The first time Sathya Govindarajulu walked into the Brihadeeswarar Temple with a VR headset in hand, the priests paused mid-ritual. Visitors stared. A child tugged her arm and asked if she was “bringing a video game to Shiva.” Based in Thanjavur, the 52-year-old is building a technological bridge to India’s heritage. As the founder of TechVoyager, a virtual-reality solutions company, Govindarajulu is reimagining how we preserve, experience, and understand cultural memory. Using 3D scanning, VR, AR, terrestrial mapping, and 3D modelling and printing, TechVoyager transforms static monuments into living, breathing virtual experiences.
Founded in 2022, the company sits in the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu. “Thanjavur carries its history in stone,” she says. “Hundreds of our temples are still living spaces of worship… their stories are known only to locals or historians. That heritage stands at risk of being forgotten.” Through the platform, a visitor today can virtually meet Raja Raja Chola, interact with a 3D-printed Chola artefact, or take a guided virtual walk through a temple—all without leaving the room.
Govindarajulu’s journey began in a home where conversations drifted easily between languages, literature, temple lore, and the Chola legacy. “People rarely knew about our architectural brilliance, which deserved to be rediscovered,” she recalls. Tourism, she felt, had grown hollow. Travellers snapped photos, posted them online, and left without understanding what they had seen. “Immersive tech can transform that casual visit into a guided discovery,” she says.
Their first experiment felt like equal parts technology and theatre: an interactive 3D Raja Raja Chola who responds to a visitor’s greeting and narrates the stories of the Brihadeeswarar Temple.
Six of TechVoyager’s 14 team members are women, many of them local students. “We didn’t chase investors. Every rupee went into experimentation, hardware, and training. We wanted to build something big,” she says. From Thanjavur, their work wound its way through temples and archaeological sites. The work is time-taking, as it requires permissions from temple administrations and even the ASI. “There is no shortcut. You must approach the project like a partnership.” Even the sun dictates the day’s progress. Morning light, evening shadows, crowds, rituals—every element influences the data they capture. A single monument can take days to scan.
Ask her what truly drives her, and Govindarajulu doesn’t mention awards or metrics. She speaks of stories. “Preserving heritage is not about data. A sculpture won’t make an impression unless you know its story,” she says. “Our work matters because we can make our past continue to speak to the future.”