Sri Ramanasram - A spiritual retreat

When I was given a choice to visit an organic homestay  “navadarsanam “or  “Sri  Ramanasram” spiritual retreat, I choose the former.  Although I am a spiritual seeker , I was’nt sure I would simply sit in disciplined sessions , listen to spiritual jargon of atma, soul , jnana , vasana, the veda chantings  etc which goes beyond my head. That certainly was not my idea of spirituality. For me spirituality is a way of life where I practice minimalism, try to keep things simple and try to silence my mind whenever possible and  try to keep away from the unnecessary(!)  material wants of life and try to keep away from competitivenesss( yes, all trying only) . That said, I still have a long way to go in spiritualism  and do buckle sometimes. Also “Ramanasram” was my second choice because I did not  want to travel from one hot weather to another.

                                                        

So, I would say it was destiny that willed that I visit Ramanasram or else how would one explain the fact that one needs to pre-book a month before to stay there and it was my mom’s call to the office just a week before that got us an accommodation at” Achalam” the ashram guest house.

Sri Ramana's ashram- It was to this spiritual center in an unique location that we set out on a hot morning. Tiruvannamalai is an old temple town nestled at the base of a sacred mountain Arunachala or Arunagiri in southern Tamilnadu.The mountain has an history that dates back to thousands of years and home to many mythological legends. This is the place where countless rishis, sages and siddhas have lived and meditated in the past. Notable among them is Sri Ramana Maharishi, whose ashram I was visiting.

Although I was visiting this place after 18 years, I could see there was no change in the Archway, we went in got our keys to guest house, which was a 3 minute drive from the ashram on the opposite side of the road.

The guest house was spic and span and would put a 5 star hotel to shame.  Ofcourse, There was no show or pomp , no modern day  frills or necessity like net onnectivity, A/c, TV, but otherwise the basics like a wardrobe, clothes hanger, dresser table, mirror everything were all in place and the wash rooms were excellent despite the frequent usage.It felt like home.

After resting awhile, we came back to the ashram at 4 to have our tea and milk, as an ashram guest or invitee, we are allowed  to have food in the ashram dining hall. It was a huge glass of milk/ tea and the milk is directly from the goshaala of the ashram. 

After the tea/milk, I wandered into the open ground  beside the dining hall at the foot hills of  skandasram ( arunachala hill). I , my niece and little sis were so enamoured by the  peacocks and they were so close to us and I was watching its plumes in close range and clicking away to glory with my mobile( I was on digital detox with occasional cheats but to this ashram I bought the mobile only to click photos) . I turned around to see the  place where my great grandfather lived in one of the cottages and was one of his earliest disciples. I clicked the photo of that place again which was then a thatched roof.

I sat on  the  rough granite steps  in front of the Samadhi of Lakshmi , the cow( Ramanas favorite cow)  at the foot hills of skandasram and watching the peacocks wander, dance, call and hoot and watching the monkeys dance,  and do all the naughty pranks and dropping all the tasty mangoes of the tree.  It was one of the most wonderful experience sitting in  a natural wooded environment where nothing seemed to have changed since my last visit,  with  all brick, mortar, wood and thatched awnings like age old times, no glass or chrome, no landscaping.  The few moments were magical, I felt the place  which was clean and rustic was simply diffusing all that a peaceful mind could ask for and I was absorbing them with delight. I was also clicking photos only to realize that I was the only one clicking and hoarding a mobile. All the ashramites  ( many of them foreigners) were simply absorbed in a book or sitting still. I at once, decided I will not use the mobile any more in the ashram. The ashram does not have any restriction saying “no mobile”, but I think it goes without saying .

At 5, in the evening, the vedaparayanam( veda chanting) started at Ramana shrine, I thought, I would’nt sit though it and wander away into the ashram, but that was not to be. I sat through it like a person in trance, refused to move infact I was drawn closer to the shrine.   Ofcourse, many times, in between, my mind and eyes wandered and I saw so many foreigners in Indian attire ( men in veshti( dhoti) and women in white cotton sareees and kurtas) were so engrossed. It was delightful to see a Japanese women chant Aksharamana malai ( a hymn composed by sage ramana) . I was amazed to see this especially at a time, when many ridicule or denounce anything  eastern( read Indian), it was great to see west adopt eastern mysticism although in few numbers.

