The boy took a lock out of his pocket, fixed it to the grill and turned the key. He closed his eyes, prayed and left. “He has relinquished all his troubles here,” said Nawaz, the khadim-e-dargah (caretaker). “The Pir will now take care of them.” He added that people also consigned ill health and those possessed by spirits to the locks. Everything was possible in the saint’s durbar. All you need is faith.
Faith is what drove Bahadur Khan, the Killedar of the Bangalore Fort, to defend it with his life on March 21, 1791, during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Like his fellow soldiers, the fort Commandant fought for Mysore and its freedom.
The former Faujdar of the Krishnagiri Fort had been recently shifted to Bangalore under Tipu Sultan’s orders. Tipu himself was busy fighting a determined and desperate General Lord Cornwallis. He trusted that Bahadur Khan, assisted by Muhammad Khan Bakshi and Sayyid Hamid, would be an able protector of the oval Bangalore Fort. The ancient mud structure had been reinforced in stone around 1761 by its erstwhile Killedar, Hazrat Ibrahim Khan, Hyder Ali’s maternal uncle and a Sufi pir of the Shuttari order.
Close to midnight, the English army stealthily attacked the fort. They crept along its walls (now busy KR Road), scaled its ramparts and cut soldiers down quietly by moonlight. A popular conspiracy theory whispers that the Mysorean army was betrayed from within and that the breach blown through earlier by English cannons was deliberately left unguarded. Bahadur Khan and a handful of soldiers fought fiercely till he died of a gunshot through the head. His body was stabbed repeatedly by bayonets.
Approximately 2,000 men lost their lives that night. The prosperous town of Bangalore had been laid siege to earlier, and now the fort had fallen. A victorious Lord Cornwallis commended his bravery and wrote to Tipu asking him where his noble Killedar should be buried. Tipu is said to have wept publicly, and replied that a soldier must be buried where he fell. He requested that the Killedar be handed over to the Muslim population of Bangalore who would ensure that his last rites were attended to appropriately
Bahadur Khan was buried near what is now the KR Market flyover. Flags flutter high over his green domed mausoleum at the corner of Avenue Road and SJP Road. It is revered by local populations and also called ‘The Lock and Key Dargah’ of Hazrath Mir Bahadur Shah Al-Maroof Syed Pacha Shaheed. Other warrior-saints sleep inside the Pete’s labrynthine streets. They create a sacred landscape that is interwoven with this densely commercial area.
The seventy-year-old Killedar was described by historians as a majestic figure, “a tall robust man… with a white beard descending to his middle.” The prophet-like reference only adds to the shrine’s reputation. People of all faiths walk in and out all day. They petition the saint and pray quietly amidst jasmine flowers and incense sticks, while buses ply and frantic commuters run to and fro outside. At dawn, the shrine is surrounded by roses in buckets, as wholesalers from KR Market squat outside its door. Sometimes, I find musicians with harmoniums and percussion instruments singing devotional songs as offerings. There is no courtyard or wall. Its doors remain open for the busy world to take refuge within. The custodian of Bangalore’s historic fortress continues to watch over the city’s population, centuries later.
The writer is a cultural documentarian and blogs at aturquoisecloud.wordpress.com
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Columns> Other / by Aliyeh Rizvi, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / August 03rd, 2014
The latter half of the 19 century in the port city of Madras found Colonel Kenney-Herbert, an Englishman serving in the British Indian Army, extremely annoyed.
Despite having scoured through various books, an adequate cooking guide for the average Englishman in India simply could not be found. Wasting no further time, he produced Culinary Jotting for Madras, a ‘treatise in thirty chapters on reformed cookery for Anglo-Indian exiles’, under the pen name ‘Wyvern’.
In 1878, Higginbothams published the first edition of the book traversing 30 dinners of multiple-course meals.
While Wyvern’s love for English cuisine was unquestionable, the dependence on tinned foods was something he particularly despised. This meant introducing new garden habits or using local ingredients in ingenious ways to suit the Victorian palate.
Vikram Doctor, a food writer, says, “I was so surprised to learn that Jerusalem artichokes were grown in Chetpet around 140 years ago! Topinambours a la Chetput was one of his signature dishes.”
