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.
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.