A talk on Prehistory, Mahendran Thangavelu

தமிழ்ப் பாரம்பரியம்

(Tamil Heritage Trust)

presents

A talk on Prehistory

by 

Mr. Mahendran Thangavelu 

at 5.30pm on Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

at Vinobha Hall, Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, T Nagar.

About the speaker:

 

Mr. Mahendran did his MA in History and Sociology, and his interests include Psychology, Philosophy, Nuerology, Evolution, Prehistory, Anthropology, Economics, and Geography.  He was one of the founder members of the National Association of the Educated Self -Employed Youth (NAESEY), where he pioneered a self employment program in 1976, and helped 300 youths to start their own snack kiosks all over Tamilnadu.  

 

He is a biker, explorer and adventurer, travelled all over south india on bike, camping, observing, learning first hand about people and places at the micro level.  He discovered many dolmens, cairns, hero-stones and prehistoric stone tools, and also, discovered two cave art sites dating back to 1000BC for which he got press coverage in Dinamalar.  He has video footage of his expeditions to prehistoric sites as well as the cave art sites.  The duration of the coverage is twenty minutes and the video is HD quality.  The visuals are in thematic sequence and will catch audience interest. 

RSVP:

A. Annamalai: Gandhi Study Centre - gandhicentre@gmail.com; 94441-83198

Badri Seshadri: Kizhakku-p-padippakam - badri@nhm.in; 98840-66566

S. Kannan: Bank of Baroda - 2498 5836

S. Swaminathan - sswami99@gmail.com; 2467 1501

R. Gopu, writergopu@yahoo.com, 98417-24641

T. Sivasubramanian, siva.durasoft@gmail.com, 98842-94494

கூத்த நூல் பற்றி முனைவர் ரகுராமன் (வீடியோ)

Tags - Kootha-nool, Dr S.Raghuraman, January 5th, 2013, Video

கூத்த நூல் - முனைவர் எஸ். ரகுராமன்

தமிழ்ப் பாரம்பரியம்

(Tamil Heritage Trust)

presents

Kootha-nool (கூத்தநூல்)

by 

Dr S.Raghuraman, Pulavar, MA, M.Phil, M.Ed, PhD 

at 5.30pm on Saturday, January 5th, 2013

at Vinobha Hall, Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, T Nagar.

About the topic:

Kootha-nool by Saththanar, is the earliest Tamil work on dramaturgy and might have been written during the Tolkapiyam period. Some scholars consider that this formed the basis for Bharata’s Natyasastra. Passages from this are found quoted and commented upon by Arumpada-urai-asiriyar, Adiyarkku-nallar, Nachinaari-kiniyar etc. The author mentions that he made use of 18 earlier works, which are no more available. The work consists of 9 chapters of which the last three is not available. A number of terms used in this work, like uLLALam, ALatti, nALatti, are no more in currency. This is the earliest work that differentiates talam for dance from talam for music.

About the speaker:

Dr Raghuraman is an Associate professor in Tamil in A.M.Jain college, Chennai and a visiting faculty of the Kalakshetra, Chennai. He is a research guide for Bharata natyam in Bharatiyar University, Coimbatore. He has given a number of lec-dems on dance, rasa, ashta naayakis of Sangam age, sensualities, mother godess worship, Tholkaapiya meypaatiyal etc.  He is the author of Tamizhar natana varalaaru and Natana kalaichol kaLanjiyam.  He has so far produced 200 dance dramas, of which 120 were written by him.  He has received many awards like Bhaskara puraskaar award as Ilakkiya Bhaaskara, Senthamizh chemmal by Thiru kural aayvu maiyyam, Natonal award for script writting theatre drama for Andhi veLi and was awarded for his outstanding services to the art of dance and for his lyrics by Sailasudha organization, 2010

RSVP:

