Vattakottai Fort - Layers of History

In Tamil, Vattam means circle. This ancient fort is rectangular in shape and is found about 9 kms to the east of Kanyakumari. It is a recently restored coastal fort and is in a remarkable state of preservation. It is reminiscent of many such colonial European style forts that dot the coasts of India and Sri Lanka. But this was built in its current form by an Indian power, the Kingdom of Travancore in the 1700s. Most of the construction as we see it today, is attributed to Eustachius De Lannoy the French speaking, Belgian born adventurer, who commanded the Dutch force at the Battle of Colachel fought between the forces of the Dutch East India Company and Travancore in August 1741. This was one of the few instances when an Indian force decidedly defeated a European military force. De Lannoy was captured alive, became friends with the Travancore king Marthanda Varman and was made the commander of the Travancore Army reorganizing it and arming it along European military lines. But within the fort one finds clues that this was an ancient Pandian Fort that was built to protect the pearl fishery further east and De Lannoy built his fort over an existing one. You will find plenty of the ubiquitous fish symbols on ceilings and walls.

Even if you are not a history lover, this is a nice place to visit. It is a tranquil setting and has spectacular views of the ocean and coast. The beach here has black sand. To the north you see the southernmost parts of the Western Ghat mountains. You can see the Koodankoolam Nuclear Power plant and scores of windmills in the distance.

 

Kanyakumari - The Southern Tip

தெனா அது உருகெழு குமரியின் தெற்கும்- புறநானூறு (South, to the south is the beautiful Kumari - Purananooru - circa 200 BCE)

Leaving Tuticorin, we drove south 2 hours to Kanyakumari, the very southernmost tip of India. Our original plan was to drive along the coast but our driver convinced us to take the new four-laned highway cutting across the interior. It was faster, safer and more comfortable. We stayed at the Sparsa in Kanyakumari. Old hotel but convenient and clean. Walking distance to all the major attractions including the Thiriveni Sangamam where the 3 seas the Eastern, Western and Southern meet. The ancient Tamils did not call them the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean you know. For such a touristy place Kanyakumari lacks quality accommodation. 

A 20 minute walk to the east is the Thiriveni Sangamam, Sunrise Point and the ferry terminal to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue. An efficient and well run ferry runs every 10 -15 minutes. These are 20th century structures but are well worth the visit. The ancient Kumari Amman or Bhagavathy Amman Temple and the Our Lady of Ransom Church originally built in the 1500s are good attractions. The church has been rebuilt in its current form in 1900. The Kumari Amman Temple is an ancient shrine to the Goddess. Legend has it that the rubies set in her nose ring used to be visible to ships far out to sea. There are scores of other attractions. A 10 minute drive to the west is the Sunset Point.

Manapad - Blue Lagoons and Historic Churches

In the year 1540, a Portuguese trading vessel was caught up in a terrible storm deep in the Indian Ocean and was crippled with its hind mast broken in two. The captain, a devout Catholic, made a vow that if the ship ever made landfall, he would build a church to thank the Lord for his crew's deliverance. The ship eventually drifted close to here and was brought into safety at the nearby ancient Pandian port of Kulasekharapattinam. The captain kept his promise and built a cross with the broken mast of the ship and a church. Both exist to this day. Later, in 1542, St. Francis Xavier came and spent some time here and lived in a grotto near the Church of the Captain's Cross.

Many a Tamil movie including Neethane En Ponvasantham, Singam 2 and Mani Ratnam's Kadal have been filmed on location here. They come here for the beauty of the place. 

Numerous historic churches are around every corner. 

It is a picturesque fishing village. It is located 51 km or about an hour and a half drive south of Thoothukudi. 

This is the Neithal. *In ancient Tamil literature from the Sangam period, which is commonly thought of as between 200 BCE to 200 CE, the land was divided into five geographical regions. They were the seashore, desert, farmland, forest and hills. The poetry for each region was distinct. The Neithal is the seashore.

