The Historian’s House

Went to meet a local historian yesterday, with a family friend. It turned out that the historian too was a family friend- he had known my father for many years and had even attended my wedding long years ago.

Then we got talking of history, which of course was the reason I had gone there. I learnt lots and lots in the space of an hour. But more fascinating to me were the artifacts that he had gathered.

I was interested in the stone figure of a dancing girl that he had, I assumed it was a replica done by a modern artisan. But it turned out to be an original figurine from the Gupta period, well over twelve hundred years old! It appears that someone found it while digging the foundation of his house in Delhi and passed it on to the historian.

Then there were the remnants of a Buddhist pillar, clearly Buddhist in their design and stylistics. Except that they had been found at the Jama Masjid in Meerut, India’s second oldest mosque. It seems that there are still remnants of a Buddhist wall in the mosque- suggesting that it was possibly a Buddhist monastery before being converted into a mosque.

The historian’s house was painted white, with spot lights over artifacts rather than the usual flat illumination of an urban middle class house. Sort of gave it an air of tranquility with beauty, without the aesthetic elements dragging attention to themselves. The man himself was so simple he got a plastic chair for himself to sit near us, rather than drag the sofa seats.

It will be fun interacting with such characters if that series takes off.