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Not to be missed

Photo: K.Ganesan

A treat R. Venkatraman, retired History Professor, explaining the historic significance of the centuries-old buildings at East Masi Street during a Heritage Walk held in Madurai.

This month-end, the Madurai Chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) is offering a wonderful opportunity to history lovers to learn interesting and little known facts about the city and the State.

It will be a four days crash course on “Introduction to Tamil History” aimed at generating awareness and interest in the oldest living classical civilisation in the world.

That Madurai is one of the oldest living cities in the world, perhaps many know. That Jainism was widely prevalent in Tamil country during the Sangam ages and early medieval period, some know. That the Pandya kings employed Romans as security guards, perhaps few know.

The many ancient and old facts, forgotten and neglected chapters of the history of Tamil Nadu from 2,500 years ago will be recalled and chronologically discussed. The main resource person will be the well known historian and author Prof. R.Venkataraman, who retired from MKU and is also a Visiting Professor in SITA Program of Washington University at Madurai.

The organisers promise that the proposed basic course will help the participants understand the significance of Sangam Age, the Pallavas and the Cholas. It will give an insight into the working of the highly advanced ancient Tamil Society. There will be two-hour sessions on the first three days and a field trip to Alagar Koil on the last day to gain hands-on knowledge.

INTACH promises the course to be absorbing and chock-full of interesting tidbits. “At the end of it all, everybody will return feeling proud of the city’s rich heritage and the ancient past,” said one of the organisers.

The course is open to students of Class VII to XII, college students and any adult inclined to peep into history. The interactive sessions will be held daily from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Hotel Fortune Pandian from April 23 to 25. The field trip will be on April 26 from 9 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. There are limited seats available for the course and the last date for registration is April 13. The course fee is Rs.750. In addition, INTACH will be sponsoring two students from Class VII/VIII from six different city schools for the course. For further details, contact Rajesh Kanna@94433 32292 or Zafar Salim@94430 23320

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