During their one century of rule over the State of Jammu and Kashmir, Dogra rulers had raised a rich treasure of precious and rare antiques. As per practice of those days, all these precious antiques were deposited in strong rooms in the Mubarak Mandi complex called Tosha Khana, a Farsi word meaning Treasure House. It is not possible for us to enumerate the precious and unique items in the Treasure House but knowledgeable persons have often said that the rarities are unparalleled. At least this much can be said with fair amount of certainty that the Tosha Khana represented the cultural wealth of all the three regions of the State over which the Dogras ruled and as such has its unique position.
In 2006, fire suddenly broke out in the ToshaKhana damaging some of the structure of the building. However, fortunately, no damage was done to the items preserved in the Tosha Khana. Thereafter authorities decided to shift the entire antiques of Tosha Khana to Civil Secretariat in Jammu which was considered safe. Consequently, a safe room was maintained in the Secretariat building for preserving the antiques. The locking system of the strong room was such as required two sets of keys to be used simultaneously to open the lock. One set of keys was given in the charge of the then Deputy Commissioner Jammu and the other to the Director Hospitality and Protocol, the authority actually holding the charge of the Tosha Khana.
In the mean time a Joint House Committee of the Legislature demanded that it would like to make physical verification of the Tosha Khana and report to the Legislature about its status after the shifting of the material had taken place. Consequently, the two agencies namely Deputy Commissioner of Jammu and the Director of Hospitality and Protocol were summoned to jointly open the locks and throw the Tosha Khana open. Suddenly, it was found that the key with the Deputy Commissioner was missing and the one with the Director Hospitality and Protocol could not function unless both the keys were simultaneously used. Enquiry conducted by the Divisional Commissioner to locate the key has not yielded any result.
This episode gives rise to few questions. The first and foremost is that why, instead of securing the original place of Tosha Khana in the Mubarak Mandi and making foolproof arrangements of preserving the precious items, it was decided to shift the entire treasure to the strong room in the Secretariat. This is contrary to known practice everywhere in the world. A Treasure House is a separate entity and nowhere in the world do we find the antiquities taken out of their original place. Secondly, there seems little sense of unnecessarily shifting the treasure to another place where it would remain locked for all times and not kept open to the visitors so that it could generate some income needed for the maintenance of the antiques.
The proper course would have been to secure Mubarak Mandi against any fire or mishaps and let the Tosha Khana remain as it was. Rather some innovations should have been made to make it available to the visits of tourists and art lovers. The antiques could be kept in strong show cases and glass almirahs in a scientific manner and then there would be a 24×7 guard mounted to protect the antiques. After fixing some amount as visitor’s fee, the entire Tosha Khana would have maintained its pristine purity and originality in original settings. It is evident that moisture and climatic conditions will have bearing on the antiquities and there are apprehensions that some of these might have got damaged just because the Government has not been seriously considering of preserving the rich treasure to perpetuate the history of the Tosha Khana. Everywhere in the world, such treasures are secured in an independent building which ultimately becomes a tourist destination. What is the sense of placing it in the charge of the Department of Hospitality and Protocol?
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