Capital of South Kosala, seat of the Panduvanshis: what makes the Sirpur landscape in Mahasamund district

Background

The Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape has just entered UNESCO's Tentative World Heritage List, so the site itself is worth setting out. Sirpur lies in Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh and was the capital of South Kosala between the fifth and twelfth centuries CE. Early copper-plate inscriptions of the Sharabhapuriya rulers Pravararaja and Mahasudevaraja record its antiquity. Its high point came in the seventh century CE under the Panduvanshi ruler Mahashivagupta Balarjuna, whose reign lasted 57 years, and the Lakshmana Temple was built under his mother, Queen Vasata. Nine sites make up the core zone: the Lakshmana Temple, the Rama Temple, the Gandheshwar Temple, the Anandaprabhu Kuti Vihara, the Swastika Vihara, the Market Complex, the Royal Palace or Rajmahal, the Harshagupta and Tivaradeva Buddhist Viharas and the Baleshwar group of monuments. The nomination, submitted by India's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO in September 2026, is under the cultural criteria (ii) and (iv). A place on the Tentative List is only a first step and does not make a site a World Heritage Site.