Epigraphy Class inauguration on Oct 2nd 2011

We had an encouraging number of students from various walks of life registering themselves as students for the third batch of class on Tamil epigraphy, and 8 of them braving the ordeals of time management of doing the advance course in epigraphy, learning 'Grantha'! 30 plus was the final figure for the Tamil epigraphy class!

The inauguration was at Ramakrishna Mission school, at Dandapani street, off. Burkit Rad, T.Nagar on October 2nd.

being Gandhi Jayanthi we had invited students from the nearby Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya, students who are taught Gandhian philosophy, to render the invocation, but sadly, they didn't turn up! May be they were busy in the function in their own school!

We had student - member Mrs. Janaki coming to our aid and singing the Saraswathi song for invocation.

As usual Dr Satyamurthy's welcome address was a thought provoking lecture cum invitation, which made our chief guest sit up and listen carefully.

Swami Yathunatha Nanda of RK Mutt graced the occasion and delivered his blessing lecture.

The Chief guest eloquent speech in Tamil was the high light of the day. He elaborately spoke in length the various names he had deciphered from the sangam literature linking them with those of Harappa finds and insisted that knowledge on language, its script and then site excavations threw new light on the longevity of the Tamil age, proving beyond doubt in ancient nature and insisted that the sangam literature were not mere literature but the history etched well in time, for us to research out more.

Epigraphy teacher Ramachandran was again at his best, bringing out various quotes from various sangam literature as well as epigraphs and reinforced Mr. Balakrishnan's idea.

The students were enthralled to be amidst an an august, learned gathering and were sure that the classes to commence would enrich their knowledge further.

The surprise package for the day was introduction of Mr. Vinoth Rajan, done by PRO J. Chandrasekaran, the teacher for grantha classes! Even though he was absent on the inauguration day, it was revealed that Mr. Vinod was an I.T guy, 26 year old wiz-kid who had specialized the unicoding and scripting various Indian fonts and putting them on the global net map! Writing various scripts for him is a child's play. When we tried to get a teacher for Grantha, most of them 60 plus, they denied travelling or making upto the classes every week end. Vinod turned up as saviour when PRO Chandra requested him to take the grantha classes and now it is learnt from the students that the next 2 Sundays were met with good response from the Grantha students, as they were happy to freely discuss with their young teacher and shred their inhibitions of learning a language so late in their lives!

Thanks Vinoth Rajan for making it sound easy to them!

The photos of the inauguration are here for us to see.

World tourism day 29th August 2011

Thanks dear ITDC, Tourist guide federation and the kids from Thiruthandalam, you made us feel that we are really close to our motto of making the rural villagers getting educated on heritage (Rural education And Conservation of Heritage is our real long name, which is abbreviated to R.E.A.C.H !)

It was really a memorable day for many NGOs and organizations like us.

ITDC wanted to spend the world tourism day in an useful manner and Mr.P.Asoka called us to put the plan in action.

He asked, can we bring in some children to go around Chennai, in 5-6 hours time?

I said, "Why not? but not city bread children, but children from Rural village who might not even crossed the highway from their village!"

"Great" he exclaimed. Said, "Chanrda bring them to ITDC office on 29th August, World tourism day. ITDC will sponsor the bus, we will pay for the lunch and you may..."we'll pay for their tickets," I promised without a second thought!

I called upon Tree Natesan of exnora, to help me out scouting the right school and children. Government high school from Thiruthandalam, responded positively, thanks to their correspondent. He arranged the exams running concurrently for another day and managed to send the kids from 8th standard. He said, This is a life time opportunity for the kids! I couldn't resist," he said. He came all the way to Koyambedu, the point of drop and pick up, we have committed to Parveen Travelks, who had sent the bus at the behest of ITDC. Mr. Gopal of ITDC was in constant touch. So was Mr.Asoka, the Tourist Federation president, even though he was on a tour. Natesan, , me and the correspondent of the school Mr.Ramachandran, gave a real test for the connectivity of all the mobiles in odd hours!

The D-Day came and the well behaved kids from the village landed spot at the Koyambedu bus stand. After few moments of silence and hesitation, they were on full throttle once the flagging of the bus was over! Songs, dance and discussing frantically among themselves, they seemed to enjoy and grasp what best they could. Mrs. Esther Rani from the federation was an able guide and many were asking her who know her in the museum, "What did you leave you job and join as a teacher?".

I had announced some prizes for the kids for writing an essay or a poem, painting a scene etc. after they reach their homes. I promised them that after their exam holidays, I would make a sudden trip to their school and check the entries and give them away the prizes. That turned out to be more challenging as they posed questions to me and got answers. In museum, Mr. Balu the senior curator had arranged from a nearby canteen some 'spicy' food, for which the tourist' federation footed the bill and after the Egmore museum, it was the wish of the Correspondent that they be shown the Birla science planetarium. After the planetarium visit, all children demanded a visit to the beach. Looking into the paucity of time and that they had to reach their village as early as possible, I took them to the nearest Besant Nagar beach, from the planetarium at Kotturpuram. They were thrilled and all proudly pulled out their pocket money (most of the parents had given Rs.100/- to each kid!) to buy some eatables in the beach. They shouted when they dipped their feet in the water, till their voices turned hoarse! Back, with loads of memories, they made themselves happy and of course all who made this day possible, a happy one too.!

