Dear Viewers,
There is every reason to celebrate as your favourite blog “Siva
sankara Vijayam “has completed ten years . The viewership till date has crossed
over 89000 from various countries. As already stated, I never focused at it as
a travelogue writer or a story teller. Little did I knew about the expectation
of the reader when I started the blog . I just carried on the task of informing
the Heritage lovers to address the need of restoring the past glory of the
neglected and dilapidated temples. I
never allowed complacency to crush my appetite of bringing out the Glory of the
past. Apart from receiving kudos from the viewers ,my ambition of creating a
common platform to serve the Heritage sites, rural temples and their priests still
remains as a distant dream. Of course ,it helped a little when some
philanthropists expressed their willingness to join the noble cause.
The one strange thing I noticed in these years was
either the recipient silently closes the blog after reading it or postpone the
reading . Very few readers took it seriously and posted their comments. My
expectation of spreading the message did not bear fruits as the blog was rarely
shared by the readers with their friends and relatives.
As I expected to feed the information which was
authentic in nature, I used to write after my visits to the sites and post the
pictures taken by me over there. When I was requested to bring out a detailed
report of the location and its status of some temples visited so far, in the form of a book, I resisted for a while
as I feared that the venture would have little effect. It took nearly two years
for me to take the decision of publishing a book on some of the Historic
temples of South India which were not receiving the attention they deserved.
Finally the book has arrived to please those who are
interested in Heritage, Culture, Tradition, Art, Archaeology and philanthropy.
It is named as “Temples of Forgotten Glory “ and listed in platforms like
Amazon, Flip kart and Notion Press.
The paperback edition aims to reach those who have not
been reached through the blog. Some chapters have been added for the benefit of
the students of Chola History and
information on all the Temples sung in Thevaram Hymns. This will certainly help
the readers to go to the places with more vigour and passion.
I sincerely hope that the readers will welcome the initiative
and extend more participation in the future endeavours.
I personally thank each one of you through this post
for encouraging me all along with your kind words. Our journey will continue
with your support.
Your valuable comments are welcome as ever.
--- Sekar
Venkataraman ( Sivapathasekaran )
