29/06/2018
Who cares for the Heritage !! If anyone knows about Captain MacMurdo than may be you are aware about some history of Kutch !! He was the first Political Agent of Kutch ! He was from Scotland came as an Officer of Royal Indian Army of British ! After commanding duties at Vadodara , he posted at Kutch ! He was the first Political Agent of Kutch ! Who has done lots of political duties between The Kutch ( Cutch - that time ) which was ruled by Jadeja Dynasty ! Cpt. MacMurdo was fond of Art and Crafts , local music and languages too !! So, he commissioned local artisans to make wall paintings with stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata ! That art is known as Kamaangrai Art ! He lived in that Bungalow at Anjar town ! He used to speak Kutchhi dialects too !! He was the witness of the Earthquake of 1819 when Sindhu ( Indus ) river changed his curs !! He was locally known as Bhuriyo Bawo ( British Saint ) as he was helping to the locals too ! Also he was the first Britisher who died due to Cholera !! He died at the edge of Little Rann of Kutch in April 1820 !! His tomb is still there near the Varnu Dada temple !! He lived at Kutch from around 1816 to 1820 AD ! His Bungalow was the best example of Kamaangrai art wall paintings ! We used to visit before the last Earthquake of 2001 ! But after that, it has signboards of protected monuments only !! Beggars spends night !! And so many cows, dogs and other animals are using this heritage bungalow as their home !! Is this the way to keep safe our heritage buildings?? Who cares ? Archeology survey of India says it's under state Archeological department ! And state department doesn't have staff even to open and close their office at Bhuj !! We need help from ASI , Gujarat Tourism , India Tourism , IATO team to protect these types of monuments of Kutch !! There are several !! This is just one of them !! Thank you. Pravin Dangera.
