Timetravelholidays.com is discover tourist Destination for our valuable customers. Pondicherry Mediterranean sunny colours. Cobbled streets and boulevards. An evening stroll down a classic promenade. This is the Pondicherry of the French quarter, which merges seamlessly with the fishing villages at its periphery. The all-pervading underlying presence is the ubiquitous spiritual influence of Sri Aurobindo and the ashram that continues to build his legacy. In the distance, the ever-growing global township of Auroville magnifies the aura of this firmly intertwined French and Tamilian coastal town.
The current town of Pondicherry was founded after the coming of the British, Dutch, Portuguese, and French traders from Europe, and still bears their influence. But the nearby villages of Arikamedu, Ariyankuppam, Bahou, Kakayanthoppe, and Villianur, have a history dating back to the Pallava, Chola, Pandya, Vijayanagar and Bijapur empires. In fact, the village of Arikamedu is believed to be the site of the Poduke or Poduca trading port, a favorite destination of the Roman empire in the third century BC. In this way, from time immemorial, the lights of this port town in southern India beckoned travelers from around the world.
By 1674, Pondicherry was the trading centre of the French in India and would retain this place for the next 280 years. But it was the association of the town with the spiritual journey of Sri Aurobindo, which made Pondicherry a global destination for the next century. Among India’s revolutionaries who sought freedom from British rule, Sri Aurobindo would later emerge as one of its foremost contemporary spiritual leaders. He turned to the coastline of Pondicherry during these years of spiritual awakening. There, inspired by the vision of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator Mirra Alfassa, who simply came to be known as the mother, the global township of Auroville that drew life from their ideals was born.