0512-A1

The Spiritual, Socio-Cultural and Ecological Status of Sacred Groves in Tamil Nadu, India

P. S. Swamy^[1], M. Kumar and SM. Sundarapandian

ABSTRACT

Nature worship is an ancient Indian tradition and all forms of life have been considered as sacred. The Tamils, for instance, regard trees as sacred and believe that they are the abode of the gods.

The paper gives an overview of the spiritual, socio-cultural and ecological status of sacred groves in Tamil Nadu. Most of these sacred groves represent a natural climax of the vegetation of that geographical location. Each sacred grove has a residing deity and folklore associated with it. The taboos, rituals and local beliefs, supplemented with mystic folk tales associated with the sacred groves have been the prime reason for the preservation of the groves. Trees such as banyan, peepal, neem and tamarind are considered to be the abode of spirits and worshipped. In many sacred groves people make offerings to the gods in fulfilment of their vows. An annual ritual of communal cooking in the groves is a festive occasion for the entire village and also the surrounding villages.

The sacred groves shelter medicinal plants of great value not only for the primary health care of the village communities, but also for the modern pharmacopoeia. The groves harbor certain wild crop relatives and other endemic biota. They act as micro-watersheds and meet the drinking and irrigation water needs of the local communities. Some sacred groves are owned and managed traditionally by family inheritance, others by local communities, village trustees or state-owned institutions.

Increasingly, the sacred groves are facing threats from the biotic pressure due to weakening of traditional taboos and belief systems and invasion of exotic weeds. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen the traditional concepts of sacred grove conservation by identifying the key issues and providing the solutions through appropriate rehabilitation packages.

Introduction

Nature worship has been an ancient Indian tradition and all forms of life have been considered as sacred. Further there was a general conception among the early people that godly element was actively at work in places of natural beauty. Hence trees have been sacred to the Tamils and they considered that the trees are the abode of spirits and gods. The ancient Tamils believed that the sacredness attached to the living and nonliving objects ensured their safety and persistence. The objective of the present communication is to provide an overview on the spiritual, socio-cultural and ecological status of sacred groves in Tamil Nadu.

Historical and spiritual account of sacred groves and their occurrence

Historical records, legends and the folk songs throw light on sacred groves of Tamil Nadu. The first authentic report on the sacred groves is the Census report of Travancore of 1891 in which Ward and Conner (1827) reported the occurrence of sacred groves in erstwhile Travancore state. Brandis (1897), the first Inspector General of Forests in India witnessed the sacred groves in the hill ranges of the Salem district in the Madras Presidency. Even after the entry and proliferation of Christianity and Islam, the sacred groves remain as the cradles of ancient rural civilization not only in Tamil Nadu, but also in many other states of India. Conservation of the sacred groves amounts to the preservation of socio-cultural setup, which originated in the remote past. Several inscriptions refer to the grant of land by rulers to maintain temple gardens which were called Thirunandavana. Great varieties of flowering plants are being cultivated and flowers from these gardens are offered to the deity to perform pujas

Sacred groves occur in almost every part of Tamilnadu. Generally they are of four types, 1) dedicated to village gods and/or ancient spirits 2) dedicated to snake gods and/or Ayyappan or Sastha or Ayyanar 3) dedicated to shaivaite gods, these sacred groves located in dense forests 4) dedicated to vaishnavite gods, these sacred groves are located in dense forests. The area of sacred grove ranged from few trees to hundreds of hectares. Each sacred grove has a residing deity and folklore associated with it. Most of the sacred groves represent a natural climax vegetation of that geographical location. Many villages set apart sanctified land to propitiate the vanadevatas i.e. the tree spirits. In many villages there are more than one sacred grove. The village sacred groves are generally dedicated to Amman as goddess of fertility and good health. Next to Mariamman, the most worshipped deity is Ayyanar.

Belief, taboos, rituals and folklore associated with sacred groves

The taboos, rituals and beliefs supplemented with mystic folk tales associated with the groves have been the prime reason in preserving the sacred groves in pristine condition. Trees such as banyan, peepal, neem and tamarind are considered to be the abode of sprits which are to be propitiated by tying toy cradles when desiring a child, generally a male child or at the birth of an infant. Similarly, people tie a black cloth with salt in it to ward of the evil eye. The yellow or white or some times red cloth and bangles are tied in fulfilment of vow. In certain sacred groves, people fulfill their vow by tonsuring as a mark of respect to the deity in the sacred grove temples. In certain sacred groves, people place granite statues of snake gods in order to fulfill their vows. Offering of Terrakotta horses of various sizes are kept lying in a row at one corner of the sacred grove is common in many places to have a good harvest. The people have the belief that any damage to the sacred grove or felling a tree from the sacred grove may bring the wrath of local deity by causing diseases and failure of agricultural crops. Therefore, wilfully many a times they do not even take a dead wood out of the sacred groves and also do not harm the fauna residing in it.

