journey into history - thiruvarangan ula

Hey ..

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything up here. As said earlier, I was enjoying authentic sweet, karam and coffee back home. Now Iam back - back to work, back to crazy eating schedules, back to talking English with a fake accent, back to reading news on the Internet, back to rash driving and bluetooth chatting, back to blogging...

For the past few years I have been interested in knowing the history of Lord Ranganatha of the temple at Srirangam. My dad hails from there and I have visited the place quite a number of times. In the late 90s during one of our otherwise boring 'pilgrimage' kind of trips, my mom mentioned something about the Idol being kidnapped a few hundred years earlier. Ever since I have been trying to know more about this fantastic & mysterious piece in history. Early 2000, I obtained a very old copy of South India and Mohammedan Invaders from Connemara with the help of a very very old & knowledged librarian. After almost 3 years, I got my hands on Thiruvarangan Ula - by Sree Venugopalan(more popularly known as Pushpa Thangadhurai) which is all about the great saga.

In the fourteenth century, the Sultans from the North turned their eyes to the South, eyeing particularly the Hindu temples to plunder their abundant wealth. The Tamil kings were running puppet & weak regimes and Hoysala & Pandya kingdoms were just symbolic and mutely submitted to the Khiljis & Tughlaks. Lord Ranganatha from Srirangam was forcefully taken away to Delhi and kept for about a year, when some of the devadasis helped a rich devotee regain the idol and bring it back to Srirangam. About 40 years later, Mohammed-Bin-Tughlak and his strong army surrounded the gates of Srirangam to take the Idol away.... and that was when the Lord started his grand tour.

For the next 50 years, the Lord was kept hidden from the Moslem kings. The North Indian Moslem kings and later the Bahmini Sultans continued their desparate search for the Idol. For the people of South, Lord Ranaganatha was more than Idol of a God - he was the symbol of their hope, their freedom. And those souls who had entrusted themselves with the sacred job of saving their God, it was a holy suicidal task.

Lord Ranganatha travelled from Srirangam through the following route - Azhagar Koil, Madurai, Ettayapuram, Azhvar Thirunagari, Nagercoil, Trivandrum, Kollam, Kozhikode, Sathyamangalam - where he was lost for 20 years.. and after recovery, he travelled to Tirupati where he was retained for 10 years and finally back to Srirangam. The first kings of the Vijayanagara Empire defeated the Bahmini Sultans and brought Lord Ranganatha back to Srirangam from Tirupati and reinstated the Lord with grand celebrations.

I have been following up the route that the Lord was taken along visiting the various places where he was hidden away. This time during my vacation I toured around the small villages around Srirangam through which the pilgrims carried the Lord to escape from the powerful armies of Tughlak. I visited the temples of Srirangam, Gunaseelam, Thirupparaithurai, Thiruvanaikkaval where the Lord is said to have rested briefly.. I had earlier visited Nagercoil, Trivandrum, Kozhikode and Sathyamangalam.

This history of 50 years during the fourteenth century is simply amazing & interesting. The next time any of you visit Tirupati, be sure to look up at the Sri Ranganatha Mandapam constructed by Yadavaraya. It will be at your left on the main hall after you enter the temple alongwith the queue. That was were the Srirangam Lord was worshipped alongwith the Tirupati Balaji for a decade. Funny enough the pujas for Lord Ranganatha were done in Tamil after a huge struggle, while Tirupati Balaji had his prayers rendered in Telugu.

Chao..