The legend of Bangari and Singari and the historical town of Bahour.

Bahour is a small town bordering the two rivers, Then Ponnaiyar on the South and Malattar on the South and naturally a very fertile place which was the right mix of water resources, fertile soil, huge number of water channels and close to the Bay of Bengal, having pristine unpolluted beaches and a mix of primary production of agriculture, fisheries. No doubt, the ancient South Indian rulers had found Bahour to be a prosperous town to make it their focus.

Thus Bahour known as Chathur Veda Mangalam (land of four Vedas) had once, a famous Sanskrit College where the students who passed out from here, had preference and lucrative offers in Kancheepuram, and even far off places like the Kashi. The famous temple "Moolanathar Swami Temple" was built by the Paranthaka Chozha and later developed by the Pallavas, Rashtrakoodas and the Naickers. Intact, Puducherry had detailed information regarding this temple which is built on the Kaarana Aagamam and the Vimana of this temple has a square frame due to the name Chathur (another meaning being Square) Veda Mangalam which is typical of the Chozhas who used to include an element of secrecy in all their temples.

Another notable natural heritage of Bahour is the Bahour Tank itself which happens to be the oldest tank in Puducherry (older than the biggest tank of Oussudu) and have abeautiful network of smaller tanks. The history points to a big drought in Bahour, when two unmarried wealthy sisters Bangari and Singari donated their wealth to deepen the tank and strengthen the bunds and also to dig a channel from Then Ponnaiyar to the Bahour Tank which is now known as the Bangaru Channel named after the sister Bangari. Some older people say that these sisters used to live in the South Street of Bahour.

To celebrate the historicity of Bahour and its natural heritage the Puducherry Heritage Festival held a Dance Drama in the Moolanathar temple on the 5th of February 2017 on the legendary life of Bangari and Singari.


More about Bahour will be shared at a later time..
(Krithiga Ravichandran as Bangari and Divya Ramesh as Singari in the Dance drama of Salangai Cultural Academy).

Kukkarahalli Lake, Mysore, Karnataka

During my recent trip to Mysore in association with a Training Programme for teachers held at the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, one of the morning, myself along with two of my friends visited the nearby Kukkarahalli Lake located adjacent to the University of Mysore. A wonderful place well kept and not disturbed much, I could see scores of people walking along the beautiful tracks on the side of the lake. This is also an excellent bird watching site. I had a few snaps taken just before the sun rise and also some views of the lake.

More information regarding this beautiful lake can be had from the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukkarahalli_lake. From wikipedia: It provides lung-space to the city. Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, (1794–1868) of the Mysore Dynasty (Kingdom of Mysore) was responsible for getting the lake created, in the year 1864, to provide water for irrigation to about 4000 ha (10,000 acres) of land outside the city.[2] The Lake also used to be a source of water supply to the city of Mysore but over the years, sewage and excessive land encroachments (mostly illegal) and blockage of water flow sources almost led to the eutrophication of the lake. The University of Mysore and the citizen forums of Mysore continue to make efforts to preserve the lake by implementing several remedial measures. 

But my friend from Mysore says that there are new efforts to destroy this lake by having huge large scale constructions around this lake (by the University of Mysore) and which is being opposed by the citizens of Mysore. 

If people of higher learning institutions like the University of Mysore do not understand the importance of such beautiful natural systems, and those who should protect and improve the health of these systems, they themselves start destroying the systems, then what values these institutions will transfer to the young generation? 

Overflowing Irrigation Tank: Manapet, Bahour, Puducherry, INDIA

This is part of a system of Irrigation tanks  in the Bahour Commune of Puducherry, INDIA. This is the Manapet Tank..With a just a couple of days's of rainfall, the tank is full and overflowing... Most of the tanks in Bahour are full now. These tanks are of great value to the ground water  recharging as well as to the local agriculture.  Many of the tank systems are under threat from encroachments, pollution, neglect from the people as well as the state..but thanks to the active Tank Associations in Bahour, they are exist today...

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