Prachin dharohar

by Subhashis Das

PAINTING in 1825 BY ANONYMOUS. A LOTUS TANK IN THE FOREGROUND WITH A WHITE BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AND THE SEOTAGARHA PAHARI IN THE BACKGROUND.

The above painting of 1825 is of anonymous. I tried searching these landmarks in present day Hazaribagh...were they still existing...I wondered...the Zulzul (Seotagrahga pahari) is still there but the tank and the building...was it possible that they would still be there? Read on...

Judging by the Seotagarha pahari in the painting I could very much assess that the lotus tank must be somewhere around Hurhuru so my search began there...and lo they were bang on there where I had expected them to be. But today the pond was filthy and dirty devoid of any lotuses or lilies as it was an open loo now with people defecating all around with obnoxious smell in the air.

The lotus tank today; an epitome of filth and squalor.

I soon spotted the building in the topmost painting...it was actually the Hurhuru Karbala.

The building depicted in the topmost painting is actually this  structure which is the Karbala of Hurhuru adjacent to the NH33.

To the west of the pond is the below featured old Muslim sepulchral tomb. This ofcourse the painter had not drawn.

A moslem tomb in the west of the lotus pool which existed even in 1825