TRAVEL DIARY: PROBLEM OF PLENTY #ACCOUNT OF AN EYEWITNESS

Any country !Good or bad ! History is a pride ! !

Antique/ Ancient / Heritage  are tagged to  those selected  geographies in the map , and  blessed are those who had the history to share  about it  and take pride about it. But the realty is only a few countries can claim and establish their history with proofs and references  . For some countries History  is a privilege  , for some countries  History is a liability, for some it’s a sin  and  for some  its  a problem of plenty .

India falls in the last category !

There is  sufficient proof to it .In India ! there is enough of historical sites  ignored, erased  and neglected . And what I bring today is yet another  testimony  of a total neglected  13^th century  historic reference in a remote location in the south of India near  warangal in Andhra Pradesh !

Count the monuments around the world , buildings which are man made, having artistic and architectural values ,  which are around 1000 years old  and still been used  … there are only a few thousands which will fit into these category.  In the US there are 24 UNESCO sites  listed as heritage sites and  Only a  miniscule numbers are  man made structures ,which are old and  huge , with architectural values.

In  India most of them were destroyed by the invaders mostly the Muslim invaders; whom  I could forgive them to some extend as it was destroyed in the 12 th to 15 th centuries , but in France and some other parts of Europe most of the monuments were destroyed as late as  in 18^th and the 19^th centuries .

Still ! ,most of the  historic  ruins around the world!,  are restored or protected  by countries -given its due respect for its historic values and  promoted as their nation’s pride and market it as tourist attractions. In India,  with its exhaustive historical expendable  ruins,  many are protected   – in fact! over protected / preserved and promoted as tourist centers,  but  the gap between  protected vs neglected  is so big .

MY travel guide cum Driver  , not really enterprising ,  but mundane , knows the designated routes and a set of answers for  the standard traveler’s questions, how many kms more?? and where will I get the best of the biriyani ??type  of questions. He was following the ongoing  IPL cricket matches and his favorite team was SRH and a big fan of of its ‘manager ‘  Kavya Maran;

 “ she is very beautifull! sir , I watch every match to see her sir !

“Do you know where is she  from ? “I asked him

 “Hyderabad!”

Then I had to open up the  story of Kavya Maran’s  back ground  to him and to his shock  her net worth too !!!. It was unnecessary on my part, as I shattered his fantasy. His mood was totally gone .

After wrapping up my visit to Ramappa temple 60 kms from Warangal , I asked the  driver , where can we go next!!!, he said firmly “ laknawaram  lake sir !”, I asked him, is there any other temple we can see?, he! simply said there is no temple in the vicinity and he had started the car to tour me to laknavararam lake  . As I had  done some random check on Google of any places of interest in this radial distance ; I’d found a mention about a temple called’ Kota Kullu” about 10 kms from Ramappa temple. sometimes Google goofs up ,specifically in these remote locations, Yet!  I decided to take a chance. 

The driver was really hesitant to drive , he called his boss  and asked about this temple, his boss was also clue less and he started recommending me and marketing  laknavaram lake instead !,  “its beautiful sir!, man made lake sir ! there is a beautiful bridge over the lake sir! you must visit sir” blah ! blah ! , But I insisted the driver  to drive thru the  navigation arrow on my mobile ,  to  Kota Kullu (Ghanpur).

At one point,after say 10^th km, the navigator stopped and there was no direction ,

“see! there is nothing !” , my driver proclaimed . 

I asked him to check with the farmers who were sitting on the payment , one of them gave a direction in telugu , “take this lane  and take a right , there is a temple”. we followed through a very narrow lane  which ended up in a big clearing , we parked the car and strolled past some grazing cattle  , there was a board of ‘Archeological survey of India’ declaring it as protected monument, what I thought  as a small temple and what those farmer’s  casual way of mentioning this as a temple proved to be  wrong . It was a gem of a historic reference in ruins completely neglected by  state and the central governments and the local people    .

There are  a collection of  21 temples, two of them main and still pooja happening in one of the them , the others are empty  without the deities . The two main temples are an architectural marvel , in line with the Kakatiya dynasties’ design and almost in same style as the Ramappa temple. An architectural student  can easily see the points and the lines where the column caps stand . The whole complex was littered with slabs of stones and blocks with relief works and the freezes . These small things are easy for somebody to steal  it.

There were so many  statues and small objects of historic values  in the world museums and rich people’s houses all over the world.  And there is a team in India working full time to bringing these  things  back home . But that’s a waste of time ,unless these exposed temples  are not protected ; these ignored  temples  are vulnerable for exploitation .There was no security and  no one to question

 Its not safe to go inside the temple , there were  materials thrown all over the place, I even saw one of the temples being used to store garbage. There were so many small reliefs , figures which will fetch a good value in the international market and it is easily shippable , specifically in the nights. If some smart asses  can work on it , they can detach it from the pillars and carry it in a small truck,, as, it is away from the village and  there is  no security – what  will a government  appointed single soul will do in front a determined mafia …..?

As per one of the lexican from 1967, one Mr. Ramarao has written as  “ The temples of Ghanpur (Kota kullu ) ‘ These temples have not received the attention it deserves though, they are of great value for the study of the the Architecture of Medieval Deccan “ this temple was mentioned and described the way it is today. 

And some local politicians and a collection of local Raos and Reddys  from Warangal  have taken some effort in 1987(?) for which a stone stele was installed and  this stele shines like it was installed yesterday , nothing significant has happened beyond installing the stone stele.

I read it some where , if something created in  stone , it will outlive the time  . Our kings had really created impressions in stones which will carry our culture and history  till the end of the world  , but the present day  negligence and ignorance   will defeat the purpose of it.

The driver /guide – a  local who came with me was shocked to see the of  existence a massive temple in his own place and today he has got one more site to show it to his future clients.

- @Kota Kullu (Ghanpur temples) 60 kms from Warangal, Andhra Pradesh on 18th May 2024 - Rajesh babu