ASI to visit Lankamalleswara sanctuary to ‘estampage’ 30 new inscriptions
The inscriptions are written in Brahmi, Nagari, Telugu scripts and some in shell characters in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Telugu languages
Vijayawada: A six-member team from the Archaeological Survey of India would visit the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in Kadapa district for three days from Thursday for the estampaging of 30 new inscriptions dated from the 4th to the 15th Century CE.
They would do this also for the rock paintings of the ancient period. These inscriptions are written in Brahmi, Nagari, Telugu scripts and some in shell characters in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Telugu languages.
The team led by ASI director (Epigraphy) Munirathnam Reddy will visit the forests for three days. On the first day, they would visit the Gopala Swamy temple, Kailasakona and Kanathigundam. On day-2, they would be in the Uppagunthally, Nithya Puja Swamy Kona, Akka Devathulu temples; and on the third day, they would go to Bandigana Chala and the Lanka Malleswara temple.
The ASI officials would be doing a lot of trekking, looking for places, where the inscriptions were found earlier, to get their copies. Every evening, after work, they would return to Siddavatam for rest and sleep.
ASI director Munirathnam Reddy said, “Deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan gave us the forest clearance to embark on the mission to the Lankamalla forest areas.”
The wildlife sanctuary is known for the presence of wild animals like leopards, sloth bears and tigers, and is notorious for the presence of red sander smugglers, given its huge presence of red sanders.
A team of foresters led by the Siddavatam forest range officer B Kalavati will be providing the logistic support to the ASI team.
Kalavati said, “The forest terrain is so hard that one has to walk even for a small distance.”
Notably, it was based on the photographs of inscriptions along with their locations captured by the FRO during the regular combing operations in the forests that the ASI has taken up the estampaging mission now.
