Effort to preserve monuments through lectures

It was her love for travel and architecture that led Dr Chithra Madhavan to become a full-time historian. A guest faculty at Kalakshetra Foundation, Dakshina Chitra and a journalism school in the city, Chithra specialises in temple architecture, iconography and epigraphy. In a chat with us, the prominent historian opens up about her love for architecture and why youngsters need to be educated on the importance of monuments and sculptures.

She conducts tours to sites that are historically and archaeologically significant. “It’s very important for people to understand their history, culture and roots. During the tours, I explain about the architecture, inscriptions and other details of the place. My intention is to get people interested in heritage-related matters,” she says.

Her mother, a Sanskrit scholar and Dr KG Raman, an eminent archaeologist are her mentors. “I’ve been organising various sessions for children and adults in the city. I am not stressing that children should take up history as a profession. But we should make sure that they don’t miss knowing their rich past. History syllabus in schools should be made interesting. Once they revamp the syllabus, children will automatically get interested in the subject. And this needs to be done as early as possible,” she suggests.

Unlike before, talks and heritage walks have doubled in the past few years. “There are many ongoing awareness campaigns and the public is coming forward to support it. Sadly, many centuries-old monuments and sculptures (of a huge heritage value) are in dilapidated state. Apart from doing tours with the public, I have done sessions with musicians, dancers and photographers,” Chithra shares.

Chithra will be doing a tour on temples of Cambodia in February. When quizzed about her favourite temple tour, she replied, “It would be the one I did at Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam. It is one of the oldest temples in India and many dynasties have contributed to the architecture and sculptures there. It has a long recorded history and the place is so divine.”

Our conversation veered towards how the government and concerned authorities can do their bit to save our monuments. “The public needs to be sensitised. We cannot keep blaming others for the state of our monuments. Youngsters, especially, students should be taught about the greatness of our history and medieval and ancient monuments. We need to have an entire generation growing up that understanding the heritage and culture. The awareness should start at home,” says the historian.

Her upcoming heritage walk will be held on December 23 at the Government Museum, Egmore. “The Bronze Gallery at Madras Government Museum has a fabulous collection of about 1500 objects – 85 Buddhist, 25 Jain and the rest Hindu from various parts of Tamil Nada. The collection includes specimens from various periods like Pallava, Pandyas and Cholas. These are some of the greatest artworks and many people have already registered for the bronze era walk,” she remarks.