HYDERABAD: The long-awaited inspection of the Ramappa temple, which could earn it the prestigious tag of World Heritage Site, were finally begun on Wednesday by architecture expert Vasu Poshyanandana from Thailand. Situated in the Mulugu district, the Ramappa Temple is the only nomination sent by the Central government for the tag this year.
Appointed by the UNESCO, Vasu Poshyanandana is an expert in stone architecture from the international non-profit International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). According to officials present, Poshyanandana inspected the site for over four hours and studied the monument in great detail. Particularly interested in the floating bricks and sandbox technology used in the heritage monument’s construction, he went over the dossier to check if the claims made on paper matched the situation on the ground.
“He was going into detail about everything. And he was not asking any questions. He had a piece of paper, and he was taking notes all the while,” said an official. The two-day inspection will conclude on Thursday.
“We feel that the inspection went very well,” said the collector of Mulugu district, C Narayana Reddy. There were apprehensions that rains could hamper the inspection, Narayana said, however, it rained only for ten minutes in the area on Wednesday.
Art historian and UNESCO Fellow Choodamani Nandagopal was also present. The Ramappa temple was first considered for the WHS tag back in 2017. But that application was rejected due to incorrect details. This was when Nandagopal was roped to study the specifics of the temple and prepare the nomination dossier. It was based on her dossier that Wednesday’s inspection was taken up.
How does a site become ‘World Heritage’?
Vasu Poshyanandana, a senior member of the ICOMOS—an NGO which is routinely appointed by the UNESCO for inspection—visits the site. Here’s what happens next
ICOMOS gives the experts who inspect the heritage site a copy of the nomination dossier and a note with key questions based on a preliminary examination of the dossiers. The opinions and the observations of the inspectors are relayed back to the ICOMOS World Heritage Panel
ICOMOS World Heritage Panel then examines the information at hand when it meets in Paris in early December each year. It decides on the recommendations and identifies if there is any need for additional information from the State–in this case, India
Then ICOMOS finalises its evaluation and dispatches its report to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, where members of the World Heritage Committee will go through the findings
It is then up to the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee to make the final decision and make the inscription. The Committee meets once a year to decide which sites will be inscribed on the World Heritage Site list
Other officials
The joint director general of ASI, Janwij Sharma, World Heritage director Daljeet Singh, director of Heritage Telangana Dinakar Babu, B V Papa Rao, M Panduranga Rao, GSV Suryanarayana Murthy of Kakatiya Heritage Trust were also present