However, Wyvern was not the first to conceive of a recipe book dedicated to serve expatriate Britishers in India. An anonymous ‘Old Lady-Resident’, it appears, beat him to it with The Madras Cookery Book, a bilingual in English and Tamil published in 1877.
Beatrix D’ Souza, former MP and an old-time Anglo-Indian resident of the city, confesses that some of the dishes mentioned in these cookbooks are still made by many in the community. “Madras qurma, bully beef, and masala chops are all dishes typical of both our community and the city,” she says.
The famous Railway Running Room recipes, a treasure the community prides itself on, boasts of delicacies such as mutton breast bake, head bake, and kutti pi (made of the unborn kid in the goat’s womb). These were made by cooks stationed in running rooms, for engine drivers who halted to rest en route to various destinations.
Dr. D’Souza, who is now over 75, emphasises that tinned meat and sardines from Spencers on Mount Road, fish patties, and specially-made ding ding (marinated dried meat) for long journeys were other staples that people of the community consumed.
Be it fish curry or the Brightons pudding, the Anglo-Indian cuisine in Madras seems to have not merely fused the best of two worlds, but also made it its own.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Madras 375 / by Nitya Menon / Chennai – August 10th, 2014
The city has not one but several streets called Mahal Theru numbered 1 to 8 named after Thirumalai Nayak Mahal. All the streets from Manajanakara Theru lead to Nayak Mahal, a standing testimony to the architectural mastery of the Madurai Nayaks.
An important landmark in the city, Nayak Mahal was constructed in 1636 by Nayak King Thirumalai Nayak who ruled Madurai between 1623 and 1659. It is an architectural wonder which attracts tourists from all over the globe. In its glorious days, Nayak Mahal was four times bigger from what is remaining at present and extended up to Manajanakara Theru in the city.
According to archaeologists Mahal Streets were once part of the Nayak Mahal which was left to ruin before the British took measures to conserve the remaining structure in 1866. C Santhalingam, a retired archaeologist from city said present day Mahal streets were once upon a time the western part of the Mahal. “The palace was huge and extended up to present day Manjanakara Theru. Nayak rulers moved their seat of power to Trichy after Thirumalai Nayak and demolished the major portion of the Mahal to construct a palace there. The remaining portion fell apart over the ages. Even today many houses on Mahal streets dilapidated pillars which were once part of the Mahal,” he said. Later British used some portions of the Mahal as government offices and Lord Napier played a crucial role in renovating and conserving the present day Nayak Mahal, he said.
K Mohan, 65, a resident in New Ramnad road and student of Thiruvallurvar Mahal High Sec School near Nayak Mahal recalled his student days in these streets. “In those days, the Mahal functioned as district court and there were not many restrictions to enter inside. As children we used to play around the palace during lunch break since drinking water was available inside. Some of us used to act as guide for visiting tourists and earn some pocket money,” he said. Mahal Streets was the hub of textile industry in those days since most of the residents were of Sourastran community who are generally expert weavers. They used to dry their yarns in these long lanes and there were also many paper and printing units functioning in Mahal streets”, said Mohan. Now the streets look different as many previous residents have shifted to other parts of the city and other industries and shops have cropped up.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / TNN / July 28th, 2014
Claiming that Tamil Nadu was the safest state for women in the country, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday told the Assembly that sexual crimes had halved since she took charge in 2011. Listing the steps taken to ensure the safety and security of women, she maintained that the rising number of police complaints being filed by women evidenced this.
This assertion came in response to the insinuation that rapes were increasing in Tamil Nadu, made by DMDK member VC Chandhirakumar, during the debate on the Police and Fire & Rescue Services Departments.
“Since this government took charge in 2011, police personnel have been ordered to pay special attention and work expeditiously on crimes against women. This work is happening as per the 13-point plan I had formulated following the gang rape incident in Delhi,” she said.
“I can categorically state that crimes against women have reduced greatly since I took charge as Chief Minister for the third time. Not only crimes against women, all sorts of crime have reduced. I can proudly say Tamil Nadu is the safest state for women in India,” the CM added.
