BHUBANESWAR: Aimed at checking illegal trade in antiquities, the antique wealth of the State that do not come under the ‘protected’ category, are now being documented. These antiquities have been lying neglected in various parts of the State for years. The ongoing massive documentation drive under the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA), which started in August last, has seen documentation of around 10,000 antiquities in the first phase of the project that concluded last month. These include over 7,000 antiquities that are in possession of the State Museum. As many as 40 scholars - belonging to State Museum, Intach and Odisha Institute of Maritime Studies - are carrying out the documentation drive that is being implemented through the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), NMMA’s nodal agency. In-charge of the Documentation Resource Centre of the State Museum P K Singh said the 7,000 antique items include coins, a large number of sculptures, arms and paintings. “Some of these fall under the ‘rarest of rare’ category and had not been scientifically documented so far,” he said. An 8th century sculpture of Chamunda, 10th century idol of Krishna and Vishnu that were found from Jajpur district, 1st and 2nd century BC Buddhist relics are among the ‘rarest of rare’ antiquities. Likewise, the Intach - which is in charge of documenting antiquities in personal possession - has documented over 2,000 antiquities in the first phase. These have been collected from places like Cuttack, Choudwar, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Nayagarh, Bhadrak and Balasore. The State convenor of Intach A B Tripathy, however, said the agency has not been able to achieve much success in documenting antiquities in possession of royals in the State. “Our primary aim is to register antiquities in palaces which have them in plenty. But not many royals are coming forward to assist in the documentation drive. Recently, some of our scholars had to return empty-handed from Mayurbhanj Palace,” Tripathy said. There are around 55 palaces in the State today and most of them are over 500 years old.NMMA State coordinator Sadashiv Pradhan said the report on the first phase documentation has been submitted to the Centre. The NMMA will also set up State-level database of unprotected ancient monuments. For the purpose of documentation, the scope has been enhanced to include any structure that belongs to pre-Independence period and 1950 has been set as the cut-off date. Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, an ancient monument is a structure that is at least 100 years old. Pradhan said the documentation of unprotected monuments will begin in the second phase of the project.
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