New Civilization News: Mariamman    
 Mariamman7 comments
picture9 Jan 2005 @ 19:40, by John Ashbaugh

There is this place where I lived for two years in India, on the northeast coast, just outside the town of Cuddalore on the north side in a rural setting overlooking the wide sandy beach. Fishing villages nestled amongst the coconut palms where the rich green vegetation extended into the countryside. I read now that the current population of Cuddalore is about 160,000, and I remember that it was around 100,000 when I lived there thirty years ago. A wide shallow river traverses the city and empties into the ocean. Huge ocean going freighters cast anchor a couple of miles out. You will see one or two out there for a few or several days every month while little cargo boats shuttle back and forth from this shallow water port to load ore mined from the hinterland. Smaller towns and villages extend in every direction from this ancient Hindu seaport. There is a beautiful ritual that several of the temples in this area go through. The resident goddess, and Mariamman is popular around here, the protectoress of those who live by the sea, is taken from her place in the temple and placed on a huge wooden cart, and rolled through the streets of the city through the night to the long road which leads to the beach to the north of town. Arrival is at dawn with throngs of her followers, and she is taken from the cart and bathed in the waves. The children that I knew would now have their own children. Those of my own generation would now have their own grandchildren. There is a piece of my heart over there as I remember the faces of those whom I knew.
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7 comments

9 Jan 2005 @ 19:59 by gea : Thanks...
...for the link about Tantra. :-)  


9 Jan 2005 @ 20:27 by jstarrs : Thanks, John..
...mother India, earths spiritual mother.
I spent some time in Puri, below Calcutta.
I couldn't figure out where from the map you have.
I'm hoping to go see my teacher in S. India, later this year.
In the meantime, I buy/use sandelwood soap which reminds me of the amazing perfumes in everyday life there.  



9 Jan 2005 @ 23:45 by astrid : A Man can....
leave India /Africa/ but India/Africa/ will never leave the Man! I know that sort of Love myself.(Africa)  


10 Jan 2005 @ 21:58 by koravya : Sandlewood memory
The map is of South Arcot District in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and represents only about a forty mile stretch of coastline. Immediately south is the Nagipattinam District, and these two districts were the hardest hit in this area. Madras, the major city about a hundred miles to the north also took some heavy waves. Devanampattinam was the name of the area I lived in, and I can visualize this as a place that I knew well. I bicycled back and forth on the old beach road between the maidown, [large empty field of a town square with the District Collector’s Office on one side and the large catholic church on another side and our supermarket on another side and the main road going along the other side], and the last standing building with its enclosed courtyard and stables from old Fort St. David. I had the remarkable good fortune to meet and make friends with the Lutheran church people who owned this property. They had used it in years past as a school, but it was now standing empty, and under the care of the resident watchman, Arjun, and his two younger brothers, one a child, the other an adolescent, and their lean and wiry and tough-as-nails old father. They lived in their own hut across the narrow road and the church paid them forty rupees a month to watch over and take of the old fort. Arjun was a fisherman who worked the backwaters that came and went with the tides in the low grounds between the higher ground of the Fort and the not too distant riverbed. During the time that I was there, Arjun married Rajamba, who came from a village twenty miles inland, and they had a little girl whom they named Indira Ghandi. The brothers had a sister about twelve years old and she spent much of her day’s time watching over someone else’s herd of about a dozen cows.
I remember when the monsoons came how the swollen river could rise and flood some parts of town and how the shape of the beach and the mouth of the river could change and how the fort could become almost surrounded by waters accumulating in the lower fields. The hill wasn’t all that much higher than the surrounding terrain, just enough to have a sense of overview.
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http://www.wfga.net/news.asp?id=8165
DEVANAMPATTINAM: Clad in a red nylon sari, hair dishelved, 43-year-old Vasuki walked though the deserted sands of this village in Cuddalore district wedged between the sea and the backwaters.

She talked and talked as she scrambled through the devastation searching for clothes, food-grain, money inside empty house.

