Chola Site Seminar, Kumbakonam, 2020, Preparatory Talk Videos by Participants

Chola Site Seminar, Kumbakonam, Preparatory Talk Videos, 2020

Sharada Chandrasekhar on Melakkadambur Karakkoyil

Mangai Muthukumaran on the history of Sangam Cholas

J Ramki on some Chola Temples in and around Mayiladuthurai

Siva Thiagarajan on Rajarajaeswaram (Thanjavur Big Temple)

Viswanathan on Thukachi, Thiruvalanjuzhi and Manambadi

VK Srinivasan on Chola Meikeerthis. Read out by Badri.

Kishore Mahadevan on Nageswaran Kovil, Kumbakonam.

Sowndararajan on "Commerce, Taxation and Law during the Chola Period"

Prof Sivaramakrishnan on "Appreciating Chola Miniatures"

Culturescaping by Prof. Swaminathan, 4th April 2020, Video

Tamil Heritage Trust  

presents

Culturescaping - கலாச்சாரவடிவுக்கலை 

by

Professor Swaminathan - பேராசிரியர் சுவாமிநாதன்

A Digital Lecture

4th April 2020, Saturday 5:30 PM.

Youtube link will be shared via Email, Facebook, WhatsApp and THT Website on the day of the digital lecture

About the Topic

Landscaping modifies the visible features of an area of land to make it appealing. Culturescaping, in addition, attempts to sensitise public towards our heritage, a bio-aesthetic, spiritual, religious, ecological approach to landscaping. This is but feeling our culture in every step. Covering space to uncover our past, Turning idle minutes into enchanting moments, Let us have yesterday, Ode to our multi-faceted culture, Rhythm, harmony and balance, … and peace, are some  interesting themes.

Culturescaping as Sanga-ch-cholai is an attempt to celebrate our 2000-year old heritage where nature around the people provided substance for literary metaphor. agath-th-thottam and purath-th-thottam celebrate the literary expressions synergising both nature and literature inspired by it, for a visual, emotional and literary treat two millenia later! Similarly yappu-th-thoppu would be an orchard consisting mango (sweet and sour), vila and vilva trees, for these trees form the basis for the mimetic mnemonics in Tamil prosody. Lastly, a flower garden with the 99 plants mentioned in the kurinji-p-pattu by kapilar.

About the Speaker

Professor Swaminathan had a thriving career as a faculty member in IIT Delhi, a premier engineering institution in India.  He sought voluntary retirement, first to work in the Integrated Rural Technology Centre in Kerala and then moved full time into Culture and Heritage. He first established Sudarsanam in Pudukkottai to document the heritage of Pudukkottai, his hometown.  Subsequently, he was instrumental in establishing the Tamil Heritage Trust in Chennai and remains it founder chairman.

தலைப்பு:

நிலவடிவுக்கலை (Landscaping) ஓரிடத்தின் காட்சியமைப்பை மேம்படுத்துகிறது.     கலாச்சாரவடிவுக்கலை (Culturescaping) கூடுதலாக பாரம்பரியம், உயிர் அழகியல், ஆன்மீகம், மதம் மற்றும் சூழலியல் மூலம் நிலவடிவுக்கலையை அணுகுகிறது. இதன் ஒவ்வொரு அடியிலும் நம் கலாச்சாரத்தை உணரலாம். வெற்று இடங்களை மாற்றி நம் கடந்த காலம் பற்றிய நினைவுகளை, செயலற்ற கணங்களில் நேற்றைய சாதனைகளை,  பன்முகத் தன்மை கொண்ட நம் கலாச்சார பாடல்கள் மற்றும் அவற்றில் ஒத்திசைந்த தாளம், நல்லிணக்கம், சமநிலை மற்றும் சமாதானம் முதலியவற்றை, கலாச்சாரவடிவுக்கலை வழியாக வெளிப்படுத்த முடியும்.