--

J. chandrasekaran

The pictures are here for you to see

தோள்சீலைக் கலகம் புத்தக வெளியீடு

வரலாற்று ஆய்வாளரும், நமது ரீச் பவுண்டேஷனின் கல்வெட்டு ஆசிரியருமான திரு. எஸ்.ராமசந்திரன், திரு. கணேச நாடாருடன் இணைந்து எழுதிய வரலாற்று ஆய்வு நூலான தோள்சீலைக் கலகம் - தெரிந்த பொய்களும், தெரியாத உண்மைகளும் என்ற நூலின் வெளியீட்டு விழா, சென்னை மயிலாப்பூரில் உள்ள பாரதீய வித்யா பவன், மினி ஹாலில் கடந்த 07-01-2011 அன்று மாலை நடந்தது.

படங்கள் இங்கே

ரீச் பவுண்டேஷனின் தலைவரும், தொல்லியல் வல்லுனருமான தியாக.சத்தியமூர்த்தி அவர்கள் நூலை வெளியிட, நடனமணி, கலைஞர் ஸ்வர்ணமால்யா அவர்கள் முதல் ப்ரதியைப் பெற்றுக் கொண்டார்.

துவக்க உரை ஆற்றிய திரு.கணேச நாடார் அவர்கள் இந்நூல் ஒரு வரலாற்று ஆய்வே தவிர, எந்த இனத்தவரையும் குறித்து எதிர்த்தோ, ஆதரித்தோ எழுதப்பட்டதல்ல என்று தெளிவு படுத்தினார்.

திரு. தியாக. சத்தியமூர்த்தி பேச்கையில், ஆய்வு எனும் சொல்ல் வரலாற்று ஆய்வாளர்களிடையே குறைந்து வரும் நாளில், சமூக ஆய்வும், சரித்திரா ஆய்வும் ஒருசேரச் செய்து, மேனாட்டு மோகமன்றி, தன்னிலையாக, தெளிவாக சரித்திரப் பதிவை செய்யும் முதல் நூல் இதுவாகத்தான் இருக்கும் என்று புகழுரைத்தார்.

நடனக் கலைஞர் சொர்ணமால்யா பேசுகையில், தாம் வாசித்த முதல் சமூக ஆய்வு நூல் இதுதான் என்றும், இளைஞர்களுக்கு சமூகவியலைப் பாடமாக சொல்லித் தரக்கூடிய வகையில் இந்நூல் அமைந்துள்ளது என்று பேசினார்.

திருவாளர்கள் செந்தீ நடராசன் - நிறுவனர், செம்பவழம் ஆய்வுத் தளம், எஸ்.டி. நெல்லை நெடுமாறன் - வரலாற்று ஆய்வாளர், ஜெ. சிதம்பரநாதன் - ஆய்வாளர், சமூக இயக்க ஆய்வு மையம் (SDRC), ப்ரவாஹன் - ஆய்வாளர், SISHRI ஆகியோர் சிறப்புரை ஆற்றினார்கள். காலமின்மையால் ,ஏற்புரையை திரு. எஸ். இராமச்சந்திரன், நூலாசிரியர் சுருக்கமாக முடித்துக் கொண்டார். இது ஒரு கூட்டு முயற்சி என்றும், ஏற்புரையை தமது சிஷ்ரி குழுமம் சார்பாக தாம் ஏற்றுக் கொள்வதாக எளிமையாக ஏற்புரையை முடித்தார்.

நிகழ்ச்சி ஒருங்கிணைப்பாளர் நந்தர் (எ) தங்கம் விஸ்வநாதன் மிக அருமையாக நிகழ்ச்சியைத் தொகுத்து அளித்தார். கவிஞர் ஓகை நடராசன், ரத்தினச் சுருக்கமாக நன்றியுரையை முடித்துக் கொண்டார்.

சமூகம் சார்ந்த எழுத்து, வரலாற்றுப் பதிவு இரண்டுமே, இருமுனைக் கத்திகள். அப்படி ஒரு நூல் வெளியிடுபவர், அறிவியல் பூர்வமாகவும், சான்றுகளுடனே வரலாற்றைப் பதிவு செய்யும் மத்திய தொல்லியல் ஆராய்ச்சிக் கழகத்தில் தலைமை பொறுப்பு ஏற்று ஓய்வு பெற்ற தியாக.சத்தியமூர்த்தி அவர்கள். முதல் நூலைப் பெறுபவர்,பிரபலம் அடைந்த நடனமணி, நடிகை. அப்படி இருவரும் நூல் வெளியீட்டுக்கு, அதுவும் சமூகவரலாற்று நூலை வெளியிடமுன்வந்தார்கள் என்பதே, நூல் ஆசிரியர்களின் சரித்திர ஆய்வுக்கும், சிந்தனைத் தெளிவிற்கும் ஒரு முன் உதாரணம்.

அத்தகைய ஆய்வுக்கூற்றுகளை அழகாகக் கையாண்டு, நல்லதொரு நூலை தமிழ் மக்களுக்கு அளித்த SISHRI.ORG அமைப்பாளர்களுக்கும், நூலாசிரியர்களுக்கும், ரீச் பவுண்டேஷன் தனது வாழ்த்துக்களைத் தெரிவித்துக் கொள்கிறது.

படங்கள் இங்கே

Tamilhindu.com's review on the book is here

R.E.A.C.H Foundation: Heritage trip - 4th Dec 2010 with Kathie

R.E.A.C.H Foundation: Heritage trip - 4th Dec 2010 with Kathie

Heritage trip - 4th Dec 2010 with Kathie

The plan was to see Thirupparkadal, Thiruppukuzhi, Dammal and Poigainallur temples, as announced. And we were to return to Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya Vinobha Hall by 3 pm, so that Kathie’s lecture can be held on time.

But fate had a different call all together!

