A Memory In Stone

Cox and his band of chisellers are at work to complete a memorial to Rajiv Gandhi that is to be installed at Vir Bhoomi, the former prime minister's samadhi on the banks of the Yamuna in New Delhi. The Rs 65 lakh project, commissioned by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and which is to be unveiled in July, has been shielded from the media for the last two years and guarded like a state secret.

One of the reasons for the secrecy was the fear that publicity could have sparked off a controversy as to why a foreigner was called in to design a national memorial.

CPWD sources say that the job had been awarded to Cox by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) after a committee had leafed through design concepts submitted by Indian and foregion artist. However, objections were raised by the Narasimha Rao government over the choice of the artist. It was felt that it would not be politically correct to have an Englishman head the project. The RGF's explanation that since Rajiv Gandhi was an international leader it was only appropriate to commission a sculptor of world wide repute-Cox is highly rated in art circles in Britain and also has an enviable track record in designing monuments in Australia, Egypt and England-was not convincing enough. If Cox was to be involved in the project, his name would have to be kept in the background.

Accordingly, the English sculptor was designated as 'consultant' to the project and Arunachalam, a Mahabalipuram-based sculptor who has been executing Cox's major works in black granite and white stones, was roped in as contractor But at the end of the day, the design remains the work of Cox. Says he: "After the work is completed, I can't possibly shy away from the fact that it is mine. The design happens to be mine and the memorial would come up the way I conceptualised it." Arunachalam, a graduate from the local Government College of Architecture and Sculpture, only reaffirms that. "My relationship with Cox is akin to that between an architect and an engineer in any construction job. Cox designed the project and I am executing it."

The brief from the RGF was that the memorial should be unique though simple and subtle in design. Cox had his task clear in his mind. "The idea was to create something which would be simple, direct and not ostentatious," he says.

Spread over 86 square metres, the samadhi will have an outer area and a central square. The outer part was visualised as a white, wavy carpet. The effect was created out of special white stone quarried from Sholingapuram in the North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu. The idea is to create an illusion of an ocean in which 48 lotuses float at varying levels. Rajiv's age at the time of his assassination was 48, and the lotus denotes his name. The ocean in white with the lotuses-each 18 inches in diameter-were chiselled at Mahabalipuram and transported to Delhi last July. This was the relatively easier part of the project.

However the central part, the samadhi proper, posed considerable technical hurdles. To translate Cox's design, a black granite lens--symbolising Rajiv's vision-had to be carved out of a single stone, roughly 10 feet in diameter. The lens would rest on a red stone slab symbolic of the violent assassination. "The lens in polished black granite would, I felt, radiate light as well as possess the solemnity of a samadhi," observes Cox.

Thus, Cox and Arunachalam began a parable-like search. And decided: what better way to deify than to use the black stone from which temple deities are sculpted. After inspecting various sites, a huge 70 tonne block was located at Shankarapuram in Chengalpattu district. The stone was excavated, but it cracked during the process. A second stone was located in a nearby village. While transporting it the axle of the truck broke, damaging the stone. Finally, a third stone was identified but before it could be excavated there was a flash flood in Madras.

Finally, in April they managed to transport the stone to a processing plant 20 km south of Madras. Romi Chopra and Sunita Kohli of the RGF hew down to inspect the stone and give their approval. However the sculptors' problems were not quite over. They were told that no factory in Asia could process a stone of this dimension as a single piece. After hectic discussions with CPWD authorities and the RGF, it was decided that the stone would have to be cut. The samadhi will now be made of 18 pieces--l0 feet by 5 feet blocks of 4 inches thickness each.

For Cox, the work on the memorial has been a challenge and he feels that he has been honoured with the project. But above all else, he is happy he could involve the chisellers of Mahabalipuram. He rates them as 'top class' craftsmen who have kept alive the tradition of south Indian temple art. Says Cox: "It is great to have been working with them all these years and it is good to know that they are involved in this work too."