South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.4

c13.s1.4

In our discussion of the route taken by Malik Kafur, we have already indicated that the ordinary route taken by the invasion was in all probability the road from Trichinopoly to Māttūrkoḷam, and then perhaps to Kaḍambaravanam (Nārttāmalai), and from there to Pon-Amarāvati straight, cutting the Kuḍumiyāmalai road where at present the Pon-Amarāvati road leads off from it, or somewhere near. That apparently was the high road during the period of the Muhammadan invasions of South India. These fugitives from Śrīrangam, the account clearly states, kept alongside of the road but avoided it so that they may not be overtaken. They preferred to get along through forest tracts by secret path-ways not losing altogether the thread of the road. This direction would imply that their objective was the region round Tiruppattūr. The pursuing party would certainly have taken the road and clattered down along it to reach Tiruppattūr on the high road to Madura. These fugitives would naturally go to places where there were Viṣṇu temples which would afford accommodation and protection at once to themselves and the god (idol) in their charge. There is no vestige of it as far as my local enquiries went in Tirumeyyam which might have been along their route. They probably travelled further east than that, and finding perhaps the Muhammadans already in occupation of Tiruppattūr, or what is more likely, anticipating them, marched off to the great Viṣṇu shrine at Tirukkoshṭiyūr. There again the people of the locality have no memory of any asylum these fugitives found; but I discovered that in a chamber where there are images consecrated to the Āḻvārs in the temple there is an image of Piḷḷai Lokāchārya. It may possibly be that this Āchārya is done the honour because of his association with the temple on this occasion. It was then they discovered that even that was too close to the pursuing party to be safe, and they made a detour this time into the depths of the forest country by retiring into Jyotishkuḍi. There are two places which may be equated with this Jyotishkuḍi. The now important Śaiva centre of Kāḷaiyār Kovil is known by the name Jyotirvanam (the forest of Jyoti trees, Cardiospermum halicacabum), because that part of the forest was famous for Jyoti trees. This is the famous fortress of Kānappēr which figures as an important centre round which the Ceylon general had to fight on three occasions to take possession of it, and which he made his head-quarters for his campaigns further north; and as Kānappēr this figures as an old fortress in very early classical Tamil literature. What is more, local tradition tells us that just at the corner of the great tank attached to the Śaiva temple, remote from this temple, there was a shrine of Viṣṇu, which had suffered so much damage that sometime in the course of the last century or two they removed the Viṣṇu image and placed it in the back enclosure of this Śiva temple. It is very likely that the forests surrounding this temple-town would have provided the asylum that these fugitives sought, and this is what seems to be referred to in the account as Jyotishkuḍi. There is, however, another place about fifteen miles from this, straight down along the road to Paramaguḍi, but easier reached along a road about twenty-one miles from Śivaganga. That is the famous place of Iḷayānguḍi, which contains both a Śiva and a Viṣṇu temple. The Śiva temple contains inscriptions of the Chola Rājēndra of the eleventh century, which call the temple Rājēndra Cholīśvara, while the local inhabitants give the name Jyotīśvara, apparently from the miracle performed by Śiva in behalf of Iḷayānguḍi Māranār. Śiva appeared as a devout Śaiva, hungry and wet on a rainy night before the Nāyanār (devotee of Śiva). When he and his wife got some food ready under almost impossible conditions and invited the guest to partake of it, Śiva showed himself in a blaze of light.¹