Kochi: The Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (SSUS), Kalady, is pinning its hopes on the aid from the World Bank to make good the loss incurred on the cultural and heritage front the floods.
The varsity authorities are struggling to identify ways to do this even if funding comes from the World Bank or any other agency.
Invaluable costumes, traditional ornaments and make-up articles belonging to traditional dance and theatre forms like Koothu, Koodiyattam and Kathakali were lost to the floods. Centuries old, it would be tough to recreate them.
World Bank disaster management specialist Piyush Sekharia and environmental specialist Deepa Balakrishnan accompanied by Ernakulam district administration officials had visited the varsity on September 15 to assess the overall losses.
“The loss caused in the fine arts department is equally enormous," said registrar Dr T.P. Ravindran. "We had some rare collection of works by Namboothiri, Jayapala Panicker, Alphonso and C N Karunakaran produced at a camp conducted by the university years ago. All of them were lost in the floods. One Namboothiri painting would fetch anywhere around Rs 8-9 lakh. CN Karunakaran is no more, and it is impossible to recreate his lost work. Others we are exploring.”
