INTACH Talk on Thursday, March 13th, 5:30 pm at `Spaces' by Prof.S.Swaminathan

About the speaker:

Professor S.Swaminathan, taught mechanical engineering at IIT-Delhi for more than three decades, and attempted a number of experiments in teaching. With his view that the thrust of the science and technology establishment should be towards helping the ‘poorest of the poor’, his R & D activities were primarily in this direction. He believes that technology must be human-centered and that there exists a cultural route to development. Realising that Indian youth have an inadequate understanding of our heritage, and consequently lack a sense of identity, Swaminathan attempted acquainting the students with various aspects of culture, Indian music, Sanskrit, ancient Tamil literature, Tamil prosody, development of scripts, Gandhian philosophy, etc.

After retirement, Swaminathan continues to pursue his passion of creating interest and spreading awareness about our art, culture and heritage, especially among the youth. His vast canvas of interest and knowledge encompass the paintings of Ajanta, the Pallava art at Mamallapuram, story of writing, oral tradition of Sanskrit, temple arts and the heritage of Pudukkottai. He has also written a coffee-table  book documenting the Mamallapuram monuments.

Dear to his heart is the compilation of a cultural atlas of Tamilnadu. This is an attempt to record the cultural and social history of every village in this vast country, for which he has designed suitable procedures and formats. He is among the founders of Tamil Heritage Trust, which is an attempt to raise an army of ‘foot soldiers of heritage’. He lives in Chennai and his id is sswami99@gmail.com

About the topic:

Swaminathan helped setting up a centre for arts and culture, called Sudharsanam in Pudukkottai, his native place, with the twin-aim of documenting the heritage of the district and offering an opportunity to the youth to appreciate their culture. During this period he has proposed a method of preserving the priceless paintings in the Jaina cave at Sittannavasal, by setting up a heritage complex incorporating a recreated cave shrine.

The talk is about the monuments of Sittannavasal and his decade-old proposal for preserving the paintings of Sittannavasal.

Sujatha Shankar
Convenor,
INTACH Chennai Chapter,

Old No.7, New No.13, Janaki Avenue,

Off. Abhiramapuram 4th Street, Chennai - 600 018.

Ph:044- 24991696.
Email: shankarsujatha@gmail.com