Sri Manavalamamunigal day 6 : 2018 ~ Amavasai purappadu ..
History is a bitter pill – undiluted, it could change many falsely
conceived notions and political theories put up !~ have you heard of a proclamation issued in 1786 calling upon
all believers to ‘extract the cotton of negligence from the ears of their
understanding’ and quitting the territories of apostates and unbelievers, to
take refuge in his dominions, where by the divine blessings, they would be
better provided for than before, and their lives, honour and property remain
under the protection of God he was
resolved that the worthless and self-necked infidels, who had turned their
heads from obedience to the true faith, and openly raised the standard of
unbelief, should be chastised by the hands of the faithful and made either to
acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute ! (imagine the same being
uttered by the majority community,
immediately there would call for being tolerant, be peace loving, be secular
and do award-whapsi)
Mandya is well served the holy Cauvery – this
district Mandya was carved out of larger Mysore district in the year
1939. Mandya is called as " Sakkarenadu " in Kannada due to abundance
of sugarcane crops. The people of Mandya
are called
"Sakkarenadinaakkarejanatee" meaning them to be sweet, lovely
and kind. Sadly, these places had
witnessed many turmoil and blood-bath and there is some linkage to today (not
as 7th Nov 2018) but as Amavasai day. Today is day 6 of Swami Manavala Mamunigal Uthsavam. Deepavali could fall on Amavasai day and few
times, it occurs the next day – today is one !
Seringapatnam (modern day Srirangapatnam) where holy Cauvery
flows with full force is a place of antiquity – is situate at western end of an
island 3 miles long and 1 wide. It
derives much of its celebrity from the two temples built there around AD 894 by
Thirumalaiya. In the time of Vijayanagar
dynasty around 1454, a fort was erected on the island by Timmanna. From 1609 this place was in the hands of Raja
Wodeiyar. This place witnessed multiple
wars – among which ‘siege of Seringapatnam’ [Apr – May 1799] turned out to be
the final confrontation of Fourth Anglo Mysore war between British East India
Coy and the Kingdom of Mysore. The
British achieved a decisive victory breaching the walls of the fortress and
storming the citadel. Tipu Sultan to
whom the proclamation of 1786 is attributed was killed in that war. British restored the throne to Wodeyar
dynasty but retained indirect control of the kingdom, which had in earlier eras
been ruled by Kadambas, Gangas, Chalukyas and others.
From the reigh of Shahjahan, to Aunrangazeb – victory of deccan,
a great part of Karnatik was overrun by the troops of Bijapur under Ran Dulka
Khan and Shaji, father of Veer Shivaji.
In 1687, when Sira became headquarters of muslim soverign Bijapur, Fatah
Muhammad, Haider Ali’s father rose to become a local chieftan. In 1749, occurred the despatch of troops from
Mysore with whom Haidar was serving, was a contest for the Nizamat. Those were the periods in history, when
neither the British nor the French invaders cared much for the alleged rights
of either claimants but were bet only on supporting the one who would likely
advance their own interests. In 1766,
Raja Chikka Krishnaraj died. Haidar
ordered Raja’s eldest son Nanjraj to be the successor but finding on his return
to capital an year later, that young chief was inclined to assert his own
authority, Haidar confiscated his personal estates, plundered the palace, and
assumed control over all his household affairs.
All that is found in this
colour is extracted from book – ‘Haidar Ali &Tipu Sultan and the struggle
with the power of South’ written by Lwein B Bowring, former Chief Commissioner
of Mysore – published in 1893.
There is a sacred shrine called ‘Melukote’ about 20 miles north
of Seringapatham. Haidar after some
ineffectual manoeuvres near the stupendous rock fortress of Savandurg, entered
the eastern pass lading into the hills within Melukote is situated. The warring
Marathas kept up a galling cannonade and Maratha horse charged the
fugitives. Seeing that all was lost,
Haidar escaped alone; his son Tipu escaped in disguise of a mendicant. FazlUllah Khan fought valiantly killing many
– this occurred in 1771. Many locals
were killed mercilessly. Similar
cruelties were practised on the people of Coorg where Haidar had barbariously
cut off the heads of all those who opposed his progress. Tipu marched on to the country with his army,
warning them that any further rebellion would extinguish it by removing the
population and islamizing them. At a
later period, he actually carried this barbarous threat into execution,
devastating the province and driving the wretched inhabitants like sheep to
Seringapatnam, where they had to submit to circumcision and sanctifying rites
prescribed the despot.
