arunachala siva greening, environment, Arunachala, Siva, social ecology, ecology, reforestation, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, Forest, indigenous restoration, ecological restoration, Apeetha Arunagiri

In the centre image above you see me walking on the inner path around the mountain one very hot summer day. The image which I seem to be looking at is proturberance known as The Maya; (Maya is one of the names of Shakthi, the mother of all.) Above this you see it peeping up from across the other side of the mountain, across the site of the Arunachala Katthu Siva Plantation with which I am involved. (From this side of the mountain The Maya is a perfect little inverted vulva; it even has a clitoris, a bush, sticking up.) On the top right you see the luscious post-monsoon spread of the mountain where the peak appears like two mountains standing together, the almost top and the very top, here visible in the contour. The long image below is of the mountain dedicated to the goddess: Parvarthimalai, which stands on the rim of the plain radiating out for thirty kilometers from the natural lingam Arunagiri. This plain designates the Maha Mangalam.

We didn't have cameras in the old days, but here are some of the first images taken of my daughter Devi. In the centre we are with Sujatha, and on the right Devi is dancing in the old courtyard of the temple in Adianamalai - before it was desecrated by progress, with the Maya behind.

It is believed that an invisible column of divine light - the manifestation of the Absolute Supreme being - penetrates the plain surrounding the sacred mountain Arunachala in Tamil Nadu, South India. Fondly known as The Holy Hillock, this mountain itself is an icon placed - they say - by Lord Siva to remind us of the whereabouts of this Maha Mangalam: this great auspiciousness. Arunagiri is one of the names of this mountain - it denotes the masculine aspect in the unity of male and female. Apeetha is a shortened form of Ahbithakuchalambal - the name of the goddess, the complement of Arunagiri. An honour indeed it is to bear the name Apeetha Arunagiri. So: welcome to my sticky little website.

Around this time we began acting out the seasonal cycles with a mob of kids playing Sun, Moon, Seed and so on, in our own back yard; naively calling for trees we were. Although we had squeaked through dry seasons with a plentiful artesian basin until about 1987, the writing was on the wall by then: I'd grown up in the country and hence could read it. Michael Leyward from England helped us form a troupe of puppeteers to draw attention to our barren hill. By this time Thiruvannamalai was District Headquarters; the population was plummeting upwards while at the same time environmental mismanagement was increasing dramatically. The Heroine of the big puppet show was The Spirit of the Future with Trees: a giant puppet. Unfortunately no photograph of The Spirit of the Future without Trees has survived: he was the Villian - the favourite character; the audience had to get rid of him. We performed in schools and villages around the hill. Very raggedy and unsophisticated it all was, with moments vastly transcending anything otherwise.

With the help of Sekamani - my right hand woman and Devi's third mother - we began a small nursery. After about five years with the assistance of John Seed of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia, we established the Arunachala Afforestation Group. Eventually we became a registered NGO called the Annamalai Reforestation Society employing local persons. The nursery began on our roof, then extended to a plot of Ramana's ashram land nearby with more helpers. After that it migrated into the Big Temple in town which was the very best place for a nursery.

Below you see the stone fortresses on the hill, some of us practising for our street theatre, The huge mask for the puppet called the Spirit of the Future with Trees, Sekamani and I with our daughters in the Big Temple nursery, and that nursery a few years later at the peak of that project's influence and capacity.

My own livlihood came from art work sent to galleries in Australia. Water colour on paper and inks on silk were both used. With admiration I acknowledge the immaculate contribution of Tailor Murugan, who you see below at one of our Sarasvati Pujas when we give thanks for the creativity that produced the lovely silk banners which we produced together.

Soft Sculptures joined the production; they emerged after Devi and I had travelled to Australia to have our Hindu Adoption recognised by my native place. These puppets grew and changed over the years and became a rich domain of interaction with the local community because as they evolved there were more and more aspects of their creation which required skills other than my own. A number of young women helped me with hand-stitching; Mo became my right hand woman in this and Saroja became a master at preparing the different seed pods used in the soft sculpture work. There was also the treasure of the little bits and pieces found in the many shops in the bazaar.

My home has always been full of beautiful things especially in India because the vitality of the culture is so inspiring; hence here lies my polis - my place in the world community. It seems that meaning in life compels us towards creative expression - how else to acknowledge gratitude and admiration for this awesome world? The products themselves - the paintings, books, puppets or soft sculptures - are just the tip of the iceberg of beauty because the most exquisite, the most dynamic, vital, wholesome, magnanimous and humourous aspects of the creative process lie in the community, within all our hearts. My daughter's entrance into my world served more than any other aspect of life to enable me to contribute to the local community meaningfully. An image can substantiate this, so here below you see her riding up the main street of town on the temple elephant as she frequently did in those days.

Grow well.

Vannakam!

Those good old days were uncomfortable in many respects, yes. In temperatures from which I cringe, we had no fan for fifteen years, no fridge for twenty-seven; we did not need them. The prosperous foreigners these days who sojourn by Arunachala in western comfort are missing out on the priceless experience of austerity.

The two images below convey something of the history of the ecology of this area: On the left is the earliest photo I have of the KaruVediyappan shrine opposite Gautama Ashram - the shrine for the wild Forest God probably taken around 1998. On the right is the same shrine tarted up with concrete in 2005.

Above - from top to bottom, left to right, you see Sundaram the sewing machine expert, the Master Jigsaw cutter, then Mo - my right hand sewing woman, and the jewellers who make all the little brass arrows and tridents, then the recycle mechanic: the ingenius man who makes things out of other things over in the poor end of town, myself at my work bench, Saroja with beautiful seed pods, some of the pilgrim shops near the temple entrance where treasures can be found; the Frog Prince on the left and an untitled water colour on the right.