A. Annamalai: Gandhi Study Centre - gandhicentre@gmail.com; 94441-83198

Badri Seshadri: Kizhakku-p-padippakam - badri@nhm.in; 98840-66566

S. Kannan: Bank of Baroda - 2498 5836

S. Swaminathan - sswami99@gmail.com; 2467 1501

R. Gopu, writergopu@yahoo.com, 98417-24641

T. Sivasubramanian, siva.durasoft@gmail.com, 98842-94494

Day 5: Chola Paintings by Vijaya Kumar

(Written by Gopu, posted by Badri)

உலகெலாம் தொழவந்த எழுகதிர் பரிதி
            ஒன்று நூறாயிரம் கோடி
அலகெலாம் பொதிந்த திருவுடம்பு அச்சோ
            அங்ஙனே அழகிதோ அரணம்
பலகுலாம் படைசெய் நெடுநில மாடம்
            பருவறை ஞாண்கற் பெண்டிங்கள்
இலைகுலாம் பதணத் திஞ்சிசூழ் தஞ்சை
            இராசரா சேசுரத் திவர்க்கே.

Arvind Venkatraman introducing Vijaya Kumar

கருவூர்த் தேவரின் இந்தத் திருமுறைப் பாடலை பஞ்சமப் பண்ணில் பிரதீப் சக்ரவர்த்தி பாட, ஆர்வலர் அர்விந்த் வெங்கட்ராமன் அறிமுகம் செய்ய, தஞ்சைப் பெரிய கோவிலின் சோழர் கால ஒவியங்களை பற்றி, தத்வாலோகா அரங்கில் ஐந்தாம் நாள் சொற்பொழிவாக, சிங்கப்பூர்வாசி விஜயகுமார் வழங்கினார்.

Vijaykumar writes a popular blog called PoetryInStone.in where he writes researched, eye opening essays about sculpture, paintings, art etc. in Tamil Nadu.

Vijay Kumar presenting Chola paintings

He began by polling the audience on whether they wanted a brief summary of the previous presentations, and with their eager consent, showed paintings and sculptures of Ajanta, Ellora, Kanchi, etc. He refuted some myths about the big temple, showing a photo of the temple with its shadow and denying that Rajaraja built it as an offering for a handicapped person. While the caves of Ajanta were discovered after a millennium by British soldiers in 1815, the paintings of the Big Temple were rediscovered by Govindaswami in 1931, when a hidden corridor revealed itself, and glimpses of the Chola paintings were found behind Nayaka paintings of much later vintage.

Vijay mentioned that Rajaraja was fascinated by Tripurantaka, Kalyanasundara and of course Nataraja, since the Brihadeesvara temple is festooned with portraits and sculptures of these aspects of Shiva. Also while the story of Sundara Moorthy Nayanar and Kannappa Nayaranar are depicted, Appar, Sambandar and Manikkavasagar are missing.

Seamlessly moving between stone, bronze, and mural, Vijay wove a wonderful web of narration and comparative art study. He showed Kalyanasundara sculpture in the Big temple, superimposed photos of Parvati and Shiva bronzes and showed a degree of line and form match that left the viewer in awe. Then he repeated this with photos of the mural paintings of the Gods. Since some of the murals are damaged in sections or have suffered color decay, he also showed pencil sketches outlines of these scenes, drawn by artist Chandru, who had lectured on the Sittanavasal paintings two days earlier.

Vijay continuing his presentation

He finally showed the emperor himself, worshipping Nataraja at the Kanaka Sabha of the Chidambaram temple, with his queens.

A brief interaction followed, with questions about Karuvur Thevar and Rajaraja Chola, whether Kanchi Kailasantha temple inspired Rajaraja to build the Brihadeesvara temple etc.

Gopu concluded, noting that Vijay’s blog was like a Wikipedia for Tamil art and sculpture enthusiasts, as are Arvind’s photographs. Unlike Ajanta, Kanchi or Sittanavasal, the Big Temple’s paintings are neither open to the public, nor easy to peruse in person because they are in narrow corridors. It is thanks to efforts like Vijay’s that the audience was treated to such a well-guided visual feast.