more-in Seeking to sensitise the school children and the general public to the need to protect and preserve the heritage sites in the district, the Ramanathapuram Archaeological Research Foundation of amateur archaeologists organised a ‘heritage walk’ at the historic Ramalinga Vilasam Palace here on Sunday. Foundation-President V. Rajaguru took the children, who were accompanied by their parents and general public, inside the palace, built during the reign of Kizhavan Sethupathi, the most popular among the Sethupathi kings, and showed them the durbar hall, the ostentatious dwelling area and the mural paintings, depicting the lifestyles of Sethupathi kings. Move to educate people The heritage walk was organised mainly to create awareness of various historical and heritage sites in the district and educate the people on the need to preserve the sites, said Mr Rajaguru. This was the first of its kind in the district and the response was good, he said. The foundation proposed to organise such walks during third Sundays of every month to various heritage sites in the district, he said. Those took part in the walk visited the archaeological museum inside the palace, the weapon store room, cave, stone ball and the brick and lime stone pillars, built in the style of pillars in the Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal. They watched in awe the mural paintings on all the four sides of the walls and roof on the first floor. The murals were painted with natural dyes, depicting scenes of Sethupathi kings’ battles with Maratha kings of Thanjavur and stories of epics Ramayana and Mahabaratha. The museum had interesting exhibits and antiquities excavated from archaeological sites. Palace curator Asaithambi, Museum curator Sivakumar explained the exhibits in the museum and the palace. Foundation secretary Gnanakalimuthu and coordinators Vellaipandian, Muniasamy and Niwaz Sankar coordinated the heritage walk.

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