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Indian archeologist laments
Taleban edict on statues

With widespread appeals to the Afghan Taleban militia falling on deaf ears, an Indian archaeologist who sweated it out in Bamiyam to conserve the tallest statues of the Buddha two decades ago, says there are more cultural sites in Afghanistan that have been lost to fundamentalism or stand threatened by it.

R Sengupta, retired Director (Conservation) of the Archaeological Survey of India, had led a 15-member team from 1969-'77 for conservation of the Bamiyan Buddhas.

He said that besides the damage done to the Buddhas, that was colossal and almost irreversible, there was an important Greek settlement site Aikhanoum in northern Afghanistan that had Greek idols and stood threatened as they too fell in the non-Muslim category that the militia have decided to destroy.

"There is no report of what they want do to Aikhanoum, near Oxas, which was an important Greek settlement on the Silk route," says a visibly disturbed Sengupta.

Only six months ago, a German historian who had visited Afghanistan lately had told him that ancient Buddhist centres of Hadda and Ghazni had already been bulldozed and lost to posterity, he added.

For Sengupta, who spent 'nine-working seasons' between April and October from 1969 to 1977 in the Bamiyan Valley on the conservation project that brought world recognition to the Indian efforts, "It's a personal loss," he told PTI.

He finds it hard to believe that a society that had once appealed to the world to help preserve these great artefacts of a great religion and had jointly worked with the Indians to save the Buddha statues from the vagaries of time, today stands so much transformed.

"I recall them as honest, peace-loving people, who did not interfere with the work and also socially interacted with us," recalls the octogenarian expert, who was awarded the Padmashree for his contribution.

"I headed a 15-member team, that included engineers, masons, photographers as also artisans. The expertise was Indian, the labour and accommodation was provided by Afghanistan, then a monarchy under Zaheer Shah," reminisces the expert who recalls how the team's generator, used for developing pictures taken during the day-time, was used to provide electricity to a local mosque at night.

"There was no electricity in the villages then. We used to be invited for dinners and social gatherings," recalls Sengupta.

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