Ever energetic Kathy@ Katherine@ Sivadasi joined a select few on 4^th, which included Dr.T.Satyamurthy too, who was explaining things to us.

We first landed at the Thirupparkadal Prasanna Venkatachalapathy temple whose mythology goes like this

But saddest part, the day started with a rude shock! Sands, sands everywhere! Around the sanctum sanctorum, around the Mandapa, everywhere where our eyes could reach, the masons, in the name of renovation were applying their best minds to modernize this heritage temple with all the weirdest materials which are a taboo for heritage work: Tiles, marbles, granite pillars cemented over, the poor cousins Jaya Vijaya standing unopposed to their cement ashes smear and so on. Even the open mandapas were not spared! The open sides were filled with brick mortar and tiles were laid as final finishes. The Vimanas were worst hit. They were just refilled with cement finishes.

Here comes the death knell:

SAND BLASTING WAS HAPPENING IN FULL FORCE!

The facts are:

Cement NEVER plasters with granite and lime mortar.

Tiles will disallow any view on natural expansion and contraction of lime mortar or stone works, to enable us repair in future.

The cemented of pillars were done not to strength\then any lintels, but to fill some greedy contractor’s/ officials coffers.

Sand blasting creates micro fissures into the granite structure, thereby truncating its life by just another 10 years or so. The reason is, the surface hardness of granite is lesser than the sand’s surface hardness which is bombarding with great force. Also sand blasting permanently removes away the inscriptions if any around the sanctum sanctorum.

With heavy hearts we went to the adjacent Adiranganatha temple, where the inscriptions are intact around the sanctum sanctorum but sadly the evil force @ contractors’ next target was this temple! Will the concerned HR&CE authorities take note of this blatant violation of rules laid for renovating heritage temples and stop the menace? The Adiranganatha is an excellent piece of work believed to be more than 1600 years old, as it was in Fig tree (Atthi maram). See pictures here.

Then we went on the main road, to reach the rarely visited Karapureeswarar temple, which had inscriptions as early as that of Paranthaka’s and some stunning icons around the sanctum sanctorum, in the goshtas; we also saw a Jestha Devi sculpture intact with his son and daughter, Gomukan and agnidevi. Here, the priest had passed away few years before and the priest’s wife had taken over the mantle. Modern Karaikkal Ammayar indeed! We talk of woman empowerment and her we see a woman already doing that. But the sad reality is that, income is sparse, no thought of any renovation, in this temple, where the inscriptions and icons are of great importance and the old temple gopura has some eloquent old reminiscences of fine stucco wok. We seek philanthropists to think and act on how to do some basic repair work in this temple and save our heritage.More than that any steady income for the priestess can also be planned. REACH will surely support any such endeavour. See pictures here.

Next, crossing the Bangalore highway, we went to the Azagiya Ramar temple (See a fantastic record of all temples in Kaveripakkam in this blog).

The presiding deity is Vishnu and the Ramar shrine is on the left hand side when you enter the temple. Signs of Pallava workmanship is evident and also the Thayar shrine has its share of inscriptions, all fragmented and distorted stamping the presence of Chola domain. Modern renovation again has removed most of the antique look here, but the Rama, Sita; Lakshmana idols are fantastic, as they replicate bronze idols in every sense. Just think of using granite instead of bronze! So, is the fine artistry that we feel the deft handedness of the sculptor, who had brought the delicate finish of bronze in granite. Also seen were some fantastic carvings of windows and steps in granite. See pictures here.

Next to the Ramar temple, very close is the Selliamman temple, where we waited for almost an hour to get the doors open to have a look at the main deity, which we believe should be one of the oldest reliefs of Chola regime. But luckily, we saw some very old idols stuck on the compound walls, of early craftsmanship depicting Shiva and also the icon from which the design of Mangalsutra (Thali) was derived! Also, a beautiful carving on the pillar of a woman saint with long Jadamudi was also seen. See pictures here.

Next, we went to the nearby Abaya varadar which also can be spelt as Abaaya varadar (as we spell in Tamil அபயவரதர் அபாயவரதர் ஆகிவிட்டார்!) s we see the state of maintenance around the Temple. Believed to be older Pallava Shrine, renovated by the early Cholas, the miniatures in the pillars around the sanctum sanctorum are a `must see’ work and the flying devatas and ganas, Ramayana scenes in the arda Mandapa now white washed with lime are also a ‘must see’ figures. The temple is surrounded by cow dung and blackish gutters a reservoir for mosquito breeding and there was no electricity for us to view the temple properly for long hours! Temple cleaning groups, Vaishnavaite devotees please take note of this temple for your next cleaning operation and the temple is under private control and the priests are also not available. Some local enthusiasts have taken the mantle of priesthood and are offering the daily rituals and prayers. The Krishnadevaraya Mandapa just outside the temple is also in a dilapidated condition, full of filth and cow dung. In fact it serves as a cow shed for the locals now! See pictures here.

Coming with a sad heart, we were surprised to see a Old mosque built with temple artisans and granite, just slightly ahead of the temple, on the left hand side. This is also badly encroached and there is no direct access to the mosque. Beautifully done, this also serves as a cow shed. A broken Urdu inscription lies there and the mosque also needs immediate conservation measures. The story goes like this: when the Muslim invaders wanted to plunder the Abhaya Varadar temple, the artisans made this mosque with all features which are seen in a temple and proclaimed that the temple has already been converted to a mosque and thus saved the Abaya Varadar temple behind. This mosque is also a beautiful testimony to ancient architecture and REACH seeks attention and help from our heritage lovers and Muslim brethren to also save this heritage mosque, which would be the ONLY mosque which was originally built with granite temple like pillars and structure with minars above made of lime stucco (not temples being converted into mosques, like we see in many places).See this picture and a few pictures next to this, showing various angles of the mosque in worn our condition.