The oldest meditation hall again was full of westerners and they sat so simply, only my mind was wandering in awe. I had to work hard to bring my mind under control.

  

Even in the dining hall, the westerners sat down squatting on the floor and ate with their fingers eating the "vazhelai sappadu"( typical tamil vegetarian food served on plaintain leaf)and the food so yummy.( i should'nt be reviewing this)

After dinner at 7.30( we have to stick to the ashram timings), we went around the arunagiri mountain (giri pradakshinam) in the car and retired to our guest house and I had a sleepless night due to the heat. This is a very hot place in tamilnadu. I slept at 1.30 and got up at 3...... this post is getting lengthier .... more in  my next post…

My next post will be the highlight of my  visit.

                                        The 2nd cottage was where my great grand pa lived after retirement. He was one of the earliest followers of Sri Ramana and authored a book on Mahayoga culled from his talks with Sri Ramana which is on demand on Amazon..

                     They were all around roaming unafraid and dancing away to glory. A visual treat.

                                                To the left is the entrance to ths shrine while the below is the place where he attained Nirvana.

Mahabalipuram aka Mahabs

                    Mahabalipuram - where portraits on sand and stone speak about history and mythology.

Mahabalipuram, once called Mallai kadal/ Mamallapuram  was a famous maritime port of The Pallava kings who ruled from  Kanchipuram in 600 to 750 A.D.  These kings had a flourishing maritime trade  with distant kingdoms of southeast Asia like Cambodia, Malaysia, Sumatra and java. This place today stands as a testimony to the fact that the kings of yore patronized art and architecture. The pagodas, rock cut caves, single stone (monolithic) crafted rathas and bas- reliefs all belonging to the ancient times speak about the riveting legends, their beliefs and lifestyles of  the pallava times. They are a visual treat and speak about the values of artisans in days of yore. They are crafted with faith, love, patience and determination when you had no calipers, T-squares, rulers and other aids to define your geometry and symmetry.

 These rich sculptures, pagodas, bas reliefs and rock formations which defy physics has been recognized by UNESCO (1984), thus this ancient village is listed as a world heritage site and that explains why we have many foreign and domestic tourists who are scholars, devotees, artisans,  architects and historians.

I was here on a December morning. I travelled a 55 kms sea shore route from Chennai to reach here. I always picturise a place I visit with the information and pictures available and was slightly disappointed when I found so many colorful kiosks, it did not match with my sepia toned structures against the blue background of sea  which I saw in many pictures and mentally visualized. Lots of cola, gola, candy stores on either side of the road welcomed us. And many caravan stores selling glares, scarves, hats, caps etc That made me realize that today this place is not just an ancient sea port but has transformed into ‘Mahabs’ – a place where people come to chill, hang out, to experience the sun, sea and sand  at the various boutique hotels and bay side resorts and  has became a prime holiday spot . Notably a travel site which I have subscribed to on FB marked this as one of the favorite  year end vacation spot for 2012 along  with Pondicherry.That explained the crowd.

 While paying the parking fee, we picked up the brochure/ pamphlet from the  tourist office and took their guidance on the important places we must visit since we had to  pack off in 3 hours time.

The important places he marked were in the order - Krishna’s butter ball, Ganesha ratha, Arjuna’s penance, krishna mandapam, light  house, five rathas and shore temple.

We  leisurely  walked around  reading the above monuments but  missed  one – the 5 rathas. Three hours time was very little to feel and read the place, we need atleast one day to go around. We missed the 5 rathas but spent considerable amount of time exploring the street side artisan shops and meeting the artisans who are the soul of Mahabalipuram . At mahabs,  apart form the sound of wind and waves, you can’t miss the ‘tung – tung’ sound of hammer and chisel on stone.

Some captures at the place, 

             

Krishna's Butter ball

It is magical to see a huge rock like this on a buttery surface where standing even for a few seconds is difficult.  This stone has been tried  to be moved by many pallava kings, elephants and even scientists but it has defied physics and stands still. What holds it? no body knows.

 Arjuna's penance the world's largest bas- relief measuring 27mX9m is the pride of the place. It has carvings of celestial nymphs, gods,beasts, birds etc. adjoining is the rock cut cave represented by other 13 caves around.

                                                        A cross view of the above relief

                               A frame from Varaha cave depicting Vamana placing his third leg on  king Bali'. while keeping one on earth and the other on sky.

