Naraikadu and Dohnavur Papers

Content Description

In continuation with accession record 2025P-SA-01, and 2025P-SA-02 accession 2025P-SA-03 is also part of the institutional history of The Dohnavur Fellowship. The material was loaned to Saythu (represented by both Krupa Rajangam and Kuili Suganya) on August 21, 2025 and placed in the Computer room, after organising them in two separate trunks for digitising. Since our last visit to sift the material on-site, two more log-books were added to the pile, from Joppa – which we were informed is another Dohnavur fellowship retreat located in Kanyakumari. Though the first page of one of the logbooks states that the entries are from 1925/26 – the entries are between 1968-82, and the other was between 1983 to 1992. Additionally more song books, field notes, and botanical specimens were added to various cupboards of the Computer Room, so we had to revisit our earlier attempts to classify and describe the material. The sifted textual material is largely hand-written in pen and ink, with a few sketches here and there, and some typed materials. The log-books are written by the many visitors to Joppa and do not have a specific attribution. Similar to the classification system noted in the previous accession record, under textual we have, (a) hand-written (English, Tamil & Musical notation), (b) typed, and (c) printed, and under visual material, (d) watercolour sketches, and (e) photograph slides. (a) The hand-written materials are largely log-books of Joppa by various members of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF) family. (b) The field note book untitled found along with the other field note books by unknown authors on the flora, fauna and expeditions to Naraikadu was established by the CEO as belonging to Dr. Woolcock alias Kiruba Sittie – a doctor who lived in Dohnavur. (c) The handwritten weather records which we had briefly seen earlier were sifted with the help of NCBS material conservation experts (Ms Sindhu N and Ms Kinjal) who had joined us on-site to access the materials. The weather records were in two boxes. a. The small wooden box had weather charts, graphs, and diaries which had soft bound cover with newspaper clippings, along with newspaper clippings and loose leaves. b. The big wooden box (since moved into the Computer Room from CEO’s quarters) had a soft bound cover with newspaper clippings, along with these were weather diaries of ‘Siratha Annachie’ which was hand written largely in Tamil and a mix of English words and other members of TDF (to be identified). (d) The typed material was the ‘Wonder Songs and Other Songs’, a copy which was owned by David Rajamaniam (dated 18 March 1981). The book contains songs similar to the ones we reported in the earlier accessions. (e) One of the handwritten materials was a song book owned by Naveena C on the Forest songs, round songs and other songs. (f) The printed materials were largely the newspaper clippings which were part of the weather records in the wooden boxes. (g) Another song book we found added to the shelf was a bound volume in fragile condition. We sifted through the book with the help of the NCBS conservators. It was a combination of typed, and handwritten pages, titled ‘Amma songs and paintings by Pyarie Sittie.’ Each page had a song of the environment with original watercolour illustrations. The songs are the compilation of the same forest, wonder, round and other songs. Seems to be the first attempt to compile all the song-based pedagogic material on the environment, orally all attributed to Amma by the CEO, corroborated by the book title. (h) One brown book similar to the ones reported in the Accession record 1 appears to be the only copy of nature songs and was titled ‘Jeevanatha transitions.’ The text is typed and seems to be the only single copy of the nature songs used in the primary school. (i) There was a bunch of loose papers with musical notations for songs on flowers (according to the CEO probably compiled by Naveena C, a TDF family member well known for her musical abilities). (j) One herbarium (pressed botanical specimens) of the flora at Muppanthal was also added to the shelf. Muppanthal is another retreat location of the fellowship. (k) The photographs were clarified as: by unknown photographers, depicting daily life and people of The Dohnavur Fellowship. They are about 70 nos, approx. size 2” x 2”, B&W prints mounted on slides. These are inside a wooden box and kept inside the top first drawer of the work table designed and constructed by Philip England (colonial period engineer and TDF family member).

Condition Description

- Joppa Logbook, water-soaked marks, fairly good but will soon require preservation (preventive). - Dr.Woolcock alias Kiruba Sittie’s Naraikadu field notebook – fairly good condition - Weather charts along with newspaper clippings (and diaries) are in a very brittle state along with Siratha Annachie’s and other members’ hand written weather diaries. Presently kept in a wooden box. The weather graphs found along with the weather record are in fairly good state. - David Rajamaniam’s ‘Wonder Songs and Other Songs’ in good condition. - Naveena C’s Forest songs, round songs and other songs in good condition - ‘Amma songs and paintings by Pyarie Sittie – in a very precarious, brittle manner and requires immediate preservation (physical conservation). - ‘Jeevanatha transitions’ pages are brittle and in bad condition (fungal growth) but can be scanned. - Flower songs musical notations book is in fairly good state - Muppanthal herbarium - specimens were pressing into the paper (needs preventive conservation). - The slide photographs at Jeevanantham are in fairly good state

