"" My heart still bleeds for this place "" Arvind Venkatraman
"" Arvind spoke to me about a visit to Kamarasavalli over a conference call with Shankar. The ruins of the Chola temple had upset even the normally tranquil Arvind. So when Shriram and Shashwath wanted to visit the place ..
A tiny inner-core circle has taken up the renovation of Kamarasavallai with the power centres - but the timing is not appropriate to follow up for the past 3 - 4 months.
Whoever visited this temple, bounced back stating blood oozes out of their eyes to see the ruined state of this temple...
The Locals also have been pressing for some support to begin with. One Madam Mahalakshmi - Chennai based - with the help of couple of Locals made some initiatives to begin renovation...
And the immediate response was whether the renovation will be done to save sculptures / the ancient beauty etc.
At this point I was asked to make an Entry and address the basic query by some of our friends ::
Whether it is correct to sit on an advisory Seat and give suggestions OR
Whether it is possible for such Advisory Seats to put into execution atleast some of such suggestions ?
This Query has been really running into some of our True and Dedicated Heritage Lovers for quite some time now and a clearly the time has come now to address this ...
Luckily I have been blessed to seek guidance from some of the renowned Scholars of International repute too and sought their views forehand.
There is always a Systematic prescribed Standards and specifications to protect monuments - AT A COST and Local Donors and Charitable Heads really are not able to meet Such cost factor unless supported by the Government or lavish Donors.
Therefore I agreed to give serious try to the execution part too under the guidance of REACH on experimental basis within the specified cost factor by the Donor.
The DOs and DONTs are being worked out.. Budget Friendly renovation activities are being worked out.. Instead of Voluntary support from Heritage Lovers - compact Assignment based support is contemplated to be solicited ...
In this connection, my commercial organisation has agreed to render support in Survey - creation of Records etc.,
Inscription Data details are being worked out with the help of our dear Sankaranarayanan and some retd / past officials from the state / Central Archaelogy.
Kamarasavalli is an experimental Venture.
More details are likely to be available after first 2 - 3 rounds of meetings with all concerned.
This formal reporting is for our dear Friends Arvind Venkatraman, Vijay, Sriram Rajaram, Sashwath, Sankaranarayanan - whose hearts were very much bleeding when the visited the temple ..
Re Vijay's query whether REACH has gained the competancy to handle this, I can affirm that the Value for Money without compromising on heritage presevation guidelines will be met with.