Madurai

Madurai is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, the third largest city in Tamil Nadu and 25th most populated city in India. Located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia.

Quotes

  • O King! The city, which is called Madhurapuri for its honeyed loveliness, has now become the city of cruel beasts; it now lives up to its earlier name of Vyaghrapuri, the city of tigers because humans don’t dwell there (anymore). [1]
    Those temples of Gods, which used to reverberate with the sacred melody of the mridangam, now echo the dreadful howls of jackals. [5]
    In the Brahmin Quarters [Agraharams] of our city, huge columns of smoke emanating from the scared Yagnas used to rise up and reach the skies amid the sacred Vedic chants but alas! today those selfsame Quarters send up wretched stenches of meat roasted by the Turushkas; the Vedic chants are today replaced by the beastly cacophonies of drunken hoodlums. [7]
    During the days of Pandyas, our women used to bathe in [river] Taamraparni, whose waters turned white from the sandal-paste applied to their breasts. My lord! Now she’s coloured only in red from the currents of blood flowing into her from all the cows slaughtered by its wicked occupiers all over the country. [13]
    O King! I cannot bear to look at the countenance of those Dravida ladies who were bounteously endowed with beauty. Ravished horribly by the scourging Turushkas, these delicate women now sport lifeless lips and exhale hot breaths, and their abundant tresses that have come undone are painful to the eyes. I don’t have the words to describe the suffering and dishonour painted on their faces, which know neither redemption nor protection. [15]
    • Madhuravijayam by Gangadevi, quoted in The Madurai Sultanate_ A Concise History - Sandeep Balakrishna
    • Description of Madurai under the Madurai Sultanate
  • The temples in the land have fallen into neglect, as worship in them has been stopped... The sweet odour of the sacrificial smoke and chant of the Vedas have deserted the villages which are now filled with the foul smell of roasted flesh and the fierce noise of the ruffianly Turushkas... The wicked mlechchas pollute the religion of the Hindus every day."
    • Ganga Devi wife of Kumar Kampana (died 1374 CE) of Vijayanagar in her Madhuravijayam writing about the Madurai region. Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 4
  • “The wicked mlechchas pollute the religion of the Hindus every day. They break the images of gods into pieces and throw away the articles of worship. They throw into fire Srimad Bhagwat and other holy scriptures, forcibly take away the conchshell and bell of the Brahmanas, and lick the sandal paints on their bodies. They urinate like dogs on the tulsi plant and deliberately pass faeces in the Hindu temples. They throw water from their mouths on the Hindus engaged in worship, and harass the Hindu saints as if they were so many lunatics let large.”
    • Ganga Devi wife of Kumar Kampana (died 1374 CE) of Vijayanagar in her Madhuravijayam writing about the Madurai region. quoted in Goel, S. R. (2001). The story of Islamic imperialism in India.
  • “After five days, the royal canopy moved from Birdhul on Thursday, the 17th of Zi-l Ka’da, and arrived at Kham, and five days afterwards they arrived at the city of Mathra (Madura), the dwelling place of the brother of the Rai Sundar Pandya. They found the city empty, for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two or three elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagganath). The elephants were captured and the temple burnt.”
  • Madurai, ranked among the oldest cities in south India, had an unbroken history going back to prehistoric times. Several legends were associated with the city. According to the sthala puranas, when sage Agastya was at Banaras, the rishis requested him to relate the sixty-four lilas of Shiva (Sundaresvara) on the banks of the Vegavati (Vaigai) river. Agastya then lauded the glories of Madurai. In popular lore, the word Madurai was the Tamil form of Mathura, the holy city on the Jumna in northern India. The name could also have derived from the Tamil word madhuram, meaning sweetness.
    • Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Episodes from Indian history. 269
  • Malik Kafur arrived at Madurai on 10th April 1311. Amir Khusrau wrote that Malik Kafur, ..arrived at the city of Mathra (Madura), the dwelling place of the brother of the Rai Sundar Pandya. They found the city empty, for the Rai had fled with the Ranis, but had left two elephants in the temple of Jagnar (Jagannath). The elephants were captured and the temple burnt .
    • About the sack of Madurai in 1311 CE, Jain, M. (2019). (Elliot and Dowson Vol. Ill: 91) in Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Episodes from Indian history. 269ff

See also

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