Showing posts with label Heritage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heritage. Show all posts

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Rig Veda in UNESCO Heritage List

Memory of the World Register’ was setup 15 years ago by UNESCO to list documentary heritage of outstanding value. The international advisory committee of UNESCO for this register added 38 new entries, after a meeting on Wednesday in Pretoria, South Africa. Rig Veda copies are amongst them.

The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Pune, has 30 Manuscripts of the Rig Veda, in the archives. These have been added to a UNESCO listing of the most important documents from around the world.

Bhandarkar's M G Dadhphale said “These were the very manuscripts referred to by German scholar Max Mueller, who first translated the Vedas into English. These manuscripts link our oldest text with the modern world.”

Friday, December 29, 2006

Rebuilding the History : Thousand Pillar Temple


Archaeological Survey of India, is rebuilding the history by reconstructing the 900 year old dilapidated structure of famous thousand pillar temple in Warangal, Tamilnadu.

Built in Kakatiya dynasty period, they used wide pits filled with sand as the base to support their rock constructions, unlike the pillar-based construction technique used at present. Experts say, that is the main reason for collapse of the structure, as the sand moved entire structure gets collapsed.

The restoration project will cost Rs 3.5 crore, has been designed by the National Institute of Technology in Warangal and the Archaeological Survey of India hopes to complete it by June 2008.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Forts of Maharashtra


Maharashtra is home to the largest number of military forts in India – many of them over 300 years old. But most of them are falling apart.

The forts in Raigarh, Maharashtra could be an ideal location film producers or hotel chains.

But the indifference of the Maharashtra government and the Archaeological Survey of India, which is in charge of the forts, has ensured these forts are crumbling.

The Padmadurg fort is yet another a serene location on the west coast of Maharashtra. Here one can clearly see the western part of ramparts are totally fallen and are in dilapidated condition.

Speaking about the forts’ situation, writer and journalist Kiran Batham says, “Yeh quila hai. Log aate hain, dekhte hain aur aason baha ke chale jaate hain. Aise haal mein quial hai (People visit the fort and go away feeling sad because of the state it's in)."

The cannons at the Padmadurg fort are the vital evidence of history. There are hundreds of such cannons in the fort.

This is the western bastion of Padmadurg fort and the moment these ramparts are falling these cannons are going down to the inter tidal zone of the sea.

The Archaeological Survey says it has a plan in place but needs time to implement it.

Superintending Archaeologist, ASI Mumbai Circle P S Narasimhan says, “We need the manpower and time even if we conceive a proposal to actually realise it. We will take 2 to 3 years.”

Underi is another fort, which is also in controversy since it was to be sold out to a private party.

The local villagers who owned the land sold off the 300-year-old piece of history to a private developer.

Thal Underi village sarpanch Sheshnath Koli says, “kisi ne bhi socha nahin ki kyon paryatak nahi aate, sarkaar ne bhi sacha nahi ki quila paryatak ke layak hai. to humne socha ki quile ka kuch achcha ho. (The government never even thought about making the fort a tourist attraction.) "

The government stalled the sale of this heritage structure. But the neglect of existing forts, including many from Shivaji's era, continues. Ironically, the government now says it wants to build a modern fort for Sivaji at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil says, “Chatrapati ki history puri duniya ko maloom honi chahiye isiliye smarak banane ki koshish kar rahein hain (We are building a memorial for Shivaji because we feel the whole world should know about him).”

In their election manifesto the ruling parties in Maharashtra has promised for a Rs 100 crore memorial of Chatrapati Shivaji Mahaaraj but looking at the remains of this Capital fort of Shivajis Kingdom it seems those promised money can be of much help to restore and develop the facilities over here.
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