Jayalalithaa backed up this claim by citing statistics, showing that dowry harassment cases had come down from 165, at the end of the previous DMK regime, in 2010 to 118 in 2013. Sexual crimes had halved between 2010 and 2013, from 638 to 313, registering steep falls in every year in between.
However, she said the biggest indicator of increasing safety for women in the State was evident from the number of cases they had come forward to file. “Cases registered under the Dowry Prevention Act were 199 in 2010, 195 in 2011, 277 in 2012 and 305 in 2013. The very fact that women are feeling secure enough to come forward to file complaints is a testament to this government’s track record in ensuring action on complaints. Under the previous minority DMK government, they were not filing complaints as they knew no action would be taken,” she said, adding that it was her previous administration that had, in 1992, started All Women Police Stations in State.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 07th, 2014
This innovator made a kit that frees women in many parts of the world of the threat of infection during childbirth.
Zubaida Bai at the production facility of ayzh, 30km from Chennai. Photo: Nathan G/Mint
Freedom from risky childbirth | Zubaida Bai
Growing up in Chennai, a young Zubaida Bai wanted to study further after completing class XII. A reasonable request, except that in her family, nobody—male or female—had made it to college. The women in her family were usually married in their teens. Plus, Zubaida’s father did not have the finances to put her through college.
Undeterred, she decided to fight fate.
At 33, Zubaida Bai was the founder-CEO of ayzh (pronounced “eyes”), a low-cost women’s healthcare company based in Chennai and Colorado, US. Her biggest achievement: JANMA, a birthing kit sold and distributed through non-governmental organizations and healthcare companies.
JANMA (birth in Hindi) kits consist of six things: an apron, a sheet, a hand sanitizer, an antiseptic soap, a cord clip and a surgical blade. They meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of “six cleans” during childbirth—clean hands of the attendant, clean surface, clean blade, clean cord tie, clean towels to dry the baby and wrap it, and clean cloth to wrap the mother. A jute purse in five colours contains the kit and and it can be used as a purse after delivery.
From mundane struggles with a traditional Muslim family to being a successful innovator, Zubaida Bai’s journey has been one about exercising the right to free choice although that involved selling her jewellery to get ayzh off the ground.
Soon after school, Zubaida took a year off, selling retail banking services door-to-door for ABN Amro, cold-calling customers and earning her first pay cheque when she was 17. Soon she was in college, studying mechanical engineering, and went on to become the first graduate in her entire family. After graduation, she dreamt of designing cars, but ended up at auto-parts company Sundram Fasteners. “I was the only girl on the entire floor, all I did every day was change the dimensions on a CAD design or take printouts. I was getting fat from all the thayir saadam (curd rice),” she recalls.
She was soon planning her escape. Scouring the Internet for a master’s degree, she secretly applied to various universities. After an acceptance letter for a fully funded scholarship to an M.Tech programme at Dalarna University, Sweden, arrived, she told her parents. Her father thought this was one of those infamous scams that promised you a job and ended up hiring you as domestic labour. But finally, Zubaida left home.
In the summer of her first semester in college, she took a road trip, was part of a students’ exchange programme, visited Poland and, during a period of self-discovery, she decided to start wearing the hijab, though no one in her family did.
Back in Chennai before her second semester ended and coaxed to meet a potential suitor, Habib Anwar, she feared the worst. “(But) he said that he was looking for an educated girl, who he would like to work rather than sit at home and squabble with his relatives,” says Zubaida.
Anwar supported Zubaida’s plan to study further as well. Soon they were married. Much later, he would be instrumental in providing the necessary support to make ayzh a success.
In 2006, Zubaida gave birth to the first of her three sons, Yasin. It was a painful experience. She needed surgery, was forced to rest for two months and took close to a year to recover fully. In her childhood, she had witnessed the lack of healthcare facilities for her mother, close relatives and community, and the lack of financial resources to pay for these if they did happen to be available.
Sometime in 2009, as part of a master’s in business administration in global social and sustainable enterprises at the University of Colorado, US, Zubaida came to India to research ideas that could be developed into products. She worked with Chennai-based non-profit Rural Innovations Network (RIN), making the JS Milker, a vacuum-driven cow-milking machine, low-cost and commercially viable. In Rajasthan, she met a village dai (midwife) who had just delivered a baby with a grass-cutting sickle.
