Rukmini Devi Arundale

India’s presidential elections take place next month, with two main candidates, Ram Nath Kovind, who has been an MP and governor of Bihar, and Meira Kumar. It is more or less definite that Kovind, the BJP candidate will win, though Meira Kumar too has excellent credentials–a woman, a Dalit, who had a career in the foreign service before joining politics. She has been a union minister, a speaker of the Lok Sabha, and is the daughter of the late Babu Jagjivan Ram.

The only woman president so far has been Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

But Rukmini Devi Arundale was the one who could have been the first woman president of India. She was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha in the 1950s. In 1977 she was invited by the then prime minister Morarji Desai, to become the president, or at least to stand for election, but she refused. Perhaps there have been others who have refused over the years?

Rukmini Devi (29 February 1904- 24 February 1986) was an extraordinary person. Her father, Neelakanta Sastri, an engineer and Sanskrit scholar, joined the Theosophical Society and moved to live near its headquarters at Adyar, Madras [now Chennai], after his retirement. Influenced by Theosophy, she was a beautiful young girl of 16, when she decided to marry George Arundale, an Englishman, a Theosophist, and a man who at 42, was much older than her. Her decision created a furore in the sedate circles of Madras, but she went ahead, and soon became even more closely involved with the world of Theosophy. At the same time she revived and made Indian dance respectable again, founded Kalakshetra, the dance institute in Madras [Chennai] and laid the foundations for animal welfare in India. In the course of her life she received numerous awards, and wrote and lectured on several topics.

Just as Jiddu Krishnamurti was put forward by the Theosophists as the messiah and world teacher, Rukmini Devi was named the ‘world mother’. [see earlier post: Two Philosophers of Modern India, for more on J Krishnamurti]. In 1925, at the Order of the Star meeting at Ommen, Annie Besant announced: ‘Rukmini of glorious past will be Rishi Agastya’s messenger to the women and young ones In India….Young in body, yet she is old in wisdom and power…’. Rukmini did not openly repudiate her, but gradually moved away from the role.

Was her marriage a happy one? Initially it would seem so, but as George Arundale grew older, he became rather odd.

These are just some snippets of the extraordinary life of Rukmini Devi.

The fossils of Antarctica

One hundred million years ago, Antarctica was covered in thick forests, inhabited by dinosaurs. It was a time of warmth, when the polar ice-caps had practically melted. Robert Scott in 1912, was the first to notice fossilized plants. Later Jane Francis of the University of Leeds, as well as others, discovered more. Francis found stunted beech bushes, which were only 3 to 5 million years ago. These plants and trees survived despite unusual polar conditions of night or darkness throughout the winter, and sun and light throughout the summer.
Polar dinosaurs may have lived there throughout the year. A complete dinosaur skeleton was found of Leaellynasura, which looked somewhat like a small kangaroo, lived on plants, and had enlarged optic lobes, indicating it could see in the dark.
Another dinosaur known from its fossils was a meat-eating creature, more than 2 metres tall, living in the James Ross region of Antarctica. It was probably a Titanosaur.
There is also evidence of tetrapods living in Antarctica 245 million years ago.
A meteorite from Mars is believed to have fossilized microbial life.
Recently, there are claims of tiny humanoid fossils being found, which existed 600 million years ago!
Given what we know about human evolution, this is a near impossibility, and I am yet to see something about this in a scientific journal.
But obviously, Antarctica has many mysteries that are still to be discovered.