Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is under pressure to react in kind to the Telangana Government’s demand for return of historic artefacts taken from the Nagarjunasagar and Hyderabad museums to Andhra Pradesh during the Kalachakra event at Amaravati in 2006. The founder chairman of the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada (CCV), Harishchandra Prasad has written a letter to Mr Naidu drawing his attention to a large number of priceless antiquities from the Seemandhra region that are still lying in the with the AP State Museum at Public Gardens in Hyderabad. Mr Prasad urged the Chief Minister to demand their return to Andhra Pradesh.
“In the wake of the bifurcation of the State, it is imperative that all the invaluable items currently at the AP State Museum and various other places be immediately shifted here to provide the much-needed cultural visibility and heritage of the Andhra land,” he wrote.
Mr. Prasad has attested a list of artefacts that include ancient iron implements, coins, sculptures, manuscripts, weapons and armour, documents, epigraphs and inscriptions.
“The Seemandhra region has a wealth of artefacts scattered all over the world. The Amaravati sculptures and relics in the British Museum in London, the remnants of Andhra glory preserved at the Government Museum in Chennai, the National Museum in Delhi, Indian Museum in Kolkata and the Musee Guimut in Paris are some of the artefacts that have been moved out of Andhra Pradesh from time to time for various reasons, depriving this State of its treasured belongings,” he said.
State Archaeology Museum director G.V. Ramakrishna Rao said that both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have constituted committees which will meet to decide on the division of historic assets. “For now, the AP State Museum is a common pool hosting the archaeological properties of both States. We will first take up this division and then shift focus to other museums in different places,” he said.
