The conceptual origin point for the material in this collection is Naraikadu, a spiritual retreat of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF) located in the mid ranges of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in southern Tamil Nadu. The material is largely paper-based, a mix of handwritten, typed and printed, ranging from the 1900s to 2000s. It includes field diaries, field notes, sketches, log-books, books of songs, photos, slides, maps and graphs, all with information on the flora, fauna, biodiversity of this region and sustained weather observations. It is mostly in English with notes in Tamil. It moves back and forth between Naraikadu and TDF main campus.
The Collection has been arranged into the following series and sub-series:
Series 1: Pedagogic material - environment, with sub-series, Songs - Environment.
Series 2: Sketches - Environment, with no sub-series but folders organised by theme.
Series 3: Naraikadu Biodiversity - notes and diaries, recorded by individual TDF family members-naturalists, Godfrey Webb-Peploe (GWP) and Jacqueline Anne Woolcock (JW).
Series 4: TDF family records - Naraikadu, with no sub-series but individual folders organised by item name.
Also see AR-028 Dohnavur Collections.
Naraikadu (or Grey Forest) was so named by the founder of TDF, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951). The retreat has a few cottages built using local materials with no modern infrastructure or amenities such as road access, electricity, indoor plumbing or furniture, and tropical rainforest at the doorstep. TDF refers to each cottage as a house, such as Forest House, Jungle House and so on. Since inception TDF's staff, volunteers, teachers, caregivers, administrators, students, children (henceforth TDF family as they are referred by the institution) has maintained log books in these houses. These log books contain notes on daily life, prayer, forest expeditions and nature observations. Additionally, various members of the TDF family continue to regularly observe and record nature (flora and fauna) and weather at this retreat in the logbooks, their personal journals, diaries, along with sketches and songs. The textual and visual material however were created not just by today's members but also by those in the colonial period including Amy Carmichael, Godfrey Webb-Peploe and others, who were among the first naturalists to record the region's flora and fauna.
TDF is a non-denominational Christian charity not affiliated with any institutional Christian administrative and/or theological bodies. It was founded in 1901 by Amy Carmichael, an Irish woman missionary who lived and worked in India for most of her life. The charity runs a clinic, hospital, kindergarten, residential and day school, vocational training center, home for senior citizens, and a home for children and young women at their institutional campus in Dohnavur, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, near the foothills of the Western Ghats. Carmichael was explicit that members of the TDF family should not exclusively be preachers or theologicians. Each of them had to be skilled in at least one branch of knowledge or trade, whether doctors, engineers, naturalists and additionally they should be skilled educators capable of transferring their knowledge to children of diverse age groups.
Collection is open for access unless mentioned in specific folders of the finding aid.
The intellectual arrangement strives to preserve provenance and original order of the papers. Where an original order could not be found, the Processing Archivist has applied an order - see Content Description for details.
Donor (The Dohnavur Fellowship) retains all copyrights. Apply for explicit permission.
Processed as part of NCBS-PAST Saythu-Dohnavur: Collection of Collections 2025-26. For details, see
It is possible that at least some songs on the environment and biodiversity were composed by various educators and caregivers ('amma' as Carmichael was known, 'sittie', 'acca' and 'annachie' as they were called) of TDF. However, orally all such songs and their conception as teaching-learning aids (though she did not label them as such; the label is our interpretation) are attributed to the founder Amy Carmichael. The specimens were processed on campus.
The material includes both paper-based and three-dimensional objects. As processing archivists we have imposed an order on the material bringing them under the series heading of 'pedagogic material - environment' as we recognise their use as teaching-learning aids in the schools and children' s home run by TDF. Additionally we have described the sub-series as 'Songs - Environment'. Although the songs are variously described as nature songs, forest songs, rounds and other songs TDF had not explicitly classified them as such. Currently, the sub-series on objects is excluded from this collection as our focus is paper-based material and they require physical conservation before they can be handled safely. Also see AR-028-1.
The sub-series 'Songs - Environment' is arranged in three folders, mostly in keeping with the institutional labels adopted by TDF: 1.Nature songs, 2.Forest songs, 3.Rounds and other songs. However, the first folder 'nature songs' is our interpretive label, based on the lyrics. All the songs were used as pedagogic material (though not labelled as such), both in the classrooms of TDF and during their retreats to Naraikadu. Children were taught about the natural environment (sun, clouds, waterfalls, moonlight and so on) and flora and fauna of the region (antigonon, hibiscus, potter wasp, termite, red velvet puchie [insect] and so on) through these songs. Each song was set to a specific musical notation, usually taken from christian 'choral' music. Also see AR-028-1-1 which are personal copies whereas this sub-series appears to be classroom copies
Nature songs
Softbound pamphlet, typed with overwriting, no label ascribing date or authorship. The handwritten title on the inner leaf states "Jeevananda (Transitions)". Jeevanandam was TDF's primary school. The pamphlet contains 27 songs, each dedicated to a particular flora or fauna of the region. It appears to have been used in the classroom (whether in the school building or at Naraikadu) as teaching-learning aids. Singing these songs was a form of edu-tainment for the children.
