Tripura CM Thanks PM Modi For Unwavering Effort To Include Unakoti In UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage Site List 

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Posted in Featured, Northeast, Tripura
NET Web Desk

Unakoti, popularly dubbed as the ‘Angkor Wat of the North-East’ has been featured in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites. Given the accomplishment, the Tripura Chief Minister – Manik Saha on Wednesday extended gratitude toward PM Modi for his unwavering efforts in this regard.

Nestled in the Raghunandan hills, Unakoti is home to a series of giant bas-relief Shaivite sculptures from the 8-9th centuries.

Saha also lauded the Union Minister for Culture & Tourism, Development Of North Eastern Region (DoNER) – G Kishan Reddy for his crucial role that helped the place in the northeastern state to get its name featured into the coveted list.

The UNESCO website describes a tentative list as an “inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination”.

Taking to Twitter, the Tripura CM wrote “Happy to share that Rock-cut Sculptures and Reliefs of the Unakoti in Tripura made it to the tentative list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Unakoti, known as an ancient holy place associated with Shiva worship, is famous for its colossal rock cut panels depicting Hindu deities.”

On behalf of the people of Tripura, I wholeheartedly thank the Central Government and Hon’ble Union Minister for Tourism @kishanreddybjp ji for approaching UNESCO to declare Unakoti as a World Heritage Site.” he further added.

Besides, the state Tourism Minister – Pranajit Singha Roy also expressed delight that Unakoti, which means one less than a crore (koti in Bengali) now found its place in the list.

Due to the vagaries of weather, numerous art facets are now in a deteriorated state. After the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) adopted it as a heritage site, the situation has “slightly improved, though a lot of work, including substantial excavation remains to be undertaken”.

There are two types of images found at Unakoti – rock-carved figures and stone images. Among the rock-cut carvings, the central Shiva head and gigantic Ganesha figures are prominent ones.

The central Shiva head, known as Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava, is about 30 feet high, including an embroidered head-dress which itself is 10 feet high. In addition, three enormous images of Nandi Bull are found half-buried in the ground. There are various other stone and rock-cut images at Unakoti.

As per the Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva once spent a night here on way to Kashi. Unakoti or one less than a crore gods and goddesses followed him. Lord Shiva had asked his followers to wake up before sunrise and make their way towards Kashi.

Unfortunately, none woke up in the morning, except Lord Shiva himself. Before he set out for Kashi alone, he cursed the sleeping gods and goddesses to turn into stone and that is how the site got its name.

According to the Assistant Conservation Assistant of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) – Biltu Debnath, “Unakoti’s nomination for UNESCO’s tentative list is a big thing for the people of Tripura. It will be the biggest achievement for the country’s monument conservation, if Unakoti gets the World Heritage tag.”

Apart from Unakoti, the three new cultural sites of India, include – the iconic Sun Temple at Modhera, an exemplary model of Maru-Gurjara architecture style of the 11th century of Western India under the patronage of the Solanki Dynasty.

The list also comprises of – the historic Vadnagar town in Gujarat. It is a multi-layered historic town known by various names, such as – Vridhanagar, Anandapur, Anartapur and Nagar.

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