Adichanallur - Enigmatic Archeological Site

For those not interested in history this will be a bit of a boring post. So please ignore.

This is an intriguing archeological site about an hour’s drive or about 40 km west of Thoothukudi. It lies on the banks of the Thamirabarani river. First discovered in the late 1800s, it has divulged some very interesting artifacts including skeletal remains. It is an ancient burial site with numerous burial urns. It has been carbon dated to the first millennium BCE. The period seems to be that of the Sangam era poets. It is well known that in the ancient Tamil country, interning dead people in burial urns or thaazhi (தாழி or முதுமக்கள் தாழி) was a common custom that is well described in ancient Tamil literature. Thaazhi burial sites are found all over the Tamil country. Just 15 km downstream is the location of the famous Pandian port city and ancient capital Korkai. Today, Korkai is a small nondescript village which is quite inland and lends credence to the belief that the sea has receded here.

What is very interesting about this 2500 year old site is that most of the skulls unearthed here do not belong to the current local ethnic group. There are a variety of skulls with mongoloid, negroid and australoid features. The prevalent theory is that Korkai had a large number of foreign seafarers / traders from East Asia, South East Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East living here and Adichanallur was the burial ground for this cosmopolitan city. There is a verse from the Sangam era work the Pattinathu Paalai which describes the contemporary Chola port town of Puhar some distance north of here along the coast that describes a multiethnic population speaking many different tongues. 

"பல் ஆயமொடு பதி பழகி, வேறு வேறு உயர்ந்த முதுவாய் ஒக்கல்...மொழி பல பெருகிய....புலம் பெயர் மாக்கள் கலந்து இனிது உறையும்" - பட்டினத்துப்பாலை 200

There are many more interesting facts about this site. Nothing much to see here except for mounds of gravel. To me, it gave me goosebumps to stand here. There are plans to build a museum to house some of the artifacts. An earlier attempt failed. The artifacts from the original excavations by European amateur archaeologists are lost forever.

Visited August 2019. Base Thoothukudi

The Theri - The Red Sand Desert

This post is a little different from the usual. This is about a particular geological feature unique to this region. About 12 km to the west of Thiruchendur you come across the Kuthiraimozhi Theri (குதிரைமொழி தேரி). At 12,000 acres and about 12 km across at its widest, it is the largest of the pockets of Theri (தேரி), Teri or Therikadu (தேரிக்காடு) remaining. Once stretching over large parts of this land, much of it has been encroached upon and reclaimed for cultivation and habitation. It is an area of red sand dunes with little vegetation. The sand is red because of the high content of hematite, a derivative of garnet. The red color comes from the iron content. Some geologists think it is of aeolian origin, and that it is formed by sands blown by the winds, millions of years ago. To me it looks like this could have been the seashore and the sea has receded here - a feature we see all along this coast. During colonial times, British administrators tried their best to reclaim this land by introducing various alien plants that they thought would grow here. One of the few that adapted to this terrain was the cashew plant and it grows wildly here these days. 

The edges of the Theri are dotted with a large number of traditional, pre-Vedic temples dedicated to village deities like Ayyanar, Mayandi, Amman etc. We visited the Katkuvel Ayyanar temple near Kaayyaamozhi (காயாமொழி ) as it is one of the deepest into the Theri with a motorable road. The temple itself has been rebuilt recently and is a fairly modern affair. 

The Theri is a restricted area and you cannot venture into it without permission and a knowledgeable guide. The quicksand can be treacherous. Compasses may not work due to the high iron content and you may not have a cellular signal. People have been known to become disoriented and lost according to the local villagers.

The Sangam era poets talk about 5 kinds of land or Thinai - Kurinchi or mountainous region, Mullai or forested land, Marudham or cultivated land, Neithal or the seashore and Paalai the desert. People often say the Tamil country does not have a desert. Perhaps this is what the Sangam poets were referring to as their desert. 

