By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Picking up the thread of my last week’s narration about the historic Lushington Bridge at Shivanasamudra and my dismay at its botched up restoration in the present era, I would like to take you back by two centuries and give you some refreshingly different and very interesting information from its glorious past. 

You may recall that I had said last week that I had written about this bridge once before some years ago. Yes I had and very soon after I wrote about it I received a phone call from Mrs. Tara Ravikumar, a seventh generation descendant of Ramaswami Mudaliar, an officer under the British Government who nearly two centuries ago had almost rebuilt and restored the bridge across the Cauvery River with the expertise and skills of the local stone masons. She had called up to say that her family still had in its possession the Sanad or endowment document that gave Ramaswami Mudaliar a large Jagir or permanent endowment of many villages and vast stretches of land as a reward for the good act of public service that he did in his time, now making him a Jagirdar. She had added that she also had in her possession a medal of honour given on behalf of the then British Governor General. 

Although I had told her that I was most eager to see these two extremely valuable artefacts, I somehow never got around to doing it. Though the two of us would occasionally meet each other at functions like weddings and book releases and she would always remind me about my pending visit to her place, my visit itself had never materialised. That was until last Thursday when it had to materialise if I had to write about the bridge the next day! So my wife and I hurriedly dropped in on her to see the two objects which have been preserved remarkably, in mint condition even as they have travelled through six generations! 

The Sanad written in a most beautiful and flawless longhand, without a single correction whatsoever is an imposingly large scroll of crisp parchment which I was scared to touch or handle for fear of spoiling its pristine condition, although Tara most graciously asked me to go ahead and take a closer look! But I did not have the courage and decided that I would just quickly click a few photographs of it while she and my wife carefully held it open. 

It places on record not only the grant of the absolute rights and the title of the Jagir granted to Ramaswami Mudaliar by the Governor General at Madras but it also extensively lists in great detail the names and locations of the villages and the extents of the lands around them with their survey numbers! 

The document is authenticated by an impressive wax seal of authority which although naturally a little cracked by the passage of the two centuries it has silently seen, is still completely intact! Just to safeguard the two of her most priceless possessions I told Tara to desist from showing them to the many eager people who may naturally approach her for the favour after reading my article about them. I only hope she will be able to do it!   

The golden medal too is no less impressive, being a large and heavy nugget, hand crafted and hand engraved painstakingly, with a synopsis on one side of what the document says in much greater detail. On its other side it has an engraving of the curved bridge itself with the towers of the two temples that still stand with it even to this day. 

The curve is crucial here because the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society places on record the fact that Ramaswami while writing to his superiors about the design of the bridge has made a mention of it as a feature he has incorporated in its design to enable it to better resist and withstand the onslaught of floodwaters during the peak of the monsoon. A really marvellous incorporation indeed in a bygone era of an engineering technique that we now find in almost every one of our dams built in the modern era which happen to be invariably curved rather than straight! 

The inscription on the medal reads: “Political Department, Bangalore, 9th, October, 1834. His Excellency the Rt Honourable Govr GENERAL of India in council Being desirous of testifying his sense of the public spirit manifested by Ramasawmy Moodelliar at having at a great Expense restored the ancient Bridges across the Cauvery River at Siva Samoodram has been pleased to resolve that the Individual & his lineal descendants shall be permitted to be eligible to affix to their names the TITLE of “Iunapacara Curtas” signifying One who Confers a Benefit on the public. In COMMEMORATION of which this Medal has been struck and is presented to RAMASAWMY MOODELLIAR by his sincere friend John Sullivan during whose official charge of the province of Coimbatoor these useful works were undertaken.” 

Now my friends, that is not all. This was what an appreciative and grateful administration did to recognise and place on record the services of a sincere and hard-working officer for going beyond the call of his duty and doing much good to his people. But I feel that the way in which the humble inhabitants of the Island of Shivanasamudra to whom he provided some much needed connectivity with the rest of the world, went a step further and honoured the man merits a mention here. 

They made him a demi-God and placed him alongside their principal presiding deity, whom they all worshipped, day in and day out. That is why if you happen to visit the imposing Ranganathaswamy Temple at Shivanasamudra you will still find the images of Ramaswami Mudaliar and his wife, both carved from a single stone, standing there, draped in silken attire. The villagers adorn them with fragrant flowers and worship them too, even to this day, just like they have been worshipping their God over the centuries, with bowed heads, trembling lips and folded hands! That is the kind of simple and humble gratitude that dwells unchanged over the centuries in our rustic souls!

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