PANAJI
Based on the theme of ‘A Saga of a Queen from Martyrdom to a Saint’, the Ketevan Gallery at Archaeological Survey of India, Archaeological Museum Velha Goa was inaugurated at the hands of Union Minister for State for Culture, Meenakshi Lekhi at Old Goa on Monday.
Also present were Alexander Khvtisiashvili, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and Archil Khachidze, Archpriest, Georgian Orthodox Church and others.
After the inauguration, an exhibition tour of the gallery was conducted to showcase the diverse and fascinating artifacts on display.
Expressing joy over the opening of the Ketevan gallery, Lekhi recalled her journey in the entire process of handing over the relics of the Queen and Saint Ketevan to Georgia which was possible due to intervention of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“The government of India has showed its commitment towards the preservation, conservation and respect for all, through a long history of St Ketevan’s relics which were brought to India in 1624 and from that time till now, the preservation and conservation happened despite difficulties and the kind of difficult history we have had,” Lekhi said.
Peeking in the past, Lekhi explained how in 1958 while going through the records it was discovered that one of the relics of St Ketevan was preserved at St Augustine’s church in Goa.
“The ASI should be thanked for such long standing commitment,” she said, adding, “the mortals were discovered along with eight other remains of bishops and priests and through genomic studies at a Hyderabad laboratory, this was further discovered that this cascade belonged to Queen Ketevan.”
Lekhi further stated that with the intervention of Prime Minister’s Office in 2021, Union Minister for External Affairs, S Jaishankar carried the relics to Georgia, which is our friend, and which was once our neighbour in ancient times.
“Georgia kept the relics for people to pay their respect to their St Queen Ketevan. The government of Georgia made a request that the remains be kept in Georgia for some more time, and six months period was granted. These pieces of national heritage cannot be taken out of the country and a special arrangement was made when India gave that permission. They were brought back to India and after another request from Georgia to hand over a part of the pieces to them, India did that too,” said Lekhi who was a part of this whole process.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Alexander Khvtisiashvili thanked the Indian government for its large heartedness.
Archil Khachidze, Archpriest, Georgian Orthodox Church also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Kishore Raghubans, assistant superintending archaeologist, and Hemasagar Naik, superintending archaeologist from the government of India’s Archaeological Survey of India and Archaeological Museum Velha Goa were present on the occasion.
