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Museum on Tamil Nadu’s heritage planned in New Delhi

CHENNAI: A permanent audio-visual and artefactual museum on Tamil Nadu’s civilisational heritage has been planned at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi.

It will aim, among other things, to conjure up a “mental atlas” that synthesises the work of artists, writers and raconteurs down the ages and document the oral tradition from the perspective of “the history of change,” and not merely dynastic change.

IGNCA advisor V. Raghu Rama Ayyar told a press conference in Chennai on Friday that the archival material would be sourced from institutions and individuals in Tamil Nadu.

Describing the State Government’s response to the proposal as “spontaneous and tremendous,” Mr. Ayyar appealed to institutions and individuals in possession of any form of archival merit to support the cause for a permanent exhibition on the spirit of Tamil Nadu in the national capital.

If everything went to plan, the show could begin in four months, he said.

The collection would keep evolving. The IGNCA expected to formalise an agreement with the State government for transfer of archival material.

The museum would feature a gamut ranging from temple jewellery, arts and rituals to lingual and literary heritage and design of hydraulic engineering, bridge building and architecture.

It would also explore the cultural nuances of the South East Asian diaspora in Tamil Nadu.

The project would undertake digitisation of manuscripts, regeneration of traditional learning modules and documentation of the oral history of the people, communities, guilds and families.

It would also pan traditional approaches to local self-governance and dispute resolution.

The IGNCA’s 20-acre complex at Janpath, New Delhi, features a massive collection of 26,000 hours of audio-visual material, 2,400 hours of audio recordings, 1.50 lakh still images and over 3,000 ethnographic objects.

The other initiatives of the IGNCA include the study of rock art (60 per cent of all the world’s heritage is in Tamil Nadu), a cultural informatics division that pursues multimedia projects on ancient traditions and putting together the oral history of south India.

The IGNCA has also launched an initiative to tap into the cultural roots, lineage and history of diasporic Indian communities across the globe.

The institution’s ancestral research programme has helped many members of the disapora discover their ancestral roots, Mr. Ayyar said.

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