varalaaru.com [வரலாறு.காம்]

Do you see the banner on the right column of this Blog? And I believe out of curiosity many should have clicked over it and visited varalaaru.com.

Varalaaru.com is run by a team of talented young professionals. So what? I do have my history text book, actually they don't publish information right out of any history text books; they go to various historically significant places around Tamil Nadu and conduct research before publishing in their website. The pictures and articles are originals and copy righted.

How was this group formed? “The internet” All of them met via a yahoo group dedicated to the famous historical novel from Kalki, “ponniyin selvan”. I am sure Kalki would not have envisioned that his work would unite a group of people who would then research about ancient history of Southern India.

This team initially planned to visit every historical place described in the novel. During these trips they got the acquaintance of Dr. Kalaikkovan, a renowned historian and the convener of Dr. M.Rajamanikkanar Centre for Historical Research. On Aug 15th 2004, they launched www.varalaaru.com. [Varalaaru in Tamil means history]. Tamil written and spoken today is different from what they used during those periods. Using this acquaintance this team first learnt how to interpret inscriptions.

After trained in reading the ancient inscriptions, they slowly gained the knowledge to appreciate temple architecture and sculptures. The initial mission statement of this website is sharing their findings to the world.

Keeping this mission intact, this website publishes materials as a monthly publication; every issue contains tons of new information about ancient inscriptions and architectures and sculptures around Tamil Nadu. They have published many articles which are very interesting to read. The team pools personal fund from their own earnings and have been slowly rolling. I wish they get proper funding from any government based archeological grants or may be the discovery channel.

Why Discovery Channel? First they are rich, and if you watch the Discovery History channel, it makes you believe that there is nothing to talk about ancient civilizations beyond Egypt. Most of the time, it is mummy autopsy. For a change they could cover our south Indian architecture and sculptures.

I came to know about this site through my good friend Ram. He is one among the devoted team instrumental in getting all this done. His new article is about an ancient music instrument called “Yaz” [யாழ்], as a musician it was very interesting to read.

A request to the team, this site is in Tamil; in order to draw non Tamilians or international audience it would be nice to have an English version.

Please Make a visit to http://www.varalaaru.com