Also see member Shriram's photos here

An article appeared in Times of India dated 11th January 2011 , thanks to Saju the reporter, who responded immediately.

Here is the link

There were some more ancient temples we were to visit, but paucity of time and threatening rains made us rush back to Chennai, as the evening was waiting for Kathie to deliver her lecture in Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya, Vinobha Hall the same evening.

So, we have some more to chew in days to come: Another visit to Kaveripakkam, Dammal, Thiruppukuzhi and Poigainallur. The Gods are nice and they wait!

Heritage trip on 4th December 2010 with Katherine Brobeck.

The plan was to see Thirupparkadal, Thiruppukuzhi, Dammal and Poigainallur temples, as announced. And we were to return to Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya Vinobha Hall by 3 pm, so that Kathie’s lecture can be held on time.

But fate had a different call all together!

Ever energetic Kathy@ Katherine@ Sivadasi joined a select few on 4^th, which included Dr.T.Satyamurthy too, who was explaining things to us.

We first landed at the Thirupparkadal Prasanna Venkatachalapathy temple whose mythology goes like this

But saddest part, the day started with a rude shock! Sands, sands everywhere! Around the sanctum sanctorum, around the Mandapa, everywhere where our eyes could reach, the masons, in the name of renovation were applying their best minds to modernize this heritage temple with all the weirdest materials which are a taboo for heritage work: Tiles, marbles, granite pillars cemented over, the poor cousins Jaya Vijaya standing unopposed to their cement ashes smear and so on. Even the open mandapas were not spared! The open sides were filled with brick mortar and tiles were laid as final finishes. The Vimanas were worst hit. They were just refilled with cement finishes.

Here comes the death knell:

SAND BLASTING WAS HAPPENING IN FULL FORCE!

The facts are:

Cement NEVER plasters with granite and lime mortar.

Tiles will disallow any view on natural expansion and contraction of lime mortar or stone works, to enable us repair in future.

The cemented of pillars were done not to strength\then any lintels, but to fill some greedy contractor’s/ officials coffers.

Sand blasting creates micro fissures into the granite structure, thereby truncating its life by just another 10 years or so. The reason is, the surface hardness of granite is lesser than the sand’s surface hardness which is bombarding with great force. Also sand blasting permanently removes away the inscriptions if any around the sanctum sanctorum.

With heavy hearts we went to the adjacent Adiranganatha temple, where the inscriptions are intact around the sanctum sanctorum but sadly the evil force @ contractors’ next target was this temple! Will the concerned HR&CE authorities take note of this blatant violation of rules laid for renovating heritage temples and stop the menace? The Adiranganatha is an excellent piece of work believed to be more than 1600 years old, as it was in Fig tree (Atthi maram).

Then we went on the main road, to reach the rarely visited Karapureeswarar temple, which had inscriptions as early as that of Paranthaka’s and some stunning icons around the sanctum sanctorum, in the goshtas; we also saw a Jestha Devi sculpture intact with his son and daughter, Gomukan and agnidevi. Here, the priest had passed away few years before and the priest’s wife had taken over the mantle. Modern Karaikkal Ammayar indeed! We talk of woman empowerment and her we see a woman already doing that. But the sad reality is that, income is sparse, no thought of any renovation, in this temple, where the inscriptions and icons are of great importance and the old temple gopura has some eloquent old reminiscences of fine stucco wok. We seek philanthropists to think and act on how to do some basic repair work in this temple and save our heritage.More than that any steady income for the priestess can also be planned. REACH will surely support any such endeavour. See pictures here.

Next, crossing the Bangalore highway, we went to the Azagiya Ramar temple (See a fantastic record of all temples in Kaveripakkam in this blog).

The presiding deity is Vishnu and the Ramar shrine is on the left hand side when you enter the temple. Signs of Pallava workmanship is evident and also the Thayar shrine has its share of inscriptions, all fragmented and distorted stamping the presence of Chola domain. Modern renovation again has removed most of the antique look here, but the Rama, Sita; Lakshmana idols are fantastic, as they replicate bronze idols in every sense. Just think of using granite instead of bronze! So, is the fine artistry that we feel the deft handedness of the sculptor, who had brought the delicate finish of bronze in granite. Next to the Ramar temple, very close is the Selliamman temple, where we waited for almost an hour to get the doors open to have a look at the main deity, which we believe should be one of the oldest reliefs of Chola regime. But luckily, we saw some very old idols stuck on the compound walls, of early craftsmanship depicting Shiva and also the icon from which the design of Mangalsutra (Thali) was derived! Also, a beautiful carving on the pillar of a woman saint with long Jadamudi was also seen.

Next, we went to the nearby Abaya varadar which also can be spelt as Abaaya varadar (as we spell in Tamil அபயவரதர் அபாயவரதர் ஆகிவிட்டார்!) s we see the state of maintenance around the Temple. Believed to be older Pallava Shrine, renovated by the early Cholas, the miniatures in the pillars around the sanctum sanctorum are a `must see’ work and the flying devatas and ganas, Ramayana scenes in the arda Mandapa now white washed with lime are also a ‘must see’ figures. The temple is surrounded by cow dung and blackish gutters a reservoir for mosquito breeding and there was no electricity for us to view the temple properly for long hours! Temple cleaning groups, Vaishnavaite devotees please take note of this temple for your next cleaning operation and the temple is under private control and the priests are also not available. Some local enthusiasts have taken the mantle of priesthood and are offering the daily rituals and prayers. The Krishnadevaraya Mandapa just outside the temple is also in a dilapidated condition, full of filth and cow dung. In fact it serves as a cow shed for the locals now!

