Editor

The land of Bharat was home to the most prosperous civilisation the world has ever seen. The remnants of this glorious civilisation now exists as ruins across Bharat. The magnitude of destruction that Hindu civilisation had suffered from Islamic invaders can be guaged from these ruins.

In our estimate, more than 2 lakh Hindu temples now exist in various stages of ruins and neglect and abandoned across the length and breadth of Bharat. The magnitude of the efforts required is huge and to make any change on the ground requires simultaneous work towards the revival of the Heritage monuments. The urgency is due to fact that slowly the Heritage monuments are getting destroyed, lost to Heritage thieves, vandalism, and encroachment by vested interests and even by Islamic and Christian fundamentalist organisations.

Keeping in view the efforts required, we have started off by mapping the Heritage monuments. The first phase was to map the structures under supervision of Archaeological Survey of India. We asked via RTI, the coordinates of monuments. But the response from the ASI revealed how lethargic and clumsy bureaucrats can virtually kill any reform envisaged under the RTI. ASI didn’t give us the coordinates.

We however decided to go ahead with mapping and secured the coordinates from publicly available sources and google maps. This was a task that required much manpower, and our volunteers command all the appreciation and respect in this regard.

We have released the initial map of Heritage monuments under ASI supervision as a google map and can be visited, downloaded via www.reclaimtemples.com/ASImap

The coordinates of some monuments secured from public sources are only accurate at the Tehsil level and needs further refining. This we are accomplishing gradually with help from volunteers.

Our next task involves mapping the Heritage monuments which are not under supervision of Archaeological Survey of India. For this, we are depending on crowd sourced efforts to locate the Heritage structures in their locality.

For easily submit the details and also to bring visibility to these Heritage monuments, we have developed an Android App ‘#ReclaimTemples Explore’ and released in Google Play Store. The app can be downloaded via https://reclaimtemples.com//android

We now depend on general public and Heritage enthusiasts to submit details of Heritage monuments in their locality. We will also be doing it via our volunteers.

The details submitted will be in public domain and slowly these unknown Heritage sites will get due publicity and attract visitors. We hope that the process will lead to rejuvenation of these Heritage sites and revival of worship will also happen at the ancestral Hindu temples now lying in ruins.

How you can contribute to Heritage of Bharat

  1. Download our Android App ‘#ReclaimTemples Explore’ from Google Play store. Click here
  2. Submit the details of atleast 10 Heritage sites in your locality via our App
  3. Share the App with atleast 10 friends and ask them to do same.
  4. Become a volunteer for the project by registering via imojo.in/dharma
  5. Donate to the project via instamojo.com/@ReclaimTemples

Success ahead

#ReclaimTemples