"Nothing is left behind. The sea has taken away everything. Some lost three children, some five. Iyo-iyo ," cried Vasuki, her own husband and five children lying in Cuddalore General Hospital with injuries. "Tell me is it possible for a woman to drag a man out of water. What difficulty I had in dragging my husband out. On one hand he and on the other my children. Finally the police came and helped me," said Vasuki, lifting her sari to show the blood-stained bandaged ankles.

"You know the huge wave came. In one second washed away everything. It did not even give us the time to spit. It did not give us the time to blink. It came with the roar of an aeroplane. Waves kept lashing 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock. Only this morning there is some peace. I have lived here since I was born. There was a massive cyclone when I was 20. But nothing like this. There is nothing left to talk about. This should never happen to anyone," Vasukhi said recounting the Sunday's fury.

Vasukhi is saying what the empty village is speaking silently. While the cement houses survived the onslaught, the thatched huts did not stand a chance. They have been reduced to mounds of debris, entwined in huge fishing nets and fallen wires of uprooted electrical posts.

Devanampattinam is one of the worst hit fishing village in Cuddalore district, where bodies are still being retrieved on Monday. Earthmovers and snorkels were deployed to rummage through the debris to sea if any bodies were trapped. In many places the sea has washed away chunks of sand where now broken houses lay with pots-pans, television sets, gas cylinders strewn around.

The water has created new islands and boats have been deployed to retrieve bodies. Cars were seen half sunk in the wet sand as the water had come two kilometres into the land. VIPs – union ministers Dayanidhi Maran and Mani Shankar Aiyar and later the former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP president L.K. Advani came to witness the devastation.

Amidst the devastation stood the EID Parry's guesthouse – Fort St. David. "I saw my wife come running. I did not know what was wrong. Then suddenly I turned towards the sea. And, there it was – half the size of a casurina tree, coming towards the land and people running. But people were not faster. You should have seen the waves. So black, that it looked as though it was bringing with it the churned dirt of the seabed," said the guesthouse caretaker V. Anandan.

His wife Bhagyalakshmi never left the guesthouse to go back to their home across the street. "I was going to call my boy. And suddenly I saw the huge wave. I could not believe my eyes. I even tried to open my eyes wide," she said spreading her eyelids with the help of her forefinger and thumb.

Cuddalore (kadal – sea & yoor – town/village) on Monday is estimated to record the death toll to be beyond 500. As rains came down the coast, people also began coming to the village in search of their relatives. And, those who came stood in front of empty or locked or capsized houses and cried. Some families have been completely wiped off.
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In puraana this district is described as part of Sri. Rama Khetra. This district is a primitive one. Vridhachalam is an example where mountain once prevailed disappeared at times. Historic evidence available from madras district gazetteers south arcot published in 1962 reveals that the name ‘Arcot’ derived from Tamil ‘Aaru kadu’ i.e. six forests which was said to be the abode of six rishis. This district in Tamil called ‘Thondai Nadu’ and in particular ‘Nadu Naadu ’. It has a speciality ‘ Saandror udaithu’ i.e great and elite personalities possession of the district.
To prove it saivaite pathmakers Thirunaukkarasu, Sundarar born in this district. Maikaudar one of the sithas out of eighteen born in this district. This district is proud of possessing as birth place of Vallalar Ramalingar.
Ovvaiyar, the Tamil poetess gave in marriage angavai, sangavai, the daughters of pari the vallal in Tirukoilur to the king Deiviekan.
The famous typical and universal logic temple of Sri Natarajan is situated in this district. It is an interesting subject to scientists and innovators to research on the dancing postage of Lord Sri. Nataraja.
http://cuddalore.nic.in/history.htm
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Fort Saint David
British stronghold near the town of Cuddalore, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Madras on the southeastern coast of India. The fort was sold by the Marathas to the English East India Company in 1690. It was named for the patron saint of Wales because the governor of Madras at the time, Elihu Yale, was Welsh. It was purchased because of increasing political instability in southern India, … http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9064829
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CUDDALORE, a town of British India, in the South Arcot district of Madras, on the coast 125 m. S. of Madras by rail. Pop. (1901) 52,216, showing an increase of 10% in the decade. It lies low, but is regarded as exceptionally healthy, and serves as a kind of sanatorium for the surrounding district. The principal exports are sugar, oil-seeds and indigo. There are two colleges and two high schools. In the neighborhood are the ruins of Fort St David situated on the river Gadilam, which has as stirring a history ~ny spot in the Presidency. As a small fort built by a Hindu merchant it fell into the hands of the Mahrattas after the capture of Gingi by Sivaji ~fl 1677. From them it was purchased by the English in 1690, the purchase including not only the fort but the adjacent towns and villages within ye randome shott of a piece of ordnance. A great gun was fired to different points of the compass and all the country within its range, including the town of Cuddalore, passed into the possession of the English. The villages thus obtained are still spoken of as cannOn ball villages. From 1725 onwards the fortifications were greatly strengthened. In 1746 Fort St Dayid became the British headquarters for the south of India, and Dupleix attack was successfully repulsed. Clive was appointed its governor in 1756; in 1758 the French captured it, but abandoned it two years later to Sir Lyre Coote. in 1782 they again took it and restored it sufficiently to withstand a British attack in 1783. In 1785 it finally passed into British possession. http://90.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CU/CUDDALORE.htm
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Whether these old mythic images of floods and earthquakes come to mind for Hindus who have lost their loved ones in the South-Eastern coast of India, in the states of Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, it is hard to say. What is clear is that in the wake of the devastation that has left thousands dead and missing, people are praying that they can find the remains of friends and family so that they can be cremated properly, even if the wherewithal for the correct rituals is hard to come by.

