Jaipur City declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site
(i) The Pink City was founded in 1727 by Raja Sawai Jai Singh II and was developed through a proper urban planning and well-structured grid plan.
(ii) The streets intersect at the centre thereby creating large public squares called chaupars and the stalls, residences, etc have uniform facades.
(iii) This indicates an influence of ancient, mughal as well as foreign culture on the architectural planning of the city.
Air India Allows Hajj Pilgrims to Carry Zamzam Water in Flight
(i) Air India has clarified that passengers are allowed to carry Zamzam cans within their permissible baggage.
(ii) The well of Zamzam is located at Al-Masjid-al-Haram (Great Mosque of Mecca) in Saudi Arabia and Hajj pilgrims bring holy water from the well for family and friends.
Indian Council of Historical Research
(i) Government reconstituted Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).
(ii) Its objective is to promote and give direction to historical research and to encourage and foster objective and scientific writing of history.
(iii) It also provides fellowships and financial assistance to the young teachers in colleges, universities.
Seva Bhoj Scheme
(i) Ministry of Culture launched “Seva Bhoj Yojana”.
(ii) It envisages reimbursing the Central Government share of Central Goods and Services Tax (COST) and Integrated Goods and Service Tax (1GST) for such Charitable Religious Institutions who provide Food/Prasad/Langar/ Bhandara free of cost without any discrimination to Public/Devotees.
Gandhi Circuit In Bihar
(i) Bhitiharwa-Chandrahia-Turkaulia” has been sanctioned in Bihar.
(ii) The project is sanctioned under “Rural Circuit theme of Swadesh Darshan Scheme” with central financial assistance.
(iii) It is one of theprojects identified for development under the Special Package for Bihar.
(iv) Bhitiharwa: This was one of the centre for social work selected by Gandhiji, when he was in Champaran in 1917. There is a Gandhi Ashram where Mahatma Gandhi had stayed.
(v) Turkaulia: It was a burning centre of Indigo agitation. It has widelybeen referred to as “Turkaulia Concern” in context of Champaran Satyagraha to refer to the plight of indigo cultivators.
Prasad Scheme
(i) PRASAD stands for “Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive”.
(ii) Gangotri (Uttarakhand), Yamunotri (Utta-rakhand), Amarkantak (MP) and Parasnath (Jharkhand) have been included in the list of sites under PRASAD scheme bringing the number of sites under the scheme to 41 in 25 States.
(iii) The scheme aims at integrated development of pilgrimage destinations in a planned, prioritised and sustainable manner to provide complete religious tourism experience. It focuses on the development and beautification of the identified pilgrim destinations.
Government Adopts Heritage Sites
1. Ten monuments have been adopted under ‘Adopt a Heritage’ (Apni dharohar Apni pehchan) project.
2. It is a joint initiative of Ministry of Tourism, ASI under Ministry of Culture and the State/UT Governments.
3. A Company to utilise its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to develop and conserve these monuments and the legal status of the monument does not change after adoption.
4. 10 monuments adopted by various Companies till now are:
(i) Red Fort-Delhi
(ii) Gandikota Fort- Andhra Pradesh
(iii) Jantar Mantar- Delhi
(iv) Flazara Rama Temple- Hampi, Karnataka
(v) Leh Palaee- Ladakh region.
(vi) Ajanta Caves- Maharashtra
(vii) Qutub Minar- Delhi
(viii) Surajkund- Haryana
(ix) Mt. Stok Kangri Trek- Ladakh region
(x) Area surrounding Gangotri Temple and Trail to Gaumukh- Uttarakhand
Couple’s Grave in the Harappan Settlement
(i) Archaeologists have discovered a ‘couple’s grave’ in a cemetery from Rakhigarhi in Haryana , (largest Harappan site).
(ii) Some graves contain pottery and ornaments, perhaps indicating a belief that these could be used in the afterlife.
(iii) Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women. In some instances, the dead were buried with copper mirrors.
Some Prominent Personalities in news
Vedanta Desikan (1268-1369)
(i) A postage stamp was launched to commemorate the 750th birth anniversary of Sri Vedanta Desikan.
(ii) He was a great philosopher of Sri Vaishnava tradition in the post-Ramanuja period and believed in Vishishtadvaita philosophy.
