Secret Chamber

KOLKATA: National Library has always been reputed to haunted. Now, here is a really eerie secret. A mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors.

The chamber has lain untouched for over two centuries. Wonder what secrets it holds. The archaeologists who discovered it have no clue either, their theories range from a torture chamber, or a sealed tomb for an unfortunate soul or the most favoured of all a treasure room. Some say they wouldn't be surprised if both skeletons and jewels tumble out of the secret room.

Belvedere House as the National Library building was known during the Raj was among the many buildings Mir Jafar built in Alipore in the 1760s after he was forced to abdicate his throne in Murshidabad. He gifted it to the first Governor General of India, Lord Warren Hastings. What happened to the house between 1780, when Hastings is said to have sold it, and 1854, when it became the official residence of the Lt Governor of Bengal, is uncertain. But from 1854 to 1911, Belvedere housed a number of Lt Governors till the British capital shifted toDelhi.

After Independence, the National Library (which was then in Esplanade) was shifted to Belvedere House. Since the Belvedere House is of great architectural and heritage value, the treasure of books has been shifted to a new building on the 30-acre campus while the old building is getting restored.

The ministry of culture that owns the National Library decided to get the magnificent building restored by the Archaeological Survey of India since it is heavily damaged. Work has already started. It was while taking stock of the interior and exterior of the building that ASI conservation engineers stumbled upon a blind enclosure' on the ground floor, about 1000 square feet in size.

A lot of effort has been made to locate an opening so that experts can find out exactly what it was built for or what it contains. But there is not a single crack to show.

"We've searched every inch of the first floor area that forms the ceiling of this enclosure for a possible trap door. But found nothing. Restoration of the building will remain incomplete if we are not able to assess what lies inside this enclosure," said deputy superintending archaeologist of ASI, Tapan Bhattacharya. "We've come across an arch on one side of the enclosure that had been walled up. Naturally speculations are rife," said another archaeologist.

Was it used as a punishment room by Hastings or one of the Lt Governors who succeeded him? It was common practice among the British to "wall up" offenders in "death chambers". Some sources say this enclosure has exactly the same look and feel. The British were also known to hide riches in blind chambers as this.

"It could be just about anything. Skeletons and treasure chests are the two things that top our speculations because it is not natural for a building to have such a huge enclosure that has no opening. We cannot break down a wall, considering the importance of the building. So we have decided to bore a hole through the wall to peer inside with a searchlight," said D V Sharma, regional director, ASI.

National Library authorities have written to the ministry of culture seeking permission for this. "The ASI cannot drill into a building of such great historical significance as this without permission. So we facilitated this as caretakers of the building," said director of National Library, Swapan Chakravorty.

Mystery Surrounds Library`s Secret Chamber

Secret Chamber

A secret chamber, left untouched for centuries, has been discovered by archaeologists in Kolkata. The chamber, located deep within a massive library said to be haunted, has no entrances from any angle yet has been confirmed to be an undiscovered and secret room. What will explorers find when the walls come down? If the library's history is any indicator, this could prove to be quite an interesting case indeed. Could this room be the secret to the ghosts that have been haunting National Library since it was built almost 250 years ago?
The chamber, reportedly included in the original building plans but then forgotten about for centuries, could have any number of things in it. Speculation has abounded that the room could have originally been a torture chamber that was sealed over in the Victorian era or a tomb ala Edgar Allen Poes "A Casque of Amantillado."

It's also possible, some working with the library have said with baited breath, that the room could contain a long lost treasure from the library. And yet the ghosts haunting the corridors of this old building may bear a striking clue that this room could contain a number of dead bodies - long turned to skeletons as the ravages of time ticked away.

It's certainly not unheard of for members of royalty to create massive rooms for the purpose of hiding away treasure, or walling up those who had wronged royalty in a cruel and terrifying show of power. In this case, such an old room may actually provide answers to any number of historical questions. If it were treasure, the library would not likely be able to sell it due to its historical importance. Rather, it would likely donate such objects to a museum in order to preserve the history of the origins of the building. After all, libraries are a place where one goes to seek answers to mysteries. But in this case, it appears the library is also a place where mystery can be found in abundance.
But there are other possibilities as well. What hidden relics of the past could possibly be discovered in this secret chamber? Archaeologists are awaiting approval to get a small light inserted into the wall with an attached camera to snake through and search the room. It appears the only known way of getting through into the mystery chamber would be by use of a small camera and light. So far all searches for a secret door have turned up nothing. Even the floors and ceilings of the approximate area around the structure have been searched thoroughly with no success.
The idea of a secret room in a haunted library with a secret room has been featured in a number of mystery novels. And such a room has always been the subject of interest in popular culture, even if they are rare to find. The question of what exists in this room, however, will likely be something that will be haunting us until answers are released. We can only wait to see if what the room contains will prove even more haunting.

RBut there are other possibilities as well. What hidden relics of the past could possibly be discovered in this secret chamber? Archaeologists are awaiting approval to get a small light inserted into the wall with an attached camera to snake through and search the room. It appears the only known way of getting through into the mystery chamber would be by use of a small camera and light. So far all searches for a secret door have turned up nothing. Even the floors and ceilings of the approximate area around the structure have been searched thoroughly with no success.
The idea of a secret room in a haunted library with a secret room has been featured in a number of mystery novels. And such a room has always been the subject of interest in popular culture, even if they are rare to find. The question of what exists in this room, however, will likely be something that will be haunting us until answers are released. We can only wait to see if what the room contains will prove even more haunting.