FB group helps to spot unknown historic treasures of Vellore

Stating that Vellore is known for its fort, sculptures, 1807 sepoy mutiny, CMC, VIT and the Sripuram Golden Temple, Tamilvanan, who is the founder and admin of a page — ‘History of Vellore’ — on Facebook, said, “What nobody knows is that the district also has a lot of places with historical significance.”

The places visited, during the walk, included the Tomb of Arinchaya Chola, Rajaraja Chola’s grandfather at Melpadi and Somanatheswarar Temple. “Thundukarai near Vallimalai has a Jain hermitage in addition to the Jain caves which the Vellore residents are also not aware of. They only know Vallimalai as a temple of lord Muruga,” he explained. The group also paid a visit to the nearby Arcot’s famed Delhi Gate that was constructed by Robert Clive; the Alampana Fort; memorials for Raja Desingh and Sathulla Khan memorial.

The 60 people, who participated in the Heritage Walk are a part of the Facebook page that is managed by Tamilvanan. The group has around 3,000 members, who actively discuss and share information about Vellore. The members plan to place Vellore on the national tourist map by identifying places that are unknown. “We started the group with 3,000 members over two years ago. The 60 people, who were a part of the walk were from Chennai, Bangalore, Salem, Erode, Coimbatore and Puducherry,” he said.

The group further plans to undertake a day long heritage walk every month to create awareness among locals. Efforts were made to urge the State government to let tourists know about such places.