Bhubaneswar : The 39th Foundation Day of the Indian Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) was celebrated with a heritage walk in the Ekamra Kshetra of the temple city. Besides Intach members, historians, students and persons with a keen interest in history and culture gathered at the Mukteswar Temple Complex early in the morning set out on a walk on the Temple Trail.
A.B.Tripathy IPS (Retd), the State Convener of INTACH flagged off the walk from the 7th Century Parsurameswara Temple. He spoke of the stellar role of Intach in the conservation and preservation of Kalingan Heritage in the last two decades through its 13 Chapters spread over different districts. Intach has undertaken many Heritage projects of which the Museum of Justice at Cuttack has been recently completed. He also said that Intach’s activities have expanded and the intangible heritage of the State too is being studied and documented. Many studies are being taken to document and revive dying tribal traditions.
The walk, curated by Tarani Pattnaik, covered the Kedar Gouri, Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Kotitirtheswara, Champakeswar, Swarna Jaleswar and Subarna Jaleswar temples, which span from the early 7th Century till the 14th Century C.E. The heritage experts shared with the participants the little known yet important details of Old Bhubaneswar and infused everyone with a sense of pride of the glorious past. Students of the Heritage Clubs of Einstein Academy of Technology and Management, GITAM, and IITTM too participated in the walk.
Anil Dhir, the Convener of the Bhubaneswar Chapter spoke of Intach’s State of Built Heritage of India initiative, which is a pioneering pan-India program undertaken to highlight the challenges and apathy concerning unprotected built heritage as well as recommend the way forward. Dhir said that one of the integral part of this initiative is to create an ongoing database of endangered built heritage. The purpose is also to solicit attention of policy-makers for establishing conservation priority.
INTACH, founded in 1984 with the vision to spearhead heritage awareness and conservation is today recognized as one of the world’s largest heritage organizations, with over 250 Chapters across the Country. In the past 39 years, INTACH has pioneered the conservation and preservation of not just natural and built heritage but intangible heritage as well. Under Intangible Cultural Heritage arts, crafts, music traditions, dress, culinary preparations, ornamentations, poetry, songs, rituals, fairs/festivals are being documented. Headquartered in New Delhi, INTACH operates through various divisions like Architectural Heritage, Natural Heritage, Material Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Heritage Education and Communication Services (HECS), Crafts and Community Cell, INTACH Heritage Academy, Heritage Tourism, Listing Cell and Library, Archives and Documentation Centre.
