On Monday February 25 Anja, Ilse and I continued our documentation of heritage buildings in Bhimunipatnam.
We first went to Samuel’s house and enlisted his help in the search for the Moses Mansion / Devil’s Mansion, the former residence and ashram of Guddivadi Venkat Challam / Gudipati Venkatachalam (1894-1979), a prominent Telugu literary figure of the mid-20th century and advocate of radical feminism; Samuel knew of him as an advocate of nudism. His ashram was one of the buildings on a list of heritage buildings in Bhimunipatnam produced some years ago. Last year we had been unable to track this building down, but with Samuel’s help we succeeded this time around.
As I understand it, Guddivadi Venkat Challam sold the property to someone named Moses, who in turn sold it to the current elderly land owner who lives in a house nearby that is itself interesting. The family recently demolished what was left of the Moses Mansion and began construction of a new residential building there.
Across from the modern building, we saw an old building with one wall still standing. We took a few pictures, but were unable to get any information from the neighbors about the building, leaving it as one of many unidentified buildings that we came across.
By speaking with the family, we came to learn that Sowris, Venkat Challam’s daughter and spiritual heir, had established a new ashram on the south side of the town, which we went to see.
On the way we stopped along the beach where there are numerous statues, many that are the worse for wear, including some of the Pandava brothers and Draupadi of Mahabharata fame; Bhimunipatnam is named after Bhima, one of the brothers.
The new ashram of Sowris includes a hall museum and her tomb shrine.
At noon we brought Samuel home and we went to lunch with the sister at St. Ann’s. At 2:00 Anja, Ilse and I went to see the nearby St Ann’s school that the sisters run. Then we returned to the darghah and godown across the street from St Ann’s to take some more measurements and photographs.
At 3:45 Sudhakar, who had been with us on yesterday’s trip, called me unexpectedly to tell me that he had come to Bhimunipatnam with Lawrence Nathaniel. We met at the Clock Tower and went to the Godown of the Ripley Export Company on the beach to show to Sudhakar as a possible location for the maritime museum that he has hopes to establish in the town. We all then went to the residence of Bala Subramanyam, a retired banker and community leader, to talk about heritage issues. We were back at the school at 5:30 and had dinner with the students.
We first went to Samuel’s house and enlisted his help in the search for the Moses Mansion / Devil’s Mansion, the former residence and ashram of Guddivadi Venkat Challam / Gudipati Venkatachalam (1894-1979), a prominent Telugu literary figure of the mid-20th century and advocate of radical feminism; Samuel knew of him as an advocate of nudism. His ashram was one of the buildings on a list of heritage buildings in Bhimunipatnam produced some years ago. Last year we had been unable to track this building down, but with Samuel’s help we succeeded this time around.
As I understand it, Guddivadi Venkat Challam sold the property to someone named Moses, who in turn sold it to the current elderly land owner who lives in a house nearby that is itself interesting. The family recently demolished what was left of the Moses Mansion and began construction of a new residential building there.
The elderly land owner and his family
The house in which they live
The new building under construction at the location of the Moses Mansion
Across from the modern building, we saw an old building with one wall still standing. We took a few pictures, but were unable to get any information from the neighbors about the building, leaving it as one of many unidentified buildings that we came across.
The unidentified old building
By speaking with the family, we came to learn that Sowris, Venkat Challam’s daughter and spiritual heir, had established a new ashram on the south side of the town, which we went to see.
On the way we stopped along the beach where there are numerous statues, many that are the worse for wear, including some of the Pandava brothers and Draupadi of Mahabharata fame; Bhimunipatnam is named after Bhima, one of the brothers.
Me with the Pandava brothers and Draupadi
The new ashram of Sowris includes a hall museum and her tomb shrine.
The hall museum (A photograph of Venkat Challam is on the right)
The tomb shrine of Sowris
The group at the ashram of Sowris (Our auto driver is on the left)
At noon we brought Samuel home and we went to lunch with the sister at St. Ann’s. At 2:00 Anja, Ilse and I went to see the nearby St Ann’s school that the sisters run. Then we returned to the darghah and godown across the street from St Ann’s to take some more measurements and photographs.
The ruined darghah
At 3:45 Sudhakar, who had been with us on yesterday’s trip, called me unexpectedly to tell me that he had come to Bhimunipatnam with Lawrence Nathaniel. We met at the Clock Tower and went to the Godown of the Ripley Export Company on the beach to show to Sudhakar as a possible location for the maritime museum that he has hopes to establish in the town. We all then went to the residence of Bala Subramanyam, a retired banker and community leader, to talk about heritage issues. We were back at the school at 5:30 and had dinner with the students.
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