Coming with a sad heart, we were surprised to see a Old mosque built with temple artisans and granite, just slightly ahead of the temple, on the left hand side. This is also badly encroached and there is no direct access to the mosque. Beautifully done, this also serves as a cow shed. A broken Urdu inscription lies there and the mosque also needs immediate conservation measures. The story goes like this: when the Muslim invaders wanted to plunder the Abhaya Varadar temple, the artisans made this mosque with all features which are seen in a temple and proclaimed that the temple has already been converted to a mosque and thus saved the Abaya Varadar temple behind. This mosque is also a beautiful testimony to ancient architecture and REACH seeks attention and help from our heritage lovers and Muslim brethren to also save this heritage mosque, which would be the ONLY mosque which was originally built with granite temple like pillars and structure with minars above made of lime stucco (not temples being converted into mosques, like we see in many places).

There were some more ancient temples we were to visit, but paucity of time and threatening rains made us rush back to Chennai, as the evening was waiting for Kathie to deliver her lecture in Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya, Vinobha Hall the same evening.

So, we have some more to chew in days to come: Another visit to Kaveripakkam, Dammal, Thiruppukuzhi and Poigainallur. The Gods are nice and they wait!

Andhra Endowments Department joins hands with REACH FOUNDATION

A three day workshop was conducted on the 27th, 28th and 29th of December 2010, at the Sri Venkateswara Employees' Training Academy at Tirupathi, by the Endowments Department of Andhra Pradesh, in collaboration with REACH foundation an NGO working towards heritage conservation. (www.conserveheritage.org), to educate their staff on the correct measures and methodologies on heritage conservation, applicable to the temples across their state.

REACH FOUNDATION has been working on areas like conservation and renovation of ancient temples and heritage structures, teaching inscriptions to interested persons and conserving antiques in many private collector's museums. It also conducts awareness camps throughout the state of Tamilnadu on the understanding and appreciating heritage structures and the importance of ancient science.

The three day workshop was inaugurated by the traditional chanting of mantras by the devasthanam priests. The SV university girls rendered few invocation songs. The 5 faces of the traditional lamp was lit by the Honourable minister for endowments, Shri.Jupalli Krishna Rao, Shri. JSV Prasad, the commissioner of endowments, who was instrumental for this workshop to happen, the founder trustee of REACH, renowned archaeologist Dr.T.Satyamurthy and then Velu sthapathi from the endowments department and finally by Joint E.O of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam, Shri.K. Bhaskar.

The minister inaugurated the workshop and also released the conservation manual prepared by REACH FOUNDATION specially for the A.P. endowments department. While addressing the gathering, the minister lauded the effort of their department seeking technical advise from the archaeological and conservation experts, instead of allowing modern construction methods creeping into the temple renovations, thus depriving the temples from its originality and antiquity. He assured that his Government would surely apply the models laid out as a result of the camp and would henceforth take the issue of conservation seriously, thus preserving the heritage temples across the state.

Dr. T. Satyamurthy, who delivered the key note address emphasised on adopting the traditional concepts and ancient science to prolong the lives of all heritage structures, than blindly following modern methods.

He said, they were not against modernity, but chose select proven methods where need be, but try to minimize the use of modern materials and stick to the traditional time tested materials and methods for conservation and renovation, deploying the age old Jirnodhara concepts.

The commissioner was more vocal and straight forward in his observations on the current practises his department followed. He dissuaded the engineers from allowing mosaic tiles, acrylic paints and cement based gaudy constructions on and above a heritage structure. He said the conservation manual would henceforth be their guide book and no one should submit quotations only with an MLA's letter and cost, but also include the technical evaluation of the structure, giving due importance of retaining the originality of the heritage temple.

In fact, after every session, the commissioner used to throw questions on the participants, and if found they were not able to answer, he would give the answers from the points he had jotted down.

Dr. Badrinarayanan, former director of Geological Survey of India explained the basic types of stones used in heritage temples, and those available in Andhra, the key differences and methods to identify a male stone, or a femal stone or a neutral stone.

Shri. Kanade, Shri. K.K.Ramamurthy, Mr.Dayalan, Mr. Sriraman, Ms. Srilatha all experts from the Archeological Survey of India addressed the gathering with documenting methods in temples like Ankorvat, Restoration of temples in Kerala, Methods to follow while conserving a temple, conservation of bronzes and murals in temples, respectively. A paper on the various activities done by REACH and another paper on importance of lime and lime mortar written by Shri. Tapan Bhttacharya of ASI, Kolkatta was read out by their PRO, J.Chandrasekaran. Members P.N.Subramaniam, and Ramnatha Mani gave ample support and back stage arrangements for all the paeprs to be presented on screen without any hindrance.

The 200 odd mebers of the Endowments department were disciplined lot and attended both days' session with great interest and enthusiasm. The group of senior staff including the sthapathis Rangarajan and Velu, Srinivasan, and the Chief engineer R. Jagan Mohan and his team of engineers did an excellent job in coordinating the whole event which includes stage arrangements, banners, food and tea, accommodation and darshan arrangements for the whole group, etc, in detail and were very professional in their approach and deliverance. Special thanks to Shri. Subbarao who was the man Friday for all activities who worked as abridage between the REACH, the NGO organization and his department. Also we should mention special thanks to Mr. Srinivasan who was made in-charge for the guest house and food arrangements.His hospitality and availability at all times for the visiting conservation experts is worth mentioning.

