Durbar Hall - before and after renovation

An erstwhile kingdom and the emerging galleries

Renu Ramanath

April was the month of jumbo shows in Kochi.  Fifteen artists for ‘New Gujarat Contemporaries,’ at the Gallery OED. Twenty five for ‘Pastiche,’ the first anniversary show of Chaithanya Art Gallery. And, to top it all, an impressive array of 39 of the weightiest names of contemporary Indian art, lined up by Sakshi Gallery, which had brought its prestigious annual show down south.

The opening of ‘The Sakshi Show,’ at the imposing central hall of the Durbar Hall Art Centre saw quite an assemblage of India’s contemporary artdom. Some one remembered it was for the first time after the opening night of ‘Double Enders,’ in 2005 that the Durbar Hall was setting stage for such a confluence of contemporary Indian artists. (That night in December, 2005, the whole area of the two-storeyed Durbar Hall Art Centre was literally teeming with people from all walks of life.)

Sipping soft drinks along the deep verandah of the Durbar Hall lined with massive pillars (sorry, no wine allowed at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi’s prestigious gallery space) one artist from Mumbai exclaimed, “Oh ! never thought Kochi was such a big city ! And so clean !” My eyes met those of another Mumbai artist, hailing from Kerala, our looks telling the same thing, “BIG ? And CLEAN, you call this little, aspiring metro of ours ?” 

On second thoughts it dawned upon me, that’s true. Kochi is clean. We don’t have slums inhabiting the pavements, though we may occasionally have heaps of garbage dotting the junctions. And, Kochi is a city. May be, I also realised, the aforementioned artist friend (who was not exactly new to Kochi) was seeing the city-side of Kochi for the first time.

Now, for the sake of those who are not familiar with the geography of this ‘Queen of Arabian Sea,’ what is popularly known outside of Kerala as ‘Kochi,’ or ‘Cochin,’ is actually made up of two geographical locations, one lying on the main land, and the other, located across the bridge (or, bridges !) The mainland, known as Ernakulam, is the city. And the land across the bridges, which constitutes the Fort Kochi and Mattancherry areas, familiar through the touristy brochures, is the ‘Western Kochi,’ (‘Paschima Kochi’ in Malayalam newspaper jargon).

Ernakulam is the aspiring metropolis, while the Western Kochi is the ailing cousin (or, step children, who suffer for the sake of the mainlanders, as the residents accuse). Tourists flock to the Fort Kochi, to relish the quaint, old world charm preserved carefully for the sake of their eyes. There you have a pool of quietness. But the city of Ernakulam hardly stops for anyone. And it has a space for everyone. Somewhat like Mumbai.

Speaking of Ernakulam and Fort Kochi, a little sprinkling of local history would add some more zing. Hardly anyone outside Kerala (even within Kerala), knows that both had belonged to two different ‘countries’ at one time ! It’s true. During the British period, one was a princely State, and the other was under direct British rule, part of the Malabar district of the Madras State. In fact, Fort Kochi was the first European colonial settlement in India, ruled successively by the Portuguese, the Dutch and lastly, by the British.

The kingdom of Kochi (or Goshree, according to the Sanskritised version), dates back to the 12th Century A.D., and has a complicated and blurred history which can be constructed only out of myths, legends and fables as well as a few surviving manuscripts that are more or less a collection of all the aforementioned.  The written records of the Royal Family of Cochin begin only from A.D.1503.  The kings of Kochi, who never had opulence to flash about (contrary to the general image of the Indian ‘Rajah-s’), were erudite patrons of scholarly pursuits.

Till Independence, Fort Kochi remained the British outpost, with adjascent Mattancherry continued to be under the kings of Kochi, housing the ‘Dutch Palace’ of the Royal Family of Cochin. It is said that the two ‘countries’ were separated by a single canal flowing between Mattancherry and Fort Kochi.

Now, coming back to where we left – to the deep verandah of the Durbar Hall Art Centre. ‘What was this building before ?’ some one was asking. Most people didn’t know.

It was the Durbar Hall (Royal Courthouse) of the kings of Cochin. Many offices of the Maharaja of Kochi functioned from there, including the office of the Electricity Department. The building later went through many avatars, changed hands many times, housing innumerable Government departments and court houses, including a Mobile Court and the National Cadet Corps Office, before being handed over to the Department of Archeology. Then, the ground floor was converted into the Pareekshith Thampuran Memorial Museum of Archeology. The upper storey of the building was handed over to the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi in 1989 and the Gallery of Contemporary Art was opened in 1991 in the enclosed first floor corridor, with the central hall displaying the Akademi’s permanent collection.

In 1992, the whole of the building was handed over to the Akademi, but the Museum staff balked, refusing to move out of the city. A court case followed, freezing the proceedings for years. The Akademi, or Ajayakumar, the then Secretary, started a long battle.

When I visited the Museum to prepare a story for The Hindu in 1998, I was shocked. It  was the saddest apology of a Museum I had ever seen. Manned by a staff that never had any inkling of what ‘Archeology,’ meant, the museum had rooms steeped in semi-darkness.  The man in charge gave a blank stare to my enquiry about the Venetian tiles decorating the central hall of the ground floor. He was clueless. I made a faithful report.

In 1998, the entire building was handed over to the Akademi and the Durbar Hall Art Centre was opened in 2000, after extensive and careful renovation.

Gazing lazily at the lush, rolling green lawns and tree-lined walkways of the Durbar Hall Grounds that stretch from the Durbar Hall, no one would ever guess the filthy dumping yard it had been, prior to the renovation in 2002 !  Yes, those two acres had also been  rescued by the city authorities, providing the perfect setting for the magnificent building, in a rare incident of different departments working towards enhancing each other’s attempts at city beautification.

Thus was set the stage for Kochi’s  emergence as a happening place in contemporary art. The mainland Kochi, though it can hardly boast of heritage structures except for some Government offices, the Govt. Maharaja’s College and of course, the Durbar Hall, has been seeing a lot of increased art activity these days. ISHKA, another new gallery, opened up at Cannon Shed Road this month. A couple of smaller spaces are already operating in this part of the city, popularly known as Ernakulam South, notwithstanding the soaring real estate rates.

May the souls of the scholarly kings of Kochi rest in peace, contented with the new role of their old court house !