                                     The rayar gopuram or mandapam had beautiful carvings from dashaavatar. This i believe was one of the unfinished pallava project.

a close up of the dashavatar speaks about the hand dexterity of the artisans. Much of the precision work are not protected by weather, the roughness adds to the antique value of this place.

Mahishasuramardini cave -  It was pathetic to hear a guide telling a few foreign tourists " This is Durga, she is a powerful women who sit on a lion and killed rakshasas". I could only see a perplexed look on the tourists. I am sure they would not know who was durga or what rakshasas meant or do they know india and indian mythology better than indians?!  Tamilnadu tourism, train the guides . They are the cultural ambassadors, i believe. Else, history, mythology and culture gets distorted.

There was a lady guide  who appeared very educated, she was explaining the above relief to a couple of tourists. This was a practice followed in days of yore to show their loyalty to their masters. The men beheaded their heads as shown in the pic by holding their tufts, thus giving way to bali peetams or sacrfiicial altars. A gruesome practice of yore nevertheless beautifully explained by the guide. I found her later traveling in the vehicle of 'The Banyan' organization. so doubt if she was a guide, perhaps a person known to the tourists.  whatever, these places need people like her to appreciate the place.

the tower above the cave is beautifully crafted and has a railing around which gives a view of the place around

 This light house was not built by pallavas. It was built in 1900(?) . This has a steep staircase to the top,  My son's cap flew off his head while he was standing on the platform above at the top. 12 noon is the closing time and we were here at 11.45 making us the last few visitors. The rest were not issued tickets. So i had the window all to myself and clicked the below picture of the shore temple from  the top window (just below the railing).

 It is on my wish list to see the shore temple at night and capture it. I believe the temple against the moonlight (flood lit night) against the swish of the waves and ink blue sky is surrreal( as seen in movies). One of the oldest temples of India illustrating the dravidian architecture. 6 such temples are submerged leaving this 7th one alone.

A mahabalipuram post is incomplete without stone art and sculpture. It has a stone art museum( i missed it) and a government run college of sculpture and architecture which is one of its kind in India( or only one?). Nowhere else, do we have a college for sculpture in India said one of the artisans.

 A street full of workshops outside the lighthouse selling stone art like these. I picked up those beautifully carved lampdomes which are eggshaped. They source their rawmaterials like sand stone, marble from places like Rajasthan, cudappah etc.

 This man was sharpening his tools when i requested him to show how he works, he demonstrated. He has not studied art from a college, but learnt the trade from his father, he belongs to a lineage of stone craftsmen. Perhaps many even trace their lineage to the pallava times.

 Here is a student of fine arts from government college of sculpture and architecture earning on a spare time during his holiday. Buddha and Ganesha are the most selling idols he says. Many of these graduates on graduating hold their own art shops or fly to foreign shores like Srilanka, Indonesia, Singapore etc.,

                       They are icons of art and hold a place of pride in most artistic homes and most foreign       tourists buy them as souveniors.

A special post for two reasons ;)

 Many a times, people like me live in a place and do not  visit some of the local  places due to our regular routine. And when we do have holiday/long break, we would end up spending our holiday at a farflung place or some weekend getaway. 

But only when you leave or migrate from the place would you realize  that you hav’nt visited some local places  while you were there.

It has happened with me, I have been in Bangalore all my life but am yet to see the Bangalore palace, modeled on the Windsor castle . I have been on this road/ locality( vasanth nagar) more than 100 times, I have been to the palace grounds too when it hosts fun events but have  never seen this palace .

Similarly, My innumerable visits to Chennai has never led me to Mahabalipuram’s Shore temple , that is till recently ( dec’12)

On the same note, I have been in Hyderabad for 11 years and I can count the number of weekend trips that I have missed. We are often out visiting/ exploring some places either at a park, garden, market, a themepark, resort, road,street, mall,hotel, dhaba etc.

