An expert from Paris-based International Council of Monuments and Sites is visiting the ruins of the Nalanda University to evaluate India’s bid to get the ancient site inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage List.
“ICOMOS expert Masaya Masui has inspected the site at Nalanda to examine the details that we have mentioned in the nomination dossier. He toured and evaluated the site for the coveted tag, yesterday and today,” ASI Patna Circle’s Superintending Archaeologist H. A. Naik said.
The ancient seat of learning, said to be one of the world’s oldest universities, construction of which began in 6th century AD, flourished under the Gupta Empire. Its end came in 12th century when it was ransacked, looted and burnt in 1193 AD by the invading Turk Army led by its commander Bakhtiar Khilji.
Nalanda is the entry this year from the country for the Unesco tag in the cultural heritage segment in pursuance of which the Ministry of Culture through the Archaeological Survey of India had sent an over 200-page nomination dossier on January 23.
ICOMOS report on the site evaluation will have a bearing on its fate, which will be decided by Unesco next year.
The Paris-based NGO, founded in 1965, provides the Unesco’s World Heritage Committee with evaluations of cultural and mixed properties proposed for inscription on the World Heritage List.
Masaya, who arrived in Nalanda on Wednesday, is also scheduled to meet Chief Secretary of Bihar in Patna during his three-day visit which ends on Friday. -- PTI
