Photo: A rare sculpture unearthed at Phanigiri in Nalgonda district
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As Telangana formation is progressing at a rapid pace, some Seemandhra officials are attempting to rob the new state of rare artifacts.
Our sources say the Seemandhra officials are clandestinely shifting several artifacts from State Archaeology Museum to Buddha Vanam Project at Nagarjuna Sagar, and from there to Amaravati Museum.
The conspiracy is first shifting these artifacts from state museum to other district museums in above said places. Some high ranking bureaucrats are helping this daylight plunder. Sometime back, a high ranking official in AP State government had issued orders to the director, State Archaeology department for shifting the 260 artifacts including rare Ajantha Paintings, Miniature paintings, Bronze Statues, Stone sculptures to some district museums in Seemandhra.
The Ajantha paintings are replicas made by the Nizam Government and they are not seen even in the Ajantha Cave since they were damaged due to chemical treatment.
Now some more artifacts are being shifting to the same museums.
When Kalachakra event was held at Amaravathi, the government officials shifted several rare Buddhist sculptures excavated from Dhulikatta in Karimnagar and from Vardhamanukota, Phanigiri, and Panagal Museums in Nalgonda. The officials promised to bring back these sculptures to respective places after Kalachakra was completed. But they have returned only one Buddha statue taken from Vardhamanukota, that too after a lot of pressure from local people. Rest of the sculptures are now kept in the newly constructed Kalchakra museum at Amaravathi.
In the past too, several artifacts found in Kotilingala were shifted to Amaravathi Museum.
They have also shifted Iron Cannons from Golkonda fort to Kondapally fort where no cannon was existing as per the records.
This daylight robbery does irreparable damage to to Telangana history and cultural heritage.
Telangana movement leadership should take immediate steps to stop this cultural robbery and preserve the rich and varied cultural heritage of Telangana, otherwise there will be a great damage to our native cultural heritage.
[with inputs from Dr. Jai Kishan]