Ramappa basks in glory

Warangal: The 800-year-old Ramappa temple, which is an architectural and engineering marvel of the Kakatiya era, is no more just Telangana's pride, as it makes a dream entry into the elite list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. The Ramappa temple's quest for UNESCO tag that began more than five years ago has finally culminated at around 4.35 pm (IST) on Sunday at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee at Fuzhou in China on Sunday. It's sort of Cliff-hanger.

Thanks to Russia's resoluteness in supporting India's nomination despite the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has pointed out certain objections and said that the temple is not yet ready to get the tag despite its universal value. At this juncture, Russia invoked an amendment to the Rules of Procedure that allowed the State Party, India, to speak on its own nomination. This amendment was supported by all the other 21 member countries of the world heritage committee (WHC) except Norway, thus forcing the Chair to bang the gavel, inscribing Ramappa temple as the UNESCO's new addition to the world heritage sites.

Ramappa temple, located in the lap of nature's pristine at Palampet village in Mulugu district, 210 kms northeast of Hyderabad, was built in 1213 AD by Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra during the reign of Kakatiya King Ganapati Deva.

This is perhaps the only temple in the country to be known by the name of its sculptor, Ramappa, rather than after the presiding deity, Rudreshwara Swamy. The temple that stands majestically on a 6-ft high star shaped platform is often described as the brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples of the Deccan. The temple reflects a repository of Kakatiyan creative genius, with intricate carvings adorning the walls, pillars and ceilings of this marvellous edifice. The universal value of the temple is that it was built with bricks so light that they can float on water, a creative masterpiece of that time. The temple is also known for many wonders such as sand box foundations and exquisite carvings. The temple withstood many wars, invasions and natural calamities.

The Quest for Protection

♥ Constitution of steering committee of the stakeholders for the promotion of Kakatiya monuments as World Heritage sites through GO N0. 415 dated 01/05/2010.

♥ Prof M Panduranga Rao highlighted the Kakatiya heritage monuments and the necessity of including them in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites at a workshop on "Revision of Tentative List for India', organised by the ASI Chennai Circle and Department of Tourism, Tamil Nadu, in consultation with the Advisory Committee on World Heritage Matters (ACWHM) in 2012.

♥ Preparation of nomination dossier for Ramappa temple to be included in the World Heritage Sites list. It may be noted here that although the authorities had included 1,000 Pillars temple and Fort Warangal in the dossier, they had to exclude them due to noncompliance of World Heritage norms and went with projecting Ramappa temple.

♥ First time dossier was submitted to UNESCO in 2016.

♥ Second dossier submitted in 2017.

♥ Pointing out that the dossier submitted was incomplete as it failed to explain the importance of the nominated property in its international context, the World Heritage Committee (WHC) had asked the authorities to re-do chapter-3 of the dossier in 2018.

♥ The authorities submitted the revised dossier after redoing the chapter-3 seeking the expertise of Dr Choodamani Nandagopal , Art Historian, UNESCO Fellow Dean Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Jain University Bengaluru, in 2018. With the Government of India preferring Jaipur as India's nomination for 2018, Ramappa temple's proposal had to fall back in the race.

♥ In 2019, Ramappa temple has been projected as India's only nomination.

♥ Secretary-General of the ICOMOS Vasu Poshyanandan of Thailand made an assessment of the structural and cultural elegance of the temple in September 2019.

♥ The Indian delegation's presentation before the ICOMOS in Paris November 2019.

♥ The Telangana Government constitutes a management committee at State-level and Palampet Special Development Authority at local level in July 2021.

♥ The final evaluation of the proposal by the member countries of the World Heritage Committee at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee at Fuzhou in China on Sunday.