Thiru Arangan Ula- the sojourn of the Lord. ? 5. The beginning of ?dark era?
ArjunA was staying in Madurai for a few days during his pilgrimage. He married
princess ChitrAngadai, the daughter of the Pandiya king. Her story later became
famous as pavalakkodi in the literary circles. ArjunA built a town by the shore
of the vaigai river, and named the town ?kuntheenagaram? after his mother
kuntidevi.
piLLai lOkAcharyAr was residing at Srirangam, and Swami vEdAnta dEsikan visited
Srirangam twice; Swami dEsikan was younger than Swami piLLai lOkAchAryar by 63
years. When dEsikAn visited Srirangam for the first time, things were very calm
in the town, and that was the time when Swami dEsikan composed divine works
like pAdhukA sahasram, munivAhana bOgam, etc. Swami dEsikan?s second visit
happened during the time of deep turmoil. What was the reason for all the
turmoil?
King mAravarman sundarapandian was ruling nampiLLai?s time. He defeated the
ChOLa dynasty and annexed their empire, which included SriRangam. Since he
retrieved Madurai from the ChOLa empire, he was also glorified as ?Madurai
Meetta SundaraPandian? (?SundarapAndian who retrieved Madurai?). King
sundarapandian was a huge devotee of Lord ranganAthA; he was the person who
consecrated the massive GarudA deity inside the temple. He contributed a lot to
the Srirangam temple- he even performed ?Gaja-tulabaram?, wherein he gifted a
huge amount expensive items (like diamond and golden jewelry, silk clothing,
etc) which, when weighed together would be equivalent to the weight of a
full-grown elephant!! Once, during the thiruvAradhanA of the Lord, when the
priests were missing a container, the king donated his golden throne
spontaneously to be used as a utensil for the Lord?s service. For that reason,
even today that throne-converted-vessel is used in Srirangam, and the priests
call it
sundaraPandiam. The items used for the Lord?s service and decoration are
indeed named unique in Srirangam. For example, the pin that is used to hold
namperumAL?s dressed is called ?AndAL?, as the pin gets to have contact with
the divine form of the Lord.
jatAvarman was the great-grandson of such sundarapAndian; his son was named
?KulasEkara pAndian? (not to confuse with kulasEkara AzhwAr). King Kulasekara
Pandian had two sons: VeerapAndiayan and SundarapAndian. It is interesting to
note that the same names were used to christen kings of alternate generations
in the ancient pAndya dynasty. VeerapAndiyan was the son of the King?s
mistress, whereas SundarapAndian was the son of the royal queen herself.
However, King KulasEkara pAndian decided to anoint VeerapAndiayan as the next
King, which disappointed SundarapAndian as he felt royalty was in his blood.
Overcome with the greed for power, Prince SundarapAndian killed his own father,
and claimed the throne. But VeerapAndian didn?t give up. With the help of his
uncle, he collected his own army and easily defeated Prince SundarapAndian, and
threw him out of the kingdom. The defeated and insulted SundarapAndian realized
he had no support whatsoever, hence deciding to seek outside support. He went
to Delhi, and surrendered to AllAuddin Khilji who was ruling Delhi at that
time. AllAuddin Khilji sent his mighty army with mAlik kAfur as the commander.
This huge army went south towards the pAndya kingdom and attacked King
VeerapAndian, whose army was no match to the mighty army from the North. King
VeerapAndian decided that he could not withstand the enemy, and ran for his
life. Sensing danger to his life, even sundarapAndian ran away and disappeared.
Hence, the whole area became an open-field with no opposition. MAlik KAfur and
his army just plundered Srirangam. They didn?t harm the deities
in the temples though; they acted more like bandits looking for loot. They
went to all the temples and took all the expensive items- thereby robbing the
temple town off all its riches. Thus, loaded with all the expensive items, the
army headed by mAlik kAfur returned to Delhi and surrendered all their loot to
King Allauddin Khilji. This happened in the year 1311. A small note on Malik
KAfur: he was a Hindu who was converted to Islam; was a eunuch, yet he was
heartless in pursuing and torturing the enemy.
There was a gap of 12 years filled with peace and no anxiety. Year 1323; the
political scenario was rather turbulent and unstable in present day TamilnAdu.
Soldiers lacked training in warfare; the whole scenario appeared to be
succulent for any hungry invader. Uloob Khan was one such invader. He was the
person who conqured Delhi and renamed himself ?Mohammad Bin Tuqlaq?. He
invaded the South with ease, as the southern armies were yet to recover the
battering they received from MAlik Kafur and his army; further, the armies of
the south lacked both the training and the weaponry to withstand the might of
Uloob Khan?s army.
The denizens of Srirangam came to know of the advancing enemy just as when
Uloob Khan was defeating the Hoysala Kingdom (present day Karnataka).The aim of
the enemy was to not only cause destruction to Srirangam alone, but also
destroy the beautiful deity of the Lord of Srirangam. The enemies were camping
at Kannanoor (present day Samayapuram, which houses the famous Durga temple)
and planning their next moves.
The thousands of SrivaishnavAs in Srirangam became highly worried. They were
not warriors; still they wanted to save the Lordships. They had two choices:
stay back and defend as much as they could (which would eventually prove
futile) or get moving with the deities and avoid the enemy. namperumAL, the
processional deity communicated: ?I would like all of us to visit kulasEkara
AzhwAr?s land?. But, it was a matter of concern for the VaishnavAs, as they
didn?t want the divine body of namperumAL to be affected because of the
apparent journey through the hills, the jungles, and the rivers. After all, is
he not very dear to all the SrivaishnavAs?
Why did namperumAL express desire to visit kulasEkara AzhwAr?s land?
kulasEkarar was a very special devotee of the Lord at Srirangam. He gave his
daughter in marriage to the Lord of Srirangam. Although he was from Kerala, he
didn?t visit the famous AnanthapadmanAbhaswamy at Thiruvananthapuram, instead
all his desires were centered on visiting Srirangam, glorifying the Lord along
with other devotees; singing with them, jumping and dancing with them to the
glory of the Lord; roll on the sand moistened due to the tears of joys coming
from the Srivaishnavas? eyes.
To be continued??.
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