Our photos are from the edges of the Theri and show a lot of vegetation.

Base Thoothukudi. Visited Aug 2019

Panchalankurichi and the Legend of Kattabomman

Templed out? Let's take a break from temples and explore some history. I will try my best to be brief.

After the great Vijayanagar Empire based in the Deccan, with Hampi as its capital, took control of the Tamil speaking lands in the 15th century, they appointed Telugu speaking governors called the Nayakkar in the Tamil lands. The administration of the Nayakkar was formalized during the rule of the powerful Vijayanagar Emperor Krishna Deva Raya in the early 1500s. A large part of the Tamil country including the most southern region was controlled by the Madurai Nayakkar. After the Vijayanagar Empire came to an end after its defeat at the hands of the Deccan Sultanates at the battle of Talikota in 1565, the Nayakkar became independent kings. In the late 1500s, the Madurai Nayakkar organized their territory into 70 Paalayams and appointed minor rulers called Paalayakaarar to rule them. Most were from the Deccan and spoke Telugu or Kannada. Few were Tamil. It was a feudal system where the Paalayakaarar or Polygars as the British called them, paid tribute to the king and were expected to provide men and material in times of war. One such Paalayam was located here at Panchalankurichi. After the Madurai Naykkar were defeated by the Nawab of Arcot, Madurai came under the Nawab's rule and the controversial hero Muhammad Yusuf Khan or Maruthanayagam Pillai controlled the Madurai territories. Subsequently all of the lands came under the rule of the British East India Company. During this transition the Palayakaarar revolted against the British. What ensued were the Polygar Wars from 1799 to 1805 when the Paalayakaarar and the British fought a number of battles before the British eventually prevailed.

At the time of the Polygar Wars, Panchalankurichchi was ruled by a Telugu speaking chieftain called Veerapandia Kattabomman or Gettibommu in Telugu. He was the last of a long line of Kattabommans and was one the most stubborn of the resistors of British takeover of the Tamil country and was eventually captured and hanged. He became a folk legend among the common people and his story has lived on. Some historians believe that the story is bigger than the actual man and has grown with time. Some even claim that he was a bandit. In current political times, the fact that he was a Telugu ruler in a Tamil land has led some narrow-minded Tamil nationalists to try and diminish his legacy. 

Sorry - I am a history buff and get carried away.

The pretty building that you see as you enter is a memorial built by the Tamil Nadu government in the 1970s. To the right lie the ruins of Kattabomman's fort and palace.

Visited Aug 2019. Base Thoothukudi

Thiruchendur - Murugan Temple

One of the Aru Padai Veedu (6 abodes) of Lord Murugan, this is certainly not a lesser known temple to many and a popular pilgrimage site. We have included it here as it is not as well known to others.One of the largest temple complexes and one of the richest in Tamil Nadu, it is an ancient site. It is located on a seashore. It is the second most important Aru Padai Veedu. Although there is plenty of inscriptional evidence of Pandian benevolence towards this temple, much of the architecture that you see today is relatively recent and was built by private donors over the centuries rather than by royal grant or decree. The Rajagopuram is on the west, away from the seashore and is only about 300 years old. In most temples the main gopuram is on the east.

In the mid 1600s the Dutch occupied this area. The story goes that one day the Dutch soldiers raided this temple and took the idol out to sea thinking that it contained gold or precious stones. When they did not find any, they threw into the sea. A few years later one of the ardent devotees of Lord Murugan had a dream about its location and divers dove to the sea bed and found the idol and reinstalled it.

Thiru means holy and Chendur means red land. The legend is that Lord Murugan slew the evil demon Surapadman here in a classic battle between good and evil. The land became blood soaked and red by the epic fight. Today the land around here does not look red. But we will explore a few kilometres west of here for an explanation in a subsequent post.

Visited Aug 2019 Base Thoothukudi