Thiruvananthapuram

Idukki museum to showcase Stone age history

Jisha Surya | Updated May 08, 2012 at 10:49am IST

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The history of Idukki is not just the history of migrant farmers. Researchers have found strong evidence of the existence of human civilization from the stone age in Idukki.
As part of its ‘Discovering Idukki’ programme, the Idukki district panchayat has set up a District Heritage Museum, a first of its kind in the country, in Kuyilimala near Painavu, which will showcase the historical evidence collected from various parts of Idukki.
Finance Minister K M Mani will inaugurate the museum on Monday.
The team led by researcher T Rajesh had explored around 53 grama panchayats, Thodupuzha Municipal town area and tribal areas, including Idamalakkudi. The museum showcases the findings of the team which include more than 70 pottery items, 20 iron weapons, burial urns, copper beads etc, which were used from the Megalithic age.
The district panchayat has granted Rs 10 lakh for the project. This will be the first museum in the country exclusively for materials from the stone age.
Heritage Museum is the effort of T Rajesh, who is the author of the book ‘Idukki Charithrarekhakal’, the first authentic book about the history and evolution of the district, and Alex Kozhimala, District Panchayat president.
“We have got evidence of the existence of civilisation from more than 20 sites. We have approached the Archeological Department for further studies into this. The materials are proof that civilization existed from the Stone Age. This was mentioned in Sangam literature,” said Rajesh.
“The Heritage museum will be of great interest to researchers as well as tourists to Idukki,” he added.
The materials exhibited include weapons like spear, axe and swords, black and red potteries used by Dravidians and light and glossy black vessels.
Copper jewellery, bones, stone axe and murals are also exhibited at the museum. The materials in the museum will throw light into the life during the Chera rule too.
The museum, located in the serene hilly area in Kuilymala, is expected to be a part of the itinerary of tourists to Idukki. The museum will be opened to public at 10 a m on Monday. Water Resources Minister P J Joseph, P T Thomas MP, MLAs Roshy Augustine, K K Jayachandran, S Rajendran and E S Bijimol will attend the function.

The Hindu : States / Kerala : Project to explore Megalithic sites started

The Hindu : States / Kerala : Project to explore Megalithic sites started

Discovering Idukki

KATTAPPANA, August 6, 2011

Protecting megaliths to keep history alive

The Hindu Muniyaras (dolmen) as seen in Marayoor, a most popular tourist destination in Idukki district in Kerala. Photo: K.K. Mustafah

The district panchayat has prepared a project to protect historically significant megalithic sites and to open a historical museum near the headquarters of the district panchayat at Painavu.

The project titled, ‘Discovering Idukki,' is being prepared with the technical advice and support of the State Archaeological Department and will be completed before March 2012.

District panchayat President Alex Kozhimala told The Hindu on Saturday that a project to assemble and protect megalithic dolmens and burial urns unearthed at different places is being drawn up for the first time. He said that Rs 10 lakh had been earmarked for the project. A school will be vacated near the district panchayat to set up the museum.

Mr. Kozhimala said that Idukki has several prehistoric sites and caves. Recently, a team of archaeologists had unearthed some historical sites in Munnar area.

The prehistoric caves with paintings recently unearthed near Munnar will come under the project.

In Kumily and Munnar, there are large prehistoric sites which face many kinds of threat.

The sites which will be covered by the project include the megalithic dolmens in Marayur, which are facing many threats due to lack of protection.

Mr. Kozhimala said that the museum would provide basic data for archaeological students and general visitors. Megalithic sites in Kochera area indicate the presence of a clan-based society.

He said that the District Planning Committee has already sanctioned the museum. Historian and writer K. Rajesh will prepare the project report and it will be implemented with the support of the Kerala Council for Historical Research. A team of archaeologists is expected to arrive in the district next week to identify the sites to be protected.

Mr. Rajesh said that the projects aimed at opening the prehistoric sites for the public while protecting them scientifically. He said that like Edakkal cave, there are a large number of prehistoric sites in the district that could be opened for public viewing.

Village office shares its heritage

GIJI K. RAMAN

THe HINDu MAY 31,2011. 

It is history in the raw form. A collection of royal proclamations, documents of settlement, survey records, tax receipts, guesthouse registries, and rain records of the Cardamom Hill Reserve, apart from a country gun, a moneybox, and various equipment, of the Travancore and the British eras.

The village office here is all set to open its archive to people. History buffs can sift through them and piece together the life lived in the cardamom villages a century ago.

The office building itself evokes a sense of the past. Constructed in 1898-99, the building is surrounded by dilapidated structures, ageing reminders of a past as guesthouses of the British and staff quarters of the Pakuthy Kacheri, the Travancore-era village office.