Access Level 1: Online. See
Forest songs
Softbound pamphlet (15/20), typed with overwriting, labeled 1/20 to 20/20. Currently, pamphlet nos. 2,4,6,7,8 and 16 are missing. The remaining 14 pamphlets are available. The pamphlets appear to have been used in the classroom (whether in the school building or at Naraikadu) as teaching-learning aids. Based on a quick scan each pamphlet appears to contain 31 songs. Each song is dedicated to an aspect of the natural environment of the forests and hills (likely the Western Ghats).Singing these songs was a form of edu-tainment for the children.
Access Level 1: Online. See
Forest songs
Softbound pamphlet (17/20), typed with overwriting, labeled 1/20 to 20/20. Currently, pamphlet nos. 2,4,6,7,8 and 16 are missing. The remaining 14 pamphlets are available. The pamphlets appear to have been used in the classroom (whether in the school building or at Naraikadu) as teaching-learning aids. Based on a quick scan each pamphlet appears to contain 31 songs. Each song is dedicated to an aspect of the natural environment of the forests and hills (likely the Western Ghats).Singing these songs was a form of edu-tainment for the children.
Access Level 1: Online. See
Rounds and other songs
Softbound pamphlet (5/13), typed with overwriting, labeled 1/13 to 13/13. Currently, pamphlet nos. 2, 4, 5 and 8 are available and the rest are missing. The pamphlets appear to have been used in the classroom (whether in the school building or at Naraikadu) as teaching-learning aids. Based on a quick scan, each pamphlet seems to have 27 songs - few pages are missing in some copies. Singing these songs was a form of edu-tainment for the children. Round songs or canon are musical pieces sung by groups of people, turn by turn, each group starting at different times. Most of these songs are dedicated to particular birds, bird sounds and learning from nature. They were generally sung the last night at the Naraikadu retreat while seated around a bonfire as part of the institution's traditions. We know that 'Fragrance of the upland' was composed by the founder Amy Carmichael in 1938. See AR-027-4-0-2. We have selected 5/13 for digitization. 2/13 appears identical to 5/13 but the first page (typewritten) is smudged so we are not scanning it. 8/13 and 4/13 are in fragile condition, showing water damage and fungal growth.
Access Level 1: Online. See
The material is paper-based, loose-leaf of varying sizes all less than A4 except one A3. There are 42 nos. sketches, most watercolour and remaining few pastels, colour pencils and pen & ink and 2 nos. photocopies of the A3 sketch. 5 nos. sketches have dates: 1923 (2 nos.), 1932 and 1939 (2 nos.) and a few of the sketches are signed by the artist ("Tara"). The style and execution of a few sketches matches that of AR-028-1-1-1 and can be dated to the 1920's. The sketches were all salvaged at different points of time from various locations of TDF campus. Hence as processing archivists we have arranged them into four folders, without a sub-series, each named thematically as: 1. Landscape and built environment, 2. Daily life and ecosystem, 3. Expeditions and 4. Biodiversity.
The sketches offer glimpses into day-to-day life of the girls and sisters at the Naraikadu retreat as they surmounted the challenges of living in the forests and hills of the Western Ghats including their encounters with nature (for e.g. navigating streams with rope bridges, facing snakes) and routes of their trekking expeditions. Read this series in conjunction with the similar series in Dohnavur collections, AR-028-2.
