Heritage & Cuture

The region of Chettinad is located in the central part of the State of Tamil Nadu (South India). The main town of the region is Karaikkudi, which is 90 km from the major sites of the state, such as Thanjavur (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Tiruchirapalli and Madurai. Chettinad region, spreading over the districts of Sivagangai and Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu is becoming increasingly part of the popular tourist destination thanks to the magnificent Raja’s palace in Kanadukathan, and French Art-Deco style palatial homes scattered across the towns and villages of the Region. However, beyond these iconic elements, what makes the charm of the towns and villages of Chettinad is perhaps the beauty of an overall village landscape created by the harmony of architectural elements and urban planning. What do you get? Stay at Chettinad Heritage style hotel with local cuisine

Success 12 participants appreciated Mallai Cave Temples Walk at Mahabalipuram with an online session  After several months, we re-started heritage talks and trips and successfully delivered the Mahabalipuram trip. It was a very niche learning only on Cave Architecture. Big thanks to Sivasankar Babu Sir the Curator, Vaithee, the organizer and all the participants.  Photos Please see some great photos here  Testimonials - Extract of some testimonials are given below. It was a interesting and informative session A big thanks to the organisers- we all enjoyed and thanks to the all the group members who made it enjoyable  Good experience. Happy moments Thank you for your time .it was an amazing experience for me. Special thanks to Mr. Vaithee for coordinating with us. Looking forward for some more guided trips.  What next? a. Mallai monolithic rathas   b. Mallai structural temples and bas-reliefs c. Kanchi rajasimha temples How can you register.  If you have any travel requirements in Heritage / Culture / any other, please submit your requirements. We will call you and discuss - https://www.keyterns.in/requirements Sharing below the details of Mallai Cave Temples trip for reference. We will redo this in future.  Humans did not forget their earlier dwellings .  Cave Mandapas are one of the earliest forms of Rock-Cut Architecture, replicating their earlier natural cave dwellings .   .Cave temples in Tamilnadu were popularised during 6th CE by early Pallavas and Pandyas Mahabalipuram or Mallai near Chennai was a veritable university for sculptures and architecture of temples .. Here we can see the Cave mandapas from its basic form to the fairly well developed form incorporating the styles of concepts Brick and Mortar temples of 6th CE Participants will get educated on how cave manadaps evolved and how they experimented in various forms in Mallai in a short period of < 100 years .  This will be followed by a Early Morning Guided tour of the Cave Mandapas of Mallai, where you will be able to appreciate the finer points of the art as detailed in earlier day Talk .  Who is this for? Any Heritage Enthusiasts, History or Heritage Students.  Anyone who wants to know little more in-depth than the normal tourist WOW views Why should you participate? To know how the cave architecture evolved in India and Tamilnadu To learn more about the fundamentals and innovation in Cave architecture To hear interesting stories and history behind the creation To be at the cave temples physically to understand all the learnings from video Talk Curator Profile Both online Video session and Cave walk on the next day will be curated by Mr. Sivasankar Babu, an experienced Heritage Enthusiast whose profile is given below.    

Viluppuram is 170 KM from Chennai. There are many prehistorical and historical places around Viluppuram. Prehistory sites are primarily rock art sites. Historical sites include Jain heritage and Chola heritage. We will be covering all elements as a day trip from Chennai over the weekend.  This packaged is a 'Shared or Travelpooling' trip wherein we will facilitate the trip to reach Viluppuram where the trip curator will join the curate the trip. This is a first attempt to cover themes like Rock art, Chola Heritage, and Jain rock cut temples.