The heritage cemetery

This is certainly one structure that you would rarely visit. You would have seen it scores of time when you passed by it but you would have barely given it a second glance.

Though it has a close bond with the British, you would not be mistaken for giving it a go by for this is cemetery and it connects with Bangalore’s past.

This cemetery is called the Agaram Protestant Cemetery and it is located between the ASC Centre and the KSRP parade grounds. It is more than 200 years old and there are more than 84 graves of British soldiers and civilians here.

Better known as the Agaram cemetery, it has graves dating back to 1808. It lies on the Defence land and civilians are generally not allowed inside. However, years of neglect has taken its toll and the cemetery is in need of  renovation.

The ASC, MEG and former Chief of  Navy, India,  O. S. Dawson, have been in the forefront of the restoration project.

The cemetery was in use till 1870 after which it was stopped. It was finally abandoned in 1920. The graves here reflect many styles and designs and we can find the names of S Mullenex and Nelson, the undertakers, who built them.

Most of the graves are constructed with large granite slabs and each grave has its own tale to tell. The oldest grave is of 1808 and belongs to Sgt. Major Kelly, HM 59th Regiment of Foot.    

There are two huge columns at the entrance of the cemetery. Each of the “Ionic columns” stand on a square base, about 40 feet in height. The column nearest the gate has four slabs with inscriptions and the other slab facing North has an inscription.

Some of the gravestones were used to construct a dividing line between the KSRP parade ground and the cemetery. This cemetery thus tells a tale of Bangalore’s history. This is thus a heritage cemetery which need caring from Bangaloreans.

Once upon a time..........Agaram

The name Agaram today is associated with a lake, British era cemeteries and nothing more. It is today a part of the Shantinagar constituency in Bangalore.

But did you know that several decades ago, Shantinagar did not exists and that Agaram was the hub of  the British presence in India.

Look up Agaram on the city map and you will be mostly directed to the lake or to the cemeteries which house several graves dating back to 200 years or more.

The cemetery here , which is now closed, was used by Protestants till 1870. Agaram was also a part of the earliest Cantonment base in the city.

While today’s Cantonment came up in 1809, Agaram too developed along the same lines a little later. It was ringed at one place by Bellandur lake where the seafaring Catalina planes would land during the period of the second World War. These planes would then be towed to the nearby HAL Airport where they would be kept under warps in hangers.

The original Agaram was a vast and extensive ground to the South-East which was accessible only by a single road passing through the Military establishments.

The plains were used in the 1920s as a practice ground for the Royal Artillery of the British Indian Army. A little further down was the Military Grass Farm. The farm exists even today as Military farm but it is being closed along with the farm at Hebbal.

A portion of the plain was used as an aerodrome for aeroplanes that frequently visited the Air Station. In the 1920s the Dutch fliers who came down to Bangalore gave the residents an air ride in return for small change.

The aerodrome was used till a decade back for motor sports and cars and two-wheelers went around the temporary circuit of the runaway. This was, however, discontinued.

Today all that remains of this exciting time is the road  which leads to several high rise apartments. The water that flows into the nearby Agaram lake is filthy with chemicals and biomedical waste.

Another feather in Agaram’s cap was that as early as in 1803, the British laid out a horse track for conducting racing in Bangalore. This track was on what is Hosur Road today.

The horse races continued here till 1863 when the land was exchanged for the present place on Race Course Road. The original race course on Hosur Road was then quickly handed over to the Military and to this day it remains with them.

The establishment of the Cantonment and Agaram led to the death of India sports and pastimes and at the same time popularised sports such golf, polo, cricket, horse riding. Indian sports such as Vajra Musti, Malla Yudha went into steady decline.    

The polo and golf clubs were started in 1855 and 1876.  respectively. In fact, the Bangalore Golf Club is the second oldest in India after the one at Kolkata. The Race Course too is one of the oldest as is the Race Club.

Racing, however, remained an aristocratic sport till the 1870s. The advent of  Book Mayer and Pari Mutual brought in the common man in droves.

Today, all that remains of Agaram are the cemeteries, military establishments and a lake and of course the postal address with the name of a road.