Governing body congratulates Army’s Chinar Corps for preserving ancient sites

The Indian Army has preserved and rejuvenated the Pandan temple, a heritage site dating back to the 8th century which is situated in Srinagar’s Badamibagh. The National Monuments Authority (NMA), which operates under the Ministry of Culture, recognized the unit’s groundbreaking initiative on Thursday.

There have been several excavated figurines from the 2nd century, including two monolithic rock shiva lingams, seven Gandhara-style sculptures and a huge rock carving of a monolithic statue’s feet. ‘From April to July 2021, the Chinar Corps diligently restored excavated sculptures, created a themed heritage park to display them and with technical assistance from SPS Museum, Srinagar, recreated scaled replicas of seven more stone figurines excavated from the site in 1926,’ said NMA chairperson Tarun Vijay.

The Chinar Corps adopted the ancient archaeological site of Pandrethan within the cantonment and, after restoring it, named it ‘Dharohar’. A site near the Shiva temple was excavated by the ASI in 1913, yielding Buddhist sculptures and rubbles from a Chaitya, which dates from the 8th century.

Lt Gen DP Pandey, GOC Chinar Corps, received a citation plaque from Vijay in recognition of their contributions. According to him, invaders and terrorists try to erase the memory of the societies they target and present a false history. ‘Monuments tell the truth and their preservation is like preserving a nation’s memory. Kashmir’s monuments tell us about our identity and civilizational flow. The Indian Army are our archaeologists in olive green,’ Vijay added.

There is a proposal to carry out more excavations in Kashmir with the assistance of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). In the tradition of protecting the territorial integrity of the nation, the Indian Army, as well as helping protect the country’s culture, teaches the true history of India to all.

There are several ancient temples in Kashmir, Buddhist stupas and chaityas, which are being preserved by state and central units of the ASI, although none of these sites have been recommended for World Heritage designation by Unesco.