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Water and sewerage
My article on the introduction of sewerage in Madras (MM, April 1st) contained a brief reference to Florence Nightingale. Readers may be curious to know what role she played.
Although she never visited India, she had a good idea of the situation through friends who had been to India. While Calcutta and Mumbai had got sewerage in the late 1860s, Madras did not. She was therefore keen that Madras too should get it.
When Ellis, the Chief Sanitary Commissioner of Madras, was on a visit to London, she took him round and familiarised him with its drainage system. In 1864, she got a Capt. Tulloch sent to Madras to prepare a sewerage plan for the city. The objections of Ellis to Tulloch’s plan have been detailed in the article. Unfortunately, Ellis died in 1877. But (according to Sriram V.), Florence Nightingale lobbied hard with letters to successive Governors of Madras and even to the British Prime Minister. It was only in 1881 that the then Viceroy, Lord Ripon, finally responded to her pleas and ordered that work on sewerage in Madras should start. Thus, the work was completed only two decades later!
It was mentioned in the article that Capt. Tulloch had the foresight that sewage should not be put into the city’s waterways. Nightingale had the foresight to say that rainwater and sewage should never be mixed. Sadly, both are still happening. Many citizens have in recent times realised the value of harvesting rainwater to provide them greater water security and, hopefully, the coming days will see widespread practice of harvesting not only of terrace rainwater but also that falling on the open spaces around their buildings which will give them even more water security and reduced dependence on piped water.
Indukanth S. Ragade
isragade@yahoo.com
The Sullivan trail
2015 marks three decades of my following the trail of John Sullivan, the founder of modern Nilgiris.
In June 1985, I set out on the trail after placing a bunch of flowers on the grave of Mrs. Sullivan and his daughter who are buried in St. Stephen’s Church, Ooty. It was followed by a series of articles in various dailies and journals.
In 1991, we started a campaign to convert the ruins of Sullivan’s first house in Kannerimukku village, Kotagiri, as a memorial. I petitioned the state and the district administration several times. Exhibitions were oraganised in Chennai and Ooty to build support.
In 2002, as part of the International Year of the Mountains, I led a group of trekkers on the same path that Sullivan took to reach the Nilgiris in 1819. The ‘Discovery of Ooty March’ took three days. That same year, Sullivan’s Kannerimukku house was rebuilt as a heritage building.
In 2004 to mark the 150th death anniversary of Sullivan, we had a public procession and a meeting in Ooty followed by a photo exhibition at the British Council, Chennai.
In 2006 we took over the maintenance of the Kannerimukku bungalow and moved the Nilgiri Documentation Centre and the Nilgiri History Museum into it.
In June 2009, after a search lasting over a decade and aided by the internet, I located the grave of Sullivan at St. Laurence Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey in the UK and went there in July to pay our respects on behalf of the people of Nilgiris.
The Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) and the Nilgiri History Museum (NHM) have functioned as a fitting tribute to John Sullivan from 2006 to 2015 educating visitors from all over India and abroad.
In March this year, we handed over the Sullivan Memorial to the district administration to continue its journey in a new avatar, but the NDC and the NHM continue in other premises.
Dharmalingam Venugopal
Nilgiri Documentation Centre
Kotagiri
Citizens’ green landmarks
Further to Dr. A. Raman’s review of Living Landmarks of Chennai (MM, June 1st) I wish to offer two observations.
The Banyan tree at Theosophical the Society
On his second tour of Australia, H.S. Olcott, founder-President of the Theosophical Society (TS), travelled via the Dutch East Indies, staying at the Hotel des Indies in Batavia (Djakarlanow). There, he saw a “monster banyan tree”, one of the largest he had ever seen. This impression that he gave in his Old Diary Leaves made me verify if he had ever seen the Banyan tree in Adyar.
The founders of the TS acquired 28 acres called Huddleston Garden and moved in on December 19, 1882.When Annie Besant took charge as President soon after H.S. Olcott passed away in 1907, she acquired several adjacent properties to increase the holding of the TS to 263 acres and named them as Blavatsky Gardens, Olcott Gardens, Besant Gardens, Besant Grove, Alsace Grove and Damodar Gardens. The great Banyan tree was discovered only after some time, i.e. after Blavatsky Gardens was bought, as it was hidden in the deep jungle. Obviously neither Olcott nor Blavatsky was aware of the great banyan tree that became a part of the TS one day in the future.
Anne Besant gave her lectures titled ‘In the twilight’ in 1909. It is said that 3000 people congregated beneath the Banyan tree. It was here that she was honoured by Baden Powell who awarded her the ‘Silver Wolf’, the highest Scout honour. She even performed the wedding of the Principal of the Besant Theosophical College beneath the Banyan tree.
Annie Besant died in September 1933 and shortly afterwards G.S. Arundale started the Besant Memorial School at Besant Gardens and Damodar Gardens. The prayer hall itself was built below a cluster of mango trees, with Cudappa slabs laid for students to sit on, cross-legged, and the teachers had cement-slabbed seating facing the students. Half the classes were held below the mango trees of Damodar Gardens.
The Diamond Jubilee Convention of the TS was conducted in 1935 by Arundale at the Banyan tree! Similarly, the inauguration of the Maria Montessori training course also took place beneath the beautiful tree on a calm December morning in 1940. Rukmini Devi went one step further by planting a Banyan sapling obtained from the TS tree in the 1950s at Kalakshetra and this is now a huge tree, with a prayer hall beneath it.
The Bo tree
I was sorry to learn that the Bo tree (Peepal, Tamil: Arasu, Ficus religiosa) has been missed out in Living Landmarks of Chennai. It has aesthetic value. Here is a write-up I did some time back to promote its leaf – greeting cards were made out of its leaf.
Emperor Ashoka took a cutting of the Sacred Bo tree under which Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment. He planted the sapling in a golden vessel and sent it through his daughter Sanghamitra to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, where it still remains. Worship at this Bo tree has continued unbroken for 2300 years. In fact, this is the earliest historically documented tree and revered by over half the world’s population.
The tree is also sacred to the Hindus and Sikhs. It is looked upon as an incarnation of Vishnu. The tree is also associated with the trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara. It is considered a dwelling place for these three Gods.
The tree is associated with most Shiva temples in South India.
An aqueous extract of the bark shows antibacterial activity. The tree has high medicinal value.
The decorated Peepal leaf featured here is considered a good luck charm. It is often used as a greeting ‘card’.
K.V.S. Krishna
kvskrishna@gmail.com
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