CONSERVATION OF MONUMENTS IN INDIA BY A.K. SESHADRI (HARDCOVER) OLD BOOK

India has a rich cultural heritage in the form of temples, forts, palaces, churches and mosques. The monuments of different types are spread all over the country. These edifices are being protected in order to preserve the artistic and historic value and pass them on to the posterity. The causes for decay are so complex and the reasons are varied and therefore the job of a conservation specialist has become tough. The conservation process varies from simple repair or maintenance to the highly complicated nature. It requires greater emphasis on documentation, identification, evaluation of tactics, selection or required techniques, implementation in a systematic way, monitoring, etc. Keeping the requirement laid down by codes of practice and principles besides the laws of protection framed years back. In this work, the stages of work, the materials used in the construction or repair and the evaluation of the work form the essential characters. The work done in the select buildings or monuments as per the principles laid down in agamic texts and the conservation codes have been analysed. In order to retain the original characters of the structures, the foundation inscriptions as well as the sequence or continuity of records in the various parts of a monument, care has been taken to preserve them. As a complimentary to the preservation methods, this work traces reference in the inscriptional texts to the conservation work of the ancient days. The subject embarked in the book mainly deals with the methods of structural repairs, reconstruction and transplantation besides maintenances and minor repairs. The cultural heritage gains importance on account of the environmental development of the ancient structures envisaged from time to time. The steps taken to protect the structures from saline action, soil rosion, floods, etc., in the historical perspecteive and the executioin of horticulture works in and around the monuments are outlined in detail. The subject is quite interesting and the main conservators, scholars and art lovers.