Latest News on Ramappa Temple

If everything goes as expected, the architectural marvel of the great Kakatiyas, Ramappa temple, located at Palampet village in Mulugu district, may get the ‘World Heritage Site’ tag as the Government of India (GoI) nominated the temple as India’s only nomination for World Heritage Site selection process to be undertaken by the UNESCO this year. Thanks to the efforts of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao as well as the Kakatiya Heritage Trust (KHT), Warangal, Ramappa temple stands to make an entry into the world map.

The Kakatiya Heritage Trust, a non-profit organisation, began the process of preparing the dossier for World Heritage Site way back in 2012 before the formation of Telangana, and it attended several preparatory meetings by Archeological Survey of India (ASI) on the preparation of the dossier.

The Trust first prepared an application to place Ramappa Temple in the ‘Tentative List of World Heritage Sites’ as a prerequisite. Since 2013, this Kakatiya monument has been in the tentative list of UNESCO.After formation of Telangana, this proposal got enormous support from Department of Heritage and Ministry of Culture, Telangana. In 2015, the KHT along with Department of Heritage, Telangana, prepared the dossier with the technical assistance of GVS Suryanarayana Murthy, and the dossier was submitted by Government of Telangana to the Government of India (GoI) in 2016.

“After a follow up by the State Government and the Trust, the dossier was sent to UNESCO as India’s nomination for the year 2018 along with the dossier of Jaipur city. Both the dossiers were technically qualified but the Union government preferred Jaipur as India’s nomination for 2018,” said former IAS officer and Trustee of the KHT BV Papa Rao.

With the final thrust by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Government of India sent Ramappa Temple as India’s only nomination to UNESCO for the year 2019.

“The Kakatiya Heritage Trust hopes with the cooperation of the Department of Heritage Telangana and ASI, UNESCO will accept Ramappa Temple as World Heritage Site in a year or two as the floating bricks is ‘the most outstanding universal value of the temple’,” said another trustee and former professor of NITW M Pandu Ranga Rao. Meanwhile, BV Papa Rao said that getting the World Heritage Site tag may take two to three years sometimes.

“It’s just the beginning. The delegates of the UNESCO will visit the site and assess the qualities and testify things we presented in the dossier. After much study and deliberations, the UNESCO may announce it as the world heritage site,” he added. Meanwhile, the KHT is also planning to publish a scholarly book on the art and architecture on Ramappa temple being authored by art historian and dancer Dr Choodamani Nandagopal, which would be presented to the delegates. The KHT is also planning to publish another book name Geotechnical features of the Kakatiya structures’ being written by Prof M Pandu Ranga Rao.