The photos are here to see.

REACH also did a quick trip to the Vakulamma temple atop a heavily quarried granit hillock, lying just outside the Tirupathi city on the Nellore Highway. Quarrying was rampant around, and the temple atop is sure not seeing any pooja for atleast 500 years. No way to go atop, REACH wanted the TTD to take care of this heritage temple which incidentally happens to be the temple for the mother of Balaji, Vakuladevi!

The sad plight of Vakulamma temple is shown here.

The members also went for a trip to the Gudimallam Shiva temple, considered the oldest living temple in whole of India, which has the Shiva linga with a human figure made as a relieved structure from a well polished stone. this temple is now maintained by the ASI and is close to the Renigunta city. Please click here for photos.

The special darshan arranged by the commissioner atTirumala, for Balaji darshan and the laddus we carried back home, made thid event a memorable one and of course a mile stone in REACH's activities.

On the 29th, the whole team visited Uttaramerur Kailasanadar Temple, renovated by REACH and also visited the Sundaravarada Perumal temple, also a heritage Pallava period temple, retained in its prestine grandeur and style, located in the same place. Various aspects of renovation were explained to the visiting engineers and officers and site work on stone, granite stitching method and stucco and on lime -mixing were explained to them in detail.

This we think is a first time collaboration between a Government Endowment board and a dedicated heritage conservation oriented NGO,happening in India.

The credit fully goes to the current ebulient and charismatic Commissioner of the Endowments Department, on whose idea the whole thing shaped up.REACH assures that in all forthcoming conservation efforts by the endowments department

, they will share the best of their expertise and make this wedding a memorable one!

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REACH in news

The news articles about the workshop is shown here:

REACH in news - in Indian Express Buzz - Dec 6 - 2010

Ms. Lakshmy Venkiteswaran has done a good article on need for having conservation of antiques in her article in Indian Express - Express buzz dated 6th December 2010.

She sends these links:

http://expressbuzz.com/education/knights-of-the-arts/228201.html.

REACH thanks Ms. Lakshmy for her timely article.

Here is the newspaper version 2 pages:

http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2010/12/06/INDEX.SHTML

http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2010/12/06/INDEX.SHTML

Chandra

REACH reaches US radio

Please hear our PRO Chandrasekaran's interview given live to Shri.Shri of Stanford Radio, itsdiff.com, from the USA. Click the links given below for part 1 and 2:

http://conserveheritage.org/?page_id=734

REACH in news -November-December-2010

Dear All,

The REACh Awards function went on well

Report on REACH HERITAGE AWARDS 2010

REACH FOUNDATION is a non-profit social voluntary organization working towards heritage conservation and is spreading the awareness between the rural folk, so that the built heritage like temples are not lost forever and are restored in their antique beauty with use of traditional materials. REACH also teaches epigraphy and methods of restoration to interested groups. From this year onwards, REACH

has constituted `HERITAGE CONSERVATION AWARDS’ and it has decided to celebrate this event on every 19^th of November, which would coincide with the start of the World heritage week.

On November 19^{th, 2010,} this first of its kind awards function was held at Pitti Thyagarajar Hall, T. Nagar , in the evening hours and the following persons were the recipients of this year’s Heritage Conservation Awards.

Justice Rantavelu Pandiyan is highly regarded for the conservation of thousand year old temple, Gomathi Ambal Sameda Narumpoonadar Swami temple, in his home town Thirupudaimarudur, District Thirunelveli and for resurrection of traditional art and crafts in and around the village. He has brought back the heritage tourism to this tiny village.

Dr.R.Krishnamurthy has contributed much to the Tamil heritage by his discovery of Sangam age inscribed Pandya coin followed by the discovery of all Chola, Chera coins too. His numismatic discovery is a milestone in the annals of heritage studies of the classical Tamil history of the country.

Shri K.K. Mohammed was the first conservation archaeologist to plan and execute the preservation of lost glory of The Bateshwar Group of temples, in Chambal valley remains in Madhya Pradesh. At a time when people were even scared to go to the valley dull of dacoits, he dared enough to lead his team and start conserving the dilapidated temples within the forest. Some 200 temples in 25 acres of land were brought back to its original glory, using the same fallen stone members with a meager budget of 15- 25 lakhs spent for the labour only.

At the start of the function, Oduvar Kudandai Lakshmanan sang the traditional Shaivite hymns from Devaram, which was followed by a scintillating Bharatanatyam performance by Ms. Swarnamalya, having the Meikeerthi of Raja Raja as the basic theme. The theme of Raja Raja Chola's meikeerthi ( names and honours won by the Chola emperor) was chosen to coincide with the 1000th year of the consecration of the Big Temple of Tanjore, built by this great emperor. Then films on the achievements of the awardees followed. The

awards were given by Hon’ble Justice S. Mohan and the felicitation was done by Former CEC, Shri. Gopalaswami. Shri. Ravi Sam, the M.D of Advaita Lakshmi group of Coimbatore, also the Chairman of REACH's academic wing,

A.A.S.A.I welcomed the audience. Good stage management by Ms. Latha Suresh, Natarajan and the Tamil compeering by PG Prabhakaran and the introduction to the awardees in English, by Dr.Chitra Madhavan highlighted the event much better. Chandrasekaran, the PRO of REACH did the powerpoints on Shri. Muhammed's Temple renovation efforts at Bateshwar, as well as the story so far, about REACH's humble beginning till the reach to this D-Day! Shri. Haraiharan, the trustee delivered the vote of thanks.

