Local history buffs are engaging with neighbourhood communities to rediscover and preserve their heritage

Local history buffs are engaging with neighbourhood communities to rediscover and preserve their heritage

Revisiting the story of a hookah with a 300-year-old history of maritime trade, made in a small port town in Kozhikode, is just one of many interventions by concerned residents in Kerala to conserve and preserve the heritage of the State.

They are making determined efforts to raise awareness of the heritage on a micro-level and involve local people to understand the importance of conserving their own histories.

MetroPlus speaks to four such people who are making a difference through organisations and individual efforts to focus attention on rapidly vanishing stories of craft, architecture, space, arts and culture.

For this conservation architect, academic and author, paintings and visual art opened the door to a rich heritage of art and craft, and the lives of its practitioners in Travancore.

As a child, Sharat’s grandparents used to tell him stories about their family, renowned craftsmen who were builders of temples and ivory carvers.

Later, as a student of architecture, he noted that there was scarcely any literature on the craftsmen. Their lives seemed far away from the pages of documented history. Initially, he began meeting veteran artisans to document their oral history. “I was curious to understand what was the knowledge system, how it was passed from one generation to the other. Was it written down or orally passed on in the form of songs or instructions? Or was it learned on the job?”

When he began reading archival documents, he came across pieces of tangible evidence to back the narration of the craftsmen. Sharat’s father’s paternal grandfather, Ramakrishnan Achari, was one of the last Durbar artists of Travancore. In a break from the family tradition of craftsmen, he had decided to become an artist and studied at the Madras School of Arts. However, the going was not easy. A commission to paint Durbar physician Dr Peter Lakshmanan was granted only after the artist’s certificates were verified. At every stage of the painting, the artist had to take the portrait to the physician’s house to get his approval.