Hyderabad: Efforts on to get UNESCO Heritage tag for Menhirs at Mudumal soon

Hyderabad: The Minister for Culture, V Srinivas Goud, expressed his desire of obtaining the World Heritage Tag for the Menhirs site at Mudumal through the efforts of study, documentation, and conservation. He announced that the responsibility has been entrusted to the Deccan Heritage Academy Trust (DHAT) in collaboration with the Department of Heritage, Telangana.

The Minister handed over the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to DHAT’s Secretary, K Prabhakar, during a ceremony attended by Ramulu Naik, Deputy Director of the Department of Heritage Telangana, and other experts. To facilitate the project, an expert team has been formed comprising Veda Kumar Manikonda, Chairman of DHAT, Prof K P Rao from the University of Hyderabad, Dr N Taher (Retd) from the Archaeological Survey of India, SriramojuHaragopal, Convenor of KTCB, Ch BabjiRao (Retd) Deputy Superintending Archaeologist, JBR Architecture College, Moinabad, and an official representative from the Department of Heritage Telangana and Narayanpet district administration. The team will also engage with historians, archaeologists, experts, and the local community throughout the study.

The project is scheduled to commence with on-site observations on Wednesday, coinciding with the summer solstice when the sun reaches its northernmost point in the northern hemisphere. Mudumal is a remarkable archaeological site featuring 80 tall standing stones known as Menhirs, along with numerous alignment stones. It is the largest site of its kind in South Asia and includes the earliest depiction of the star constellation 'Ursa Major' or 'Saptarshi Mandal' in the region.

The arrangement of stones in rows facing different directions aligns with the rising and setting sun on various days, particularly during the summer and winter solstices. DHAT has already conducted multiple visits to the site since November 2021, collaborating with the Department of Heritage Telangana and Narayanpet district administration to gather factual information for the study.