Landscape and built environment
5 items, loose-leaf sketches
Access Level 1: Online. See
Daily life and ecosystem
"22 nos: (a) 3 nos all front only-stuck on black cardboard: 17.8 x 16.1 (swimming-bottom left pencil mark "93"); 17.8 x 14.8 (gathering sticks); 25.1 x 17.6 (diving in) (b) 7 nos all front only-stuck on cardboard, colour pencil sketches signed ""Tara"": 9.8 x 12.5 (artist with book); 14.9 x 22.8 (3 women and trees); 14.9 x 22.6 (monkeys in trees); 22.9 x 14.7 (women crossing river using rope bridge); 22.7 x 14.8 (""premalu sittie-I will draw a sketch of you all""); 22.8 x 16.8 (""watching 'love light' from jewel house""); 22.8 x 14.7 (""Piria Sittie on her way to the bath..."") (c) 4 nos all front only-stuck on cardboard, watercolour and pen outline: 16.1 x 24.2 (""blowing the fire"" + ""four monkeys visit..); 16..2 x 12.8 (""watching ants""); 16.2 x 12.6 (""the left 'eye'""); 16.1 x 12.5 (""a star-gazing supper"") (d) 5 nos all stuck on black cardboard framing the sketches - one, watercolour, rest colour pencils: 29.8 x 20.8 (girls, fire, pot); 29.3 x 20.8 (washing blanket 1-""look at the painted...); 29.0 x 20.8 (washing blanket 2 - ""yes, the fire smoked very...""); 29.1 x 20.9 (washing blanket 3 - "they poked the heavy...""); 29.0 x 20.6 (washing blanket 4 - ""this is how they wrung..."") (e) 3 nos all front & back-watercolour, B&W: 17.6 x 23.4 (boys climbing trees, rocks+""Boys in Naraikadu...""text @ the back; 11.0 x 22.3 (B&W girl, trees+""swept by the flood...""text @ the back); 20.1 x 28.8 (multiple species+notes from logbook text @ the back)"
Access Level 1: Online. See
Expeditions
4 nos: (a) 43.4 x 25.7 (A3 size 'expedition to ramparts') front only-colour pencil; (b) 20.8 x 26.0 ('page1"@front+"page2"@back) water colour; (c) 19.8 x 25.3 ('a Saturday's climb') front only-stuck on cardboard; (d) 18.4 x 18.8 (colour pencil with pen outline + notes from logbook @ the back)-climbing fortifications?-both sides
Access Level 1: Online. See
Biodiversity
3 nos: (a) 20.0 x 20.5 (butterfly on branch + torn notes from logbook @ back); (b) 12.0 x 10.0 (butterfly + "pg.33" text @ the back); (c) 7.0 x 12.0 irregular size (leaf insect + "p.229 FN" text @ the back)
Access Level 1: Online. See
The conceptual origin point for the material in this collection is Naraikadu, a spiritual retreat of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF) located in the mid ranges of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in southern Tamil Nadu. The material is largely paper-based, a mix of handwritten, typed and printed, dating from the 1940s onwards. It includes field diaries and notes with sketches on the flora, fauna and biodiversity of this region and expedition trails and observations along their trails. It is mostly in English with notes in Tamil.The series has been arranged into the following sub-series: Godfrey Webb-Peploe (GWP) and Jacqueline Anne Woolcock (JW).
Also see AR-027-3 Naraikadu Biodiversity - notes and diaries.
Naraikadu was so named by the founder of TDF, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951). The retreat has a few cottages built using local materials with no modern infrastructure or amenities such as road access, electricity, indoor plumbing or furniture, and tropical rainforest at the doorstep. Various members of the TDF family continue to regularly observe and record nature (flora and fauna) at this retreat. The textual and visual material however were created not just by today's members but also by those in the colonial period including Amy Carmichael, Godfrey Webb-Peploe and others, who were among the first naturalists to record the region's flora and fauna.
The material includes (a) field notes and (b) diaries; handwritten in pen & ink by Godfrey Webb-Peploe (GWP) during his time and over many visits to Naraikadu. They include sketches in colour and one book has a pressed botanical sample. The diaries are written between 1942 and 1948. The first page has his initials 'GWP' along with the year. Few of them have dates and months too. The diaries are covered with cloth, hand-embroidered legend on the spine: 'N' as a notation for Naraikadu alongwith 'H' for Herbs or 'T' for Trees, 'G' for Grass, 'S' for Scandents & Shrubs, 'C' for Creepers and 'A R' for Mammals and Reptiles. Where there is more than one diary, the spine carries the volume number. The colours of the cloth-cover are also indicative of his classification system: 'green' for Plants, 'red' for Mammals and Reptiles, and 'navy blue' for an bibliographic index of the Bombay Natural History Society Journal volumes.
Similar to other members of the Fellowship, Godfrey Webb-Peploe was not exclusively a Christian missionary. He was an administrator, teacher, musician and a naturalist with TDF from 1926 till his death in 1949. His observations of biodiversity at Narakadiu were published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (Source: Richard and Hopeland, 2017, Naraikadu - an Eden in the Western Ghats: then and now. TDF publication) He was in charge of the boys' dormitories and taught them to observe and record weather in a sustained manner.
GWP Field notes - Naraikadu Tree Maps
Softcover notebook titled "Naraikadu Tree Maps".
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Field notes - Naraikadu Unidentified Herbs
Soft cover notebook titled "Naraikadu Unidentified Herbs".
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Naraikadu Herbs Part 1
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-H-1" titled "Naraikadu Herbs part 1" and positively identified as GWP Sep 1942.
