Preserving cultural heritage of Telangana

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

The Pioneer (29-07-2021)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has inscribed the 13th-century Ramappa Temple in Palampet in Telangana State as a World Heritage Site. A consensus was reached in this regard during the ongoing virtual meet of the World Heritage Committee. While Norway opposed the inscription, Russia led an effort to have the temple recognized as a World Heritage Site. A consensus of 17 countries supported the move.

“Excellent! Congratulations to everyone, especially the people of Telangana. The iconic Ramappa Temple showcases the outstanding craftsmanship of great Kakatiya dynasty. I would urge you all to visit this majestic temple complex and get a first-hand experience of its grandness,” PM Modi reacted to the announcement on Twitter.

Chief Minister Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao hailed the decision of UNESCO. The Spiritual and cultural property developed by the Kakatiya Kings with a tremendous creativity, sculptural value has a very special place in the country’s cultural heritage said the CM. He said the state government is making all efforts to revive and restore the historical, Spiritual and proud cultural heritage of Telangana. The CM thanked UNESCO member Nations, Central Government for its support.

Being recognized as UNESCO’s World Heritage Site has many benefits. It brings international attention to the need for the preservation and conservation of the site. It brings tourism to the site, with its accompanying economic benefits to the host country and local area. It provides funds for restoration, preservation, and training. It promotes national and local pride in the natural and man-made wonders of the country. It promotes close ties with the United Nations system and the prestige and support it provides. It provides access to global project management resources. It facilitates creating partnerships between government, the private sector, and the NGOs to achieve conservation goals. The site is protected under the Geneva Convention against destruction or misuse during wartime.

Ramappa Temple is about forty kilometers from Warangal, the old capital city of Kakatiya kings, who ruled this area for about two hundred years until they were thrown out by the Delhi armies in 1332 AD. The Kakatiyas were the vassals of the Kannada Emperors. They established an integrated Andhra Empire, which was a supreme event in the history of the Telugus. It was during that period; the temple architecture was developed into an excellent art. Music and the art of dance acquired a new grace and a fresh elegance. The Vedas and Sastras gained popularity.

Warangal has the ruins of the old fort and the thousand pillar temple continue to be great attractions for tourists and lovers of art and culture. Ganapathi deva, one of the Kakatiya rulers of the thirteenth century after his accession, shifted the capital from Hanamkonda to Orugallu or the present Warangal. Even now both Warangal and Hanamkonda look like an inseparable twin city and a long road connects them. A temple and a tank were built about forty kilometers away from Warangal to commemorate the victory of Ganapathi deva in the Kalinga wars and the king dedicated the temple-tank complex to Ramappa or Lord Shiva. The spot is both utilitarian and aesthetic. It continues to irrigate thousands of acres of land even today.

No lime or mortar was used to assemble this vast mass of skillfully sculptured granite into a charming shrine. Granite pieces, well-shaped and sculptured, were just fitted into each other to make a perfect assemblage of a temple and its appurtenances. One of the subordinate shrines housing a huge Nandi, exuberantly sculptured, is almost crumbled and the Archeological Survey of India made efforts trying to repair it.

The temple which is a complete gallery of beautiful sculptures, most of them representing various scenes from the scriptures and some of them strikingly attractive for the various dance postures, they so skillfully portray, has been showing signs of crumbling for quite some time. Archeologists believe that the dilapidation was set in by a series of earthquakes in the past because no vandal could have gone all the way to the temple site to destroy it. The bricks with which the upper portion of the sanctum sanctorum was built had gripped the fancy of the tourists for a long time because they unlike the normal ones float on water. Archeologists were at their wits end when they wanted to replace the bricks suitably! How to make such floating bricks was the question before them.

It is necessary to have the tower built with light bricks because the temple has no foundations. It was built on huge oblong granite planks. That is how most of the Kakatiya structures were raised. The bricks were sent for chemical and X-Ray examination but tests did not throw any light on the compositions and make of the bricks. So, the Archeological Survey of India officials went in for chemical bricks which have a similar specific gravity so that the structure would when rebuilt, is of the same weight as that done with the floating bricks. There is no evidence with regards to the completion of this brick structure.

The temple walls were decorated with festoons or rows of decorated elephants may be because Jayapa Senani, the commander of the elephant forces of the Kakatiyas was also associated with the military victory whose monument the temple has been. Jayapa also wrote a lucid treatise on Bharatanatyam known as ‘Nruttaratnavali’. Jaya described in it vividly the principles of ‘Perini Dance’. Kakatiyas must have encouraged the Perini Dance both to satisfy their attachment to Shaivism and to impart vigor to their young men and women through this part religious mode of dancing.

It must however be agreed that Ramappa Temple, nowhere had heightened the importance of Perini dance. But, the bracket figures in the temple are really arresting due mainly to their impressionistic shapes and vigor and vitality. These figures of women dancers are perfect examples of charm and delicacy. May be there were such women among the tribe to which the Kakatiya ruler belonged. According to an inscription the king belonged to the Pulinda Tribe. The bracket figurines of dancers in the Ramappa Temple give scope to the belief that there must have been a Telangana idiom of dance and music when the Kakatiyas were ruling.

According to late G. Krishna, an all-time Great Journalist and an exponent of Telugu Culture, who wrote number of books and articles on the subject, ‘’History records that one Virabhallata, a versatile scholar was in the Kakatiya Court. When the Delhi armies had overrun the Kakatiya kingdom, the scholars migrated to the south to save themselves and also the tradition they mastered. Srungara Sekhara, the disciple of Virabhallata, was one among those migrated. He wrote a treatise in Sanskrit known as ‘Abhinaya Lakshanam’ which is suspected to contain some aspects of Dances. It is not yet published and is a manuscript in Saraswathi Mahal Library of Tanjavore”.

The question now being asked is will these festivals like the Kakatiya, remain as mere rituals or will they make a beginning to preserve the structures of the Warangal Fort, the thousand Pillar Temple, the shrine of Ramappa and the lakes of Pakala for the benefit of generations?  (With VJM Divakar)