Barabati : A Thousand Tales; Cuttack Heritage Walks Completes 50 Editions

Cuttack, July 5: Millennium City, described in Odia literature as ``Kataka Nagara Dhabala Tagara’’ has always remained unique in the minds of Odias in state, country or abroad. So, with a noble mission by creating awareness on the cultural city’s unique heritage and culture, Cuttack Heritage Walks (CHW) has so far completed 50 walks and on the move to create more benchmarks in days to come.

Convener Dipak Samantrai of CHW thinks ``the mission is not only heritage, but connecting to our own city dwellers and achievers, introducing “Cuttack’s history” to school and college students, benefitting small-scale art and craft industries and local vendors, encouraging entrepreneurs and hospitality industry, benefits for the rural mass and employment generation and increasing the flow of tourists and visitors.’’

The heritage walk of CHW is named ``Barabati Beckons’’ as on the last Sunday of every month it starts from near Barabati Fort, the Centre of Governance for the entire region for more than 900 years in the past spanning across the rules of the Gangas, the Gajapathis , the Afghans , the Mughals, the Marathas, and the British. It also involves visiting and covering heritage assets fairly maintained by ASI and remains one of the most popular landmark monument of Odisha.

The two hours of down the memory lane includes the Barabati Palace remains, the Bukhari Baba Mazar, Sahi Quila Masjid,  Museum of Justice, introductions to the dynasties - The Gangas, the Gajapathis , the Afghans , the Mughals , the Marathas, and the British, Wars and conquests at the fort and photo walk sessions by the members.

The walk at times also includes theme-based walks like the story-telling on Silver Filigree (Tarakasi), celebration of Durga Puja and Bali Yatra as two ancient and renowned fairs and festivals celebrated in Cuttack  and colonial monuments etc.

PURPOSE OF CURATION

Dr Samantarai also thinks that ``the unique concept is to bring back the attention of the citizens to who our ancestors were and their contributions, engage with the elder citizens, younger generations and academicians, enhance and revive the tourism to the city, connect with our rich heritage past , the conquests , the governance and the socio-economic fabric of the bygone era.

Apart from the fort walk and Silver Filigree and Durga Puja celebrations, Maritime Heritage Walk is organised to visit the Odisha State Maritime Museum in Jobra with two Hours of site visit to know our 3,000 years of maritime past. It also helps in learning about our ancient trade routes to Bali, Sumatra , Java , Indonesia , Myanmar , Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Odisha State Maritime Museum also includes visit to ``the engineering workshop established by the British for repair and manufacture of lunch and steamer boats and photo walk sessions by the members.’’

WAY FORWARD

Continuing its flagship “Barabati Beckons” heritage walk throughout, outbound unique heritage walks  to connect to more corners of the ancient kingdom like a walk to Prachi Valley and Salepur  in the recent past was just an example of the outbound events. In future more walks will follow to connect more places around Cuttack and beyond.

CHW KHATI

Continuing the ``Khati’’ culture of the city and knowing Cuttack’s achievers, a unique but interactive event CHW Khati has also completed 26 discussions in which personalities from all walks of life, i.e. academics, research, music, literature, conservation, sports, media, art, craft, photography and many more is organised on Sunday evenings.

Founder Member Bikash Das says "Oral history is very much a part of documenting history. We are uploading the recordings on YouTube for storage as well as documentation purposes".

CHW is a citizens' initiative. It has been functioning so far without any governmental support or institution patronage. It has inspired heritage enthusiasts elsewhere to launch similar initiatives.

Noted musician Om Prakash Mohanty says" We welcome collaborations and sponsorships. As a matter of principle we oppose mergers and takeovers".

Senior Member Dilip Das thinks that because of our good fortune we have so much of heritage, the only thing we need to do is love our heritage, caring conservation and preservation will follow automatically.