Virtual heritage workflows for sacred sites often lack transparency in capture, authoring, ethical considerations, and user evaluation. This poster presents a reproducible pipeline for creating and assessing 360° virtual tours of Kerala temple murals, demonstrated through the Chemmantitta Mahadeva Temple, Thrissur. With Archaeological Survey of India(ASI)’s permission, panoramas were captured across mural panels, authored into an interactive tour using Storyline 360, and augmented with an embedded survey on aura, sacredness, and authenticity. Attendees can experience the live prototype, exploring temple spatial logic from entrance to sanctum while testing the evaluation instrument. They will be able to experience what it feels to be inside the temple and view the murals.

Literature Context

This work is based on Wslter Benjamin’s work on reproducibility of art works. Benjamin's aura critique frames digital reproduction's detachment from ritual context, extended by virtual heritage scholars examining 3D reconstructions' capacity for "virtual presence" (Benjamin, 2001)( Bakker, 2018) (Galeazzi et al., 2018). VR heritage studies emphasize workflow transparency for reproducibility, particularly ethical capture/documentation of sacred content(Kenderdine & Yip, 2018). Indian virtual darśan research reveals hybrid devotion via immersive tours, though empirical evaluation remains sparse(Eck, 1996). This work addresses gaps by operationalizing aura/authenticity measurement within a reusable pipeline.

Workflow Pipeline (5 documented stages):

1. Ethical Capture: ASI-sanctioned 360° imaging preserving ritual sightlines (sanctum sanctorum, deepasthambham, balipeetham).

2. Contextual Authoring: Storyline 360 hotspot navigation + iconographic annotations maintaining temple pathways.

3. Evaluation Design: Integrated survey (10 Likert items on aura/presence/sacredness + 3 open prompts).

4. Deployment: Web-hosted; n=100 preliminary users.

5. Analysis/Archiving: CSV descriptive stats + NVivo qualitative coding.

Live Demo Features:

• Navigate temple interior, learn mural details, trigger contextual popups.

• Complete embedded survey.

• Compare physical vs. virtual darśan via user quotes.

Reproducibility Package :

• Storyline 360 template + panoramas

• Survey instrument (Google Forms)

• Jupyter analysis notebooks

This beta tool addresses DARIAH's reproducibility mandate by surfacing tacit decisions: ASI negotiation protocols, darśan-sensitive UX, sacred content consent. The workflow is interoperable and adaptable for global sacred heritage. Future iterations include VR headset testing and multi-temple expansion.

Poster Visuals: Workflow diagram, temple panorama screenshots, survey interface, results charts, QR code to live demo.