This was her a-ha moment. She started reading up on institutional childbirth. She stumbled upon a clean birth kit (CBK) while attending a tech event in Denver, US, promoted by the non-profit healthcare organization PATH. The kit had a plastic sheet, a Topaz blade, a piece of thread, a small square of soap, and a plastic coin. All this was wrapped in a box with instructions. She then travelled halfway across the world to Nepal, where a group of women was assembling the kit.
Unimpressed with the quality of the kit, she searched for more samples, but found none that matched her expectations. But she knew she was on to something, and started building her own improved version, using off-the-shelf components and assembling them.
By 2010, she had put together a rudimentary clean birthing kit called JANMA, which she tested in Bangalore, through her gynaecologist. The innovation won the Global Social Venture Competition for business plans at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in March 2010, and followed it up by topping the Camino Real Venture Competition at the University of Texas at El Paso, US, later that month.
Zubaida Bai also received a 2010-11 fellowship related to maternal health from Ashoka, an organization which identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs. At one event, she met the who’s who of the world of maternal health. “They were folks who were shaping the future of maternal health. These are people I would have found impossible to meet, especially Wendy Graham, who does research on how clean birth kits prevent infections,” she says. Her interactions confirmed her belief that a product such as JANMA would have a market.
By 2011, they had sold 2,000-3,000 JANMA kits, priced at $2-5 (now around Rs.120-300), in India and had made some inroads into the US.
After the initial success, though, Zubaida Bai hit a wall. Ayzh needed funds for operating costs, scaling up and distribution channels. Forced to return to India after completing her course at the University of Colorado, Zubaida and Anwar had two MBAs and two children between them, and no jobs. Those were trying times.
Even as friends and family advised one of them to get a job, Zubaida and Anwar calculated that they needed $300,000 for one-and-a-half years for ayzh to get off the ground. A social impact firm assured them of $50,000 if they could raise $100,000 and $20,000 if they raised nothing. Everything hung in the balance till the end of 2012, when they were awarded the $80,000 Echoing Green fellowship. They also got a Canadian government grant for another $100,000, while an individual investor put in another $100,000.
This was the turning point. In 2013, they clocked $100,000 in revenue, and sold 50,000 kits in India, Haiti, Laos, Afghanistan and Africa.
The JANMA kit’s relevance is irrefutable. According to the UN, India’s maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births reduced by 65%, from 560 in 1990 to 190 in 2013. But that still means 50,000 women die every year in India while giving birth. Seventeen per cent of the women die from preventable infections. More than 300,000 infants in India die the day they are born, according to the report “Ending Newborn Deaths, Ensuring Every Baby Survives”, by the non-profit Save the Children and Joy Lawn, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Zubaida’s goal for ayzh is three-pronged. She wants women to have power over their health by introducing new products for post-partum haemorrhage, a new-born kit, maternity pad and other innovations in reproductive health and family planning. Instead of creating products from scratch she wants to leverage the ayzh distribution platform to aggregate and sell products already available in the market. And, finally, she wants to launch an innovation lab for low-cost healthcare products, so that an entrepreneur with an idea does not have to go through the same grind that they did.
To realize this ambition they are currently in the process of raising $3 million in funding—a huge sum for a social enterprise selling low-cost products to bottom-of-the-pyramid customers—from social impact investors.
“We want to build a corporate entity, with a group of companies that will focus on women’s health and empowerment. Habib saw his mother struggle doing sewing and embroidery and I saw my mother struggle as well. They always brought in money, but were not appreciated and treated as an asset,” says Zubaida.
Nelson Vinod Moses is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist who writes on social entrepreneurship.
source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal / Home> Lounge> Business of Life> Indulge / Home – Leisure / by Nelson Vinod Moses / Saturday – August 09th, 2014
Self-trained artist Manohar Devadoss reveals his secrets on perspective.
A few years ago I worked on a book of historic homes in Chennai. Sketches of the various residences accompanied the text. After the release of the book, an architect friend whose work I admire, met me and said that while the book was fine, some of the sketches lacked a sense of perspective. The conversation then turned to artists who in her view had the best sense of that. And she unhesitatingly placed Manohar Devadoss at the top of the list.
