National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities

The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) is an Indian government agency responsible for maintaining the cultural heritage database under the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India. It was launched in 2007 aimed at studying, researching and preserving the cultural heritage of India. The main goal of the agency is to make information available online to the general public, explicitly for scholars and students interested or associated with the subject. Till 2016, it documented 3.15 lakhs of built heritage and sites and 1,400,740 antiquities collected from different published and unpublished secondary sources, originally investigated or studied by the researchers, educators, scholars and archaeologists.[3]

National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities
Agency overview
Formed2007; 17 years ago (2007)
TypeScholarly communication
JurisdictionIndia
StatusActive
HeadquartersGE Building, Red Fort, Delhi[1]
Agency executive
  • V. Vidyavathi, Director General
  • Addtl. Director General (vacant)
  • Sanjay Kumar Manjul, Joint Director General
  • Madhulika Samanta, Director[2]
Parent agencyMinistry of Culture
Child agency
Websitenmma.nic.in

Responsible to maintain two national registers such as national registers on antiquities and national register on Built Heritage & Sites (BH&S),[1] it is referred to one of the important databases of the country in architectural and historical perspectives alongside the Archaeological Survey of India, a nodal agency of the NMMA.[4] It collaborates contractually with the state governments to collect reference works for managing its database more efficiently as amended by the union government.

Overview

edit

The agency on its web portal publishes cultural heritage related information taken from secondary source such as district departments, the Imperial Gazetteer, academic journals and published library catalogs that originally belongs to the state administration and university's archaeology departments. It also takes unpublished university thesis and survey reports referenced by the researchers, scholars, educators and contemporary concerned officers.[5]

It has documented about 61,132 antiquities in association with Documentation Resources Centre. The agency has added more 15,000 antiquities by 31 March 2016. It computerized remaining raw data from 2014 to 2015 which was collected from various sources such as Institute of Advanced Research, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and other associated agencies.[5]

Objectives

edit

Monitoring committee

edit

It is headed by the government of India, however its activities are monitored by the Archaeological Survey of India's administration. The Secretary to the Ministry of Culture, is appointed as the chairperson while ASI's director general acts as a vice-chairperson. ASI's additional director general serves as its members.[7]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities". INDIAN CULTURE.
  2. ^ "NMMA". nmma.nic.in.
  3. ^ "Over 14 lakh antiquities documented: Culture Ministry". The Economic Times. PTI. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  4. ^ Kumar, R. Krishna (25 January 2020). "Budgetary support sought to map unprotected monuments in State" – via www.thehindu.com.
  5. ^ a b Market, Capital (21 June 2016). "14,00,740 Antiquities Documented & Data of 3.15 Lakhs of BH&S and Antiquities Uploaded on NMMA Website" – via Business Standard.
  6. ^ "What is National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities?". Jagranjosh.com. 12 March 2019.
  7. ^ "NMMA". nmma.nic.in.
edit