THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The treasure found in the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple should not be seen as a pile of gold or precious diamonds, it is more about the heritage and values of a land, Minister for Cultural Affairs K C Joseph said. He was inaugurating a three-day camp for members of school heritage clubs at the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan on Wednesday. The Minister said that steps to preserve the tradition and heritage of temples and other archeological and archival valuables would be taken by the government. The camp is being organised by the Kerala State Archives Department. The Minister urged the students to study the heritage and historical aspects of the land and contribute their bit to preserving it. Earlier, delivering the keynote address, K Muraleedharan MLA said that these days, history was being twisted by people according to their wish. There is no way for the younger generation to learn history as most of them choose Engineering and Medicine for higher studies. ‘’All you have is 10th standard knowledge of history. Many of you depend on cinema for historical facts, but movies twist and turn the facts accordingly,” the MLA said. Muraleedharan said that if interest in history wanes among the younger generation, a time would come when Gandhiji would become the villain and Godse the hero. S Raimon, executive director of Kerala Museum, who also spoke to the heritage club members, said that there should be a move to spread awareness on the significance of learning history among the public. A tie-up between schools and panchayats could support a lot in this regard, he said. P Vasumathi, head of History at Kariavattom Campus, led the classes on Wednesday. She detailed on the significance of ‘tantrik vidya’ in building temples and the vast world of scientific knowledge associated with tantrik studies. ‘’It is not a mere construction, you would be amazed by the scientific calculations that go into the building of a temple. Even the installation of the idol in the temple is based on scientific calculations,” she told the heritage club members. According to Archives Department director J Rejikumar, the three-day camp is to let the students imbibe the significance of their role in the collection and preservation of historical artifacts in their immediate neighbourhood and thereby to the larger objective of knowing the history and heritage of the country they live in. ‘’At the end of the three-day session, we would arrive at new methods to encourage students to join heritage clubs and it would rejuvenate them,” he said.
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