It was once a prosperous City
that Tipu Sultan, the
tiger of Mysore ,
founded. It was on the banks of the Cauvery. No, it was not Srirangapatna but a
suburban town that Tipu built when he conquered Sira, near Bangalore .
After the sacking of Sira and
the defeat of its ruler, Tipu forced the people of the once thriving town to
migrate to another town, many miles away. This was the town of Shehar
Ganjam that he built on the outskirts of Sriranapatna.
Tipu ensured that Shehar
Ganjam was well-populated. The city was planned well and it was adjacent to
Daria Daulat, his summer palace on one side and Gumbaz, where his father was
buried, on the other.
Ganjam had four major roads
and it was bisected by smaller roads. Tipu grew several fruits and flowering
plants and trees around the town and also encouraged gold and silver smiths.
Soon, Ganjam came to be known as the foremost jewellery centre of south India
and it rivaled Hyderebad in the design and production of jewellery.
The tradition of jewellery
became so synonymous that people called it by the name of the City-Ganjam. The
royal patronage endured that artisans and gold and silver smiths apart from
jewellery designers flocked to the suburb of Srirangapatna.
There are records to indicate
that much of Tipu’s gold and silver
jewellery and the jewellery at the royal treasury came from Ganjam. Of course,
there were also spoils of war. But the royal treasury and also the jewellery
and ornaments of the high-ranking nobles and courtiers came from Ganjam.
At its peak and this was
during the heydays of Tipu, Ganjam was peopled by 12,000 artisans. Ganjam then
was also known for its clothes, paper and manufacture of stringed musical
instruments.
Ganjam suffered a serious
setback in 1799 when the marauding British and Nizam forces set camp at Gajnam
and at Karighatta hill. They destroyed the fort of Ganjam and also hacked the
magnificent garden and orchards developed by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.
Many people, including
traders and jewelers fled from Ganjam. After Tipu died in 1799 in the fourth
and final Anglo-Mysore war, the gold trade of Ganjam received a setback. When
the Wodeyars were handed over the Kingdom
of Mysore and the sons of Tipu imprisoned in the Vellore fort, there were fears that Ganjam
would lose its importance.
For some time, this proved
true as the political uncertainty of the Mysore Kingdom
led to a decline in the trade. However, once the political situation stabilised
and the Wodeyars shifted their Kingdom to Mysore
from Srirangapatna, the trade in gold and jewellery picked up again.
Over time, the artisans of
Ganjam made the jewellery so famous that it rivaled the reputation of Surat . Thus if Surat came to be known for
its trade in diamonds, Ganjam earned famed for its signature jewellery.
The intricate design and the
many patterns of Ganjam jewellery made its stand out against jewellery from
other centres. During the Wodeyar rule from 1799, Ganjam once again regained
its prominence as the primary manufacturing and trading centre of jewellery.
Ironically, the final nail in
the coffin of Ganjam came after India
attained Independence
from the British-the very dream that drove Tipu to battle the British. The
modernisation of the jewellery making process and the sophisticated equipments
used in the manufacture of jewellery and the mechanisation of its process
sounded the deathknell of the Ganjam jewellery industry.
The local jewelers and
designers slowly but surely went out of business as orders became far and few.
Imitation jewellery and import of gold coupled with high prices of gold and
lack of Government support routed the once prosperous small-scale industry.
Where Ganjam once had
hundreds of artisans and designers, none survived. Today, it is hard to spot
even a single jewellery shop in Ganjam and of course of the designers and
makers there is none.
Today, Ganjam survives only
as the name of jewellery shops. Of the once thriving trade and commerce centre,
there is not a whiff. All we can see is the Gumbaz and the Daria Daulat and
sandwiched between them is the village
of Ganjam .
Today, thousands of tourists
make a beeline to Ganjam to see the Sangam, the Daria Daulat and the Gumbaz.
Very few of them know the Ganjam as a prime jewellery manufacturing and
designing centre which brought name and fame.
Ganjam is just two kilometers
from Srirangapatna, 17 km from
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