Professional Documents
Culture Documents
My Research About The Marudhu Servai Brothers PDF
My Research About The Marudhu Servai Brothers PDF
This is just a very short synopsis about the research which I carried out
about the Sivagangai Country and its famous rulers, the Marudhu Servai
Brothers.
The duration of this research lasted for about forty plus years. I was
continuing a part of it even after I came back to Malaysia.
About forty years ago, there were very rich sources of information which
were available from many people. There were people who were
descended from Marudhu supporters, and those against them. Many of
the people were non-partisan and they told stories about the valour, the
philanthropy, and the achievements of the Marudhus. The memories
about the Marudhus were still very fresh in the minds of the people some
forty years ago.
The song from that film, ‘Veerargal vaalzum Draavida naattai venravar
kidaiyathu, velum vaalum thaangiya Maravar veelzndhathum kidaiyaathu’
remains as a major source of inspiration to my mind whenever I am
dejected.
I have brought up many unknown details and thown new light on the
Marudhu Brothers. The late Karthikeya Raja, the Raja of Sivagangai
invited me and asked about the details of my research.
This research was done by some missionaries more than fifty years ago.
Since the missionaries left the country, the manuscript was passed to a
missionary who was not interested in such research. Seeing my interest,
he passed the manuscript to me.
We made three copies. Two copies are lost. The only remaining copy is
with me. This bound volume is a mine of information. I could not follow-
up with it because I received it when I was about to leave
India to come back to Malaysia. Soon I joined the Malaysian Medical and
Health Services and never had the opportunity to do anything about it.
And I could not trust anyone with the Manuscript.
I have a copy of the last will and testament made by Periya Marudhu
Servai, just before he was hanged.
I will now give a glimpse of some little known aspects of the war of the
Marudhus.
During the Sangam Age, it was called Parambu and was the capital of
VaLLal Pari. There are several forts in the hill. There are several remnants
of the war which was waged by the Marudhus.
At one point in the war, they hid UmaiDurai in a very inaccessible cave in
the summit of the hill. This place is known as the ‘Umaiyan Kudambu’. A
‘kudambu’ is very special type of cave which opens from the top and goes
downwards.
At the left side along the bottom of the hill, is the town of Piranmalai
and its famous ancient temple. At the summit of the hill is Dhargha of
Waliullah Sheikh Abdullah Shaheb.
You can see that much of the hill is barren now. But once upon a time, it
was part of a large tract of jungle extending right across from the Eastern
Ghats to the Palk Straits.
Let us have a closer look at the steep scarp face of the southern side of
the hill.
The southern face of the Piranmalai hill is very steep for half of its height.
The scarp face is a sheer drop of about 1000 feet. At the summit of the
hill, there is a lip of rock which is a small passage. After passing through
it, there is the famous kudambu which can hold an army. It leads to the
Umaiyan Kudambu.
This is the Umaiyan Kudambu.
Just before going there, there is a sizeable flat piece of ground which can
hold a crowd.
This is the Kasi Sunai. Even when there were failure of rains lasting for 12
years,this sunai never dried up. The water is cool, very refreshing and
contains minerals
and herbal essence.
The sources of water for many of the sunais in Piranmalai are never
known. They just are filled with water, all the year round. Even in the
scorching heat of the height of summer, there will be water.
So......
The water does not come from rain alone. It cannot come from the
ground to such heights either. The Kasi Sunai is placed in a precarious
place, shaped like a protruding lower lip of a slightly opened mouth.
If you slip, you had it. You will get sucked into the sunai and where you
will end up, nobody knows. Because, nobody has ever seen the end of the
sunai. On the other hand, if you trip, you fall one thousand feet.
The third cannon is lost. May be in some deep kudambu or fallen into
dense undergrowth. May be another interested man will come in search of
it. Placed in strategic positions, these cannons commanded a large swath
of land and could fire a shot which could reach about 5 miles.
The Marudhus saved her and took her to Dindukal where they were
helped by the Mysorean Hyder Ali. With his help, the Marudhus
recaptured Madurai and Sivagangai, Periya Marudhu paid up all the
arrears of kisthi.
Then the British severed Periya Marudhu's head from his body and took it
to KaLaiyarKoyil. They buried the head in front of RajaGopuram which
he had built. They placed the head in such a way so that it was facing the
Gopuram. This was according to the last wish of Periya Marudhu.
But the British did not bury the whole body, they were afraid that people
would start worshipping Periya Mardhu as a guardian deity. So the
separated the head from the body and buried only the head in
KaLaiyarKoyil. The body was buried in a wilderness in the outskirts of
Tiruppathur.
This land was later given to the Swedish Mission which built a hospital
there. When I was working there for some time, I was staying in a hspital
doctors quarters. I used to pass the place where the body of Periya
Marudhu lay buried.
There was only a piece of stone which was placed over his grave. Later
on, they seem to have built a memorial for the Marudhus at Tirupathur.
I had also made a detailed study of the ‘Ammanais and Kummis’ and
many other pieces of information together with folklore and stories about
the Marudhu Brothers.
I presented a paper – 'New Light On Marudhu Brothers’ in a seminar held
at the Madurai University in 1971. It was well-received.
I received a lot of encouragement from Dr.AV Jeyachandrun,
Ismail Rawther of Tirupathur, and several others.
After that I was invited by the Raja of Sivagangai for an audience with
him. Soon after that, I left India.
Two hundred years ago. It was a penal colony where exiled convicts from
India were sent.
Chinna Marudhu Servai’s youngest son, Durai Samy Thevar and seventy
one other followers and revolutionaries were exiled to Penang.
Bannerman's daughter was married in the church which was built in Pitt
Street. She was born in Palayamkottai when Kattabommu came to
power.
When he was there, Duraisamy came to see him because he had been
a close friend of his father during better times. He begged him to take a
letter to his relatives in Sivagangai. But Colonel Welsh declined on legal
grounds.
Just as I passed by the place where Periya Marudhu’s body lay buried in
Tirupathur thirty five years ago.