Architectural synthesis at the revenue survey office

History our neighbour

A view of the building from the inner courtyard. Photo courtesy: Sahesra Muguntan

Colonnade on the first floor with slim pointed arches supported by square stone pillars. Photo courtesy: Sahesra Muguntan.

The late 1800s was an interesting time for architecture in India. There was an explosion of construction as new markets, town halls and other public buildings were built in cities around the country. While Mumbai’s buildings showcased the Gothic Revival, in Chennai, architects like Chisholm and Napier championed a new, ‘Indo-Saracenic’ style of architecture.

Bengaluru witnessed a somewhat different architectural drama, thanks to its divided administrative history. From 1831 till the Rendition in 1881, the city was under British administration. Post the Rendition, the city had twin administrations — the old pete areas were under the Mysore Maharaja’s administration, while the British administered the Civil and Military Station.

As a result, the city has inherited buildings from two very different architectural traditions. Colonial engineer-architects tended to choose Classical or neo-Renaissance proportions and styles for their buildings. On the other hand, post the Rendition, public buildings that were erected by the Mysore government showed experimentation, eclecticism, and a synthesis of different styles of architecture.

The building housing the Revenue Survey Offices in Bengaluru’s K R Circle is testimony to this. It is easily one of the most striking buildings in the city and even though road and underpass construction now precludes a complete view of it, it still elicits an admiring glance from motorists stuck at K R Circle.

The plans for this edifice were made in 1889 but it was built and completed only in 1903. Archival records do not mention the architect but it is likely to have been designed by W McHutchin, the Chief Engineer in the Mysore administration at the time, assisted by R T Scaldwell, the Executive Engineer.

The department itself is much older, of course. Its origins go back to the Revenue Survey and Settlement Department which was set up in 1863 by the then Commissioner LB Bowring. The department worked on matters related to taxation on land and agriculture. It initiated the first comprehensive land survey with the help of professional surveyors and also framed survey and settlement rules.

The Revenue Survey Office was only the second building to come up at the circle; the PWD offices were then close to where the Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute stands today.

The Revenue Survey Offices are built of brick and lime-mortar. The double-storeyed structure has a central courtyard and offices around it. The front façade is the cynosure of visitors and passers-by. The lively, curlicued Flemish pediments on the roofline and the distinctively tall windows seem to have been inspired by the Flemish Revival that was in vogue in England from the 1870s till the early 1900s, popularised by architects like Richard Norman Shaw and Everest George.

Most other details in the building take inspiration from local materials and architecture, beginning with the symbol of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom prominently placed in the centre of the Flemish pediment. Sloping eaves and the curved decorative brackets supporting them — both quite local in style — are prominent on the entrance porch, on the roofs and also mark the division between the two floors.

The front elevation is quite remarkable for its pointed arches in the porch, and especially its first-floor arcade of slender pointed arches supported on slim, square stone columns. The projections at either end of the two wings have delightfully decorative cusped arches.

The entrance leads into a large central hall where a grand teakwood staircase with ornate cast-iron balusters sweeps its way up to the first floor. From here, you can see the tall windows of the front façade silhouetted against the light from outside, which shows off their unusual tracery patterns including hexagons, stars and other geometric designs that are typical of Islamic art. Windows and doors in the rest of the building have simple trellis patterns in the glass above them.

Barely half a kilometre away from this elegant building are the all-Classical, decidedly European High Court and Museum, both designed by Richard Sankey before the Rendition. One of the buildings in the Mayo Hall complex which was built just a year after the Revenue Survey Offices also sticks faithfully to a neo-Classical style. And so, you could traverse entire worlds in just a few kilometres in this part of Bengaluru!

(Meera Iyer is the author of ‘Discovering Bengaluru’ and the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter)