Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: December 8, 2002
URL: http://147.208.132.198/2002/Dec/08/181_116102,0008.htm
Archaeologists at world-famous Taj
Mahal in Agra have found a formula to save the marble monument from the
corrosive effects of industrial pollution - Multani mitti, an ancient face-pack
recipe consisting of soil, cereal, milk and lime.
The sticky brown mixture, once used
by Indian women to beautify their skin, is smeared on the smut-stained
marble surfaces of the 17th-century Mogul tomb and washed off with warm
water after 24 hours.
The formula, based on a method discovered
in a 16th century Mogul journal Ain-I-Akbary, has proved to have such restorative
qualities that it is now being exported to Italy to clean grimy monuments
there, a report in The Sunday Telegraph said today.
The archaeologists at Taj Mahal
found that the substance, known as Multani mitti, drew black and yellow
impurities from the Taj's marble and left its surface gleaming white for
the first time in decades.
Scientists from a Rome institute
specialising in the study of building preservation travelled to Agra to
see the process for themselves.
They are now developing similar
"face packs" to treat blackened marble statues in Rome and Florence, the
report said.
The mixture has so far been used
to clean interiors of Taj Mahal as well as parts of the gateway and the
four surrounding minarets. Work will soon start on the main structure's
outer surfaces.
It will cost less than 100,000 pounds
to clean the entire Taj Mahal, the report said quoting officials. More
"We have analysed the marble and feel quite happy now that it is withstanding
pollution," he said.
"This breakthrough has attracted
attention from other archaeologists looking for ways to preserve their
monuments."
Multani mitti - which means 'mud
from Multan', an area now in Pakistan where the lime-rich clay was originally
found - was used for thousands of years as a face-pack until the advent
of bottled lotions.
According to the report, archaeologists
hit upon the idea of using the mud-pack when examining ancient records
of Indian buildings.
They discovered that in the 16th
century it was common to use a mud mixture to clean and preserve marble.
There was no record of the recipe, so they adapted the formula for Multani
mitti.
The mud, brushed on in layers until
it is an inch deep, draws out the polluting sulphates and carbonates.