(iii) He is popularly known as ‘Sarva-Tantra-Svatantra’ or a master of science, philosophy, arts and crafts and was awarded the title ‘Kavi Tarkika Kesari’.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel -Statue of Unity
(i) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue, known as the Statue of Unity, was inaugurated in the Narmada district of Gujarat.
(ii) It is the world’s tallest statue of about 597 feet (182 meters) surpassing the height of Spring Temple Buddha, China.
(iii) It is plated with bronze and core of the statue is made up of cement concrete, reinforced steel and structural steel.
(iv) Near the statue, there is a ‘Wall of Unity’ which has been created with the earth samples collected from various States across the country.
Ramanuja -Statue of Equality
(i) A 216-foot tall statue of Shri Vaishnavite Saint Sri Ramanuja (llth-12th century AD) is to be unveiled at Hyderabad.
(ii) It will be known as the Statue of Equality.
(iii) It will become the world’s second tallest statue in a seated position after the statue of the Great Buddha of Thailand (302 feet).
(iv) It is made of panchaloha (an alloy of gold, silver, copper, brass and tin/lead) and its base depicts 36 elephants and 27-feet-high lotus petals.
(v) The philosophy propounded by Ramanuja was Vishishtadwaita or qualified monism.
Swami Vivekananda
(i) 2018 was the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s address at Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893 held in Chicago.
(ii) Swami Vivekananda was a great proponent of Vedanta philosophy and he spread the ideas of Advaita Vedanta to the west.
(iii) Shankaracharya is said to be the founder of Advaita Vedanta. He promoted the idea of equality of all human beings.
(iv) Vivekananda founded Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 as a humanitarian organization which presently carries out medical, educational, relief and various other kinds of social programmes.
Saint Kabir
(i) PM offered tributes at the Sant Kabir Samadhi in Maghar (Uttar Pradesh) on the 500th death anniversary of Saint Kabir.
(ii) Kabir’s teachings were based on vehement rejection of the major religious traditions.
(iii) He emphasised on the Nirguna form of Bhakti. Some of the great texts associated with Kabir are Bijak, Kabir Granthawali, etc.
Guru Nanak Dev
(i) Govt, decided to commemorate 550th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev at national as well as international level by building Kartarpur Corridor across the Ravi River.
(ii) The project will connect the Dera Baba Nanak Sahib Gurudwara in India’s State of Punjab to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur shrine in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. It seeks visa free access from India to the shrine inside Pakistan.
BHARATI SCRIPT
(i) A team of researchers from IIT Madras has developed a unified script for nine Indian languages named Bharati script.
(ii) Bharati is designed to be common script for Indian languages, like Roman script which is a common script for many European languages.
(iii) Bharati script integrates Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Odia, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
(iv) The objective of the project is facilitate in reducing the barriers of communication among States
(v) Ease in using Bharati to be ensured by developing required software tools and applications.
Some prominent festivals related news -
Navroz/Nowrouz
(i) Navroz (meaning ‘new day’) is a 3,000-year-old Zoroastrian tradition which includes a ritual celebration that signals the start of spring and the Persian New Year.
(ii) It has been recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO in 2016.
Makaravilakku Festival
(i) It is an annual festival held on Makar Sankranti at the shrine of Sabarimala in Kerala.
(ii) Sabarimala temple is located inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
(iii) The temple is dedicated to the Hindu celibate deity Ayyappan also known as Dharma Sastha, who according to belief is the son of Shiva and
(iv) Mohini, the feminine incarnation of Vishnu.
(v) During this festival, devotees gather at Sabrimala sannidhanam to get glimpse of divya Makara Jyothi.
(vi) The traditions of Sabarimala depict the confluence of Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and other Srama traditions.
(vii) Recently, Supreme Court ordered Sabarimala temple administration to throw it open for women of all ages declaring restrictions unconstitutional.
Religious places where entry of women is restricted:
- Lord Kartikeya Temple, Pushkar Rajasthan
- Patbausi Satra, Assam
- Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, Delhi
- Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram
- Shani Shignapur Temple, Maharashtra
Attukal Pongala
(i) Annual 10-day Attukal Pongala festival was held at Attukal Temple in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).