 To name a few roughly and  randomly (you can miss this para, just listing out places)- Yogi Bear Putt Putt park, Lumbini park, cantonment park, Sanjeeviah, KBR, jalagam vengal rao parks or at temples like yadagirigutta, ananda Buddha vihar, birla temple, EME mandir, Sarvadharmasthal( maintained by Indian army),  Jagannath mandir,Chilkur, skandagirietc, designer / theme parks like Ramoji Film city,  Dhola ri dhani( rajasthani village), Mount Opera, Dream valley, Leonia resort, Pragati resorts,Alankrita( Kerala style) or at clubs like Century club, chiraan fort, secunderabad club. The stadias like uppal to see matches or to try swinging the clubs at bolarum golf links, go karting at runway 9, or at the various glitzy malls,  the various hypermarkets,multiplexes , upmarket retail stores, malls  like GVK one, Central, Babukhan, inorbit , necklace road,  cheruvus(lakes) like durgam, hussain sagar, osman sagar,  shameerpet, dusty, crowded and chaotic bazaars/gullis and lanes  like begum bazaar,King koti, abids, sultan bazaar, general bazaar,Moazzham jahi market,monda market  or at the historical tombs of the quli qutub shahis,  historical places like  Golkonda, Rashtrapati nilayam, or the one of a kind museum by a single man called Salarjung museum, sudha car museum,  nehru zoological park,the signature monument Charminar…….

 Now wait….wait….this was the point of my post,  the last charminar I’ve been around only two times in the past 11 years. The area around Charminar is the soul of Hyderabad and we usually avoid visiting the places around or venturing into old city due to the chaotic crowd and parking woes.  Whenever we go there   we have ended up coughing penalty due to lack of parking space or the place is overcrowded it is very rare that you can come out without a dent or a scratch in your car or without getting challaned.  Forget all these, it is difficult to even walk around these places unless you are part of a heritage walk.

But in the sankranti weekend gone by, we did gather courage to go to a place which is behind the mecca masjid. Only the previous day there was unrest in the area  which was the talk of social sites and covered by media around the world .

My better half who normally hates crossing into this area due to the heavy bumper to bumper traffic was game for this adventure.

And guess what?

We drove on roads  which looked deserted not due to a bandh call, but due to the long weekend . The people of hyderabad  went to weekend getaways or to their native claimed the newspaper and so our car with very few vehicles ruled the roads leading to the old city.

We could focus more on the beauty of the old city rather than the traffic on the roads. We soaked in the charm of the city,  where there were signs of decay on buildings here and there and the mildew on the buildings only added an aura and soul to the old city.This is a total contrast to the chrome and glass buildings which we see in the Hi-tec city. The bazaars around Charminar are a colorful riot, best described  in Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu. The display of attar bottles, chudis, colorful zardozi, ari work dresses,mojris, accessories etc.,

And  after the mild traffic in the old area( I would’nt  even term this as traffic) we finally reached our destination  which was home to the regal past of the Nizams of Hyderabad . A monument which was thrown open to public in 2005 after a lot of restoration work. In fact, this was supposed to be one of India’s biggest restoration and conservation project. More on this beautiful timeless jewel in my next post.

Ha...btw, I said this post is special for two reasons in my title,

For somebody, who said " I will be returning in two years time to Bangalore" way back in Jan of 2002, I am completing 11 years of my stay here in ‘Mana Hyderabad’, a city which i hated then(2002), but slowly fallen in love with now(2013) and hence my second ode to Hyderabad. The first ode is here.

and  the second reason,  with this post, i've slowly reached a milestone in my 3(?) year old  blogging journey. This is my 200th post. 

Thank you all for being a part of this journey by leaving your quality comments which i treasure :)

  

Now some photos of unique places which are not covered by APTDC

                                                           Rashtrapati nilayam

Constructed in 1860 by a Nizam, it became the country house of the British resident at Secunderabad. After 1948, Hyderabad's state annexation. now it is the president's retreat and used as southern sojourn. The indian president  vacations here every year end at Bolarum in secunderabad( recently our present president vacationed here) . Then from jan 1st - 10th only, this is open for the general public.

 The 16-room estate is spread over an area of 90 acres consisting of single storied building besides visitors' quarters that can accommodate 150 people. It has a Dining Hall, Darbar Hall, Morning room, Cinema Hall etc and a herbal garden. The President stays at the residence at least once a year and conducts official business. It was also used as a guest house for visiting dignitaries. what you see is the dining hall clicked by me through a side window. The inside is not thrown open to the public.

the puri jagannath mandir at Banjara hills which is a replica of the mandir in Puri.  

it has beautiful murals from Hindu mythology especially of Lord Krishna. Worth a visit.

