In memoriam - Daniel Brewer

On July 3rd 2022, Daniel Brewer, one of Auroville’s early pioneers and co-founder of the Kottakarai community, passed away at the age of 84 in his home in Sayulita, Mexico.

Daniel had left his home in southern California in the mid-sixties and travelled overland from Europe to India in 1969. A year later he joined, along with his then partner Iris and young son Mitra, the early residents living in the ‘Silence’ community, located on the site of the future Bharat Nivas. Understanding that they would have to vacate when construction began, and armed with Auroville property maps, the small team went on the look-out for a place to start a new living space. When they found a suitable location just outside Kottakarai village, and Mother gave her blessing for the same, the beginning of Kottakarai community started in close collaboration with the villagers nearby. Daniel built a house on the edge of the large grove of silk-cotton trees and made Auroville his home for the next 8 years, enormously helping the Kottakarai community manifest with his hands-on skills, practical experience and always willing demeanour.

As Andrea, Daniel’s wife, once reminisced in a newsletter of Auroville International USA: “Daniel had a gracious relation with the villagers. He spoke Tamil with surprising fluency, even able to make jokes. Besides being involved with planting trees and care of the land, he had become the local cobbler. He was making handsome leather sandals for any and all who needed them, including the villagers who were quite amazed that this velekarran (white man) would stoop to a work that was normally only done by Harijans, the outcasts. Small wonder that the villagers adored Daniel. We couldn’t have had a better ambassador for Auroville in the village of Kottakarai.”

Daniel left Auroville and settled in Mexico, where he has been living for the last 22 years. But he always stayed in touch with the City of Dawn.