At the foothills of Thiruvannamalai’s circumambulation trail, is a small village called Aadaiyur. Four years ago, a ninety-four-year-old man named Dhanapalan passed away in this village. He was the panchayat council’s President for a few years. He had three sons and three daughters and his funeral procession was attended by many people who had come from different towns and villages. Most of them were folks who had no blood ties with him. We wondered why this man received this kind of a tribute and that is when we happened to know his story. Dhanapal served as panchayat council President during the reign of K Kamarajar. He was deeply committed to Gandhi and had a strong love for Kamarajar, always fulfilling his words without denying them in any way. Dhanapal owned about sixty acres of land in two villages. But by the time he died, not even a small piece of land belonged to him. About forty years ago, during his tenure as the panchayat council Chairman, he continuously set up small ponds and eight wells in the area.
Each of these eight wells, in some way, have a unique backstory. The Kavuthi-Vediyappan hills located next to Tiruvannamalai has a water spring that is believed to have medicinal properties and is revered by the villagers. When Jindal company came to destroy the hills and extract iron ore and minerals, it was the very spring and the people’s belief in its healing qualities that saved it from the corporate company! The spring and people’s belief in it became an impetus for a great struggle to protect the mountain. People of Aadaiyur have similar reverence for the eight wells dug by Dhanapal. Despite famines and severe droughts, these wells have remained a source of water for them. Dhanapal had set up three wells in the adi dravidian areas and the remaining five in the areas inhabited by people belonging to different communities. At present, four of those wells are in derelict conditions.
The remaining wells built by activist Dhanapalan, who passed away at the age of 94, are now holding on to their final days, awaiting their end. The wells that once bloomed as a symbol of sacrifice and hard work, fell into ruins due to carelessness and the passage of time. We’ve now taken up the great task of reviving the remaining wells, to be used by the people once again. During panchayat meetings, justice and truth is preserved by swearing on the water taken from those wells. Wells that never cease even during times of famine are equivalent to a thousand charity halls. In a way, every town has its own stories and people and memories about water. Along with a group of friends we’ve begun a movement to revive and restore such public wells in villages and also document their construction techniques and folklores. This is our public well revival movement.
In today’s environment, as a first step, we are restoring the village wells in Tiruvannamalai and Krishnagiri districts, rehabilitating the dilapidated wells and making them available for public use again. We began this service by bowing down to the sacrifice made by martyrs like Swami Nigamananda of the Matri Sadan organisation, who gave up his life on the 115th day of his fasting, protesting against the government and the companies that were polluting the river Ganga. This initiative was launched via webcast by Caron Rawnsley who is restoring Rajasthan’s water resources and reconstructing their ruins. After dredging and restoring two wells in Puliyanoor village and handing them over to the public, we dredged and renovated the public well of Aadaiyur village in Tiruvannamalai district. Subsequent village wells have been identified and work is in progress.
So let us know if you have any information or contacts relating to village wells, stories, construction techniques, hidden histories and water humans. We are further documenting the studies done on them along with friends from relevant fields. The overall development of these research projects has been made possible by means of our collaboration with Kaushik and friends from Akarma. Japan has an ancient superstition. When a person is very sick and on their deathbed fighting for life, the people from his house would bend down to the depths of the well’s cool waters and call out their name and say, ‘May he get well.’ It is believed that the prayer can help them fight and come back to life. The reason is that the words whispered into the well reaches God. It is an ancient belief of the people that wells are the ears of God.
The wells hold the faces of our ancestors who drew waters from its depths, safe in its springs. Water is our ancient treasure, capable of curing any disease. When the sleeping toads move away from the spring’s central point, water gushes forth and fills up the earth. We want every village to witness this glory. People who have sworn on water understand that it is water that knows all of our truths very well!
Click here to have a look the revived wells
Doshi We Know Fellowship
‘If the flowers are growing in the garden and if they were worried, all the flowers would have wrinkles. If you can’t relish what you are doing, you will not create something unknown to you, that is the difference. I don’t want to get tired or bored.’
~ B.V.Doshi ( Excerpt from Cuckoo Conversation )
Balkrishna Doshi (1927-2023) was born in Pune, India into a family involved in the furniture industry for two generations. Displaying an aptitude for art and an understanding of proportion at a young age, he was exposed to architecture by a school teacher. He began his architecture studies in 1947, the year India gained independence, at the Sir J.J. School of Architecture Bombay (Mumbai), the oldest and one of the foremost institutions for architecture in India.
Doshi’s ambition and initiative guided many pivotal moments in his life—from boarding a ship from India to London, where he dreamed of joining the Royal Institute of British Architects; and moving to Paris—despite his inability to speak French—to work under Le Corbusier; to responding to the responsibility and opportunity of rebuilding his native country. He returned to India in 1954 to oversee Le Corbusier’s projects in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, which include the Mill Owner’s Association Building (Ahmedabad, 1954) and Shodhan House (Ahmedabad, 1956), among others. Beginning in 1962, Doshi also worked with Louis Kahn as an associate to build the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and they continued to collaborate for over a decade.
Doshi quickly became known for his commitment to providing affordable housing throughout India, where a shortage of homes had plagued cities for decades. Notably, he designed the Life Insurance Corporation Housing in Ahmedabad (1973) and the Aranya Low Cost Housing in Indore (1989). Beyond being an architect, Doshi was an institution builder. His contribution to academia as founder-director of the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad (1962-72), School of Planning in Ahmedabad (1972-79), and building campuses around the country, including the CEPT University in Ahmedabad, NIFT in New Delhi, and IIM in Bangalore, Doshi was a natural educationist. He was on the jury for several international and national competitions. It will be entirely insufficient to list the achievements of this man, without mentioning the sea of love he has inspired in people over his lifetime.
To celebrate Professor Doshi’s 70th birthday in the year 1997 Snehal Shah and Muktirajsinhji Chauhan organised a celebration event at CEPT, Ahmedabad, when the ‘Doshi We Know’ group was formed to set up a scholarship fund. The idea was first proposed by Vidyadhar Chavda and Suresh Patel joined by donating funds under the name DWK. The “Doshi We Know” group, DWK in short, is a coming together of Prof. Doshi’s past students, alumni of schools under CEPT, and other individuals who wish to take forward the immense legacy created by Doshi in the fields of education and societal concern.
Young persons between 25-45 years of age, preferably architects or those connected with the issues of environment or those involved in any discipline or skill(s), who have demonstrated exceptional ability to evolve creative and innovative ideas and approaches relating to built environment and human habitations that enhance the welfare of communities and show concern for the environment are eligible for the fellowship.
A unique fellowship which is deeply committed to its objective of making an impact on the ground, to the extent that the committee has not awarded the fellowship in 2023-2024, as it did not find any application satisfying. This year fellowship is awarded to Ms.Madhu Manjari, for her dedicated efforts towards identifying and reviving defunct open public wells in different remote villages of Tamilnadu. More than 15 wells in various villages have been defunct due to natural neglect or created social conditions.
In the words of Manjari, ‘ This fellowship with its global reach would help create awareness about the actual ground condition of traditional water systems and showcase various possibilities of preserving them. Apart from reviving the well in its context, this award is an opportunity to create a model of revival through which many such wells can be revived; through which a policy-level decision can be implemented by the Government.
We would also like to begin a dialogue with people who have been working on reviving traditional water systems across India. I don’t consider this fellowship awarded only to me but to all of us who will join together and work for a common cause for generations to come. This has been made possible by so many people and I would like to extend my gratitude to all those at this moment.’