Accession Date

2025-08-21

Disposition

(Red) Removed material in Accession record 2025P-SA-03 (positively not including): 1) Joppa logbook, similar to other logbooks, contains a mix of notes, largely daily life at Joppa. It is not being considered as it appears to be the beginning of a new collection which is well beyond the scope of this project. 2) The brittle weather charts (along with the newspaper cuttings) and diaries have been excluded for preservation and will not be scanned. The handwritten weather diaries have been set aside for preservation and then sifting. Hence cannot be included now. 3) Amma songs and paintings by Pyarie Sittie are set aside with the weather records in the smaller wooden box as its brittle state first necessitates preservation. However a few sample pages of the former are being selected for scanning. 4) Muppanthal herbarium is removed from this accession for this is the only material from this retreat collection and is not being considered as it appears to be the beginning of a new collection which is well beyond the scope of this project. 5) Slide photographs at Jeevanatham, as noted earlier are not included as we do not have permission to sift them. 6) The other removed material from the earlier accessions records 1, and 2 are a) the Naraikadu log-books (except the two short listed – see the below section for the list) b) Tamil idioms c) Published books (listed under removed in the earlier accession only, including the two books that GWP has annotated) d) The 3D materials, e) Usha-stalam log-books, f) Photographs in wooden box at the CEO’s quarters, g) Weather records (charts, diaries and hand-written weather diaries) leaving the graphs, h) Technical drawings 7) The undecided material from the earlier accessions (both 1 & 2) and now removed are a) the files of correspondence (in Jeevanandam), b) all the log-books excluding two (Jewel House Logbook II and IX and Forest House Logbook VII, Forest House logbook IV; Jungle House logbook I, II and III; Jewel House logbook VIII and Vana Moodha Vedu logbook) c) Maps, after careful scrutiny by the conservators from NCBS. 8) The removed materials from the earlier accession record, but now included after careful scrutiny for preservation by the conservators from NCBS and the Saythu team are a) Graphs only from the weather records b) Additionally, two of the published books (i) the Naraikadu centenary volume of 1983 is now included while the 2017 is removed and will only be used to provide background information for the description (ii) the volume on boys‘ lives at TDF, residing within the ‘Vanacharbu ‘ compound, is included for scanning since it is useful to contextualise the archival material on Naraikadu to be digitised and provide background on the institutional history and ways of working, Both books were reviewed by and approved by the donor for scanning. (Yellow) Undecided material in Accession record 2025P-SA-03: No un-decided materials in this accession record (Green) Finalised material in Accession record 2025P-SA-03 (selected for digitisation): 1. A few sample pages from ‘Amma songs and paintings by Pyarie Sittie’. 2. Dr. Woolcock alias Kruba sittie’s Naraikadu field notebook. The book with an unknown author, titled Naraikadu, has now been identified as written by Dr Jacqueline Anne Woolcock also known as Kiruba Sittie and finalised for scanning. This one field notebook is in addition to the two other field notebooks by GWP and earlier loosely identified with GWP’s papers. 3. The weather graphs (as loose 24 nos. A2 sheets) have been finalised for scanning 4. David Rajamaniam’s ‘Wonder Songs and Other Songs’ and Naveena C’s ‘Forest songs, round songs and other songs’ are to be scanned 5. ‘Jeevanatha transitions’ song book is finalised for scanning. 6. Flower songs musical notations have been set aside for scanning 7. The other finalised materials from the earlier accessions are a. GWP collections (Diaries and field notes) b. Forest House visitor logbook I: 1918-33 (with handwritten notes by Amy Carmichael) and Forest House logbook II: 1933-43 (with Godfrey Webb-Peploe’s notes) c. Nature song book collections (‘Rounds song books’ and ‘Forest songbooks’ – typed, published and hand written from different time periods) d. Published books (i) Naraikadu pamphlet (1983), (ii) Vanacharbu pamphlet, and (iii) ‘Dohnavur Fellowship Rounds and Forest Songs’ pamphlet. e. Loose-leaf sketches on the life at Naraikadu and Dohnavur (It was observed that some of the sketches were signed ‘Tara’ She lived during the time of Pyarie Sittie – One painting was similar in style to Pyarie Sittie, it was signed as 1920’s)

Acquisition Type

Loan

Provenance

As we are given access to more material it is becoming clear that the materials are from different institutional locations, including both Naraikadu and Dohnavur main campus. Accordingly the conceptual origin of the collection shifts to an institutional archive rather than a person-based archive of the founder, but also various other TDF family members as they are referred.

Retention Rule

Only digital copies of the finalised collections are to be permanently loaned to the Archives at NCBS. The Donor retains ownership of all physical material and will permit bonafide on-site access to the finalised collections only (listed on the finding aid).

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

Yes

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for access unless mentioned in specific folders of the finding aid.

Use Restrictions

The Dohnavur Fellowship holds copyright to all materials. It is being loaned to NCBS PAST 2025-26.