Shravanabelagola is a website of nice antiquity and a repository of monuments.
| Photograph Credit score: M.A. SRIRAM
The monuments at Shravanabelagola in Hassan and Lakkundi in Gadag districts will likely be proposed for inclusion underneath the tentative checklist of the UNESCO World Heritage Website by the State Division of Archaeology Museums and Heritage (DAMH).
Tenders will likely be invited sooner or later to conduct a research of the positioning to arrange the file and an in depth report which will likely be submitted to the Archaeological Survey of India.
A. Devaraj, Commissioner, DAMH, instructed The Hindu that any monument to be thought of for ultimate declaration as a UNESCO World Heritage Website needs to be first nominated for inclusion underneath the tentative checklist.
The monuments needs to be underneath the tentative checklist for atleast one yr earlier than they are often proposed by the State social gathering – on this case, the ASI – for inscription as a UNESCO website. The method just isn’t solely elaborate however time consuming, mentioned Mr. Devaraj.
Within the case of the Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebidu, and Somanathapur which had been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Websites in September this yr, the ready interval underneath the tentative checklist was for 9 years. The temples at Belur and Halebidu had been nominated for inclusion within the tentative checklist in 2014 whereas Somanathapur was included underneath serial nomination, a lot latter.
However entry into the UNESCO tentative checklist is a prerequisite moreover a ready interval of a minimal of 1 yr earlier than any monument will be thought of for ultimate inscription and therefore step one in direction of it’s being taken, mentioned Mr. Devaraj.
Although a monument on finishing the stipulated interval of 1 yr within the tentative checklist qualifies for being nominated for ultimate inscription, it isn’t computerized. For, there’s a clause as per which a rustic can nominate just one monument in an yr.
And already there are 50 monuments of India underneath the UNESCO Tentative Checklist a few of which like Mandu in Madhya Pradesh are in queue since 1998. However the choice as to which monument is to be nominated in a specific yr is taken by the Centre and the ASI.
Shravanabelagola is an historical Jain website the place the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya spent his final days having transformed to Jainism underneath the affect of Jain monk Acharya Bhadrabahu. Additionally it is the positioning of the world’s tallest free-standing statue of Gomateshwaraa which was sculpted and consecrated in 981 CE throughout the interval of the Western Gangas. The Mahamastakabhisheka or the grand anointment to the statue takes place right here as soon as in 12 years.
Traditionally, Shravanabelagola is necessary and a treasure trove of artifacts together with over 800 inscriptions spanning many centuries, have been found right here underlining the antiquity of the city.
Lakkundi is already protected and the State authorities has constituted the Lakkundi Heritage Space Safety Authority for its conservation. It is named Lokki-Gundi as per inscriptional information and the world is replete with historic monuments and heritage remnants. It has scores of historical temples like Someshwara, Kumbareshwara, Manikeshwara, Naganatha, Nageshwara, Kashivishveshwara, Shankaralinga, Lakshminarayana, Ganapati, Chandramouleshwara, Jaina Basadi, Brahma Jinalaya and many others, and had been the contributions of the Chalukyas, the Kalachuris, the Seunas or Yadavas of Devagiri, Hoysalas and the Vijayanagar underlining the historic significance of the place.