Buddhism flourished in the Visakhapatnam region some 2,000 years ago. The first Sepoy Mutiny took place in Visakhapatnam on Oct 3, 1780. Ivory furniture made in Vizagapatam around 200 years ago was much sought after by the royalty, and had made its way to the Buckingham Palace. Sounds interesting, right?
Gen-Z may find it unbelievable as many of the heritage monuments and natural formations are either in a state of neglect or are being destroyed to satiate man’s greed. The Kurupam Market has been razed to the ground while the old building at the Queen Mary’s Government High School building is in a dilapidated condition and no action seems to have been initiated to restore it to its past glory. It poses a threat to children, who are accommodated in new buildings on the same campus.
The Buddhist heritage sites at Thotlakonda, Bavikonda and Parvulakonda, dotting the Visakhapatnam coast, could have been lost long ago had they not been buried under mounds of mud atop the hills for several centuries. The chance discovery atop hills during an aerial survey for finding a suitable location for establishment of INS Kalinga by the Indian Navy a few decades ago had given an insight to archaeologists and historians to the fact that Buddhism had flourished in Visakhapatnam region, some 2,000 years ago.
The old Dutch Building, on the Beach Road, was converted into the ‘Visakha Museum’, which houses a number of artefacts belonging to different periods in history. Had it not been converted into a museum, the building would have paved the way for construction of multi-storey buildings or apartment complexes.
The Erra Matti Dibbalu (Red Sand Dunes), located near Bheemunipatnam, which have been declared as one of the 34 national geo heritage sites by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), in 2014, are under the threat of encroachment. These unique geological formations are a result of the accretion of sand and mud, and provide valuable information about the conditions in the region several thousands of years ago. They had formed during the interglacial period and provide valuable information for scientific research.
They had formed during the last glacial maxima (LGM), which is estimated to have occurred globally around 18,500 years ago. The coastline of the Bay of Bengal, is estimated to have been about 50 km inwards into the land, during the LGM. Archaeological evidence of Stone Age tools from Microlithic, Mesolithic and Paleolithic eras have also been found in the region of the red sand dunes.
About half-a-century ago, Visakhapatnam had two railway stations: the main station and the Town Station, in the Port area. The Town Station building was put to disuse a decade ago. Later, it was leased to the Container Corporation of India (Concor). On expiry of the lease period, Concor moved over to its new premises, located opposite the airport, a few years ago.
“While some trains used to start from the Town Station, others used to terminate at Waltair (present Visakhapatnam Junction). A few coaches used to be run between these two stations to ferry passengers living in the Old Town areas. These trains used to be called ‘duplicates,” recalls B. Venkateswara Rao, a nonagenarian, who used to shuttle by these ‘duplicate’ trains during his college days, as a student of Mrs. AVN College.
The station building is lost but the railway line is still in existence. The area is now being used by the railways to park some trains overnight. However, rail users say that a building should be constructed and the heritage station can be put to full use once again on the lines of the ‘Nampally railway station’ in Hyderabad.
John E. Castellas, a heritage enthusiast, and a former citizen of Visakhapatnam, who had relocated to Australia, made a presentation on the heritage structures, historical monuments of Vizagapatam, as it was called by the British rulers then, at a programme held in the city on November 25, 2023.
Mr. John’s presentation, through 54 slides, gave an insight into the heritage buildings of Vizagapatam, many of which have been lost. The presentation included some of the heritage buildings like the St. Aloysius School, the old Light House near the harbour, and the old Town Hall, which have all been restored, and others which were either demolished by developers or officials, or are in a state of neglect.
There was a slide providing information on the establishment of chintz factories in Vizag. Chintz is a woodblock printed, painted, stained or glazed calico textile. He noted that during the 1700s, chintz was not only prized all over the world, and helped revolutionise fashion and design, but also changed the course of history in many cases, unfortunately for the worse, according to Harvard historian Sven Beckert’s ‘A tale of armed trade, colonialism, slavery, and the dispossession of native peoples’.
Mr. John’s collections include photographs of the ivory furniture, made in Vizag, which made their way to the Queen’s Gallery at the Buckingham Palace, pictures of exquisitely designed brassware toys, also made in Vizag, two centuries ago and photographs of handwritten manuscript of the first Telugu translation of the Bible into Telugu in Vizag in 1805, the first printing of the Bible in Telugu in 1812 and a photograph of a steam locomotive-drawn passenger train, chugging out of the Waltair railway station in 1920.
“There is no point in crying over the lost treasures, but, measures should be taken to protect and restore what still remains. There is also a need to document information and images of the lost treasures for the benefit of posterity,” says Jayashree Hattangadi, a heritage narrator and member of INTACH.
“The Old Town Hall, which was neglected for long, was renovated by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and restored to its original shape, after a hue and cry by heritage lovers and representatives of INTACH. Thankfully, some of the heritage structures like the St. Aloysius School and St. John’s School are still being maintained,” she says.
“The roof of the old building at the Queen Mary’s Government High School is in a precarious state. Though new buildings were constructed on the same campus and the classrooms have been shifted. The old structure not only poses a threat to the children but failure to restore the old building will result in the city losing another heritage structure,” says Edward Paul, a history chronicler and member of INTACH.
The Victoria statue near the old Head Post Office junction is in a state of neglect with growth of trees and shrubs all around the statue, preventing motorists and passersby of having a clear view of the monument, he points out. “During the evenings, the place has become a hangout for anti-social elements with vehicles parked all around, and absence of adequate lighting. The arch constructed in commemoration of the opening of the Kurupam Market, over a century ago, was demolished and the structures in the market have been razed to the ground,” he says.
“The erra matti dibbalu, spread over an area of 10 sq. km offer an awe-inspiring spectacle to the onlookers and a challenge to the earth science community. Teachers from Andhra University used to take generations of their students and visiting scientists to this site to explain their complex origins,” says Kakani Nageswara Rao, honorary professor of Geo-Engineering Department of Andhra University.
Intense gullying of these relatively unconsolidated and predominantly sandy deposits has exposed a variety of the underlying sedimentary formations and geomorphological features. One has to dwell deep into these narrow gullies to find the totality of these formations and landforms, including spectacular knick points and even waterfalls.
“Multi-disciplinary research is required to undertake further studies on various aspects of the rare geological formations. Only a few researchers took the risk of exploring the entire area to understand the multi-cyclic and polygenetic evolution of this formation,” says Nageswara Rao, who authored a paper on ‘Morphostratigraphy and evolution of the quaternary ‘Red Sands’ near Bheemunipatnam, East Coast of India’ along with Ch. Udaya Bhaskara Rao (department of Geography, Andhra University), K. Thimma Reddy and P. Vijaya Prakash (Department of Anthropology, Andhra University). The paper was published in the Journal of Geological Society of India in November, 2006.