The two most ravaged port cities, besides the capital of the state of Tamilnadu, Chennai (Madras), are Nagapattinam and Cuddalore. Both cities are inhabited largely by speakers of the Tamil language. In Nagapattinam, the hardest-hit district on the mainland (with over 6,000 dead) half are Hindus, a third are Muslims and the rest are Christians.
Nagapattinam is a city more than 2,000 years old, famous for the remains of a very important Buddhist monastery (3rd century B.C.) and a Shiva temple. The port city was settled further by the Portuguese in the 16th century and the Dutch during the 17th century. These historic sites have been all affected. Nagapattinam's fishing industry is also a victim: not only have fishermen perished but many trawlers have been lost. Hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless.
Pilgrims killed while attending mass
In the nearby church of Vailankanni (Virgin Mary) several hundred pilgrims were killed as waves crashed on the beach, when more than 2,000 were attending mass. The church dates back to the 17th century. A Portuguese merchant ship sailing from Macao to Colombo was adrift in the Bay of Bengal was said to be miraculously saved by Mary the "Star of the Sea," and a shrine was dedicated to her. Now it is one of the largest Christian pilgrimages in India.
Cuddalore is another ancient sea port, site of one of the first settlements of the English East India Co., Fort. St. David. Here the Portuguese, French and the British vied for power. The fort has somehow escaped major damage. Coastal settlements in Nagercoil and Kanyakumari, where pilgrims have flocked for centuries, have also suffered terribly
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http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/tsunami/sen_article.lasso
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14 Jan 2005 @ 05:32 by astrid : Yup. that's it!...
India never leaves the man!... : ) ....I just wish India's History wouldn't have to be so tied into the Acts of Planet's most warring Nation, by far; England. England alone is ACCOUNTABLE for more devastation to other Nations than the rest of the opressing Countries combined.... Among others, England CREATED the Middle East shit, that is till going on MOSTLY thanks to the secret workings of England ( read the so called Royal Houses (*/*?)... of England!....) I always wonder how India could have evolved had it been left alone, to evolve the way India wanted, not England!....The same about the "Middle East", Queen Victoria's "masterpiece " of opression and destruction!... and from there on it has never stopped! Yet, how many people know about this very fact????.... Not many!... History books in our schools don't tell you this.Do they?...  


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6 Dec 2016 @ 15:05 by Agen Judi Bola @192.241.204.127 : Thnkx
Oh my goodness! an amazing article dude. Thank you However I am experiencing issue with ur rss . Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting identical rss problem? Anyone who knows kindly respond. Thnkx  


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