Q).

Define ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ heritage, ‘antiquity’,

‘archaeological site’, and ‘art treasure’ with examples related
to Indian heritage.

Heritage is something that can be passed from one generation

to the next, something that can be conserved or inherited, and
something that has historic or cultural value. Heritage might be
understood to be a physical ‘object’: a piece of property, a
building or a place that is able to be ‘owned’And ‘passed on’ to
someone else.In addition to these physical objects and places
of heritage there are also Various practices of heritage that are
conserved or handed down from one Generation to the next.
The heritage can be classified into Cultural and natural
heritage- (renewable and non renewable). The cultural heritage
is again divided into two: tangible heritage and intangible
heritage

TANGIBLE HERITAGE
Tangible Cultural Heritage is everything that we can touch and
we can perceive clearly. This refers to the Cultural Heritage
including: buildings, historical places, monuments, handicraft,
sculpture, painting, etc. In this group are included objects from
archeological sites, architectural structures, tools from
technology and science from the different ancient cultures.
 The tangible cultural heritage is divided into two categories:
i)tangible movable heritage and ii)tangible Immovable
heritage.
The tangible movable heritage is composed by archeological,
historic, ethnographic, religious and artistic objects, for
example, artworks, manuscripts and documents, recordings,
photographs, audiovisual documents, etc.
#Madhubani Art (or Mithila painting) is a style of Indian
painting, practiced in the Mithila region of India and Nepal is an
example of tangible movable heritage
The Immovable Tangible Heritage is composed by monuments,
groups of buildings and sites. They are human works which
cannot be moved from one place to another because they are
inseparable from the land, for example archaeological sites.
# The pillars of Ashoka, a series of monolithic columns
dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected or at
least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (c.
268 to 232 BCE.) Is an example of immovable tangible heritage
INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage defined intangible cultural heritage as
“Intangible Cultural Heritage means the practices,
representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the
instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated
therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases,
individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.”
Examples of intangible heritage are oral traditions, performing
arts, local knowledge, and traditional skills.
# Kathakali, a Spectacular lyric dance drama of southern India
based on Hindu literature and Ganga Aarti (A ritual of offering
prayer to the Ganges river,to show gratitude and respect to the
river, and ask for its blessings) Can be considered as examples
of intangible heritage
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
An archaeological site is any place where there are physical
remains of past human activities. It is a place (or group of
physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved
(either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has
been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of
archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.
There are many types of archaeological sites. Prehistoric
archaeological sites are those without a written record. They
may include villages or cities, stone quarries, rock art, ancient
cemeteries, campsites, and megalithic stone monuments.
Historical archaeology sites are those where archaeologists can
use writing to aid their research.
Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible
above ground, to buildings and other structures still in
use.Those could include densely populated modern cities, or
areas far below the surface of a river, or the sea. The wide
variety of historical archaeological sites include shipwrecks,
battlefields, slave quarters, cemeteries, mills, and factories.
Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a “site”
can vary widely, depending on the period studied and the
theoretical approach of the archaeologist. An archaeological
site is thus a vault filled with historical and cultural artifacts
with valuable information of the past.
For example,
# The Bhimbetka rock shelters of Amchha Khurd, Madhya
Pradesh, are an archaeological site in India, exhibiting the
earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent, and
thus the beginning of the South Asian Stone Age. It was
declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.
#. Sun Temple, Konark : Dedicated to Lord Surya, this 13th
century temple is an architectural marvel and the
quintessential example of Oriyan form of architecture. It is
believed that the temple was constructed by king
Narasimhadeva I of Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The shape of the
temple is of a massive chariot with sumptuously engraved
stone wheels, pillars and walls. A major part of this
archaeological site in India is at present in ruins. The temple is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
According the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites
and Remains Act of 1958, ancient and historical monuments,
sculpture carvings and other like objects, archaeological sites
and remains are protected and preserved.

ANTIQUITY
According to the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, an
“antiquity” is an article or object that is at least 100 years old.
These illustrates the science, art, crafts or customs or religion
or literature of a bygone age, or anything of historical interest.
As per the Act, Antiquity includes:
• Any coin, sculpture, painting epigraph or other work of art
or craftsmanship;
• Any article, object or thing detached from a building or
cave;
• Any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art,
crafts, literature, religion, customs, morals or politics in
bygone ages;
• Any article, object or thing of historical interest;
• Any article, object or thing declared by the Central
Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be
an antiquity for the purposes of this Act
• If it is a manuscript or record of any scientific, historical,
literary or aesthetic value, it should be at least 75 years’
old.
For example, In 1956, an ancient bronze statue of the Lord Siva
(Lord of the Cosmic Dance or Sivapuram Nataraja) was removed
from Thanjavur temple for restoration purposes, subsequently
held by an Indian private collector and ultimately sent to the
United States with false export documents. The statue was
returned to India in 1986 after a 10-year lease to Simon. As a
symbol, Shiva Nataraja is a brilliant invention. It combines in a
single image Shiva’s roles as creator, preserver, and destroyer
of the universe and conveys the Indian conception of the never-
ending cycle of time.

ART TREASURE
Art treasure- means any human work of art, not being an
antiquity, proclaimed to be a treasure by the Centre for its
artistic value after the artist’s death and declared by the Central
Government by notification in the Official Gazette, to be an art
treasure for the purposes of this Act having regard to its artistic
or aesthetic value.
India has, over decades, produced some of the most
exceptional masters in the field of art, who have manifested
the culture and tradition of the land by creating a visual
harmony of emotions. In 1972, the Government of India, led by
Indira Gandhi, passed The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act,
which restricted the export or movement of antiquities and art
treasures that came under the purview of this legislation,
outside the country’s borders. Over the course of the 1970’s,
artworks by nine artists were declared ‘national treasures’
under this Act, thus disallowing their sale outside India.
However, artworks by these artists that were already outside
India by this time, were not impacted by the law.
The nine artists whose artworks were declared as ‘national
treasures’ are Bharat mata, 1905 by Abanindranath Tagore, Self
portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil, Bed of Arrows (Bhishma) by
Gaganendranath Tagore, Krishma and Balarama by Jamini Roy,
An illustration from Ramayana,circa 1930 by Nandalal Bose,
Madonna Laboris 1931 by Nicholas Roerich, Head steady by
Rabindranath Tagore, Radha in moonlight by Raja Ravi Varma,
and Hill fair, 1940 by Sailoz Mookherjea.

The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act 1972 was

enacted for effective control over the movable cultural
property consisting of antiquities and art treasures. The Act
regulates the export trade in antiquities and art treasures, to
provide for the prevention of smuggling of, and fraudulent
dealings in, antiquities, to provide for the compulsory
acquisition of antiquities and art treasures for preservation in
public places and to provide for certain other matters
connected. Possession of unregistered antiquity is a punishable
offense under the law.