The International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which inspected the three Hoysala temples in September last year, had raised a few issues and had recommended in its report that the monuments be referred back to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for addressing some of its concerns.
This pertained to inclusion of Vishnusamudra, a water tank about 1 km away from the Chennakeshava temple and the ‘’Kerebeedi’’ under heritage zone.
The ICOMOS justification for it was that the water from the lake is drawn for rituals in the Chennakeshava temple while the lake also has a mandapa where certain rituals are conducted periodically and were hence related.
Had the dossier been referred back to ASI, then the wait for the World Heritage tag would have continued for a few more years.
But the Japanese representative at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting said it has examined the nomination dossier report and has no hesitation in accepting that this property comprising three temples is an exceptional testimony to a very unique architectural and artistic attributes.
He went on to list the salient features of the Hoysala temples and described it as unsurpassable and said that that inclusion of Vishnusamudra was not required as it is not contemporary. Similar views were expressed by other member nations supportive of India.
The Indian representative at the meeting responded that the nominations were for the Hoysala temples while the rituals at Vishnusamudra and the mandapa originated during the Vijayanagar period ‘‘centuries after Hoysalas disappeared from history’’ and hence were not related.
A. Devaraju, Commissioner, Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage said that the ASI had already responded to the ICOMOS concerns and other nations supported it. He said the raft festival or theppotsava at Vishnusamudra had its origins in the 16th century. The tank per se is devoid of any of the attributes of the Hoysala temples and an inscription dated to 1524 CE from Utpati village close to the tank records the beginning of the raft festival and the construction of a pillared mandapa for the purpose.
This inscription came in handy to strengthen India’s argument that Vishnusamudra and the pillared-mandapa belonged to different eras and had no bearing on the nomination of the Hoysala temples.
