Auroville

Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother, as a township intended to belong to humanity as a whole rather than any nation, with a charter read at an inauguration where young people from over a hundred countries poured soil from their homelands into an urn. Around three thousand people from many nationalities live there. At its centre stands the Matrimandir, a flattened golden sphere thirty-six metres across on concrete supports, containing a chamber with a seventy-centimetre crystal onto which a heliostat directs a beam of sunlight. The land around it, once eroded plateau, has been reforested over decades.

History

In 1964 the Sri Aurobindo Society in Puducherry, with Mirra Alfassa, "the Mother", as its executive president, resolved to found a city dedicated to the vision of Sri Aurobindo, after whom, together with the French aurore, "dawn", it is named. Alfassa's first public message in 1965 invited "all those who thirst for progress" to a universal town above all creeds, politics and nationalities, and Auroville, designed by the architect Roger Anger, was inaugurated on 28 February 1968 with delegates from 124 nations (Wikipedia, Auroville).

What you'll find

• The Matrimandir - a golden sphere with a crystal chamber inside.
• The viewing point - the standard distant view across the gardens.
• The reforested land - decades of planting on formerly eroded plateau.
• The community - workshops, farms and buildings across the township.

When to go

October to March; the Matrimandir inner chamber requires booking days in advance and slots are limited, with a separate free viewing point available on the same day.

Practical notes

Casual visitors see the sphere from a distance; entering the chamber needs advance booking and is for silent concentration, not sightseeing. The township is a working community, not an attraction, and much is not open. Governance disputes have been ongoing.

Nearby

Puducherry lies south; the coast is east.

Key facts