e-avatar for Calicut’s heritage

History buffs in the city are in for a treat.A new website, containing hundreds of rare resources and nuggets pertaining to the history of Kozhikode is on the anvil.The website, or the ‘Digital Resource Centre’ as its creators call it, is an initiative of the Calicut Heritage Forum and already, a preliminary version of it is available online.

“We have had this idea since the forum was founded in 2008.Initially, we had a blog hosted on Google Pages and then on Blogger.

But we always wanted to create a digital resource centre for those who could utilise it for research and reading and finally, we were able to put the plan to execution after Tata Coffee helped us with the funding to set up the website,” said forum convenor C K Ramachandran.The website can be accessed at www.calicutheritage.

com and already contains several rare e-books about the history of Kozhikode, and all of it can be downloaded for free.Amongst the gems already uploaded on the site are ‘A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels’ by 16th century Portuguese historian Gaspar Correia, ‘The Wonders of the East’ by 14th century monk Friar Jordanus, ‘The Zamorins of Calicut’ by K V Krishna Aiyar and ‘The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama’ by Henry E J Stanley.

The list does not end there.“We are planning to upload whatever books we can find about the history of Kozhikode, so long as they are not dogged by copyright issues.

There are also rare palace records of the Zamorins which we are planning to digitise and upload to the website,” he said.Forum members have also shot eight videos regarding the subject and are planning to upload it to the website upon completion.

“We have shot eight documentary videos including one about the route that Vasco Da Gama took to find Kozhikode, one about Chaliyam and Beypore and a video about Kunjali Marakkar.Videos will also be made about landmarks in the city.

We have also made one containing a complete aerial view of Kozhikode and we will include that in the site as well,” he added.