சங்கச்சோலை எனும் கலாச்சாரவடிவுக்கலை, நம் இரண்டாயிர வருட பாரம்பரியத்தையும், அதில் இயற்கைச்சூழல் எவ்வாறு இலக்கிய உருவகங்களுக்கு வழிகோலியது என்பதையும் கொண்டாடுகிறது. அகத்தோட்டம் மற்றும் புறத்தோட்டம் போன்றவை இயற்கையும், அதனோடு  ஒருங்கிணைந்த இலக்கிய வெளிப்பாடும் நம் கண்கள், புலன்கள் மற்றும் ரசனைக்கு விருந்தாகமுடியும். இதைப்போல் யாப்புத் தோப்பு என்ற பழத்தோட்டம் தேமாவும், புளிமாவும், விளாமும், வில்வமும் உள்ளடக்கியிருக்கும். இம்மரங்கள்தானே தமிழின் சீர் மற்றும் யாப்பிலக்கணத்தின் அடிப்படையாக விளங்குகின்றன! கடைசியாக கபிலர் குறிஞ்சிப் பாட்டில் கூறிய தொன்னூற்று ஒன்பது தாவரங்களைக் கொண்ட பூந்தோட்டமும் இதில் ஒன்றே.

பேச்சாளர்:

பேராசிரியர் சுவாமிநாதன் இன்று இந்தியாவின் தலை சிறந்த பொறியியல் கல்லூரி நிறுவனங்களில் ஒன்றான புது தில்லி இந்திய தொழில்நுட்ப கல்லூரியில் சிறப்பாக ஆசிரிய பணிபுரிந்தவர். அதிலிருந்து தன்னார்வ ஓய்வு பெற்று பின்னர் கேரளாவில் உள்ள ஒருங்கிணைந்த கிராமப்புற தொழில்நுட்ப மையத்தில் பணி செய்து,  அதன் பின் முழுநேரமாக இந்திய கலாச்சாரம்  மற்றும் பாரம்பரியத்தை மக்களுக்கு கொண்டு செல்லும் செயல்களில் ஈடுபடலானார்.  அவருடையசொந்த ஊரான புதுக்கோட்டையின் பாரம்பரியத்தை ஆவணப்படுத்த சுதர்சனம் என்ற அமைப்பை உருவாக்கியிருக்கிறார். சென்னையில் தமிழ்ப் பாரம்பரிய அறக்கட்டளையைத் தொடங்கி, அதன் தலைவராகவும் இருக்கிறார். 

Entry for the event is FREE; No registration required. The event will also be available LIVE. For further details, please visit http://www.tamilheritage.in & https://www.facebook.com/TamilHeritageTrust.

Tamil Heritage Trust

Contact: T Ravishankar 9500074247    

THT Website: http://www.tamilheritage.in

THT Pechchu Kachcheri: http://www.thtpechchukkachcheri.wordpress.com

THT Site Seminars: http://www.thtsiteseminars.wordpress.com

THT Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TamilHeritageTrust/

THT Twitter: https://twitter.com/TamilHeritageTN

Story of Scripts - Professor Swaminathan -- Delivered at Badri Seshadri's Office (9 Videos)

Story of Scripts

Professor Swaminathan

(Mottai Maadi Koottam - Badri's Office, Eldams Road, 2011)

A series of nine video lectures on how writing has evolved around the world.  

PART - 1

PART - 2

PART - 3

PART - 4

PART - 5

PART - 6

PART - 7

PART - 8

PART - 9

Tamil Heritage Trust

Tamil Heritage Trust (THT) is a recognized trust (Reg.No. 379/2010) set up with a vision to promote, document and disseminate Indian heritage. The impetus for this came from Prof. S. Swaminathan, retired Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT-Delhi, and Dr. Badri Seshadri, a well-known publisher, entrepreneur and heritage enthusiast.

At THT, we are all volunteers with a common interest in Indian heritage. Our passion is to communicate its richness and beauty to everyone around us. Our Monthly Talks and Pechu Kacheri programs are free for all.  Site Seminars, Mamallapuram Study Tours and other workshops have a nominal charge to cover the costs.  We do not levy a membership or subscription fees. Aṣ a non-profit organization, we are supported by sponsorships and donations from heritage enthusiasts. 

Our mission is to get you interested in Indian heritage.  If you are already attracted to this subject, we provide you with an enthusiastic community for sharing your ideas and learning.

We have a range of activities: 

• Monthly Talk on various aspects of heritage, conducted on the first Saturday of every month
• Annual Pechu Kacheri, a lecture series on heritage-related themes in December
• Periodic study tours to Mamallapuram
• Regular workshops on “How to See a Temple” and “How to See a Museum”
• Annual Site Seminars – weeklong tours to important heritage sites of India
• Lectures at schools to sensitize children on our heritage
• Support TN Government’s culture and tourism departments in their efforts towards promoting Indian heritage

Founder Prof. Swaminathan

(DD Interview of Professor Swaminathan by Gopu - Video)

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.

