From ruins to recognition: UNESCO puts Nalanda on world heritage map at last
The 5th Century ancient seat of learning, ‘Nalanda Mahavihara,’ has risen from its ashes to be declared a ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ finally.
This is even though, last month, an advisory body raised objections on the historic varsity’s candidature.
This decision was taken at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s 40th session, currently ongoing at Istanbul, Turkey.
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) spokesperson Dr. RS Fonia said, “We worked very hard on it. It moved directly from the position of ‘Deferral’, which means Government of India needing to provide more info to UNESCO for a decision in 2017, to ‘Inscription’, meaning final selection, directly.”
ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites) had pointed out several “weaknesses” in India’s dossier for Nalanda and recommended not awarding it the title this year.
Dr. Fonia explained, “We prepared additional literature on Nalanda to convince the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
It included a film, a flyer and much more. It gave a detailed comparative analysis of Nalanda to Oxford and other great varsities of the ancient world.”
All of this was passed on to India’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Ruchira Kamboj, who spearheaded the campaign in its final throes. “The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Culture closely coordinated to ensure that Nalanda gets the heritage tag,” he added.
Hence, Nalanda -- India’s official entry in the ‘Cultural Category’ for 2016 -- became the country’s 33rd archaeological site to win the prestigious title. Plus, there could be more good news coming.
All 21 Member countries of UNESCO agreed and voted in favour of Nalanda University unanimously.”
A press release issued by UNESCO read: “Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organised transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years. The historical development of the site testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion.”
It further read: “The Nalanda Mahavihara site, in Bihar, comprises archaeological remains from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. It includes stupas, shrines, viharas (residential and educational buildings) and important art works in stucco, stone and metal.”