Other sights in Puducherry (Pondicherry)
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Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Founded in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo and a Frenchwoman known as ‘the Mother’ (whose visage, which you’ll either find benevolent or vaguely creepy, is everywhere here), this ashram seeks to synthesise yoga and modern science. After Aurobindo’s death, spiritual authority (and minor religious celebrity) passed to the Mother, who died in 1973 aged 97. A constant flow of visitors files through the main ashram building, which has the flower-festooned samadhi of Aurobindo and the Mother in the central courtyard.
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Puducherry Museum
Goodness knows how this cute little museum keeps its artefacts from rotting, considering there’s a whole floor of French-era furniture sitting in the South Indian humidity. As you amble through the colonial-era building, keep an eye peeled for Pallava and Chola sculptures, a small Versailles’ worth of French Union–era bric-a-brac, and coins and shards of pottery excavated from Arikamedu, a once-major seaport a few kilometres south of Puducherry that traded with the Roman Empire during the 1st century BC.
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