There are many lists on the top of which Manohar Devadoss would find himself; indeed if a compilation of the world’s most positive thinkers was ever made, he and his late wife Mahema would like Abou Ben Adhem lead all the rest. How else can you explain such joy of living despite her having been quadriplegic for over three decades and he having practically nil vision owing to retinitis pigmentosa?
Manohar is an accomplished artist, who despite failing vision, kept churning out some of the most amazing sketches of whatever took his fancy — pastoral scenes, the rocky landscape surrounding Madurai, temples, churches, people — one of my prized possessions is a sketch of a tribal girl that he did several years ago. For that matter, I treasure every note, letter or document that comes from Manohar, for it will have some drawing in it — a butterfly, a bamboo shoot or a star.
All of these sketches of his are marked by his flawless sense of perspective. The angle from which the artist has seen the object that is featured is as accurate as that of a camera. This is best seen in Manohar’s works on buildings, perhaps the finest compilation of which is his fourth book Multiple Facets of My Madurai. The work under review is his fifth.
From an Artist’s Perspective, sponsored by Ranvir Shah’s Prakriti Foundation, has Manohar revealing his secrets on perspective. A self-trained artist, he arrived at this knowledge not by reading books but through painstaking trial and error, the first awareness being kindled by seeing railway trains moving at high speeds even as he watched them from close by. The book is ideal for engineering students, draughtsmen, artists and amateurs wanting to draw. It combines theory with practice . How I wish text books in schools and colleges would have this fluidity and ability to capture our attention in full. The book is written in such a personal fashion that you can almost hear Manohar’s voice speaking to you through the lines of text.
It has usually been Manohar’s habit to declare at every book launch of his that this was his last work. And I have always predicted that there will soon be another. In any case most of his books go into multiple editions and this one should be no exception. I sincerely hope that engineering, architecture and art colleges of India make a beeline to purchase this book for their libraries or even better, make it a part of their course curriculum.
The book is available for sale exclusively from Manohar’s residence. Those interested can contact him at 044-24982484. The work is priced at Rs.280 and proceeds from the sale, as in all of Manohar’s works, go to charity.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Literary Review / SriRam V. / August 02nd, 2014
Hero stones, commemorating the death of persons who have laid down their life in battle or died while fighting for the cause of a particular community, can be seen in places near Thirumoorthi Hills and Gudimangalam. Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu
The space is not commensurate with the number of artefacts on display-exhibits made of stone are often kept on the ground in poorly lit corners and at locations that hamper visitor movement.
A visit to the district museum is unlikely to figure in the list of places one likes to spend time on a holiday. For, not many know that there exists a museum in almost every district in the region, which partly has to do with it low-key presence in locations where the rent is affordable. Invariably the locations are government owned buildings.
The poor patronage has to do with the way the museums are maintained. The space is not commensurate with the number of artefacts on display-exhibits made of stone are often kept on the ground in poorly lit corners and at locations that hamper visitor movement. In some museums a few items are in the open, outside the premises.
Security at the museums is another issue. In a few museums, valuable finds are no longer there as the Department of Museums has shifted it to Chennai. Historians and history enthusiasts, who wish to remain anonymous, want the Tamil Nadu Government to improve the museums in the region in such a fashion that they become a sought-after destination.
The Hindu looks at some of the museums in the region and how they fare.
In Udhagamandalam, the Government Museum is awaiting new place – the wait is around a quarter-a-century old. And, it will end in 2015 when it moves to the Connemora Cottage. At present it functions at a rented building on the Ooty-Mysore Road.
The Connemora Cottage is near the historical Stone House, which now forms part of the Government Arts College. The Cottage, constructed in 1884-85, is named after Lord Connemora. At its present location, the Museum attracts only about a hundred visitors a month during the off season period. During the season, the Curator K.A.Murugavel claims, the flow increases. The items on display are coins, megalithic burial urns, tribal goods, stuffed birds, rock art, palm leaf manuscripts and a few musical instruments. A few stone idols have been displayed at the entrance.
Geetha Srinivasan, Convenor, Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), the Nilgiris Chapter, says the potential for developing the museum is enormous.
