After six days of working on the keyboard in air-conditioned glass-and-chrome
buildings, a handful of software professionals rolled up their sleeves on
Sundays to clean temples located near the city. These IT firms employees have
joined heritage experts, conservationists and archaeologists of the Rural
Education and Conservation of Heritage Foundation to volunteer in identifying
old temples, removing weeds and overgrown vegetation and protecting the
structures.
U.S. Madan, a 28-year-old employee of software firm CollabNet, said he was
drawn to the historical information that could be gathered from the old
temples. The stories associated with the temples and the style of architecture
also attract many youngsters. J. Chandrasekhar, a plastics technology engineer,
has been trying to rope in volunteers from IT and BPO firms, as the
temple-cleaning tours would open doors to a whole new experience. The
volunteers enjoy the physical work involved in de-weeding and cleaning, he said.
At present, the group has taken up cleaning of the Kundrathur Valeeswarar
Temple and its restoration. They collect funds from friends and well-wishers
for equipment and material.
Rajan Ganesh, an employee of Cognizant Technologies in Pune, had started an
online group for temple cleaners when he was in Chennai. He continues to
support the activities and spread the message of temple preservation. The group
also records its activities on templesrevival.blogspot.com
The Department of Archaeology, Tamil Nadu, organised a heritage tour for
students of Bharathi Womens College at the Thiagaraja Swamy Temple in
Tiruvottiyur on Tuesday to mark the conclusion of the World Heritage Week
celebrations.
The 900-year-old temple has stone inscriptions that carry interesting
information. One of them records in precise detail the extent of land donated
to the temple. In India, there are one lakh stone inscriptions of which 65,000
are in Tamil. They provide tangible evidence about kings and the period when
the temples were built, said T. Sathyamurthy, former Superintending
Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle. The college
students, from the Department of History, got a chance to use the estampage
technique to read the stone inscriptions. First, a sheet of damp, white paper
is spread on the stone and smoothened with brushes. A black mixture like shoe
polish is applied on the paper to show up the impression of the letters carved
on stone.
Epigraphist R. Sivanandam helped the students read the ancient script.
S. Vasanthi, archaeologist, urged the students to tell their friends and
relatives to refrain from defacing stone inscriptions in temples.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/28/stories/2007112859880300.htm
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