I would like to introduce Dr. Kalaikkovan to you all. Some of you might have heard about him. This is for the people who do not and want to know about him and his expeditions.
Dr. Kalaikkovan is the son of the well known tamil scholar Dr. Maa. Rasamanickanar. He is an eye specialist by profession. He is the director of Dr.Rajamanickanar Centre for Historical Research, Trichy and conducting various historical researches with help of the scholars in his centre.
Here are some of his activities and achievements.
- He runs a half yearly journal called 'VaralaaRu' (history). - He researched the vimaanam of thanjavur temple and found that it is not a single stone. - See one of the articles about his researches in hindu http://www.hindu.com/2001/06/22/stories/04222236.htm - See Mr. Kannan's (Germany) mail in e-suvadi http://www.tamil- heritage.org/tpmail/ma27_2_2.html - See Mr. Jaybee's discussion in http://www.forumhub.com/tnhistory/7121.12896.10.14.15.html - See the article about his research on pandiyas inscriptions http://www.eelavar.com/eelam/pageview.php?ID=216&SID=1044 - Helped Mr. Devamani Rafeal with lot of information to write the book 'Thamizh naattu kalai koilkal' - Helped us a lot to frame the itinerary for our Mudhal yathirai.
On behalf of our group, we can help Dr. Kalaikkovan either by participating in the field works or supporting by donations or both. I hope this interaction with him will keep our group very active and will get wide view of the historical events and facts.
As part of participating in the field works, we are going to visit his establishment during our irandaam yaathirai and discuss with him about the feasibility of participation.
As part of supporting by donations, we are planning to sell the VCD of mudhal yaathirai for Rs 400 and donate the entire collection to him. It is a kind of two-in-one offer. You can watch the places featured in PS as well as donate for his valuable researches. The process of getting tax exemption for all the donations towards his organization is also in progress. And subscribing to his journal Varalaaru will also help him.
Dear Kamal, No words can express my gratitude or feelings to your mail. You have done an excellent job. I have greatest respect and regard for Dr.Kalaikovan's works. With due respects, I'd like to add that he has perhaps done more work on excavating ancient temples, epigraphs and monuments - than Govt establishments related to archaeology. Your introduction is superb. You have spent good amount of time looking for URLs etc. Members : Please type Dr.Kalaikovan as search keyword in www.google.com and you will get many interesting articles along with what kamal has suggested. It is quite appropriate and relevant that our group associates more and more in his work. I'd like to suggest the following:
* Please name a price for CD with Postage - this is for the benifit of people like me who live outside India. You may have to find out the postage for singapore, Europe, US and Malaysia (members, suggest more!)
* Let me be the first one to buy:-)) Let me know in what name I should send the chq and to what address. I look forward to see the videos of mudhal yathirai.
* I remember that Poonguzhali(Lavanya) volunteered to be the financier for this exercise...
* You might have noticed that Varalaru does not have a website as such. We should put it up. I'd like to volunteer for this effors. others can join me and we can form a team. Please speak to Dr.Kalaikovan on this.
* Please introduce Dr's Books to the group and possibly suggest a way for buying them.
* Also, I'll introduce Dr.Rajamanickanar's books to the group.
* Pl get updates from him on upcoming expetitions and we can try to participate.
* Along with Dr.Kalaikovan, two other scholars are involved in research : Dr.Akila and Dr.Nalini. Pl provide suitable introductions about them as well (I don't have full info)
* During the second yathirai, when the group meets him - we should put forth solid proposals and get his opinion.
My enthu keeps pushing me to write more - but I'll stop here. I look forward to more suggestions from members. Keep up the good work.
> * Please name a price for CD with Postage - this is > for the benifit > of > people like me who live outside India. You may have > to find out the > postage > for singapore, Europe, US and Malaysia (members, > suggest more!) >
I am leaving to US by this Thursday. If I can get the CDs by Wednesday, I take a great pleasure in delivering them to the US guys who are interested to have it.