Hyderabad: The 800 year old Kakatiya Rudreshwara Ramappa temple has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site after months of meetings and negotiations between officials from both sides. An an online meeting of the World Heritage Committee, the decision was taken after a consensus emerged on it. Norway opposed the inscription. The development took place today at 4:36 p.m. IST.
The World Heritage site status was reportedly given to the Ramappa temple after 17 countries backed it. Earlier, the ‘Glorious Kakatiya Temples and Gateways – Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Palampet’ examination as a World Heritage Site nomination was deferred in the agenda papers, reported The Hindu.
However, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) cited nine issues at the site after its initial visit in 2019. However, Sunday’s a majority veered round to India’s view about the site’s outstanding value. Earlier, legislators and officials from Telangana met officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)a month ago as well.
The Ramappa temple is a 807-year-old temple, situated about 210 kilometres from Hyderabad. It is in Palampet village. It was constructed during the Kakatiya period, around the year 1214, by a general from the kingdom. The temple has an architecture which is said to be something that is considered a ‘symphony in stone’, and is dedicated to the god Rudreshwara.
It’s Gopuram (upper portion) is built with light bricks that were built with sandbox technology, which makes it very unique. The UNESCO World Heritage nomination was made in 2014 by the Telangana government, very specifically the Papa Rao, who was an advisor to chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Earlier, the place had faced some hurdles, but the government seems managed to clear it.
State IT and industries minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) also took to Twitter and posted about the same on Sunday. Next, he said, would be to get the heritage city status for Hyderabad. “This is the first world heritage site from Telangana Next aim is to get world heritage city status for our capital city #Hyderabad,” he tweeted.