 The necklace road is my version of beach for hyderabadi's. It is a pleasure to sit here and do some 'time pass'( read eating groundnuts or roasted charcoal bhutta or gupshupping). The night time is good for enjoying the view, the morning time for walking. The banks of the hussain sagar also serves as a venue for marathons, exhibitions etc., ( statuory warning - lot of mosquitoes). After chilling, You can end up at the eat street or any of the boutique hotels near by:) or catch a night show at Prasad's IMAX closeby

On the banks of Hussain sagar is the Lumbini park through which you can take boat rides to the central Island in the lake which holds the Budhha statue. You have a Laserium in the park which is India's first multimedia laser show on a giant water curtain. This 30 minute show unfolds the history of Hyderabad through laser beams on a water curtain in an open air amphi. The image you see here is of Charminar. (pic courtesy: Google). This was also the place where the terrorists bombed in the hyderabad blasts that occured a few years back.

Sudha car museum is a wacky car museum where you find working models of cars, bikes and buses all modeled in the shape of cup and saucer, helmet, cricket bat, computer, shoe, Phallus(lord shiva) as you can see in the pics above. All these are designed by A single man called Sudhakar, a guiness record holder. This museum is not known to many people and is beside the nehru zoolocial park. For more on this museum  read this.(pic courtesy: google)

and now  the bazaars of hyderabad as described Sarojini Naidu aka 'Aadab Hyderabad'

during my visit last weekend from the moving car as we entered into the galli leading to  the charminar

   Laad bazaar famous for hyderabadi bangles , you can see the pillar of the minar in the background

A glimpse of the shops selling ari, zardozi work. This place is very very active in the night too, since there is a night bazaar. I missed taking a photo of attar shop since the traffic built up on the return around 8.o clock.

A great coastal road trip

 We closed the  year gone by with a great road trip  and crossing out many items off our  bucket list.  After many deliberations of what to do, where to go, how to go , we decided to travel down and camp at our uncle’s place in Neyveli a mining and power generation township. This was a  final opportunity(?) for us to camp at Neyveli since our uncle would be retiring this Jan 31^st  and as visitors we would never have access this town again. We decided to make this our centre and travel to Tranquebar, Thanjavur and the chettinad region.

 We gave the flights a miss, rested the trains but we took a  comfortable sleeper Volvo  bus  journey to Chennai since we would not be returning as a family. The hubby was to end his vacation with his college alumni meet at Yelagiri a hill station close to vellore,  while we decided to return for the new year party @Hyd. So, we did not take our car,  from Chennai we took SIL’s Spark and tested its endurance on The east coat road till Tranqebar via ECR through Pondicherry.   

Some of the places we visited were on my wish list for long like in the photos below. Will make a detailed post about them in leisure.( click on the photos to feel the place)

A 15 day Punjabi fest was on @ Dakshin chitra

A typical tamil brahmin community row homes called agraharam in Dakshin chitra, there are many such homes like that of karnataka, AP and kerala along with homes of potters, weavers. Will share them with photos. This is a mini heritage village showcasing arts, crafts and architecture. Watched in awe and wonderment by foreign tourist. A must visit.

On the East cost road(ECR) - a fishing hamlet where we stopped by for sometime to click photos and enjoy the mid morning sea waves( around 8), we enjoyed interacting here with a fisherman's son. Will share that too.

 Enroute Mahabalipuram, on the ECR, there are many craftsmen sculpting stone crafts like these. Infact, Mahabalipuram has many such artisans some are trained through their family, some learn it at arts college. This stone art  too deserves a separate post from me.

The shore temple as seen from the viewing gallery of the light house. Don't miss the difference between sky blue and seablue.

  From Mahabalipuram as we drove towards Pondicherry on the ECR, we took a detour of 1.5 kms to experience rural life at Kadampadi rural tourism village.

 The neyveli lignite mines which i was planning for the last 16 years happened this time. We went to the thermal plant too. Lots of lives are lost in the mines and at thermal plants while generating electricity. While here, our  mama said " We loose lives and after a lot of hard work generate a unit of power, while you people simply leave the switches on even when not in use".

 This is the home of the great mathmatician Srinivas Ramnujam @ kumbakonam, which is now beautifully maintained as a international monument by SASTRA university. We could not click the interiors since we needed the permission of the university. The window you see was the window through which ramunajam sat often while the platform in the forefront was where he solved many mathematical problems. Glad to have visited it in the same year which celebrated his 125th birth anniversary(2012)

The rear end of Dansborg Castle at Trankbar(Dutch)/ Tranqebar( English). This place was gifted to the Dutch in the 16th century and so this is a 16th century monuments. this place attracts lot of european visitors especially, the dutch and the french.

