Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

Dear Friends,

in my previous mail I wrongly mentioned Dr. CS Ramachandran instead
of Dr. V.S.Ramachandran.. Error regretted.

Time of programme :: 1700 hrs - 1800 hrs on 6.9.2008

Following message also will be helpful. sps

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Dear friends,

You are invited to a talk by

Prof. S. Swaminathan

on

"Preserving the paintings of Sittannavasal"

His talk (details below) would be supported by a slide-show.

Date: 6th September 2008

Time: 5-00 to 6-00 PM

Venue: Vinobha Hall, Takkar Baba Vidyalaya, Venkatanarayana Road, T
Nagar

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On the talk

Many of the ancient monuments in India are in the danger of being
lost. One such is the Sittannavasal monument complex, in Tamilnadu,
particularly the priceless Jain paintings that its cave temple
contains. The pre-9th century paintings are second in importance
only to the Ajanta paintings in the Indian artistic heritage. The
Sittannavasal complex is famous for four heritage sites: a Jain cave
temple of pre-9th and the incomparable paintings that it contains,
a natural cavern where Jain ascetics practiced austerities from the
3rd century BC onwards, with more than 20 stone beds and
inscriptions in Tamil from the 3rd century BC till the 10th century
AD, a submerged Hindu cave temple in a tarn and megalithic burials
in hundreds.
The talk will focus on the paintings and inscriptions, a proposal
to preserve them and to sensitise our public towards the importance
of our heritage.

The proposal envisages building a heritage complex in the vicinity
of the monuments. In the this complex the Jain cave temple can be
recreated along with the paintings, and four theme pavilions can be
laid out, highlighting four essential aspects of the monuments that
have bearing on Indian and Tamil culture: a painting pavilion to
focus on the Indian painting tradition, an epigraphy pavilion for
showing development of Indian scripts and scripts of many South-east
Asian languages from Brahmi, a temple architecture pavilion to trace
the development of temple architecture from cave temple, and,
finally, a pavilion bringing out the Jain contribution to the Indian
heritage.

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About Prof. Swaminathan

S. Swaminathan is a retired teacher of mechanical engineering from
IIT, Delhi. As a serious teacher he has attempted a number of
experiments in teaching. In his view the thrust of the science and
technology establishment should be towards helping the 'poorest of
the poor'. His research and development activities were primarily in
this direction. Holding to his belief that technology must be human-
centred and that there exists a cultural route to development, he
even taught a course titled 'Art and Technology'.

Realising that Indian youth have an inadequate understanding of our
heritage, and consequently lack a sense of identity, Swaminathan
decided to acquaint the students of IIT Delhi with various aspects
of our culture. The topics included Indian music, Sanskrit, ancient
Tamil literature, Tamil prosody, development of scripts, Gandhian
philosophy, etc. He helped in the setting up of a centre for arts
and culture, called 'Sudharsanam', in Pudukkottai, his native place,
with the twin aims of documenting the heritage of the district and
offering an opportunity to the youth to appreciate their culture. He
has made a very detailed study of Ajanta paintings and of the
scripts of the world. His recent work on the monuments of
Mamallapuram is being published to suit different levels of
readership.

Presently he is helping an industry in the "culture-scaping" of
their special economic zone.

His contact details are:

Email: sswami99@gmail.com

Phone: 24611265

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Ok...I want to attend this! So who else is coming? so that we can meet before the Mallai trip!

Please contact me for my number!

Shri