West Bengal’s Santiniketan Inscribed On UNESCO World Heritage List

Credit: Twitter/UNESCO

Santiniketan in the Indian state of West Bengal  has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO is an acronym for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that works for world peace through global cooperation in the fields of education, culture and the sciences. 

India has been striving for long to get a UNESCO tag for this cultural site located in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. 

It was at Santiniketan where poet Rabindranath Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago. 

About Visva-Bharati University

Visva-Bharati is an university located in Shantiniketan in  West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. 

Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament. 

When founded in 1921, it was named after Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore until Visva-Bharati Society was registered as an organization in May 1922.

Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel literature prize, was proponent of open-air education and introduced that system at the university, which is still continuing.

Kalibangan : World’s first furrowed field

"Well-regulated streets (were) oriented almost invariably along with the cardinal directions, thus forming a grid-iron pattern. (At Kalibangan) even the widths of these streets were in a set ratio, i.e. if the narrowest lane was one unit in width, the other streets were twice, thrice and so on...Such a town-planning was unknown in contemporary West Asia." - B.B. Lal

The Indus Valley Civilization  site of Kalibangan is situated on the southern bank of the Ghaggar (Sarswati) river in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. Here we find evidence of the world’s first furrowed field. Traces of pre-Harappan culture have also been found.  The excavations at Kalibangan were conducted by BB Lal and BK Thapar from 1961-69.  

Fire worship was prevalent in Kalibangan where rows of distinctive fire alters with the provision of ritual bathing have been found. 

Like other Indus Valley towns Kalibangan was divided into two parts, fortified town and a lower town. The lower town at Kalibagnan was also fortified. 

Desiccation of Ghaggar

The decline of Kalibangan is attributed to the drying of the river Ghaggar (Sarsvati). The inhabitatnts of Kalibangan seem to have deserted the settlement around 1700 B.C. Unlike the other major Indus Valley Civilization cities located on the Indus river, Kalibangan was located on a different river. 

Thyagaraja: The Greatest Saint-composer of Carnatic Music

Thyagaraja is considered the greatest saint-composer of Carnatic music.  He was a Telugu who was born and brought up in present-day Tamil Nadu. 

He worshipped God in the form of Rama, the incarnation of Vishnu and Hero of Valmiki’s Ramayana.

Thyagaraja was born in Thiruvarur in Tanjore District of Tamil Nadu in 1767. 

Konark Sun Temple: Symbol of India

Built in the 13th century, the Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Known worldwide for its architectural grandeur, the temple was built by Eastern Ganga ruler Narasimha I. Eastern Ganga dynasty was a kingdom in India, ruling over an area corresponding to present day Odisha, the coastal plain between the Ganga and the Godavari.

The majestic Sun Temple at Konark is a symbol of India. Formerly called the Black Pagoda, this magnificent temple has been designed as a gigantic chariot of the Sun God. 

Eastern Gangas were great temple builders. The temples built by them survive to be awe-inspiring spectacles for the people who throng to them. 

Chief among them are Jagannatha temple of Puri and the Sun Temple (also known as Black Pagoda) at Konark. The dynasty is called Eastern Gangas to differentiate them from Western Gangas, a separate dynasty, ruling in Mysore. 

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Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh

Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh near Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh is the finest Gupta temple that has come down to us in a relatively good state of preservation. 

The temple is known for the carvings depicting Hindu Gods and mythological figures.  It is known as the earliest example of Panchayatana style of temple. 

Dashavatara Temple was discovered by Captain Charles Strahan and was named so by Alexander Cunningham. It depicts the 10 avatara of Vishnu. 

Disappearance of Harappan Civilisation

The disappearance of the Harrapan Civilisation, also known as Indus Valley Civilisation, is still shrouded in mystery. Leading explanations include warfare with the Aryans, a nomadic, Indo-European tribe.  

While some say that frequent regular flood could have contributed to the civilisation’s collapse, another school of thought is of the opinion that an earthquake might be the real culprit.

According to one theory by British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, the Indus River Valley civilization was overthrown by the Aryans.  An Indo-Aryan Migration theory has found currency amongst various scholars who believe that the Harappan culture was assimilated during a widesperead migratorty movements of the Aryan people into northwest India.

Though it is still not known whether it was the Aryan invasion, natural catastrophes, or something else that destroyed the Harrapan culture, but whatever it was, the end of the Harrapan civilisation was the end of a glorious chapter in the Indian History as well the world.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple

You will be confronted by a symbol of Hindu India in the spiritually important Vishwanath Temple, the number-one attraction of Varanasi that draws hordes of pilgrims daily. The temple is one of the Dwadasa Jyotirlinga shrines or the 12 shrines enshrining Shiva in the form of a Jyotirlingam in the country.

Built in 1776 Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore, the wonderful Vishwanath Temple is a big attraction in Varanasi. This sacred Hindu shrine attracts pilgrims from all over the world who come here to offer their prayers to Lord Siva, one of the Hindu Trinity of Gods. One of the 12 jyotirlinga sites, Vishwanath Temple is a pilgrimage site that every Hindu cherishes to visit. 

In 1839, two domes of the Temple were covered by gold, donated by the great Sikh leader Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.