Ayyanar, is worshipped daily and also offered special prayer on full moon and new moon days. An annual ritual, a weeklong celebration is usually held during the post harvest season i.e. March-April. In some sacred groves the local community celebrates the annual festival in July- August. In short, the festival is for the benefit and prosperity of the whole village and is dedicated to local residing deities. Every family of the locality comes to the temple for ritual community cooking of rice. They cook food in certain sacred groves by the dead wood collected from the sacred grove itself. The preparations are offered to the goddess and other deities and the food is distributed to all those who take part in the festival. During the festival, the villagers organize bull taming, a favourite rural sport and a form of folk art performed at night, in which folk tales and the epics are enacted. On the last day of the festival, animals such as fowl and goat are sacrificed to the goddess. Nagara kavus are highly respected by the believers even taking a dry twig is forbidden, any violation of the taboo, people say, will incur the wrath of snake gods.. In most of the Nagara kavus, daily pujas are performed and special prayers are offered during full moon days.

Ecological significance of sacred groves

Most of the sacred groves in Tamil Nadu are associated with water tanks, ponds, springs or streams. Many sacred groves are located in the catchments near the origins of springs or streams. Therefore, sacred groves act as micro-watershed in the local area and meet the water needs of local communities. They have great socio-economic, cultural and ecological significance. In drier climatic areas, water tanks associated with the large sacred groves act as reservoirs and provide irrigation to agriculture. Without sacred groves and associated water tanks, the rainwater would have gone waste as surface-runoff, causing topsoil erosion and siltation.

Sacred groves-Conservation of Biodiversity:

Sacred groves protect several valuable plant species of food, medicinal and other valuable plants and animals (Ramakrishnan, 1998). Despite increased biotic pressures, sacred groves shelter many elements of the biota, which might have vanished elsewhere in the surrounding environment. In general, sacred groves in southern Tamil Nadu harbor a wide variety of mango, jamun (Eugenia jumbolana) and figs (Table 2). Allinagaram sacred grove in the Theni district is found to support four wild varieties of mangoes having different tastes and phenological behavior. Terminalia arjuna a girth of about ten meters, found in this sacred grove may be one of the oldest living tree. Similarly, Kandanur sacred grove in Sivagangai district supports a rare Calamus species, which might have vanished from the local landscape. Sacred groves in Kanyakumari district support a large variety of rare endemic orchid species on the Hopea parviflora trees. Sukumaran and Raj (1999) reported that the sacred groves in the Kanyakumari district harbor many of the rare endemic plants of the Western Ghats like Antiaris toxicaria, Diospyros malabarica, D. ebenum, Feronia elephantum, Butea frondosa, Garcinia cambogia, Sterculia foetida, Gnetum ula, Cycas circinalis etc.

The sacred groves shelter several medicinal plants of great value not only for the primary health care of the village communities, but also important in modern pharmacopoeia (Table 1). The literature of Nayaks mentioned the existence of a variety of medicinal plants in Alagar hills. These hills have been venerated through the centuries because of the vast sacred grove there. The plant diversity in these hills had made it an important source of raw materials for Ayurvedic and Siddha medicines. Physicians practicing these disciplines come to the temple market not only to gather herbs but also to swap information about many medicinal properties. In some Kanyakumari district sacred groves, medicinal plants are being raised around the temple by the priest, who generally takes care of medicinal needs of human and cattle. Some of the notable wild relatives of cultivated plants found in the sacred forests are mango, Artocarpus spp. jamun, Calamus and Piper spp. The ground flora in the sacred groves often harbors wild turmeric (Curcuma spp.), wild ginger (Zingiber spp.) and cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum). Water reservoirs and ponds closer to sacred groves supports vide variety of flora and fauna, often have wild crop relatives and endemic and endangered species (Swamy, 1997).

It is expected that isolated sacred groves may not shelter any major mammalian wild life. However, the sacred groves, which form part of continuous forest stretch (Reserved forest managed by the forest department) as that of Alagar hills and Suruli hills harbor bisons. Nevertheless, they harbor numerous birds, butterflies and bats, apart from primates and minor mammals. However a detailed account of biodiversity in the sacred groves is the immediate research requirement.

Management of sacred groves in Tamil Nadu

1. Most of the Nagara kavu’s and Sasthana kavus in the Kanyakumari district are owned by the Nair or Namboodiri’s family or sometimes a group of families as a trust. Traditionally these communities allot a small portion (about 1/7) of the available land holding for the purpose of maintaining sacred groves.

