Bhubaneswar: It was a different experience for the visually challenged visitors who went to the 10th Century Mukteswar Temple during a special heritage walk and visualised the marvels of Kalingan architecture by ‘touching’ the artefacts on the walls of the well preserved monuments.
The special heritage walk was organised by Sahapedia for students with special needs at Mukteswar Temple.
Braille books containing tactile images, historical information and temple architecture was provided to the students who came from different parts of Odisha to experience its temple architecture.
The India Heritage Walk Festival, a joint project of Sahapedia and YES Arts and Culture, has been awarded the PETA Gold Award 2018 for its attempts to popularise India’s heritage.
In 2019, Sahapedia is planning to organise around 80 walks in 35 different cities across the country with NMDC help.
Sareeta Behera, consultant for Disability with SSEPD-UNICEF, Odisha, appreciated the special heritage walk and said, “The India Heritage Walk Festival makes us rediscover the way we imagine our heritage.”
Centre for Youth and Social Welfare (CYSW) general secretary Nituranjan Dash said ‘Touch me once’ would be better than the ‘Do not touch’ message found in museums.
Through ‘touch’ a visually challenged student can understand and experience the universe. This is one of the ways to provide cultural information to visually challenged students, he said.
Well known Archaeologist Jitu Mishra provided valuable insights during the walk and thanked Sahapedia and CYSW Odisha for organising the special heritage walk.
Sharing his thoughts a visually challenged student said, “I had read about Mukteswar Temple when I was a student in higher secondary school, but I never imagined how it would look like. During the heritage walk I experienced Mukteswar Temple’s art, architecture and cultural history.’’