The front  view from the beach

 Tranqebar is called Tarangambadi in tamil meaning the land of singing waves. but the day we visited the waves were lashing and the beach winds were fierce as evident from the coconut glades. The winds were fierce to push my heavy frame too. Incidentally it was exactly 8 years and 3 days after the great Tsunami struck.

the landing where the dutch loaded their goods and the brick pier leading to the fort on the shore. India traded pepper with the Dutch.

The masilamani nathar kovil( shiv temple) parallel to the Dutch fort. The priest of the temple hugged the shivling the day Tsunami struck and held on to it till the water receded. The same priest did the puja the day we visited. The rear end of the temple.

The interiors of the Neemrana hotel on the Beach where many tourists stay. This group projects its heritage hotels as 'non-hotel' hotel and is beautifully perched on the shores of the beach and is called "the house on the beach".

 Each of these places deserves a separate post from me.

 Glad to have made many beautiful personal memories in 2012 and crossed off many items 

of my bucket list and my bucket isn’t empty. There is still a wealth of things , events,

activities, experiences and memories to make. 

Hoping for a great year ahead, while wishing all who pass my blog a great year. God bless you all.

                      With prayers to God for a better peaceful world. 

(havn't added The thanjavur photos. will eta)

Poompuhar - India's lost Atlantis

Some years ago, If anybody  asked me about an ancient land swallowed by the sea only the  mythical Atlantis would be the answer.  I can remember this well because I’ve played the  computer animated  game through out one whole night to finish the many levels at one stretch. But this was until I heard about Poompuhar.

In reality there is an ancient Atlantis in our own backyard  by name Poompuhar which I was unaware of till I visited it on a December  afternoon  some years ago. Yup,  I am dusting out  another travel tale from my past with an alert that this is a history post. But,  I would appreciate  if you read this till the end.

300 kms south of Chennai in Nagapattinam district is Poom puhar a major  port city which is said to have played a significant role in the maritime history of India. This city was swallowed by a 400 feet tidal wave some 2000 years ago. Now an extension of this city still exists in the form a sleepy fishing village.

This is also the place where the  River Kaveri which originated in Talacauvery travels 700 kms and  joins  the bay and hence the name puhar meaning estuary in tamil. ( also called Kaveri puhum pattinam)

This fishing village was once the  capital city of the famous Chola kings. It was rich in maritime trade and the kingdom had trade with Romans and Greeks.  This ancient port is recognized in the travelogues of  Greek Geographer Ptolemy, Pliny and in Buddha jataka tales.

Apart from the above, many historical literature  are  replete with mention of this city. Some of them are pali literature, temple inscriptions, tamil epics Cilapadikaram.  All these texts describe that this kingdom was once rich in international trade and the kingdom had trade with Romans, Greeks ,China and Thailand. It had huge fleet of ships.

The chola kings like Karikala cholan, Manuneethi chola   ruled the city with pride and embellished it in various ways. It was supposed to have been a well planned city , peace reigned, art and culture flourished . The planned city was divided into two well marked divisions where on one side lived the working class like the artisans, merchants, gold smiths, diamond cutters etc., and the other side live the nobles, elite citizens, rich traders and physicians. Besides they had separate quarters for foreigners with whom they had trade associations.

The city  has had well laid out gradens. It had two markets one the day market and the other the night bazaar. It had temples for Lord Shiva, Indra, Sun, Moon, Vishnu besides the Buddha stupas and Buddha vihars. The three religions practiced were Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. There were ring wells on the fringes of the city  (which are now found by the archaeologists.) and cool, shady trees were lined all along the river banks.

Most of them speak of a great festival called ‘Indra Vizha’ devoted to Lord Indra. Pongal is also said to have originated in this age and place.  The text of Cilapadikaram speaks of high level of technology and planning practiced here. Sewage ran underground and new irrigation techniques were used by King Karikalachola. In his time was designed the world’s ancient dam which is still a standing testimony at Trichy. The epic also states that the houses and halls of Poompuhar were built with precious stones and that the merchants were prosperous. Luxury and grandness abounded  and art and crafts were at its peak. Traders from all over the world like Roma, Thailand, China and Greece found it such a gracious place that a whole neighbourhood of them lived there permanently.( archaeologists have found greek and roman coins here).

