Withering legacies: A curious tale of India's 'missing' monuments

The CAG inspection could cover only 1,655 monuments on the protected list at the time

In a scene from Satyajit Ray’s mystery-adventure film Sonar Kella (The Fort of Gold), 1971, one of the antagonists says Rajasthan is a state where every nook and cranny hides a fort or monument, and it will be nearly impossible to know which one is the golden fort. The actors of Ray’s cult classic endure several gruelling adventures before they finally realise that they are looking for the Jaisalmer Fort.

Ray’s film reveals an intriguing truth about monuments in India. Despite their near-ubiquitous presence in both urban and rural areas, monuments are not always the easiest structures to locate. Sometimes