Assam Countries India North east Travel

Photo story: A kingdom in Ruins

The raj baari of Khaspur or the royal seat of the last Kochari kings as it is called, actually the ruins of it, lie some twenty-five kilometers from the town of Silchar, the district head-quarters of Cachar which got its name from the Kochari (or Kachari) kingdom. In my last post Khaspur – A kingdom in ruins, I shared a glimpse of whatever now remains of the once rich kingdom that was known for its brave warriors, the raj baari of Khaspur and places around it. In continuation of the same, I share few more here, of the remains and places around it.

borail hill village
The Borail hills in the background

With time (and of-course without any proper care from the archaeological survey of India) most of the architectures have come to be in very bad shape and sadly, it just seems to be a matter time when we lose these few standing witnesses of history, just like we lost the others.

building rajbaari khaspur
One of the many tilted monuments – Khaspur

The locals too have never understood the value of this place and it’s historic monuments. It is really sad to see the structures being carelessly exploited. Be it climbing atop part of the structures which is not supposed to be climbed or be it the typical Indian pride of scratching the names of the one you fancy, not giving a damn about the fact that the scratch that is being made will also be scratching-off a part of history! But then again, who cares !

khaspur ruin photo
Another ruin being ill-treated

Anyway, enough of my frustration and my negative rant. I am sorry if I have pissed you off because of that but i really feel sad, angry and frustrated seeing the condition of one of the very few historical monuments that we have in this part of the country and we are not giving it the attention it deserves.

Okay, let me try to talk about things that are nice and beautiful in & around here 🙂 .

Temple with Sing-duar in the background - Khaspur
Temple with Sing-duar in the background – Khaspur

The Chandi mata mandir (or the Chandi Temple), the Sing Duar (or the Lion Gate) and this temple above are some of the few structures the ASI have done some renovation work on. Also, the area in around the protected compound is, typical to north-east India, lush green.

rajbaari compound - Khaspur
Greenery inside the rajbaari compound – Khaspur

Have you been to any other place of historical importance and felt frustrated about it not receiving the deserved looking after? Why is that we Indians (not all but in general) always find fun in spoiling things we should actually preserving and be proud of?

 

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11 thoughts on “Photo story: A kingdom in Ruins”

  1. hmmm… First a fall good you atleast care for these things. I don’t know weather this might enlighten you but recently, a day back went to Yercaud Hill station in South India and our auto driver said, most of the tamil forks don’t care for nature beauty. We saw so many views of the hills from hill points, he told some stories as well, like the mountains with those rock surfaces have dead bodies as people suicided from it, and the path we see, a slight gap in the greenery down in one mountain are the trains to walk through, smuggling of medicinal stuff was prominent and all. He said generally tourists like only roaming not admiring views, walking around etc… anyway, I think when alone people like talking and romancing rather than taking time to understand significance of anything… Indians need rules and fines and survillance so they don’t do such destruction. Anyway… but I guess its not the Indian masses alone, nobody is taught to respect historical stuff… the Govt. would prefer smashing those things and selling it to commercial forks I guess. Anyway

    1. To be very blunt, there are way too many idiots among us Mridula mam and I don’t see anything is going to change this until it is taken care of right at where we learn the basics, Home. Be it littering, throwing garbage on the roads or this!! 🙁

  2. Oh this is something I heard about in school days…

    Once I reached Maibong an was apalled to see the complete ignorance and neglect of whatever was tehre… I could only find one stone with some inscriptions and nobody was even remotely interested… This is at least in a better shape… I also wanted to visit DImapur for the same reason…

    1. I haven’t visited the ruins in Maibong yet but have heard about their sorry state.

      The few ruins that stand to this date in Khaspur near Silchar have been restored but I am not sure how long will they be able to be the way they are now without any necessary ‘look after’.

  3. I am from Hailakandi, and I can vouch that I feel frustrated at the long term neglect not just by the government, but also by the people. They throw plastic inside the temple complex even.

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