By
Kaushal Kishore
Materials Engineer, Roorkee
Two lions in sitting position on both sides of Ganga Canal between Roorkee and 2.5 kilometres away at Mehwar village were build during 1840. The fifth lion statue was installed in Sher Kothi, Roorkee, where Cautley used to live.
It is said the lions are similar in structure to the ones erected in Trafalgar square London. They are made of black granite while the lions in Roorkee are of bricks, lime- surkhi mortar. The Mason’s and other artisan’s must be from Roorkee and other places of India whose hands have made our great structures but we never know their names though their contribution in any construction is not less than other staff.
The lion statues between Roorkee and Mehwar village are built as a mark of danger zone as between these two places lot of land fillings had to be done for the canal to keep the required level.
The lions flanking the entrance of the IIT Roorkee main building were likely to be erected around 1846.
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