7/25/2021 Telangana’s Ramappa Temple inscribed as a World Heritage Site - The Hindu

TELANGANA

Telangana’s Ramappa Temple inscribed as a World

Heritage Site
Serish Nanisetti
HYDERABAD,
JULY 25, 2021 16:50 IST
UPDATED:
JULY 25, 2021 16:55 IST

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The 13th century Ramappa Temple in Palampet, Telangana has been inscribed as a Unesco
World Heritage Site on Sunday. At the ongoing online meeting of World Heritage
Committee, the decision was reached after a consensus where Norway opposed the
inscription while Russia led an effort for the immediate inscription of the temple at 4.36
p.m. IST.
A consensus with 17 countries backing the move ensured the inscription of the site.

Earlier, the ‘Glorious Kakatiya Temples and Gateways – Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple,
Palampet’ examination as a World Heritage Site nomination was deferred in the agenda
papers. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) cited nine
shortcomings at the site after the initial visit in 2019, but on Sunday a majority veered
round to India’s view about the site’s outstanding universal value.

India had mounted a diplomatic offensive to ensure the World Heritage Site status for
Ramappa Temple by reaching out to 24 countries whose representatives were to vote on the
proposal to inscribe Ramappa Temple on the World Heritage Committee.

At the WHC session on Sunday, Russia invoked Rule 22.7 allowing India to make a
statement after ICOMOS made its decision known to defer the examination of nomination.

Russia, backed by many other countries, forced the amendment to put the ICOMOS
decision to reach a consensus. India won the consensus with Ethiopia, Oman, Brazil, Egypt,
Spain, Thailand, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ethiopia backing its case for
inscribing the site.
Norway was the only country which opposed the move for inscribing the Ramappa Temple
at the meeting citing ICOMOS conclusion.

The temple is savvy blend of technological knowhow and materials. The foundation is built
on sandbox technology, the flooring is granite, the pillars basalt, the lower part of the
temple red sandstone, and the white gopuram is built with light bricks that reportedly float
in water. An inscription dates the temple to 1135 Samvat-Saka on the eight day of Magha
(January 12, 1214).

According to the temple priest, some of the iconography on the temple was damaged
during the invasion of Malik Kafur in 1310. Treasure hunters vandalised the rest. But the
biggest test for the temple was an earthquake in the 17th century (one of the biggest
temblor was the 7.7-8.2-magnitude on June 16, 1819). The flooring was rocked by the
waves, while the pillars and the vertical structure stayed intact due to sandbox technology.
“We can make out that the pillars have sunk between 1 ft and 1.5 feet due from the state of
the sculptures,” Kumaraswamy, an ASI official, at the site had said earlier.
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7/25/2021 Telangana’s Ramappa Temple inscribed as a World Heritage Site - The Hindu

Built by Racherla Senapati Rudrayya, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, in the 13th
century, the main temple is flanked by the collapsed structures of Kateshwarayya and
Kameshwarayya temples in Palampet, about 220 kilometres from Hyderabad.

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