-   from The Walrus and the Carpenter, by Lewis Carroll

Unlike the walrus, few people can talk of such a variety of things.  Prof Swaminathan can talk of shoes and socks in Ajanta paintings, ships that sailed between England and India, the Fibonacci patterns of leaves in cabbages, and many a king including Mahendra Varma Pallava, - the maverick who called himself Vichitrachitta, the innovative and exotic thinker who unleashed the era of sculptures and architecture in Tamil country. If you had studied mechanical engineering in IIT Delhi, I am sure I would have heard him speak about sealing wax, too.

To talk about such a variety of things, one must first have an abundant curiosity and the intellectual discipline to understand what they have to offer. In short he must be an AtyantaKaamaand a TattvaVedi.

Our VichitraChitthaSwaminathan can not only talk about them, but talk about them in intersting ways, and provoke the listener’s curiosity and instigate a sense of wonder. 

Most Indians, unlike Isaac Newton, stand not on the shoulders of giants, but surrounded by the wonders wrought upon this many splendored land by innumerable generations of giants, intellectual artistic and indefatigable. Sadly most of us see this treasure trove not with eyes not always appreciative but sometimes ignorant, often apathetic, even blasé. Even the curious and the restless among us, often need a spark, a shaft of light, a steady lamp to look long and deep and absorb the essence of such wonders, waiting to be discovered. Such a spark, a lighthouse is Swaminathan.

Professor Swaminathan had a thriving career as a faculty member in IIT Delhi, a premier engineering institution in India.  He sought voluntary retirement, first to work in the Integrated Rural Technology Centre in Kerala and then moved full time into Culture and Heritage.  He first established Sudarsanam in Pudukkottai to document the heritage of Pudukkottai, his hometown.  Subsequently, he was instrumental in establishing the Tamil Heritage Trust in Chennai and remains it founder chairman.

Background and History

After four score and ten years, Prof. Swaminathan decided to start a new chapter in not only his life, but that of this city, Madras, which we proudly call the Cultural capital of India. At the end of a lecture by Vilayanur S Ramachandran in Thyagaraya Nagar in 2008, Swaminathan proposed that like minded people come together and create a forum, to host lectures, and an exchange of ideas about Indian heritage.

S Kannan, Annamalai, Siva Thiagarajan, and Badri Seshadri agreed, and they founded the Tamil Heritage Trust, whose first few set of programs were monthly lectures, initially hosted at the Vinobha Hall of Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, T. Nagar.

Badri Seshadri made it a point to video record all the lectures initially with his hand held Flip camera.  He also created the blog for THT activities and posted the videos.  It was during this time we started organizing Summer Camps for Children, Site Seminars and Pechu Kacheris.  Raga Sudha Hall, PS High School and Tattvaloka in Mylapore were also used for Pechu Kacheris and Summer Camps.

In 2016 ARKAY Ramakrishnan offered his hall in Royapetta High Road in Mylapore for monthly lectures.  It is a lovely hall with a seating capacity of about 100, air-conditioned and most importantly, we could stream videos of the lectures live on youtube.  This has been our monthly meeting place for over 4 years now.

Most of the programs are run by our volunteers.  The site seminars, pechu kacheris and other workshops are fully managed by them.  It is their extraordinary commitment, and also, generous support from public that keeps our activities going.

Monthly Talk

Monthly Talk is the most important event around which all our other activities revolve.  It is usually delivered either by an amateur enthusiast or a dedicated professional.  The topics can range from various arts to culture.

Initially, when we started this 2008, among the speakers and topics were Dr Nagaswamy, renowned archaeologist on Hindu art in Southeast Asia, VP Dhananjayan, Bharatanatyam dancer on the Classical Arts and Human Heritage, Prof Baluswamy, Tamil professor on the Great Penance Sculpture of Mamallapuram, PS Sriraman, an archaeologist on the Tanjvaur Chola paintings,  Dr Vilayanur S Ramachandran, neurologist on Neurology and the Arts, VR Devika, educationist about Traditional Performing Arts in Education, Bhushavali fashion designer on Textiles in Ajanta paintings, Prof Swaminathan himself, first on Indian Music, then on Ajanta, historian KRA Narasiah on Researching for Alavai, and many others on a variety of topics. This series of monthly lectures has recently completed eleven years and is going strong in the Twelfth year.

The Monthly Talk is free for every one to attend.  Please fill out the contact form on the web page, and you will receive emails about our programs.