MADURAI

HISTORY OF MADURAI

• Madurai is one of the oldest cities of India, with a history dating all the way back to the Sangam period of the pre Christian era. The glory of Madurai returned in a diminished form in the earlier part of this millennium; it later on came under the rule of the Vijayanagar kingdom after its ransack by the ravaging armies of Delhi (Malik Kafur). During the 16th and 18th centuries, Madurai was ruled by the Nayak Emperors, the foremost of whom was Tirumalai Nayakar. The Sangam period poet Nakkeerar is associated with some of the episodes of Sundareswarar - that are enacted as a part of temple festival traditions even today.
• The Sangam age or the Golden age of Tamil literature – produced masterpieces way back in the Pre christian era and in early 1st millennium . Madurai was the seat of the Tamil Sangam or Academy of learning. The entire city of Madurai, is built around the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple – the temple par excellence. Concentric rectangular streets surround the temple, symbolizing the structure of the
• As early as the 3rd century BC, Megasthanes visited Madurai. Later many people from Rome and Greece visited Madurai and established trade with the Pandya kings. Madurai flourished till 10th century AD when it was captured by Cholas the arch rivals of the Pandyas.
• The Cholas ruled Madurai from 920 AD till the beginning of the 13th century. In 1223 AD Pandyas regained their kingdom and once again become prosperous. Pandian Kings patronised Tamil language in a great way. During their period, many master-pieces were created. the great epic in Tamil was written based on the story of Kannagi who burnt Madurai as a result of the injustice caused to her husband Kovalan. In April 1311, Malik Kafur, the general of Alauddin Khilji who was then the ruler of Delhi, reached Madurai and raided and robbed the city for precious stones, jewels, and other rare treasures. This led to the subsequent raids by other Muslim Sultans. In 1323, the Pandya kingdom including Madurai became a province of the Delhi empire, under the Tughlaks.
• The 1371, the Vijayanagar dynasty of Hampi captured Madurai and it became part of the Vijayanagar empire. Kings of this dynasty were in habit of leaving the captured land to governors called Nayaks. This was done for the efficient management of their empire. The Nayaks paid fixed amount annually to the Vijayanagar empire. After the death of Krishna Deva Raya (King of Vijayanagar empire) in 1530 AD, the Nayaks became independent and ruled the territories under their control. Among Nayaks, Thirumalai Nayak (1623-1659) was very popular, even now he is popular among people, since, it was he who contributed to the creation of many magnificent structures in and around Madurai. The Raja Gopuram of the Meenakshi Amman Temple, The Pudu Mandapam and The Thirumalai Nayakar's Palace are living monuments to his artistic fervor.
• Madurai started slipping into the hands of the British's East India Company. In 1781, British appointed their representatives to look after Madurai. George Procter was the first collector of Madurai.\
• Now after India's independence, Madurai is one of the major districts of Tamilnadu State. Later on Madurai district was bifurcated into two districts namely Madurai and Dindugul Districts. In Madurai District, there are 15 State Assembly constituencies and two parliament constituencies.
• The history of Madurai will not be complete without mentioning the name of RANIMAGAMMAL, the woman of great skill and sagacity. History does not provide many instances of ruling queens in Tamil Nadu. Though it was considered that women were not suited to succeed the throne of a kingdom, Rani Mangammmal, however shines in almost solitary eminence as an able and powerful ruler in Tamil Nadu. Madurai is famous for its temples.The Aappudaiyaar Koyil Tevara Stalam and the Koodalazhagar Divya Desam are the most important temples one should rarely miss to go. In the vicinity of Madurai is Tirupparamkunram, one of the 6 padai veedu shrines of Murugan (glorified in Madurai Sangam Nakeerar’s Tirumurugaatruppadai). Also in the vicinity of Madurai is Alagar Koyil, one of the prominent Divya Desam shrines of the Sri Vaishnavite faith.

rajapalayam

Introduction

  Rajapalayam municipality was constituted on 1-10-1940 with a population of 38641. This municipal town consists of rajapalayam village,inam chettikulam, sambandapuram, north venganallur,pudupalagam, inam thoppupatti, samshipuram, kothathankulam part and kodambankulam villages.  Kodanari kanmoi and agricultural areas are found in the western part of this town.  Five roads are radiating from rajapalayam on the north of madurai on the south of tenkasi and sankarankovil on the east of chattarapatti and on to the west to mountains and ayyanar falls. The concentration of industrial activities - specially cotton industry, made this town  a more significant zone in kamarajar district.

