The Theosophical Society: one-of-a-kind paradise and sprawling lung space

The Theosophical Society was started by Madame H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel H.S. Olcott in New York in 1875 to ‘collect and diffuse knowledge of the laws which govern the universe’. While they came to Bombay first in 1877, they eventually decided that the headquarters should be at Adyar, Madras, and bought the ‘Huddleston Garden’ for 600 pounds for the society