Poompuhar :The Chola Dynasty Port to be digitally recreated

Initial studies carried out by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites show that the Poompuhar city( Chola Dynasty) was established initially in the Cauvery Delta-A about 30km away from the present Poompuhar town around 15,000 years ago.

• Poompuhar ,the Chola Dynasty port city in Tamil Nadu that vanished from maritime history around 1,000 years ago will be digitally reconstructed by a consortium led by the Department of Science and Technology
• there are exhaustive narrations in works of Sangam Tamil literature to infer that the city, located 30 km from the existing Poompuhar town in southern TN, was submerged due to “kadalkol” or rising sea levels
• Poompuhar was a port city that flourished in Inter-continental trade but shifted with time.Finally,it was re-established at the present location at the mouth of river Cauvery about 3000 years ago.
• It also involves the visualisation of geodynamic processes of the last 20,000 years like land subsidence, sea-level rise, Cauvery’s migration, floods, tsunami, cyclones and erosion
• The reconstruction of Poompuhar is part of DST’s Indian Digital Heritage project.

Indian Digital Heritage Project and Digital Hampi:

• An exhibition of its first project ‘Digital Hampi’ is currently on display at the National Museum
• The Hampi project brings to life tangible and intangible heritage in the area offering visitors a peak into how marketplaces looked and the musical pillars were constructed..

Indian Digital Heritage (IDH)

• This initiative is undertaken by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the cultural heritage domain of the country.
• The exhibition demonstrates the outcome of two flagship projects viz., A digital mini-spectacle to showcase the glory of Hampi and Augmented Reality based interactions with physical models of monuments.
• The goals of these projects are to create digital installations showcasing the glory of Hampi and five Indian monuments namely Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi; TajMahal, Agra; Sun Temple, Konark; Ramachandra Temple, Hampi ; and RaniKiVav, Patan .
• These projections are driven by cutting-edge technologies such as 3D fabrication, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality, Holographic Projections and Projection Mapping