2. Some groves are under the custody and management of local communities. In the hilly tracts, the tribal communities manage swamy sholas or sacred groves.

3. Some of the sacred groves are owned and managed by the village communities under the hereditary trusteeship. All the management issues and the decisions are taken collectively in the presence of entire village gathering during the annual rituals in sacred groves.

4. Sacred groves associated with large Hindu temples are managed by the local trustees of Devaswam Boards under the supervision of State run Institutions.

Threats to ecology and socio-cultural traditions of sacred groves

Due to several socio-economic and cultural reasons, the traditional belief systems, which were fundamental to the concept of sacred grove conservation, are now considered mere superstitions. The traditional values appears to be gradually eroding with the advent of modernity, urbanization, increasing aspiration of the people for a better way of life and no cases of penalty for violation of cultural norms in the recent past. All this has brought about an attitudinal change resulting in the destruction of sacred groves. In a recent study conducted by the author (Swamy, 1997), it was observed that in the larger sacred groves traditional rituals are still performed in accordance with the customary beliefs. In small and degraded sacred groves the traditional rituals are not performed. Now a days, the rituals are known to very few people, most of whom belong to older generation and majority of the younger generation have the opinion that the belief systems of the sacred grove as superstition.

Invasion of exotic weeds into sacred groves has become a serious problem in the ecological functioning of some sacred groves. Local biodiversity of the sacred groves are being depleted and further threatened by the domination of exotic weeds such as Eupatorium Odoratum, Lantana camara, Prosopis juliflora and Hiptis suaveolens.

Dead wood collection, biomass gathering, lopping of tender branches and green leaves for goats, crisscrossing footpaths, cattle grazing, collection of wild fruits and vegetables, medicinal plants, Fruit eating bats and collection of Fire fly during the rainy seasons are some of the anthropogenic disturbances affecting the ecology of sacred groves. In some sacred groves mining of sand and clay and brick making are posing a threat to the ecology and conservation of sacred groves.

Many instances conflicts among the sacred grove managers resulted in loss of biodiversity in certain sacred groves. It is largely believed that disputes among the sacred grove managers poses a threat to sacred grove biodiversity.

Conclusions

Sacred groves harbor many woody plant species along with its fauna needs to be conserved as a genetic reservoir of wild species. Besides this sacred groves play an important role at various levels of socio-cultural, economic, religious and political dimensions of village functioning in Tami Nadu as also suggested by Malhotra (1998). As religious believes and taboos of the people weaken, the pressure on these forests increases. The temples within the grove are still enjoy the place of worship but the forest surrounding it become relatively unimportant. In many places no strong taboos exist against biomass extraction. Invariably the biomass extraction is limited to cutting and lopping of lower branches. However, this is done under the cover of darkness. It is important that people realise the values of these patches of forest and make low levels of resource extraction in a regulated manner, which would facilitate sustainable resource use. To reduce this biotic pressure, identify the keystone process species of the sacred grove and raise them on the sacred grove buffer zones as a viable alternative strategy for sustainable development.

Table 1. Vegetational characteristics of the sacred groves in Tamil Nadu.

Kd - Kandanur sacred grove; S - Solai-Andavar kovil sacred grove;

A - Alagar hills sacred grove; N - Nambikoil kovil sacred grove; AN - Ayaanar kovil sacred grove

Table 2. Important medicinal plants recorded in sacred groves and their use.

References

Brandis, D. 1897. Indian Forestry, working. Oriental Institute.

Malhotra, K.C., 1998. Anthropological Dimensions of sacred groves in India: An Overview. pp. 423-438. In: Conserving the Sacred for Biodiversity Management, P.S. Ramakrishnan, K.G.Saxena and U.M.Chandrasekara (Eds.). Oxford & IBH, New Delhi.

Ramakrishnan, P.S.R., 1998. Conserving the sacred for biodiversity: The Conceptual Framework. pp. 3-15. In: Conserving the Sacred for Biodiversity Management, P.S. Ramakrishnan, K.G.Saxena and U.M.Chandrasekara (Eds.). Oxford & IBH, New Delhi.

Sukumaran, S. and A.D.S. Raj, 1999. Sacred groves as a symbol of sustainable environment - A case study. In: Sustainable Environment, N.Sukumaran (Ed.), SPCES, M.S.Univ., Alwarkurichi 67-74 pp.

Swamy, P.S., 1997. Ecological and Sociological Relevance of conservation of sacred groves in Tamil Nadu. Final Technical Report submitted to UNESCO, New Delhi.

Ward and Conner, 1827. Memmoirs of the survey of Travancore and Cochin states. Cited from Census Report of Travancore 1891.