(ii) It is one of the largest congregation of women for a festival in the world.
(iii) Pongala, which means ‘to boil over’, is the ritual in which women prepare sweet payasam and offer it to Goddess or ‘Bhagavathy’.
Bathukamma Festival
(i) Bathukamma that means ‘Mother Goddess come Alive’ is a colourful floral festival of Telangana and some parts of Andhra Pradesh.
(ii) It a 9 day festival celebrated generally in September-October
(iii) Bathukamma is a beautiful flower stack of different unique seasonal flowers (most of them with medicinal value) arranged in seven concentric layers in the shape of temple gopuram.
Behdienkhlam Festival
(i) Behdienkhlam means driving away the plague disease.
(ii) Ws festival is annually celebrated during monsoon season at mainly the Jaintia Hill district.
(iii) It is a ritualistic expression of the relentless struggle of mankind to overcome the destructive forces of nature, including diseases (plague).
(iv) The main feature of the festival is the making of the rounded, polished log from the tall trunks of trees.
Vishwa Shanti Ahimsa Sammelan
(i) Vishwa Shanti Ahimsa Sammelan (VSAS) took place in Mangi-Tungiin Maharashtra. The hills have about 10 cave temples belonging to Jainism.
(ii) Mangi and Tungi have special significance in Jainism because around 990 million Digambara Jains achieved salvation on these two hills. Therefore, the area is called ‘Siddha Kshtera’.
(iii) The 108-feet tall statue of Jain Tirthankara Rishabhdev is located in Mangi-Tungi. This is the tallest monolithic Jain statue in the world.
Konyak Dance
(i) The Guinness World Records has acknowledged Konyak Dance as the “largest traditional dance”.
(ii) Around 4,700 Konyak Naga (one of the 16 ethnic Naga tribes) women in their colourful traditional attire came together to perform this Dance.
(iii) It was organised during the “Aoleang Monyu” festival of the Konyak tribe, which is celebrated in the first week of April every year to welcome the spring.
Leh Celebrates Sindhu Darshan Festival
(i) The 23rd edition of Sindhu Darshan Utsav 2019 was celebrated at Sindhu Ghat Shey in Leh.
(ii) The “Sindhu Darshan” or Sindhu festival was first started in 1997 to celebrate unity and communal harmony along with national integration.
(iii) The festival aims at projecting River Indus (or Sindhu) as a symbol of India’s unity, peaceful coexistence and communal harmony and is also a symbolic salute to the brave soldiers of the country.
SPRING FESTIVALS OF INDIA
1. Chapcharkut- Mizoram
2. Garia puja- Tripura
3. Myoko Festival- Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh
4. Moaste and Tsichye- Aos and the Rengma Tribe of Nagaland
5. Lai Haraoba- Manipur
6. Mopin- Galo tribe in Arunachal Pradesh
7. Aoleang- Konyak tribe of Nagaland
8. Gangaur- Rajasthan
9. Holi- North India
10. Basant Panchami- North India
11. Tulip Festival- Kashmir
12. Bohag Bihu- Assam
13. Baisakhi- Punjab
14. Thrissur Pooram- Kerala
15. Gudi Padwa- Maharashtra
16. Ugadi- Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
World and National Architecture related news
My Son Temple Complex
(i) It is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the Champa kings of Vietnam. It has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
(ii) The Archaeological Survey of India is undertaking the restoration of three temple groups at My Son.
OTHER CONSERVATIONEFFORTS BY ASI ACROSS ASIA :
- The Angkor Wat - Cambodia
- Ananda Temple - Myanmar
- Bamiyan Buddhas - Afghanistan
- The Ta Prohm - Temple Cambodia
- The Vat Phou Temple - Laos
World Capital of Architecture
(i) UNESCO has named the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro as the World Capital of Architecture for 2020.
(ii) It is a joint initiative of UNESCO and the International Union ofArchitects (UIA) launched in 2018.
(iii) UNESCO also hosts the UIA’s World Congress, an event that takes place every three years.
India’s National War Memorial
(i) India’s national war memorial (first proposed in 1960) was inaugurated at the India Gate complex in Delhi,
(ii) It is built to honour the soldiers who laid down their lives defending the nation, postindependence.
