Deforestations and environmental exploitations when reaches the pinnacle of endurance, Nature reiterates as never before. Preservation of the natural assets is abreast from the authoritative end when Priya.K.P. on look out of the lost glories of the sacred groves of India.

When the Himalayas began to strip itself, and the infinite blues of the Indian Ocean started her frantic dance on the outskirts of the Indian peninsula, talks and discussions heated up, to save the Mother Earth. Even before that, we had our sacred books, depicting earth not just as a place to live in, but as one of our seven mothers. We had a custom to worship the Mother Earth every morning from the bed, asking permission, to put the feet on her bosom before we begin a day.

Speaking and dreaming about the targets and achievements in ‘life’, we deliberately forgot our traditional values. But now, when the things are about to sweep out of the grip, we begin to think of a return which is not as simple as it thought to be. Preservation of forests, wild animals and of course, of sacred groves has got a place in the niche of government agenda now.

Ancient culture sprouted in the dark harems of wilderness, which has now become almost extinct. Nature lovers moan for the lost forests and the new generation is but, least bothered of the significance it bears.

Origin of Sacred Groves

India had a rich and vast bio-diversity and a mutually dependent ecosystem inside the forests. When our ancestors got bored of the forest-living, when they yearned for more achievements in life, they transformed the forests into villages, then to towns, cities and finally ended in sky-living. Meanwhile some nostalgic area remained untouched, rather preserved. Some of our ancestors protected these zones, with the traits and fragrance of the gone era, as a celestial arena for commemoration and worshipping. They are the remnants we keep to show our children a specimen sample of the reciprocated life we shared once, inside the wilderness with the organisms, god created along with humans to run the co-habitation smoothly.

This miniature forests bear the identity of a by gone culture which is very Indian, having the unique tradition of belief that, every living thing has a self-being which is none other than the Supreme being itself. In every rock and rusted io

ta, there is His presence. Thus the ancient Indians worshipped the tree, which bear a gigantic figure and a mystic stand. Thus they begin to do ceremonial rites to the rocks installed under it. They not only simply believed, but dedicated their every nuance of feelings they have, there. With only the positive thoughts and feelings radiated around, that place became sacred, worth to worship. It was the birth of a Sacred Grove.

Myths and beliefs

The peninsula east to river Indus was Hindustan before the sea-farers’ coming. It was the land of Hindus, the community which molded their life according to certain beliefs and myths, which are not confined to any religious frames. So the community lived there believed in the one and only Supreme Being, and its three-dimensional manifestations. Generations handed over the beliefs as information with loopholes for the self weavings at its fragile brims. Subsequently, Gods manifested themselves into miniature forms that suit to the capacity of the believer, rather, the devotee. Thus variety of Hindu gods began to rule the groves.

While years passing, the number of gods also got increased and, with the alterations in the community, along with the Hindu local gods, gods of Islamic and Buddhist origins, and of some folk origin also began to appear as the presiding deities of the respective groves.

Every ancient Indian worshipped the trees in the grove as vanadevata, the goddess of forest. They believed that if we a cut a tree or chop the twigs, the goddess will be wounded. Furious, She will react with non-co-operation, ie, without giving out rains in that season.

Locating the groves

In India, sacred groves are scattered all over its

terrain, referred by different names. From the Scrub forests of the Thar Desert of Rajastan to the Rain Forests of Kerala in the Western Ghats, they span over the rich and variable cultural canopy of the country. Himachal Pradesh in the North and Kerala in the South are specifically known for the large number of sacred groves. The martial Kodava community of Karnataka alone maintained over a thousand groves, earlier. The groves better known as kavu in Kerala, and the lawkyntangs of Meghalaya are prominent to have the enormous bio-diversity synchronized with the richness of antiquity and piety.

Lungs of Nature

Groves are the remnants of our past habitats of forest-dwelling. They are green rich with variety vegetation. The carbon we spit through the hi-tech pipelines of modernization, when outstrip our Mother Nature, this green scapular comes to her rescue.

Groves are repositories for various Ayurvedic medicines and they are replenished resources of rare fruits and honey. Moreover, the vegetation cover helps reduce soil erosion and prevents desertification.

These are the bio diversity hotspots of the land. Due to progressive habitat destruction and hunting, many animals seek refuge under the wilderness of the groves. So we can find rare species of animals w

hich are almost extinct in the neighboring areas there.

Around 14,000 sacred groves have been reported from all over India. They are the imperishable reservoirs of rare flora and fauna of the Indian landscape.

Root of Folks

Festivals are the modern form of the ritualistic art forms performed inside the groves in the premises of the presiding deities. On the long run of modernization, a lot of groves have got promoted to the position of temples, then. According to the living style of the community around, the rituals also has got changed little by little, glorifying the pompous segments more.

A large number of distinct local art forms and folk traditions are associated with the patron-gods of the sacred groves. It is an important cultural aspect closely associated with sacred traditions. Ritualistic dances, dramatizations etc, based on the mythical aspects of the deities that protect the groves are the known religious festivals in certain places of India. The Theyyam in Kerala and Nagmandalam in Karnataka are the significant non-extinct form of folk arts which have the inheritance from these sacred groves. Anyway, at the time of tourist season, like any other antique piece, these folk forms are also bottled and displayed occasionally to lure the visitors.

The lazy sons

There is a famous story of a farmer and his three lazy sons, prevalent around south Indian regional languages. A farmer, who clearly knows about the laziness of his sons and the fate of his fertile land after his death, calls his sons to his death bed and tells them that there is a hidden hoarding of precious stones somewhere in their compound. After his death, the three went in search of the hidden wealth, dug up and scooped the whole compound with the spade. By aerating the soil like this it became much more fertile and began to give out plenty of crops which made them rich all the more.

Even though, hunting, logging and chopping wood are prohibited or considered as taboo inside the groves, many of the groves are being washed out from the land, day by day. Reasons are many behind this contemptible phenomenon, of which, we can brief to one word – laziness. When the modern man shrunk into a brain with a finger tip in this e-generation, he became all the more lazy to move his muscles or make his cloths muddy. The rich agrarian community of India became the poor consumer community of the globe. A farmer never wishes to make his son a farmer, even in his worst nightmare. Thus a kind of desertedness prevails over the shades of traditional ways of life. And that too affects badly on the earth, which is very raw and never in a ‘ready-to consume’ form, as the new generation expects. They do not see the hidden gems inside, hence.

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