The Story of River Cauvery in 16th Century Mural Painting in Tamilnadu, India

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The story of Cauvery, the most-bitterly fought over river in the history of modern India, is painted around the circumambulatory passage on the wall and ceiling of the temple at Tiruvalnchuli, in Tanjavur District, Tamilnadu.
The story, as depicted on the mural, begins with the tipping over of the jug that sage Agastya carries with him which then swells into a river. The full length of the course of the river is painted, from its origins in the hills of what is now modern Karnataka to the draining of the river into the Bay of Bengal, forming a delta as it does so. The mural also maps all the important temples on the banks of Cauvery, with iconic depictions.
Today, if you look at the painting and the river, it is difficult to tell which is worse off. The only conclusion can be that neither our natural heritage nor our artistic heritage get the attention that they deserve.

ASIAN WATER COLLOQUIUM. CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 25-27. 2008

Not far from the world's largest open air bas relief, which celebrates the descent of the Celestial River Ganges chiselled in 7th century CE at Mahabalipuram, near Chennai, the Asia-Level Water Colloquium kicks off on Thursday, September 25, 2008. If this seems like an appropriate coincidence to locate the Water Colloquium at Chennai, ironies abound as well.

With a population of nearly 6 million, Chennai is one of the most water-starved cities. The sacrosanct has descended into sacrilege here, with the rivers that once flowed through and around the city having been degraded into stagnant sewers; public apathy, poor planning and resource mismanagement all being equally guilty. The apt place then to raise a stink about the abuse of the most important gift of nature?

Hopefully the Water Colloquium will do more than that. Hopefully, the Colloquium will bring about an ascent in awareness of all water-related issues that impact anyone living in any part of the world. Hopefully the Colloquium will be a demonstration of how the coming together of activist zeal, academic rigour, official commitment, community involvement, voluntary labour and public participation can bring about the much-needed transformation, to realise from what is terrestrial, ultimately the celestial.

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For more than 5,000 years of recorded human history, water has always been treated as nature’s gift to all things on planet earth, to be taken care of for all succeeding generations. To every civilization, across cultures, to all peoples, water has been sacred; something which belonged to the global commons, to be tended with care.

Yet, in the 21st century water is the single most crisis-ridden issue. Be it drinking water scarcity or shortage of irrigation water, or polluted surface waters or devastated water tables, water threatens life in the coming decades. What we do about it now determines whether future generations will continue to obtain water.

The one thing that's worth doing is to constantly remind ourselves that across cultures and religions, water has been the most sacred natural heritage, the greatest source of inspiration to literary and artistic imagination. We invite you to share this heritage and post your story on this page. Click here.

Water: It is our right to use, duty to conserve and crime to exploit.

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