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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Speleology ! ~ Mamandur rock-cut shrines & .. .. Cave woman !!!

Ever heard of Speleology  !   (from Ancient Greek σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) 'cave' and -λογία (-logía) 'study of') is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure, physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology).

 


Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often are formed by the weathering of rock and can extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock shelters). Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called caving, potholing, or spelunking. 

Dusi Mamandur is my native village   :  There are many important places in and around Kanchipuram and as you travel from Kanchi to Vandavasi / Cheyyar, you would cross the SalaiKinaru associated with Ramanujacharya  (from where thirumanjanatheertham for Devarajar was brought), Iyengarkulam, Palar bridge, Dhoosi, you would come to the hamlet ‘Mamandur’ – known as Dhoosi Mamandur due to its proximity to Dusi. This village has a big reservoir and is about 3 km away from Palar and about 8-9 km away from Kanchipuram.   This village now comes under Venbakkam, Thiruvannamalai district.

 



Besides the big sprawling lake, there are  set of cave temples excavated on the eastern face of a hill running north-south in the west of the village. Mamandur is situated in proximity to Kanchi, the capital of the Pallavas. When Mahendravarman I  (600-630 CE) started his quest of constructing a temple without using materials other than stone, Mamandur would have been a natural choice being in vicinity of his capital. However, the king did not go with the obvious choice !!    nearer our village, there  are   four rock-cut shrines, numbered 1 to 4 by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India).  

Biospeleology, also known as cave biology, is a branch of biology dedicated to the study of organisms that live in caves and are collectively referred to as troglofauna. 

A "caveman" typically refers to a stock character representing early humans during the Paleolithic period, often depicted with basic tools and living in caves. It's also used informally to describe someone who is crude or violent. The term gained popularity in the early 20th century, influenced by descriptions of Neanderthals as "simian". 

 ‘Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum’ [Alibaba and 40  Thieves] was released in 1956   directed and produced by T. R. Sundaram under his production banner Modern Theatres. The film starred MG Ramachandran and P. Bhanumathi.  It was a story of Alibaba, a poor woodcutter, who becomes wealthy after finding a secret cave which contains various treasures and antiques. He resolves to keep his source of wealth a secret to lead a peaceful life. Whether he keeps it a secret and protects the treasure from falling into the wrong hands forms the rest of the story.  It was stated to be a movie   shot in Gevacolor and is notable for being the first Tamil and South Indian full-length colour film.   It was a milestone in Ramachandran's career and became a success at the box office which was largely attributed to it being the first full-length colour film in South India. The songs also attained popularity. The film was later dubbed in Telugu as Ali Baba 40 Dongalu. 

A real story of a Cave woman – a Russian woman who has overstayed her visa but had been hiding /living in forest – in a cave near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district is becoming viral on the web.    

 

Media reports confirm that -  Nina Kutina, a Russian woman was found in a remote cave near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.   The women who had been found in a  remote cave near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, has told the police that she loves India, forests and meditation and is devastated about being sent back to her country.

 


Gokarna police Sub Inspector Sridhar S R and his team found Kutina, 40, and her daughters, six and four years old, from a cave in the treacherous Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk Friday. The “spiritually inclined” Russian woman and her daughters were to be transported to Bengaluru Sunday to begin proceedings for deportation to Russia after police found that her visa expired in 2017.  Sridhar told The Indian Express that Kutina first arrived in India in 2016 on a business visa, and was drawn initially to the tourist and restaurant sectors in Goa and Gokarna. “But when her visa expired on April 17, 2017, instead of leaving, she chose to stay. Even after getting an exit permit in 2018 and briefly travelling to Nepal, she returned to India, disappearing into the coastal forests of Karnataka,” he said. 

“She loved meditating and performing pooja for the gods in the forests. Fearing detection if she checked into any hotel, she chose to stay in the forests,” said a police officer. The police discovered that the trio had been residing there for the last two months, which later turned out to be the culmination of an eight-year journey in hiding. The police said both of her daughters were born in India while she was in hiding. They, however, said she has refused to discuss their father, and authorities are still investigating whether she received any medical care during childbirth. 

Sridhar and his team found her during a routine patrol at the Ramatirtha hills. While checking for adventure enthusiasts who might have ventured dangerously into the landslide-prone forest, they noticed footsteps leading to a cave. A plastic cover at the entrance and photographs of deities outside suggested that humans inhabited the area. Sridhar said they found some Russian books inside the cave. Upon entering, they found a child playing while Kutina and her other daughter slept.  “We convinced her to come out, stating that there were chances of landslides in the area,” Sridhar said, adding that when warned about snakes in the area, she replied that “the snakes are our friends and they don’t harm us unless we trouble them”. 

“She claimed that during their visits to nearby waterfalls for bathing, snakes would roam around them without showing any aggression,” he said. “During the rainy season, they lived with minimal clothing. Kutina had stockpiled enough groceries in the cave for their survival, and despite having candles, they rarely used artificial light, instead living by natural light,” he said. It is learnt the woman would charge her phone during visits to town to buy groceries and use it rarely. She would often take her children to Gokarna and other places but always returned to the cave. Sridhar said this has been an unprecedented experience in his 18-year service. “I have seen some youth and sadhus venturing inside the forest, but never a mother with young children. They all look healthy and sane,” he said.  

The police noted that when they arranged for the trio to spend Saturday night at an ashram, the children were thrilled by electric lights and beds, luxuries they had never experienced before.  Sridhar said he received a WhatsApp message from Kutina in Russian Sunday morning, expressing her heartbreak at being separated from nature. “She wrote that she loved India, the forest, and meditation, but was devastated about being sent back to her country. She said that the police were the reason for separating her from nature,” he said.  In the message, also sent by the woman to her relatives, she wrote: “Our cave life is over. Our cozy comfortable house was broken. And we were placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep to ‘protect us from rain and snakes’.”  

Sridhar said Kutina had taken care of her children during their stay. “In her mobile phone, there are a lot of photos where the children are seen happily posing. She had kept a schedule for kids which includes drawing, singing, chanting mantras, yoga and other exercises. Even on Sunday morning, she was teaching her kids yoga,” he said.  After they were found the woman and her daughters were accommodated at the Woman Reception Centre in Karwar under the Department of Women and Child Welfare. The police said they found her discarded passport near the cave and contacted the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the agency responsible for overseeing the stay of foreigners within the country.  

This part of the news (in this colour) is entirely reproduced from the Indian Express, same news is found on the web on various channels too.  

Extremely strange, almost unbelievable story – that a woman could survive, bring up her kids too in such a scenario and loving it too.  Truth is stranger than fiction.

  

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