K. Rajan inaugurates district-level Praveshanolsavam in Thrissur
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said State's public education system is witnessing a new and promising transformation. 'The impact of the Public Education Protection Campaign is visible in every school, where education now goes beyond textbooks to touch lives,' he noted. He stressed that education must reflect the emotions and needs of the people and not just focus on marks or exams, but on building a well-informed, compassionate society.
The Minister also spoke about ₹15-crore development works carried out at the school over the past nine years, highlighting infrastructure improvements. He said a colourful rally will be held from the school to the upcoming Puthur Zoological Park, set to open after the Onam holidays, as a symbol of community engagement with education and nature.
The ceremony featured a live screening of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's State-level Praveshanolsavam inauguration. Students performed the official welcome song through dance. Meritorious students who received LSS, USS, and NMMS scholarships, along with Thrissur native Triloknath, who featured in the International World Book of Records, and high school Mathematics teacher A.S. Saritha, who earned her PhD from Calicut University, were honoured during the function.
Students took the 'Clean Kerala' pledge, and the district sanitation poster was released as part of the Haritha Mission. Children's cultural performances added colour and joy to the event.
District panchayat president V.S. Prince presided over the event.
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There are some dark tales here too; many stones erected in honour of women memorialised instances of sati. Loading image The earliest known hero stones date to the the 3rd century BCE. Four have been found in Theni district, on the banks of the river Vaigai. Each is 3 ft high, with carvings etched on dark stone detailing cattle raids and burial urns. Over the next 800 years, the memorials would become rather common. In his book A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2016), historian Upinder Singh notes that the largest-known concentration is in the Kongu region of Karnataka: over 2,650 hero stones, some dating to the 5th century CE. Most of these tributes are made using local stone (as opposed to ornamental rocks such as marble or granite). The early carvings contained no people. 'They depicted shields and swords, bows and arrows, and cattle. Later ones depict rural landscapes and villages. By the 6th century, human figures make an appearance,' Rajan says. 'After the 10th century, these tributes began to be erected not just for local heroes but for revered ascetics too.' Interestingly, the inscriptions offer telling reminders of how differently language evolved, at the grassroot level, says Sudhakar Nalliyappan, president of the NGO Yaakkai. The little monuments record, for instance, the shift from Brahmi to Vatteluttu to the modern Tamizh script by the 9th century CE, in a period when government inscriptions evolved from Prakrit to Sanskrit to Tamizhi. Elaborately carved hero stones found in Kutchh, Gujarat. By the colonial period, the tradition of hero stones was fading. This decline coincided with the centralisation of princely rule, firmer borders and a rapidly changing economy, Rajan says. If you happen to see one today, a remnant from this long-gone era, you can be sure you are standing where a hero once died, or lived, or at the boundary of his village. Some stones were lovingly placed under a tree, or inside a temple. So be sure to look there too. A set of unusual 16th-century stones in Coimbatore serves as a sort of log of brave villagers. 'If you see any on your travels, do report them to us,' says Nalliyappan. 'As we build our repository, each new stone we find often guides us to more.' Every hero, after all, deserves to be remembered.