History & Growth

  Name "rajapalayam" is derived from the word "rajas"  tamil synonym for raja and palayam in tamil means a "cantonment on fort". Thus rajapalayam means  raja's fort. rajapalayam is inhabited by people who came from the old vijayanagaram state.  One chinna raja, a lineage decedent of the king of vijayanagar belonged to pasumpatti   migrated to the south along with his followers and settled at kilarajakularaman at the first instance and then moved their settlements to palayapalayam in 1483 a.d. When vijayanagaram rule was established in madurai, the descendents of the original emigrants were said to have served under the chokkanatha nayak, king of madurai (1659 -1682) who has recorded his appreciation of the service rendered by chinna raja and his four sons and has granted  sasanam.  Either after the battle of talaikotta (1565) or on the eve of the same battle more rajas migrated to the south from the vijayanagar empire.  They settled in pudupalayam, western portion of rajapalayam municipality and the town was expanded by purchasing lands from vijayarenga chokkanatha nayak (1706 -1732).rajapalayam was constituted as a united board in the year 1885.  It became a panchayat board in the year 1930.  Railway line was laid in the year 1927 and the town was electrified in 1937.

Geographical Feature

The climate in the rajapalayam town is hot and dry. the average annual rainfall during the year 1991 was 82.88m and the town gets maximum rainfall during the  northeast  monsoon.  Average temperature is 26.65 °c minimum and 38.45 °c maximum. Major wind directions are of east, south and the south east in may and june and of west in october and november.

sriviliputhur

SriViliputtur

History of srivilliputtur and its temples

                                                  it is believed that a long time ago srivillipudhur was just a forest. the was called shenbagaranyam (forest of shenbaga trees). In his varaga avatar .Lord vishnu come there for a rest under a banyan tree after annihilating kalanemi an asura king.

                                                   villi and puttan were brothers and hunters . In one of their hunting adventure villi  lost his brother to a tiger . He was saddened. In his dream appeared Lord vishunu and told about the banyan tree and asked to go the cave.  villi found out not only the idols of vatapatrasayee-sri vishnu in resting  posture-but also fell upon a treasure of gold and silver.

                                                      using  all the wealth villi created villiputtur and the temple of vatapatrasayee.it was later renovated by periyalwar,pandiyas

periyalwar

                         periyalwar was originally garudalwar-the vaganam of Lord vishnu. On lord vishnu's orders garudalwar was born as periyalwar . The other name is vishnu sittar. periyalwar  made garlands for his lord vatapatrasayee. He gave lectures on the philosophy of 'saranagathi' : sung poerns on god. Once he won the debates at pandya raja sabhai

                         The king gifted him with enormous wealth . periyalwar used the money to renovate the temple.

                          One  day to his surprise. in his garden. vishnusittar found out the divine girl whom he named as kothai. actually the girl was the reincarnation of boomadevi one of the consorts of lord vishnu she was sent to viliputtur on her owen wishes to serve periyalwar and lord vatapatra sayee.

  

andal

Thus andal became the foster child of periyalwar. She became very devolted to lord vatapatrasayee. She plucked flowers and made garlands for the lord. But every day she wore the garlands,and then she sent them for the god. On noticing this conduct, periyalwar felt very sorry.He scolded the child.He prepared fresh garland and offered it to lord.But to his dismay,patrasayee did not accept the garlands.Instead he demanded the garlands worn by kothai nachiyar. Immediately priyalwar understood that andal was a divine being. From that day onwards she became to be known as'Soodithantha sudarkodi'.

                          The devotion wasn't contained to flower making alone. andal wrote hymns on Lord krishna-Thiruppavai-30 poems of devotion and love. She vowed to marry Lord vishnu. Later of perialwar and andal traveled to srirangam on the instructions of Lord ranganatha.There she got married to lord ranganatha and her soul got merged with the lord.Periyalwar returned afther marriage and and builts the sri andal temple during 7-8th centuries. in reverence to andal and priyalwar. Villiputtur has become srivilliputtur. sri represents 'sridevi''lakshmi'in sanskrit

City

                 Srivilliputtur is added to virudhunagar district.srivilliputtur very famous in andal kovil the andal kovil kopuram is tamil nadu govt LOGO

               

Famous food

                               The famous food in pallcova this food very poplar food this food manufacture in srivilliputtur .Milk and sukar mix in pallcova