eclipses and martyrs, bearing silent, immovable testimony to history in the midst of the city's rapidly changing landscape.
"Inscriptions are usually relevant to academicians and historians, rarely to the common man," said Udaya Kumar, one of the organisers of the exhibition along with the museum authorities.
"The question we're hoping people will ask is, 'How does this connect to my life'? Very few of us realise that we’re surrounded by history." Posters of 28 inscriptions will be displayed across the venue, with the four inscriptions that belong to the museum on display in the garden.
Some of the posters come with QR codes – scanning them with your smartphone will lead you to 3D models of the inscriptions, made by stitching together hundreds of high-resolution photographs. The second code opens out onto a Google Map that shows you exactly where these inscriptions are and tells you the stories behind them, too.
Entirely citizen-driven, support came pouring in from across the globe, says Kumar. Historians, academicians and researchers from Chennai and Hyderabad pitched into translate inscriptions in Tamil and Telegu, with a group of 30 people working tirelessly over the last three months to put the exhibition together. A well-wisher from the UK even helped them obtain a high-resolution version of Henry Dickson’s famous 1865 photograph of the veeragallu in Begur, which is being housed at the British Museum, London.
There are plenty of treats for the kids, too. The organisers are in the midst of printing over 5,000 postcards of the inscriptions, which they want every child who visits to receive. “These will be sent to the children and their families by post, they’re wonderful souvenirs,” he adds.
