HYDERABAD: It was a moment of glory for India, and Telangana, when the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee inscribed the iconic Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) temple, located at Palampet village in Mulugu district of the State, into UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites on Sunday. The monument was built in the 13th century, during the reign of the Kakatiya dynasty.
Even as the International Council on Monuments and Sites recommended deferring the nomination, citing that the monument did not satisfy certain criteria, and a delegate from Norway raising similar objections, a majority of the countries, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mali, China, Oman, Brazil, Egypt, Spain and Kyrgyzstan, extended overwhelming support to Ramappa temple’s inclusion in the World Heritage Site list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Culture G Kishan Reddy, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao, among others, expressed joy over Ramappa temple bagging the World Heritage Site title. Telangana’s Minister for Tourism V Srinivas Goud said that the State was home to 10 other monuments that were worthy of global recognition.
Showers of praise
Most countries at the session were in awe of the structure’s intricate architecture. A delegate from Brazil termed Ramappa temple “a masterpiece of creative human genius, which was, without any doubt, the best surviving example of Kakatiyan culture”, while Spain’s representative said that the ‘floating bricks’ used in the temple’s construction were “never heard of before”.
Buffer zone
Norway, however, recommended an expansion of the site’s boundaries, including its buffer zone, to include a wider context of the temple’s functional landscape. Claiming that the proposal only focused on the temple, the delegate felt that India could return with a reconfigured nomination.