POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 16: The centre has approved the proposal of declaring ruins of a group of temples near Ranipur Jharial in Balangir as monuments of national importance. This was confirmed by a gazette notification recently. The ASI is yet to notify villagers regarding the same. The ASI officials informed Orissa POST that it has only released the preliminary notification. Ranipur and Jharial are twin villages, around 104 km away from Balangir. The site is also famous for Chausath (64) Yogini temples or the temples without roofs—known as the hypaethral temples. According to ancient beliefs, Ranipur was the place, where the queens of Patnagarh
used to stay. Jharial used to be a fort. The place is of religious importance as various cults such as Vaisnivism, Saivism, Buddhism and Tantrism flourished in the area. It is important to mention that Ranipur Jharial and Chausath (64) Yogini temples were already centrally-protected monuments. With the recent ASI notification, the demarcation of the area for the central protection will be extended to Someswar Shiva temples and other adjoining monuments near Jharial. Around 48 temples will be marked as nationally important. Some of the other temple ruins like Indralath temple, Kapileswar Mahadev temple and the remains of the Dhabaleswar Mahadev temple in Ranipur will also come under this initiative.
Speaking to Orissa POST, director of Monument ASI AK Patel said, “The central cultural ministry has already approved the proposal submitted in 2014 to declare the entire periphery of Ranipur Jharail as national protected monuments. The public notification has been published so that anyone having any objection can appeal within next two months so that a hearing could be done.” “A thorough investigation has been done by the department and it has been suggested that proper conservation of the monuments needs to be done. After the completion of all the formalities the restoration and preservation of the all the temples will be carried out by the ASI. This part a landscaping will be for the beatification of the area,” said Patel
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