The small monetary rewards given to the awardees were returned back to REACH by the graceful awardees, to spend the money on REACH's heritage restoration efforts.

The epigraphy teacher for the REACH volunteers, Shri. S. Ramachandran was given a special citation on the occasion.

Other dignitaries who graced the occasion were H. Chandrasekaran, Auditor cum treasurer, Shri. S. Hariharan, Auditor and trustee of REACH, Shri. Sundhar Bharadwaj - builder cum - all trustees of REACH.

Some of the VIPs who graced the occassion were Shri. T.S.Sridhar,IAS, Commissioner of TN state Archaeology department, Shri. AVS Raja of the Amudasurabhi, Shri Ram group and former DGP Lakshminarayanan.

The photos are here to see

The article in Tamil vernacular magazine Amudasurabhi and in a temple journal magazine called Sivasundari edited and run by Shri.Atchilingam, a staunch Shiva baktha are posted below:

REACH HERITAGE AWARDS 2010

Dear All,

REACH Foundation is happy to invite you for the first of its kind award it has instituted, the Annual Awards for Heritage Conservation. We request you to consider this as our personal invitation to each one you, the proud inheritors of the rich Indian heritage. Please come and grace the occasion and also recommend us any such heritage conservationists who deserve such recognition for the years to come.

Please forward this invitation to all like minded friends and request on our behalf to attend this function and make it a memorable day for us and REACH us.

Kind regards

--

Dr. T. Satyamurthy
Founder trustee,
on behalf of trustees and all members of REACH FOUNDATION

&

J. Chandrasekaran
P.R.O, REACH Foundation

Heritage trip-Oct-2nd-2010- Vruddachalam

When we were told that the Vruddagirieeswarar and Kuzhanjiappar temples of Vruddachalam were so important worshipping Temples and especially the Vruddagirieeswarar temple is supposed to be the oldest among the South Indian temples, patronized by the Cholas, sung by the Saivaite saints, Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, we wanted to visit these places one day. And that day came on 2nd October 2010.

We also had information on Pennadam Thoonganaimadam temple,which has an unique vimana and also many mythological stories, and we visited Pennadam temple too.

Guided by our teacher S. Ramachandran, a group of 10 members from PSVP and temple_cleaners REACH FOUNDATION visited these temples. Interesting features were:

• The Vruddagirieeswarar temple really looks too ancient.
• The temple tower Gopuram side walls contain beautifully sculptured dancing women.
• The roof of the front mandapa as soon as you enter the temple, has beautiful mural paintings,belived to be done some 100 good years ago.
• The Nandi Mandapa is supposed to be made in the memory of Sembian Maadevi
• Mythology has strong stores and reference to Sundara Moorthy Nayanar as well as Appar.
• The Lord having named as old man, living in the oldest Mountain, was shunned by Sundarar as he refused to sing an old man. The amman appeared to him as Bala Ambikai, and made him sing at this temple!
• The Kandaradittan Thiruvoil has his name inscribed at the entrance.
• The Bairava at the Kandaraddittan Thiruvoil looks menacing and a typical Chola sculpture.
• The inscriptions of various regime are rich, but are seldom maintained cleanly. See photos as a proof.
• The word `manikkam' refers to devadasis in the area, which appears in many inscriptions and this shows their influence and importance in temple worship as well as donations.

The temple is not maintained as it should be and we saw trees overgrowing on the temple towers.

Beggars stray a lot inside the temple premises.

The Kuzhanjiappar temple is just some 5 kilometers away from the Vruddagirieeswarar Temple.

It has an eerie effect with the strange looking cement sculptures carved around the most modern and gaudy looking temple.

It seems this temple hosts shelter to handicapped animals! We saw a cow with an extra pair of foot, a goat with a broken limb and few handicapped monkeys and deers sheltered in a park made for them, behind the temple premises.

As per the priest, the moolavar is a svayambu and looks so. They worship it as Murugan.

The belief is that those who pray to Kuzhanjiappar will get all their desires fulfilled.

• See this link in Shaivam.org

The Thoonganaimadam temple at Pennadam is also a calm and clean temple, except for the eye sore called the temple Vimana. A beautiful Pallava styled Vimana, sadly over painted with latest acrylic paints, with the least aesthetic sense of artistic fervour. The old murals painted outside the amman shrine were over done with newly sprayed Acrylic paints on the grills and walls.

A solitary pillar lying at the South west corner of the amman shrine interestingly has a Rajendra inscription on 4 sides and a pre-independence inscription on the fourth side. Some 'Rao Bahadur' or 'Sir' had shown his loyalty when the queen and king had been coronated in Delhi. Similar stone pillar was also seen on the South East corner of the 4 roads surrounding the Vruddagirieeswarar temple also. See the photos gallery.

The inscriptions were sadly white washed a lot in both the temples and in Vruddagirieeswarar temple, people have written with lamp soot on and above the inscriptions so vehemently, that we can very well conduct a competition for inscription lovers that if they read those verses correctly and completely, seen around the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, they will be given a year free supply of lamp oil!

The temple authorities were so curious in Pennadam that they doubted our extra time spent reading inscriptions and taking photographs around. We explained them patiently about REACH and its activities and then we were told that the local HR& CE officers themselves are quoting 4 times the cost for tree killer chemicals to their own staff. This made them desist the plan to buy and apply tree killers on the trees growing on the unique Thoonganai madam vimana!

The adjacent high raised shrine was built to the order of a devadasi who lived and wanted to see the Lord from outside, as she was not allowed to enter the main shrine (This story is not authentic, I think, as Devadasis were the next to Brahmins and Kings who were allowed to have access to all places at the temple).

