9,552 antiquities documented during survey in 19 taluks

The ongoing project by the Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage to survey and document unprotected monuments and antiquities in all taluks of the State has been encouraging and has yielded a rich haul of relics so far.

The survey launched in 2019-20 as a pilot in Mysuru, has been completed across 19 taluks till 2021-22 and 9552 antiquities have been documented.

While the survey of Mysuru taluk covered 165 villages in its jurisdiction, it yielded 821 relics including unprotected places of worship, 55 inscriptions, 613 sculptures, idols etc.

In the neigbouring taluk of Srirangapatna, which has a hoary past 968 antiquities have been recovedred from 113 villages and they included 121 unprotected monuments including temples and mosques, 88 inscriptions, and 759 sculptures.

T.Narsipur taluk too has an unbroken historical association with various dynasties and the survey across 220 villages led to the documentation of 589 antiquities including 85 sculptures and their remains, 284 inscriptions and 220 relics of places of worship.

 Nanjangud is known since ancient times and given its proximity to Mysuru, was historically important. Not surprisingly it has led to the documentation of 1,215 antiquities spread over 190 villages. This includes 323 temples and other places of worship, 75 inscriptions, and 817 idols and sculptures.

Kottur in Vijayanagar district led to the documentation of 461 antiquities including 142 places of worship, 35 inscriptions and 263 idols and sculptures. The survey in Kalaburagi taluk covered 102 villages and led to the documentation of 748 antiquities while 520 relics and antiquities were documented in Raichur. The other taluks which threw up significant number of relics and antiquities are Kamalapura in Kalaburagi (288), Savanur in Haveri (586), Bailahongala in Belagavi (437), Madikeri (122), Hiriyur in Chitradurga (126), and Bengaluru city (357).