In Erode, the Government Museum enjoys the advantage of a good location – it is opposite the VOC Park. This makes the visitors to the Park to hop into the Museum. On an average, not less than 1,000 persons, most of them students, visit the Museum.
Inadequacy of space is, however, conspicuous. Though moving to its own permanent building on a sprawling area would be the permanent solution, the Department of Museums is understandably in a dilemma since there is no certainty that the existing public patronage will continue. The array of stone sculptures placed outside the museum is enough indication of the space constraint.
“Space is a constraint. But the inculcation of the sense of history that the Museum is now able to ensure by virtue of its location is of higher importance,” said S. Jayasankar, Professor of History and Principal of Vasavi College.
Among the prized possessions at the Government Museum is the statue of Lord Dakshinamoorthy dating back to 12th century, the oldest among the collection of statues. Urns used for storing grains, burial urns and materials used by Sholaga tribe of Erode district reflect the civilization in the region.
An excavation at Kodumanal in the district being carried out by a team of Pondicherry University is expected to add to the collection.
In Tirupur, a newly carved district, the demand for museum has only increased. Dr. K. Manivannan, a historian, told The Hindu that a museum was essential for Tirupur so that lots of hero stones and other valuables artefacts presently lying scattered or under the possession of different persons could be brought under one roof.
Hero stones, commemorating the death of persons who have laid down their life in battle or died while fighting for the cause of a particular community, can be seen in places near Thirumoorthi Hills and Gudimangalam, he said.
R. Sangameswaran, an Assistant Professor of History, said setting up a museum would enhance the tourism in the district.
In Salem, the District Museum, functioning since 1975, has exhibits related to numismatics, philately, stone balls and canons, exquisitely-carved stone sculptures and display on articles used by the British. Among the interesting exhibits are the six burial urns that were unearthed in Musiri, Omalur, Mohanur, Kamalapuram and Salem. Each weighs about 80 kg.
A 300-year-old stone carving that was retrieved from Pethanaickenpalayam in Attur that depicts a man taming a bull is on display. A picture of this was submitted as a proof to the Supreme Court in the Jallikattu case to show that the bull taming existed in olden days as well.
Also the wardrobe and articles used by Namakkal V. Ramalingam Pillai were also on display. But those that are in display are in competition with those that are lying dumped in a room, in dust.
Members of the Salem Historical Society had been asking for revamping the museum for a better display of the exhibits, said its secretary J. Barnabas.
Curator M.N. Pushpa told The Hindu that proposal for constructing a new building has already been submitted .
In Coimbatore, the Government Museum is in a pitiable condition because exhibits of historical importance are few. Apart from a few stone idols, urns, megalithic tools and wood carvings from a temple car, there is very little. The floor is damaged and roof is full of cobwebs.
With inputs from D. Radhakrishnan, R. Krishnamoorthy, R. Vimal Kumar, S.P. Saravanan and Karthik Madhavan
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Coimbatore Bureau / Coimbatore – August 02nd, 2014
Venkatesan, former director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) explaining about the abandoned monuments to the volunteers of ‘Ahimsa Walks’ at a cave in Vallimalai in Vellore on Sunday | Express Photo
Vellore :
A group of self-motivated individuals keen on protecting ancient monuments undertook a walk to Vallimalai Hills near here on Sunday to create awareness on the significance of such monuments while underlining the need for protecting the abandoned ones by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Led by Puducherry-based businessman Sridharan, volunteers from across the State held the‘Ahimsa Walk’ to publicise the importance of non-violence and peaceful living, which was preached by Jain saints in Vallimalai region in the eighth century.
“Most of such ancient sites that contain Jain inscriptions are not known to the people by and large. We would like the messages of the Jain saints, who had stayed in caves in various parts of the State since the Sangam period and which have a lot of relevance in today’s turbulent lifestyle, to be understood by the locals and the general public,” said Sridharan. He said the neglected cave temples created by Jain saints and kings in the southern part of Vallimalai should be taken over by ASI or “otherwise we would lose these valuable messages to anti-social activities in these caves,” he said.