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Naraikadu Herbs Part 2
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-H-1" titled "Naraikadu Herbs part 2" and positively identified as GWP Sep 1943.
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Naraikadu Trees
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-T-1" titled "Naraikadu Trees" and positively identified as GWP Sep 1940.
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Naraikadu Trees Book 2
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-T-2" titled "Naraikadu Trees Book 2" and positively identified as GWP Jul 1948.
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Creepers, Scandents and Shrubs in Naraikadu
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-S-C" titled "Creepers, Scandents and Shrubs in Naraikadu" and positively identified as GWP Sep 1942.
Access Level 1: Online. See
GWP Diary - Naraikadu (and foothills) Mammals and Reptiles
Cloth cover notebook, embroidered legend on spine "N-A-R" titled "Naraikadu(and foothills) Mammals and Reptiles (forest only)"and positively identified as GWP Apr 1941.
Access Level 1: Online. See
This sub-series currently comprises one folder - a soft bound note book, containing field notes and a few sketches handwritten in pen & ink. It has no explicit authorship. However, the CEO attributes the notes to JW. He recollected the numerous prescriptions written by her over the years for him and others. The expeditions are dated from 1950 to 1978.
JW served as a doctor at The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF) from 1969 to 1988. She was an avid trekker, visiting Naraikadu repeatedly and has identified numerous plants of the region. She partnered with World Wildlife Fund for systematic nature-based education (Source: Richard and Hopeland, 2017, Naraikadu - an Eden in the Western Ghats: then and now. TDF publication)
JW Field notes - Naraikadu notebook
Soft cover notebook titled "Naraikadu notebook" with Dr Jacquline Woolcock's (Kiruba sittie's) observations at Naraikadu and notes of her expeditions.
Access Level 1: Online. See
The conceptual origin point for the material in this collection is Naraikadu, a spiritual retreat of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF) located in the mid ranges of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in southern Tamil Nadu. The various logbooks are paper-based, handwritten in long notebooks with entries ranging from 1918 to 2022. They contain a mix of notes on daily life, prayer, forest expeditions, nature and weather observations by various members of the TDF family. The earliest set of notes and observations are written by the founder, Amy Carmichael. Other contributors include Godfrey-Webb Peploe (also see AR-027-3-1 and AR028-3-1) and other members of the TDF family. The oldest logbooks with maximum number of entries related to biodiversity and weather observations have been selected for digitisation. The series has no sub-series but individual folders organised by item name.
Naraikadu was so named by the founder of TDF, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951). The retreat has a few cottages built using local materials with no modern infrastructure or amenities such as road access, electricity, indoor plumbing or furniture, and tropical rainforest at the doorstep. TDF refers to each cottage as a house, such as Forest House, Jungle House and so on. Since inception TDF's family members have maintained log books in each of these houses.
Forest House logbook I
The material is a cardboard bound, long notebook of about 200 pages, handwritten by various members of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF), using different inks. The logbook is in fairly good condition. It is titled 'Forest House logbook I' and the earliest entry dates to 1918 and last entry dates to 1933. Similar to other logbooks it contains a mix of notes on daily life, prayer, forest expeditions, nature and weather observations by the TDF family. The earliest set of notes and observations are written by the founder, Amy Carmichael. Additionally, this book contains regular weather observations - at 6:30am, 12:30pm and 8:30pm.
Access Level 1: Online. See
Forest House logbook II
The material is a hardbound, long notebook of over 300 pages, handwritten by various members of The Dohnavur Fellowship (TDF), using different inks. The logbook is in fairly good condition. It is titled 'Forest House logbook II' and the earliest entry dates to 1933 and last entry dates to 1943. Similar to other logbooks it contains a mix of notes on daily life, prayer, forest expeditions, nature and weather observations by the TDF family. Additionally, this book contains entries by Godfrey-Webb Peploe (also see AR-027-3-1 and AR028-3-1) and a handwritten copy of the song 'Fragrance of the upland' composed by the founder Amy Carmichael in Jan 1938 (see pp.361 of the logbook. Also see AR-027-1-1 and AR028-1-1).
Access Level 1: Online. See
Printed pamphlet on Naraikadu (Grey Forest)
The material is a printed pamphlet on Naraikadu titled 'Naraikadu (Grey Forest)'. An in-house publication, it was written in 1983 by Devapiriam D A. It is included due to its archival value to the collection as it summarises the establishment of the retreat and of the Fellowship including the founder's ideology. The writer was a life-long member of the The Dohnavur Fellowship family and is still remembered for organising annual marathons from Naraikadu to the main campus. He was the school headmaster.
Access Level 1: Online. See