Srirangapatna armoury.

BENGALURU: Although the state archaeological department has drawn praise for its massive undertaking to shift Tipu Sultan’s armoury in Srirangapatna, threatened by a railway line, the department’s apathetic attitude towards eight other armouries of the 18th century ruler has dismayed historians.

The armoury at Srirangapatna is being moved by 100m to make way for a second railway line connecting Bengaluru and Mysuru. The endeavour has been taken up at a cost of Rs 13 crore. The process that started on November 17, 2016 reached a critical phase on Thursday. The structure weighs around 1,000 tonnes. The structure, and its massive contents were hauled up from the ground using hydraulic jacks. American engineers will beging the process of shifting these enormous objects from Friday. Officials in the archaeological department said that all the objects in the armoury would be shifted to a new location in a month.

However, Tipu’s armoury in Bengaluru near KR Market has not even been declared a protected monument. “It’s hard to escape the irony. While the government is leveraging the latest technology to relocate one armoury, they have not even bothered to declare a similar structure built and maintained by Tipu Sultan a protected monument,” said Devarakonda Reddy, president of Karnataka Ithihasa Academy .

Lamenting the neglected state of the armoury in Bengaluru, Reddy added, “It has virtually turned into a public lavatory.”

Tipu, who was king of Mysuru between 1782 and 1799, is believed to have built 10 armouries to assist him in his struggle against the British. Eight such structures are in Srirangapatna, while one is in Pandavapura and the other is in Benglauru.

The armoury at KR Market is under the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which makes it hard to preserve the structure as a historical monument. “Tipu’s armoury in Bengaluru cannot be preserved unless the government declares it a protected monument,” said R Gopal, director (archaeology), department of archaeology, museums and heritage.

The government has not responded to multiple requests made by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to preserve the historical structure. “The first step involves transferring the ownership from the BBMP to ASI. We have written multiple times to the government. In fact, we wrote to them as recently as last month. We are still waiting for a response,” said Arun Raj T, superintending archaeologist at ASI.

Barring the armoury whose contents are being shifted, the state of of seven other armouries in Srirangapatna too leaves a lot to be desired. Paucity of funds has resulted in these structures being neglected. Officials from the archaeological department said that the government had proposed to grant Rs 20 crore for the purpose two years ago. However, only Rs 1.5 crore of the earmarked funds has been released thus far.

Secretary of the department of archaeology, museums and heritage, Umashankar SR said that a heritage committee had been set up to look into issues pertaining to preservation of monuments dating back to Tipu’s era. “We know the significance of transferring ownership of historic monuments from the BBMP. We are waiting for a report from the heritage committee,” he added.

Armoury, contents to be shifted with aid of rails and rollers

The contents of Tipu’s armoury in Srirangapatna will take off in the earnest on Friday. Rails and rollers will come into play, and as many as 70 workers, including six from the US, will be working at the historical site. Owing to the lack of technology in India to shift enormous structures, the US-based company PSL-Wolfe (JV) was entrusted the task. The contents are being moved under the supervision of the Karnataka archaeological department, while the project is being funded by the Railways.

The first step in the process involved digging under the foundation of the armoury, and lifting the objects with the help of hydraulic jacks. The structures have now been placed on iron rods, and they will be moved by skidding them on rails.