Exhibits showing life in the CHR villages in Idukki district a hundred years back will be on display at the Vandanmedu Village Archives is to be opened for the public soon: Photo: Giji K.Raman

The first exhibit in the archive is a lithograph map of 1915, depicting the then boundaries of the reserve. The other historical pieces soon vie for attention. The work on the Vandanmedu Village Archive is thus almost complete.

Even under the Travancore rule, the reserve had been under systematic control. The royal proclamations were for the administration of the cardamom-cultivated areas. The gun and various equipment show the British might.

The villages under the Travancore rule were Ayyappancoil, Kattappana, Anavilasam, Chakkupallom, Anakkara, Vandanmedu, Karunapauram, and Pampadumpara.

The documents show that under the British, the supervisors were guided by the proclamations of the Travancore King who had full control over tax collection and cultivation. The workers were from Tamil Nadu, who seem to have had a hard life considering the fines imposed on those who tried to escape.

The details of a family from Vandanmedu officially rehabilitated in the Andamans, the first official coffee cultivation rule in 1922, census records, collection of forest produce, land-assignment documents, “puthuval pattayams,” and “chempupattayams” have been archived.

The brains behind the archive are village officer Manoj Rajan and T. Rajesh, who has written Idukki Charithra Rekhakal, a book depicting the history of the district from the megalithic era.

Mr. Rajan said an archive hall inside the village office had been a long- cherished dream, as no other village office would have such a collection of history documenting life of a 100 years ago.

The hall and the exhibition boxes have been made moisture-free to the preserve the documents. Students and historians can have a peep into the economically glorious past of the High Ranges.

Mr. Rajesh said the Travancore documents were in bond papers, a reason for their intact condition. The old Malayalam letters would evoke curiosity.

NEWS » STATES » KERALA

KATTAPPANA, February 12, 2011

Evidence of clan-based societies in Megalithic period

GIJI K. RAMAN

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: ‘Nannangadies' (earthen burial urns) unearthed at many places throw light on the rich heritage of clan-based societies in the Megalithic period.

However, serious archaeological studies have not been taken up as such findings are unearthed accidentally by local people or farm workers, said T. Rajesh, who did extensive research on the history of Idukki district and its early settlers for his work Idukki Charithrarekhakal. In the absence of preservation steps, the urns and the metallic items found inside them have been destroyed.

Earthen burials were recently found in Amaravathy and Cheruthoni. This is in addition to such findings at Santhanpara, Chempakapara, Udumpanchola, Marayur, Adimaly, Anakkara, Thopramkudy, Murikkattukudy, Kambilikandam, Parathodu and Rajakkad, he said.

The findings are evidence to the existence of a clan-based society in the Megalithic period in the High Ranges of Idukki district. Researchers have found evidence of settlers near the rock mountains at Anappara in Anakkara village, he said. Heavy man-made granite structures (‘veerakkallu') were found at Anappara, Adayalakkallu and many other areas. Veerakkallu is a marked burial place of warriors in the pre-historic era. These urns and granite structures are the remains of one of the earliest known inhabitants and are scattered at various places, which are now facing increasing threat of destruction, he said.

The recorded history of unearthing of the first burial urn was at Chakramudy when the first survey of erstwhile Travancore was conducted by a team of the Madras Army in 1817. This was followed by many such findings at various places in the High Ranges.

Mr Rajesh said there was need to identify places of historical importance in Idukki and efforts should be taken to conserve them.

In spite of individual efforts, such findings are often destroyed owing to lack of awareness among the people. Historian Rajan Gurukkal said the burial urns were unique remains of a clan-based society and were the second burial place (where the mortal remains of a body were buried) of a chieftain or a clan leader. The furnaces near such burial sites are indicators of primitive moulding of iron metals that were excavated from inside the urns along with small earthen pots.

He said separate archaeological studies had not been taken up in the district other than the one in entire South India, including Thrissur, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod. He said earthen urns with beautiful decorations are in bright colours of black and red. These are unique in its pattern and bear similarity only with the Indonesian findings. Though, burial urns had been unearthed the world over, the unique pattern of the findings in Idukki should prompt more studies, he said.

Carbon-dating shows that the burial urns represent a period from 1050 B.C. to 3 A.D. He said in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, such historical objects are protected scientifically and excavations by experts provide insight into such findings.

The remains of an earthen burial urn (nannangady) unearthed at Anappara in Anakkara village of Idukki district. The bright colours of black and red are unique - the patterns having similarity only with such findings in Indonesia.

The Idukki district panchayat had documented the history of the district as part of its efforts to protect the cultural life and historical evidence beginning from the Megalithic period. Co-ordinator of the project E.J. Joseph said the team members travelled far and wide and it was found that the evidence of the Megalithic period faced increasing threat in the absence of effective protection over the years. It was due to the lack of serious archaeological intervention, he said.