Protecting the Past, Shaping the Future: Across the Deccan

Across the Deccan, heritage continues to inspire new work for the DHF and present fresh ways of understanding the region. This month, we are announcing a new project in Lakkundi, and updates from our ongoing conservation, education and outreach work in Mysuru, Bidar and Anegundi. In the United States, George Michell is delivering lectures about our latest publication, before travelling to the UK and then returning to India at the end of the year. As always, we are grateful for your continued support and engagement with the DHF. 

Banner image: Bahmani tombs of Ashtoor, Bidar, Karnataka. Photograph by Maniyarasan.

The Discovery of Chalukya Artefacts:
A New Open-Air Museum in Lakkundi

Over the years, local residents have unearthed more than 2,000 fragments of Lakkundi’s architectural past while digging the foundations of their homes. Through collection drives, these fragments have now been brought together and contributed to the Government of Karnataka, which has commissioned the DHF to document the artefacts and consult on a new open-air museum to house them.

Remnants of a Kirtimukha at Lakkundi. Photograph by Sai Charan Palakurthi.

Spread across three acres, the museum will bring these fragments back into the landscape in which they belong, giving visitors a way to explore Lakkundi’s Kalyana Chalukya architectural innovation and its wider cultural and intellectual legacy. Digital technology will help reconstruct the original context of the fragments and reveal how architectural ideas from Lakkundi travelled across the Deccan, influencing the Kakatiyas, Yadavas and Hoysalas.

China Mosaic Floors & Antique Playing Cards at Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, Mysuru

Meanwhile, in Mysuru, conservation work is moving forward at the 120-year-old Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion & Folklore Museum. The architectural restoration and art conservation teams worked together to safely lift and protect sections of the historic China mosaic flooring using a specialised facing technique. This allows new utility pipes to be installed underneath without damaging the original artistry.

Chinese mosaic flooring, Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, Mysuru. Photograph by Sai Charan Palakurthi.

Inside JVM’s conservation lab, the team continues to work on the museum’s extensive collection. They are currently focusing on a set of antique Ganjifa playing cards. Their flaking paint is being carefully stabilised, while the traditional round, hand-painted cards, decorated with bright colours and detailed mythological figures, are being cleaned at high magnification to remove years of accumulated dust that have obscured the original pigments.

In the lab at Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, Mysuru. Videos by Maniyarasan & Team.

We thank the Harish & Bina Shah Foundation (HBSF), Aikyam Foundation, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation and the University of Mysore, whose support is helping restore JVM and its collections and transform it into a modern, state-of-the-art museum in Mysuru.

Medieval Tombs in Bidar

The DHF has begun the second phase of a digital documentation project at Ashtoor, just outside Bidar in Karnataka, documenting the 15th-century royal necropolis of the Bahmani sultans. Building on an initial phase completed with the Madrid-based Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation, we are mapping the entire complex to understand the relationships between its monuments, while also creating detailed records of individual tombs in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Rare murals cover Sultan Ahmad Shah Wali’s tomb, while exceptional mosaic tilework lines the mausoleum of Alauddin Ahmad Shah. The broken dome of Sultan Humayun’s tomb, which was struck by lightning, is surrounded by stories of divine punishment for the ruler’s misdeeds.

By combining aerial and terrestrial photography, the project will culminate in a detailed archive of the site’s material, geometry, ornament, condition and context for future generations of scholars and conservationists.

Ashtoor, Bidar, Karnataka. Image 1 by Maniyarasan & Team. Image 2-5: Screen capture of the data processing. Image 2 courtesy Factum Foundation © Imran Khan.

Dance Comes to Gagan Mahal, Anegundi

At the heart of the DHF’s work is finding meaningful ways for people to engage with the heritage around them. In Anegundi village, we partnered with the local Chandrakala Bhoomi Trust to launch a dance residency at Gagan Mahal, a 16th-century Vijayanagara pavilion that we restored in 2022 and continue to manage under the Government of Karnataka’s ‘Adopt a Monument’ scheme.

Led by choreographer Anjana Devi, the residency welcomed its first dancers, who developed and performed a new contemporary piece inspired by the pavilion’s architecture and atmosphere. Alongside the residency, the Trust has been running weekend dance classes for children from Anegundi. The classes have become a gathering in themselves, with local women preparing and sharing home-cooked food at the end of each session.

It is wonderful to see Gagan Mahal becoming a place where people can come together to learn, create and spend time, and where a historic space is once again becoming part of village life.

Dance performance at Gagan Mahal, Anegundi, Karnataka. Photograph by Indrajeet Sawant

Events

Our co-founder Dr. George Michell is on a lecture tour in the US with his book City of Victory: Hampi Vijayanagara. Having spoken at the Consulate General of India, Chicago and the Flint Institute of Arts, he will next travel to the UK, where he will be giving a talk at the Royal Asiatic Society, London on November 3.

A leading authority on South Asian architecture, George co-authored the book on one of the world’s most extraordinary archaeological landscapes with the late archaeologist John M. Fritz. It features black-and-white photographs by John Gollings, some of which are also available as limited edition prints on our website.

George Michell at the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan. 

Thank you for your continued engagement with the DHF. We look forward to bringing you the latest updates about our ongoing projects, initiatives and publications across the Deccan.