Based on extensive research done by Graham Hancock, A edinburgh born marine archaeologist , Poompuhar could even predate the Sumeria in Mesopotamia which is where civilization is believed to have originated 5000 years ago. According to him,The Poompuhar site was swallowed by the sea 11,000 years ago. He has found some fascinating evidence during an underwater exploration in the area in 2001 which shows that a 400 feet tidal wave at the end of the last ice age swallowed the city. Ancient tamil flood myths also speak of a great kingdom called Kumari kandam. 

Prior to Hancock’s findings, even the national institute of Oceanography, Goa has also conducted archaeological investigations. The divers have found horse shoe shaped objects, ring wells along with megalithic black and red wares, brick work structures and many more antiques dating more than 7000 years ago. – all suggesting that an ancient city of Poompuhar must have been submerged in the sea. Unfortunately due to lack of funds the research investigations were abandoned by NIO and moreover the 2004 Tsunami is said to have worsened the situation by adding sediments over the ruins which are under the water.

Further research by another geologist Glen Milne from UK has confirmed  Hancock’s views and this research threw up evidences that the submerged poompuhar was far superior than Harappan sites.

         It could well be the birth place of modern civilization say some archaeologists.

 When my elders in  Neyveli ( a place close to Poompuhar) told me about this place and we drove out of Neyveli after visiting many nearby places like picchavaram,Gangai Konda cholapuram  I expected to see the remnants of a submerged city which was once the Chola empire.   I thought walking over the city, running my fingers over the ruins and caressing the piece of history  which once was a chola empire would make me giddy headed, but  I found a sleepy fishing village with some catamarans gearing for their fishing journey. There were lot of small shops selling tender coconuts and goli soda and fanta(the locals call it color) and knick knack shops selling wares of sea shells.  There was nothing which was left there which could give me a peek into the past and speak about ancient history.  If only the ocean waves that gobbled up the city could confess …..

Of course, the  TN Governement has  tried its best to create an art gallery featuring the murals depicting the Cilappdiakaram story, the story which describes Poompuhar.  The whole area is set in a well maintained garden with designed gazebos and statues. I expected some antiques , pieces of ruins, excavations  or some tattered sails of the naval fleet but what was displayed were beautiful POP murals from the epic. 

There are some shell shaped guest house run by tamilnadu tourism which I found were not well maintained and spoilt with graffiti and dirtied  by some tourists or locals.  Such a rich piece of land which could speak enormous volumes of history is abandoned. While many countries with 200 years of history market every stone ,ruin, relic, land and exhibit it with pride , I thought I too should shout the news about the 2000 year old history  in my blog.

 Expect for the museum and shell shaped guest houses, the rest of Poompuhar is a lazy fishing village. Yes, yes  just that, a small nondescript fishing village on the east coast of Tamilnadu with fishing nets, beach sand, crabs ,shells and rocky shores(like pondicherry). 

And, of course Like the Karnataka handicrafts naming it after River Cauvery, Even Tamilnadu handircrafts  has honored this place by naming its handicraft emporium after it  and so you will find a Poompuhar, a  TN government run handicraft store in major cities. ‘Poompuhar’ meaning beautiful estuary.

Wish the  concerned people took measures to promote this place and showcase it to the world. I’ve heard there is a replica of the mythical Atlantis  created in the sea world of Dubai. Perhaps we could recreate a Poompuhar and exhibit it to the world along with history brochures for travellers visiting this place. Perhaps then people like me would know there is an Atlantis in our own backyard and pick these souvenirs to know about our heritage and history rather than pick the beach shells and go there to drink 'color' or goli soda. 

 Many such thoughts cross my mind  and i feel proud to have travelled in the same route where the traders of the past and many historical kings must have walked down. It indeed gives me a heady  feeling for a moment to know I have walked over an extended piece of ancient history and an ancient part of my culture lie beneath me.

               Location: Poompuhar is 300 kms south of Chennai in Tamilnadu's Nagapattinam district                

  

 11000 year old man made structure found under the sea bed of Poompuhar

The calm beach now which  once swallowed the chola port 

  The seven tiered silapdikara (tamil epic) art gallery featuring murals from the epic.  

A few more attractions depicting the chola age in the gardens around the Poompuhar beach.        

Image courtesy: Google