06-05-2024
The next leg of our tour, took us to Pondicherry, a coastal town on India's east coast, with a French history. In that, it really differs from other cities in India, which also leads many Indians to visit it during their holidays.
We spent a couple of days walking around there and there are lots of temples in Pondicherry too. Bigger ones and smaller ones. But the atmosphere in this city is so different from what we have experienced so far and, to be honest, most temples are a bit similar anyway, so we focused on other things here.
White Town
Soon we noticed even more anomalous things about the street scene. Many holidaymaking men walk around in shorts. We haven't seen many of them, so far. And there are quite a few "nightclubs" in Pondicherry, where alcohol is also served. And walking around White Town, originally a French colonial part of town, we could imagine ourselves in southern Europe. The streets are relatively clean, and the traffic is not as heavy as elsewhere in the city. The street names are in French and many buildings also still have French-language text on their facades. Modern restaurants capitalise on this with French names and many of them also offer European/French-style meals. However, I doubt that many Indians still speak French.
Our hotel is in the heart of the city, just a 10-minute walk from the beach. So the first thing we did upon arrival was walk to the sea. And then there you are, standing with your feet in the Bay of Bengal. We wouldn't have thought of that a year ago. By the way, the entire beach is full of people, just walking into the sea in their everyday outfits. Ladies in sarees, gentlemen in long trousers, it all doesn't matter, Everyone is enjoying the water and the waves.
White Town is also full of statues. Apart from one of Gandhi and of Nehru, mostly statues are related to French history. The former governor and Joan of Arc, for example. This part of the city is also remarkably green, with parks and relatively many trees along the roads. The police officers walking around could have come straight out of a Louis de Funès film, with their distinctive red caps.
Mangroves en Arikamedu
Pondicherry is not a huge city, with a population of only about 350,000 in the city itself. But it is a city with a rich history. For instance, the Dutch also spent some time there after the city was conquered from the French. After six years, the city was returned to the French in 1699. But much earlier there was a port nearby: Arikamedu, located on the Ariyankuppam River, in the mangroves just south of the city. Probably already a trading place in Roman times, given the amount of Roman shards found there. But there are claims that is was already founded by the ancient Greeks. As early as about 100 years BC.
With our love for ancient buildings and ruins, we took a boat trip through the mangrove forests, heading for Arikamedu. Our boat departed from an "Arts and Crafts" village. There, artisans were busy making their wares, and the finished products were for sale in small shops around a courtyard. We walked through a sculpture garden to the boat. The temperature was nice, and with palm trees swaying in the wind, it was a true paradise. We had to wait a while for our departure, but soon a family arrived who also wanted to get on the boat and we set off. Across the river, we picked up another boater, and then we headed into mangroves. It was low tide, so the waterways were not very wide and we passed quite a few other boats with tourists and day-trippers, wanting to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
We also got to tour the fishing port. The fishing boats were all chained up, as it was spawning time and the young fish need time to grow before being caught. Then we went to Arikamedu, or what is left of it. The whole archaeological survey area was a few square kilometres in size, but close to the river there are still a few arches, walls and pillars. There were also remnants of an ancient rampart surrounding the buildings, and beyond that, there were large fragments of walls. With the climate here, it's hard to make out how old it really is. So whether this was really a Roman structure, as our skipper claimed, we'll never know for sure.
To learn a bit more about the archeological finds, we went to the Puducherry Museum in the afternoon. Here were all sorts of things collected from the French colonial era, which, incidentally, did not end until 1954 when the French gave Pondicherry to India. And beyond that, there was a whole room full of display cases with potsherds of all kinds of amphorae, which were used to transport different products from the Mediterranean to here. So you had amphorae for olive oil, others for wine, etc. The Romans then fetched fabrics, precious stones and beads here. The Indians already had a lively industry of coloured glass beads around the year zero. The museum was not very big, but interesting enough for a visit.
Auroville
Our last day in Pondy, as the town is also affectionately called, we decided to visit Auroville, City of Dawn. This is an idealistic community, founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfasa (The Mother), and is a home to some 3,000 people from around the world (about half from India). The principles of this small autonomous community come from Sri Aurobindo, who described that everything alive is a part of a whole. As human beings, we should therefore strive for harmony with everything and everyone living and moving around us. As human beings, we also continue to learn and evolve. The spiritual must be intertwined with everyday practices. Religion is renounced because it is too static.
The Mother, who shared his thoughts and actually arranged all practical matters, founded Auroville in Aurobindo's spirit. A place where everything belongs to everyone, with a separate legal status which is even enshrined in two laws. Although the Sri Aurobindo Foundation officially owns it, the state of India bears legal responsibility.
Auroville is like a large estate, with a gigantic Banyan tree at its centre, but also an amphitheatre and the Matrimandir, a place of energy and contemplation. The Banyan tree is very old. All the other vegetation has been planted since the foundation of Auroville. The British and French had cut down the original forest and left the area largely bare. They exported the wood from the Indian forests to Europe, or used it to construct the colonial buildings.
Auroville belongs to all people, and is a place for all people, no matter where you come from or what your background is. And although autonomous, the community works to closely together with people from the surrounding villages and Pondicherry. It's not as if the rest of the world is being rejected. The whole idea of Auroville does align with our ecological hearts and inner hippies.
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