Further, he said, Jain saints had evolved these caves as monasteries of peace and social work where they had extended healthcare to locals and inscriptions in this regard could be found out in Vallimalai caves. These monuments contained wealth of information, which were relevant even today and hence should be protected, he added. Sridharan and his team have been undertaking ‘Ahimsa Walks’ since January 2014 mostly in Villupuram district to promote the concept of Ahimsa and to create awareness about the Jain saints of yesteryear who preached ahimsa.
“We started our first walk in Chenji area in Villupuram to create awareness on many abandoned sites that contained Jain monuments. An estimated 500 such sites are present in the State and we would like to organise walks to highlight the significance of each one of them while emphasising the need for protecting them,” he added.
Professor Ramesh, who is heading the Departments of History and Archaeology at a private college in Villupuram and is participating in the walk, said the Sunday walk was the first one in Vellore district. “We usually study the inscriptions in the abandoned sites and document the same during walks,” he said. The abandoned monuments in the caves in the southern part of the Vallimalai Hills eulogised the period of Ganga dynasty in Vellore region during the eighth century, he added.
Noted epigrapher Venkatesan(retired director of ASI), who accompanied the team, quoting an inscription found in Vallimalai caves, said a Jain monastery had been established there by the Ganga King Rajamalla after he captured this region from Chola king and another one at Seeyamangalam.
The next walk by the team would be in Tiruvannamalai district in Seeyamangalam area near Thellar to create awareness about some abandoned Jain caves in the region next month.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> TamilNadu / by V. NarayanaMurthi / August 05th, 2014
A 900-year-old tree is still being revered and worshipped as “God” by the Kota tribe in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
Udhagamandalam (TN):
A 900-year-old tree is still being revered and worshipped as “God” by the Kota tribe in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
The tribe, with a population of some 3,000 people, including 1700 women, in seven villages, perform prayers in front of the 250-foot tall tree on auspicious occasions such as marriage, construction of a new building, or housewarming.
The villagers also make confessions or take pledge before this tree in Kunda Kotagiri, said Bellan, chief of the seven villages and a retired post master.
The diameter of the tree, said to be planted over 10 generations ago, is so huge that some 50 persons have to form a human chain around the tree, he claimed.
Kotas worship fire, moon, and nature and perform prayers in front of the tree for every single occasion and festival.
Despite having temples in all the seven village, with Ayyanoor Ammanur as presiding deity, the villagers’ foremost belief is the tree and they visit it first before conducting any function.
Tourists or general public are not allowed to stay for long near the tree and they are asked to leave immediately after offering prayers, Bellan said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / PTI / August 03rd, 2014
A brass trident and a nandhi idol believed to be dating back to a few centuries were unearthed by the corporation workers in Dindigul when they were desilting the famous Kottaikulam in the foothills of the rockfort in the city on Saturday.
The rockfort, which was constructed in 1605 by the Nayak dynasty in Madurai assumes historical importance. In the 18th century it passed on to the Kingdom of Mysore. Tipu Sultan was crowned the king of Dindigul and he used the fort for the purpose of training his soldiers and also storing their weapons. The Kottaikulam tank at the foothills was dug by him to meet the drinking water needs of his forces. The fort is now maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India and the tank has not been desilted for many decades.
Now, the Dindigul Corporation has taken up desilting work of this tank for the purpose of rain water harvesting. On Friday, workers struck something hard when they reached the depth of about 10 feet and unearthed a brass trident and a little later, the nandhi idol. The trident is said to be weighing about 12 kg and is six feet in height while the idol is two feet tall. Mayor V Marudharaj and corporation commissioner Rajan and other officials rushed to the spot on being informed and later the discovered items were handed over to the Dindigul West tahsildar. Last week the workers discovered an entrance to a secret passage on one side of the tank, which had been covered by silt.
Sources said that a temple dedicated to goddess Abirami Amman had existed on top of the hill during ancient times and it was destroyed during Tipu Sultan’s period. “The idols from the temple seem to have been thrown into the tank after the destruction of the temple,” they added.
The desilting work of this tank has been taken up at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and is said to be one of the most stable RWH structures in the region, because it can harvest all the rain water that gushes down the rockfort during heavy rains. Once restored it would definitely impact the water table in the region.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by Padmini Sivarajah, TNN / August 03rd, 2014