(iii) It also commemorates the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers sent on peace-keeping missions of the United Nations, Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) and counter-insurgency operations.
(iv) The Memorial has following 04 concentric circles and these are designed as a Chakravyuh:
(a) Amar Chakra or Circle of Immortality: It has a hollow centre where the eternal flame is situated.
(b) Veerta Chakra or Circle of Bravery: It has bronze murals depicting Battles of Gangasagar, Longewala, Tithwal, Rizangla, Operation Meghdoot (1984) and Trident (1971).
(c) Tyag Chakra or Circle of Sacrifice: It carries the names of soldiers who laid their lives during for the country.
(d) akshak Chakra or Circle of Protection -comprises 695 trees depicting ‘standing soldiers guarding.
The Param Yodha Sthal has the busts of 21 recipients of the Param Vir Chakra.
Chaukhandi Stupa
(i) Chaukhandi Stupa has been declared as a monument of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
(ii) It is an ancient Buddhist site in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
(iii) The octagonal tower on top is a Mughal monument built to commemorate Humayun’s visit to this place.
Charminar
(i) A chunk of one of its pillar has felt down recently which has raised concerns about the stability of this more than 400 years old structure.
(ii) Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda) built this monument to commemorate the end of a deadly plague menace. It is located near River Musi.
Stucco Sculpture
(i) Archaeologists have discovered a life-size stucco sculpture from a Buddhist site in Phanigiri, Telangana and it is the largest stucco found in the country so far.
(ii) The sculptural wealth from the site shows a gradual transition between the Satavahana period and Ikshvaku period.
(iii) Traditional stucco is made of lime, sand, and water. The modern stucco is made of Portland cement, sand, and water.
(v) Stucco art was earliest seen in the Gandhara region. In the sculptural art of Nalanda and Vikramashila monasteries, stucco was used extensively.
(vi) In the Dravidian architecture, hundreds of stucco figures used to decorate the Vimana.
Sanchi Stupa
(i) Union Cabinet has signed a MoU with Vietnam on joint postal stamp which depicts Sanchi Stupa and Pho Minh Pagoda of Vietnam.
(ii) Sanchi Stupa is one of the oldest structures in India that was commissioned by emperor Ashoka in 3rd century BC.
(iii) Pho Minh Pagoda was built originally during the Ly Dynasty and later expanded during Tran Dynasty in 1262 AD. It was a place for high ranking mandarins and the aristocrats of the Tran Royal Court to worship and lead their religious life.
Stupa Pagoda
(i) It is mainly a Buddhist architecture in India and South-East Asia.
(ii) It refers to a temple or a sacred architecture of East Asia. It can also be used as a secular structure.
(iii) It has a single dome structure.
(iv) It has a set of multiple discs.
37Th UNESCO World Heritage Site of India
(i) The architectures of “Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai’’ has been included in the UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
(ii) India accepted the renaming of the ensemble as Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai as recommended by the World Heritage Committee.
(iii) The Ensemble consists of 94 buildings primarily of 19th century Victorian Gothic revival and early 20th century Art Deco style of architecture with the Oval Maiden in the centre.
(iv) Across India, there are now 37 World Heritage Sites. With 05 sites, Maharashtra has the maximum number of Word Heritage Sites in India.
(v) India stands second largest in number after China in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region. It is overall sixth in the world in terms of number of sites.
(vi) There are 193 UNESCO member countries as of January 2019. India is the founding member of UNESCO.
Initiatives of UNESCO
(i) Recently Geological Survey of India (GSI) chose heritage locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka for UNESCO Global Geo Park Network site status.
(ii) Some examples are: Lonar Lake. Maharashtra. St. Mary's Island and Malpe Beach. Karnataka, etc.
(iii) At present, there arc 140 UNESCO Global Gcoparks in 38 countries.
(iv) As of now, no geo-heritage site from India is included under UNESCO Geo Park Network.
(v) World Heritage Day -In 1982, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICMOS) declared 18th April as the World Heritage Day.
(vi) India’s First Music Museum:
- India’s first music museum will be set up in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu,
- It is the birth place of Saint Tvagaraia who is one of the Trinity of Carnatic music.
- The other two legends of this music form are Muthuswami Dikshitar and Svama Sastri.