The book further adds that the character of Tipu stands out in marked contrast to that of
his father – though he possessed courage, he was cruel too. He had inflated ideas of his royal dignity as
he presented himself the titles ‘lion of God Gvot’; ‘the Haidari rule’ and more
titles. The climax of his arrogance was
reached when he ordered ‘khutabh’ or daily prayer be read in his own name. while the Hindus counted time in cycles of 60
years, each year having a separate name, Tipu founded a new calender containing
354 days and each month was called by some name. from year 1784, all his letters were dated
according to his new nomenclature. In
1784, treat was executed in mangalore, by which convention, Tipu recovered
possession in Kanara and Malabar. He
signalised his zeal by driving out the coast region no fewer that 30000 of its
Christian inhabitants, forcibly deported to Mysore. His own account of the transaction was that
the Portuguese having on pretence of trade obtained settlements in western
coast had prohibited musalmaans from practising their faith. He ordered that an enumeration and description
of the houses of all houses of Christians should be made and seized thousands
of persons, males formed into batallions and ordered to change religion. Those so changed received the appellation of
‘ahmadi or praise-worthy’.
Srirangapatha
houses famous Sri Ranganatha temple ~ the religious history of Srirangapatna
dates back to 9th century when the Gangas (Ganga dynasty ) ruled this region
from their capital at Talakkadu. They built the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple in
this island and hence the name Srirangapatna. There is a bridge over Cauvery
here known as Wellesley Bridge, erected in 1804, under the direction of Dewan
Purnaiya and named after the Governor-General, the Marquis of Wellesley. The
Siege of Seringapatam in 1799 was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore
War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The
British, with the allied Nizam of Hyderabad, achieved a decisive victory after
breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel.
Tipu Sultan, Mysore's ruler, was killed in the action.
I have on earlier occasions posted on the famous Temple ‘Sri Selva Narayana Perumal Kovil’ at Melkote
reverred by us as
ThiruNarayanapuram, a
Abhimanasthalam of Udayavar who lived here for 12 years, codified and ordained
strict procedures for betterment of Sri Vaishnavism. It is a hilly protected place, calmness,
serenity and divinity pervading here. It
is on rocky hills known as Yadugiri, Yadavagiri and Yadushailadweepa,
overlooking the Cauvery valley. Situated now
in Pandavapura taluk, Melkote is closer to Mandya ~ MandayamIyengars are
great scholars especially in Sanskrit and have been doing yeoman service to
Srivaishnavism and kainkaryam to Chelva Narayanar.
History
has it that during the 14thCentury, Melkote suffered an attack by
the Muslims. However, during the Vijayanagara period, Thimmanna Dandanayaka
repaired and rebuilt temples. Centuries
later, there was to be bloodbath. In 1762 Hyder Ali snatched the Mysore Kingdom
and treated Mandyam community who were loyal to Mysore kings very badly. Later
in 1783 Tippu killed about 700 families for being loyal to the royal family and
took away all their properties. This
killing took place on Deepavali day and in memory of the same those families do
not celebrate Deepavali even to-day. To escape from Tippu’s harsh treatment,
many families migrated to Madras outside his kingdom. In 1799 the kingdom was
restored to the royal family after Tippu was defeated.
I
have heard this piece of tragic history
from Dr MAV Swami [Dr Mandayam Ananthanpillai Venkatakrishnan Swami] and there are other references too. The website
:http://www.mandyam.com/ourorigin.html - has extract from Mandayam Sri Vasihana
Mahajanara Chatitre, by Sri Jatavallabha
Singriengar (Civil Engineer &Ayurvedic Doctor) - published in 1956 .. .. sadly sometimes history is forgotten,
and news is presented deliberately in a different dimension as the temple at
Srirangapatna was nurtured by this ruler.
Away from all this history – today at Thiruvallikkeni, being
Amavasyai day, there was grand purappadu of Swami Manavalamamunigal with Sri
Parthasarathi and here are some photos of the purappadu.
*adiyenSrinivasadhasan.
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