Historians who write about built heritage are called architectural historians. Their main job is to interact with the architecture of the past and to bring to light the process through which these buildings were made possible.

For such historians, resources or evidence are the backbone of whatever they research and write about from the vast terrain we call the ‘past’. Here, we must agree that resources in innumerable forms and shapes — conventional or unconventional, tangible or intangible, text, photographs, art work, records and reports, oral narratives, fossils, archaeological remains and architecture etc — are imperative to reconstruct this past.

Heritage, as evidence from the past, has many stories to narrate and it aids in recreating the social, cultural and political context of the time.

THE CLUES WITHIN

Consider the example of the tomb of Jam Nizamuddin at the Makli necropolis in Thatta, Sindh. It is missing a dome and its southern façade appears to be rushed and incomplete. Here, historians ask questions, such as what could have led to a missing dome and a rushed façade of a structure that is otherwise the most outstanding among those that are part of the Samma cluster, dating back to the Samma Dynasty (1351-1524).

Some of the answers could be: the migration of artisans and mason community from the polity; drying up of funds for construction; shift in the political structure, such as a change of ruler or dynasty; or migration due to natural calamity or disaster.

Even unfinished and damaged structures at archaeological sites speak loudly to architectural historians. Unfortunately, unthoughtful and destructive ‘conservation’ practices often deprive them of precious clues…

This above list is not exhaustive and the quest for answers to the kind of questions posed is the method historians generally follow to make sense of what a building is telling — or not telling. The inferences made are then triangulated with other complementary sources, such as manuscripts, records, pictorial and epigraphic documentation etc.

A rushed façade and an absent dome have so much to tell, albeit indirectly. The buildings of the past continue to speak to those in fields such as archaeology, sociology, anthropology, ethnology and, most importantly, conservation and preservation.

Conservation is a sister field that directly deals with both tangible and intangible heritage and, mostly, architectural historians and conservation architects work in tandem with each other. However, there are instances where a conservation approach or a solution to restoring a historic monument conflicts with the historical process and becomes a historian’s dilemma.

THE VALUE OF INCOMPLETENESS

It is this dilemma which comes to the fore when reviewing conservation approaches, including instances at Makli. A Unesco world heritage site, Makli houses more than 40 standing tombs. It remained most active from the 14th to 18th centuries, changing hands with four major dynasties during that period. Funerary remains, such as tombs, grave cenotaphs, pavilions, enclosures and shrines, are housed on the site. The tombs are built using both brick and stone, with a variety of stone-carving patterns, and tile and stucco work on the tombs.

Jam Nizam’s tomb is an incomplete monument and it is not just the dome. The south wall has discontinued bands where chisel marks can be observed. This incomplete state sheds light on the construction method and the old practice of making buildings.

For example, the carved bands were carved first and later placed on the façade at designated spots. The calligraphic band on the west façade has chisel marks and incisions, but the carving is left unfinished. This provides information that, perhaps, there was a master calligrapher who would trace the writing on the stone block and a junior would work on carving it.

For a historian of architecture, such evidence matters, since it can be researched further with archival information, to construct a legible picture around the practices of masons, artisans and calligraphers. The incompleteness of the southern wall also validates the volatile political condition of the region during the reign of Jam Feroze, after the death of Jam Nizam.

Records show that, in 1509, the celebrated ruler of the Samma period passed away. The heir to the throne, Jam Feroze, was an inadequate ruler who succumbed to Arghun forces, hailing from Central Asia, whom he had earlier called upon for help.

Similarly, the tomb housing the remains of Mirza Jani Beg and Ghazi Beg has an incomplete mihrab wall. The political situation during this time was fairly stable as per the accounts, but the amount of finesse and precision that one observes on the incomplete carving and the complexity of the patterns suggest that no expense was spared. Therefore, either the money to complete or the time or both ran out.

THE PERILS OF ‘OVER-CONSERVATION’

The practice of whitewashing a heritage building (sometimes as literal as it gets) cannot be called restoration or conservation. However, there are instances where structures are whitewashed and painted over under the pretext of restoration.

For example, Shaikh Jia’s tomb has been renovated by whitewashing all evidence. From a historian’s perspective, there is very little information available about the structure, such as how the surfaces were treated, whether there was any evidence of tile work, what the structure was like and if stone was used for decorative purposes, etc.

Other than a very detailed reading of the tomb’s battered walls — with their unique style of sloping inwards as they rise, which is fairly uncommon at Makli and was used more in Delhi, especially in the Tughlaq period — and high squinches that appear more sophisticated and mature compared to earlier Samma monuments, not much can be read from the current state of the tomb.

A similar situation can be observed on the reconstructed dome of Mirza Jani and Ghazi Beg’s tomb. After its reconstruction using cement, there are no references to the banna’i [brick patterning method used prominently in Islamic and Persian architecture] technique and the herringbone pattern that were common at Makli. Had it not been for a half-sectional drawing available in one of the printed sources — Ahmed Hasan Dani’s book Thatta: Islamic Architecture — and a study of Dewan Shurfa Khan’s dome, making the claim that the herringbone pattern continued at Makli would have been difficult to establish.

Such practices of over-conservation and whitewashing can deprive historical structures of their identity, with those responsible for deciphering them left scampering for clues. Therefore, before embarking on any reconstruction, it is important to have detailed prior documentation — both photographic and drawings — of the structure, which is also the standard operating procedure for any renovation, conservation or restoration work of heritage buildings.

RUINS HAVE THEIR OWN RECORD

Decrepit structures on any heritage site have much to say about the way they were built. For example, the use of infill masonry — both in brick and rubble with stone casing — is suggestive of the construction methods at Makli. Multiple inferences can be made based on this evidence, such as the economic status of the person buried in the tomb: affordability dictated the use of brick and stone in the masonry walls.

Cost is just one facet. Construction practices, mobility patterns and the local building industry at that time can all be studied by the “ruinous” state of a structure, conversing with the observer and telling a tale of how it was built. Instead, an overzealous conservator or a person in a position of power decides that the structure must be covered with fine casing, to restore it to its “past glory.” This is a line used so frequently in such cases that one is confronted with the question: “What past glory do they speak of?”

It is imperative to retain the integrity of structures from the past, so that they continue to increase our understanding of our present and future. What measures can be undertaken by conservation experts and departments concerned to undo or curtail destructive practices is a question I leave this article with.

The writer is a researcher on the architectural history of Sindh and an academic. She can be contacted at rabelajunejo@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 8th, 2024