THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Archives Department and the History Association (History Department) of All Saints’ College joined hands for a one day exhibition on World history. The exhibition, with an emphasis on the Kerala history was held in the college premises on Thursday.
The students contributed to the show by making posters and collages apart from displaying personal collections of stamps, coins and antiques like the ‘Shikhara Vilak’ (brass lamp with branches) which one of the students got from her ancestral home at Mavelikkara.
Carved wooden ‘Panapetti’ (money box), an archaic board game ‘Pallankuzhy’ played with ‘Manjaadikuru’ seeds and were to be found here. The other highlights were copies of historic documents such as the ‘Kundara Proclamation’ (1809), ‘The Temple Entry Proclamation’ by Chithira Thirunal Maharaja (1936), Proclamation prohibiting the purchase and sales of persons (1811) and the ‘Mathilakam Records’.
“The ‘Mathilakam Records’ has its writings in ‘Vettezhuthu’ and ‘Kolezhuthu’, a form of old Malayalam script. Copies of these original documents have been taken from the Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan where the records are maintained” said Parvathy S, an archivist at the Kerala State Archives Department.
The younger generation, who know little about the history of Malayalam language, would have found the tables showing the derivation of Malayalam alphabets from Brahmi script, informative. Jinni Anna PJ, a first year History student, contributed to the exhibition, a newspaper cutting that appeared on August 15, 1947.
Shari PM and her classmate Revathy B Nair, first year students made a chart of the ancient seven wonders of the World.
Parvathy Menon, the lecturer in-charge of the exhibition, believes that anything which has happened till yesterday is history. And so she asked her students to include natural disasters, mishaps and other society related issues which took place in the near past.
She said, “With this exhibition, I want my students to be aware of the past, because to have a clearer vision for the future they should have a knowledge of the past.”
“We conduct seminars, workshops, debates and also inter departmental competitions with the economics department as they too have History as an optional subject,” said Parvathy Menon. The students were given two weeks time to prepare for this exhibition.
As the final year history students are busy preparing for their exams, the first and second year students took part in the exhibition and about 75 students contributed to the show. The event is first-of-its-kind in the history of the department.