Stories apart, these temples are worth a visit for the Vruddagirieeswarar temple for its ancient value and beautiful temple campus adorned with great sculptures, inscriptions, murals and mythological stories,

the Kuzhanjiappar story for the svayambu Murugan shrine and the eerie effect this temple causes ;)

and the Thoonganai Madam temple, which has a differently styled Vimana, tonnes of inscriptions and

The Dwarapalakas totally depicted in a different style.

Reach in news -15th October Times of India

REACH has members who are vigilant of any damage happening on heritage and member Jayakumar, a teaching faculty of Kalakshetra was fast enough to inform us the heavy quarrying happening in and around Pudukkottai.

Dinamalar the Tamil vernacular was the fastest to respond to our call and published the article the next day. See here.

Times of India carried an article the next day . Thanks to our member Jayakumar who brought this to our notice; with his help we could appeal to the state minister for Archaeology, Shri. Thangam Thennarasu, in person (our PRO Chandra waited outside his office for almost 2 hours to deliver the letter in person) and gave news to these dailies.

Ironically, in the same page of Times of India, just below the Pudukkottai quarrying article, there is another article which says ASI is documenting all rock-cut caves. Thanks but the irony is the most bombed rocks are from Pudukottai and Madurai regions, which claims most number of caves to exist as documented by ASI!!

Lecture on Ayodhya

There was a lecture on Ayodhya hosted by the Viswa Hindu Parishad, in which PArliamentarian Subramanaim Swamy delivered a guest lecture. Professor A.K. Sharma along with Dr T Satyamurthy were the few archaeologists who had visited the Ayodhya site and have excavated below the current Masjid structure. They both talked on the existence of the Vishnu shrine, corraborating evidences from Puranas and ancient manuscripts from famous scholars and poets along with supporting artifacts available at the site of dispute. Now as the court verdict is already released, we are releasing our photos of the function conducted at Chennai on September 4th, 2010.

REACH in NEWS - in Pudiya Thalamurai

Article in Pudaiya Thalaimurai on temples of South

The Pudiya Thalaimurai magazine covered a cover article on the after effect of Kalahasti and the reporter had an elaborate article covering the trevails of Tamilnadu temples. Our founder Dr. T. Satyamurthy had given a detailed report as well as I (Chandra) shared the centre piece photo) of the cracked lintel stone of Varadaraja Perumal East tower, which is unfortunately not yet repaired, but only white wash (to our eyes?) is going on without mending the cracks.. Also, the claim of the IIT academician does not stand any weight. Negligence and use of cement to further add weight to the already cleaving Gopura is the root cause. The cover picture is of the Perumathur temple which I took while returning from the Chidambaram Symposium.

Please see the link here.

Reach in news -September 2010

We wanted to create our website www.conserveheritage.org in an easier way and decided to create exclusive blogs for each tags to put the RSS over there..

Pls read:

http://reachinnews.blogspot.com/2010/09/reach-in-vak-september-2010.html

Heritage lectures galore in September 2010

This month was filled with lectures of our beloved heritage speakers for REACH members.

Earlier on the 4th of September, Dr Satyamurthy talked showing a power point presentation about the famous Adichanallur expedition and archaeological excavations he did while he was in the ASI to bring out the site's comparable age with that of Mohenjadaro and Harappa. This talk was held as the monthly heritage talk series by the Tamil Heritage club actively supported and mentored by Prof S.Swaminathan and his friends. The photos are here for you to see

Then, Dr T Satyamurthy gave an exclusive lecture through a power point presentation on the various technical aspects and the congregation of various arts like sculptures, fresco paintings, temple architecture, dance forms, superior earth quake resistance science and all the best of the world poured into one form of a superior temple 'the Rajarajaeswaramudayar temple' which was later called as the Brahadeeswara temple and also commonly known as the Big temple, on the 15th of September 2010 for the staff and students, heritage enthusiasts at Kalakshetra, Thiruvanmiyur. Here are the photos. Some 500 people attended this session.

Again, Dr Satyamurthy and Dr Chitra Madhavan were among the few invited special speakers on the celebration of the BIG temple's 1000th year of consecration on the 18th September 2010 hosted by the CP Ramaswami Iyer Foundation at Greames Road and here are the photos.

Lecture on PrePallava Architecture on 30th July 2010

The CP Ramaswami Art Foundation has been conducting series of programmes to remind us of our rich heritage. Recently we had our founder Dr T Satyamurthy talking on the excavations and findings he did one with his stint in ASI (Murugan Temple, Saluvan kuppam) and the other he is working now, as REACH FOUNDATION's founder trustee. (Vepathur Veetrirunda Perumal Temple).

The photos of the lecture and the audience who gathered are HERE and the copy of the write up which came in THE HINDU - Friday review (dated 13th August 2010) is here for you to see

and here is the newspaper link

Madras Day

REACH FOUNDATION did its share of remembering the commencement of Madras Day. When NDTV approached us for locating a heriatge house appropriate for theirstory on Madras Day, Art Collector and Numismatist Raja Seetharaman's house at Chindadripet was suggested by our founder Dr.T. Satyamurthy. We had a visit one day before to obtain permission from the house owner and fix the d-day for the shooting. LastSunday, we did the shoot and it is shown in the later part of this news reel.
Our salutations to the fighting spirit of these 2 women, mother Sulochana and her daughter Lakshmi, who shared their experiences with us. We wish NDTV shows this again during Madras Day.(Aug 22nd)
More photos taken during the interview with the inhabitants of this great Heritage house are seen HERE