Nature-Reflections: Trees & Tanks at temples-part 2.

GREETINGS

Part 2--Temple Tanks -Trees & Tanks at temples --an integral part of the philosophy of Divinity in Nature

Teertha,Talaab,Kalyani, Pushkarini, Kunda, Sarovara,- Kolam etc. are all a part of the Hindu Temple Culture The tanks or in some cases the Wells like at Rameswaram were built for bathing before prayer.
Their waters have been given a special sacrality and so a bath is always taken here. Sadly with a population explosion and poor management in the new phenomena called Pilgrimage Tourism these Tanks are sometimes not maintained properly and get soiled.But Faith remains and the large majority take a Dip and then only offer prayers.

Temple Tanks also are a part of Water storage plans. They work by the underground flow to connect rainfall in cities and helps to share the rain water received and avoid wastage by flow in drainage.Here again. much damage has been done as many tanks have been filled in and closed -or over tapped by bores in adjacent areas and are now dry.

On the West Coast -all along the Konkan coast, the SW Monsoon is from June-Sept. and heavy - and copious rain falls to replenish these great temple tanks -

On the East Coast esp Tamilnadu rain is mostly from NE Monsoon which is less -So, Chennai and the surrounding areas are water starved and these tanks often dry .Some efforts to recharge and save has been taken up in recent years.
We Pray that Water saving, storage and underground supply charging will gain focus in this new Govt era as much neglect was seen in the last few decades.
During the SC.Math-Prabhat Somnath Gujarat TeethYatra, we had the opportunity to see the most brilliant engineering marvels of India of the earlier time viz.the Stepp Wells This is an extremely large deep well with brilliant masonry well .The steps going down to the water level in the well is shown ia pic taken by me during the Yatra . Such wells are called Bawlis in north India but as Vava in Gujarat; eg.Rani ke Vaav in Gujarat.They were built by Rajas and so were a special bathjing place for royalty then--later for the common man and woman.See Pic no 5 below.