Karuna Periyaswamy

Karuna Periyaswamy, born in Kuilapalayam, was very young when he joined Auroville at age 14.  As a child, he had once met the Mother at the Ashram, as part of a school visit, offering flowers to her. His grandfather was one of the village chiefs of Kuilapalayam. He initially stayed in Fraternity, then in Aspiration for a while, and then finally settled back in Fraternity with his family.

He was partly educated in Auroville (After School), and he became a keen sportsman; kabaddi player, volleyball player and basketball player. He worked at Aurelec for some time, and later was part of the Solar Service team for a while. 

Karuna  married Uma in 1991 and had two children, Vidhya and Kishore. He spent his last months with his grandson Vihaan who was born recently.

Multifaceted Aurovilian

At Fraternity, Karuna started a small workshop, producing handicrafts items and dolls. He started with one tailor and one lady assistant, and then, in 1993, this became a unit, Discovery,

a garment exporting unit with about 60 employees, offering a lot of job opportunities to the surrounding villages of Kuilapalayam, Bommayarpalayam, Edayanchavadi and Alankuppam. The unit specialised in silk hand painted garments and accessories.

Karuna was very actively involved in Auroville life. He was the first Tamil /Indian to start a successful export unit in Auroville. Later on he expanded the business by taking over the Lotus unit (Hammocks). In recent years he was managing the Discovery guest-house. He created Discovery trust and was a trustee of Aurosarjan. Moreover, he used to be a member of the Entry group, one of the Working Committees, and the ABC support group. He also helped and supported youngsters. He financially supported a lot of sports activities like tournaments and matches. And he contributed to Auroville schools. For some time he was one of the executives of NESS school and of the water maintenance service. 

Karuna will be remembered as a very organised person, straightforward, skilful, very hard working, with great will power, and he was a strong and bold person. He loved to travel the world and experienced the USA, England, Germany, France, Switzerland.

For the past 6 years, Karuna suffered from chronic kidney disease and was in dialysis. He passed away on the 5th of December, aged 60. His cremation took place the next day, at Adventure Burial Ground.

As remembered by Karuna’s daughter, and son, Vidhya and Kishore, and his wife Uma.