South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.6

c13.s1.6

Local enquiries there showed that the Viṣṇu temple of Krishna-Vēṇugopāla was older than this. One of the early Śaiva devotees takes his name from this place Iḷayānguḍi and is called Iḷayānguḍimāranāyanār as was stated already. The whole place is now more a Muhammadan town, and the place has practically ceased to be the Brahman centre that it once must have been. Two miles from this is a Muhammadan village now called Śoduguḍi which, in the registers of the Zamindari, appears as a Dharmāsanam village, that is a gift to the Brahmans; now it is entirely a Muhammadan village. This Śoduguḍi contains an obscure Vaiṣṇava temple, and it was suggested as a possible alternative to Kāḷaiyār Kovil as the equivalent of Jyotishkuḍi. For one thing Śoduguḍi is perhaps a little too for out and has not the attractions of Kāḷaiyār Kovil, which should have readily recommended themselves to the fugitives. Śoduguḍi by itself has none of the earlier associations of Kāḷaiyār Kovil and must have involved another very hard journey through forests. The actual Sanskrit name is given as Jyotishmatīpuram, the city of the Jyotishmatī trees. Jyotishmatī is the name of the tree Cardiospermum halicacabum. It seems more likely therefore that Kāḷaiyār Kovil is the Jyotishkuḍi, where they found shelter and where Piḷḷai Lokāchārya breathed his last, while Iḷaiyānguḍi, not Śoduguḍi is quite possible. The only other possibility is a little Brahman village about twelve miles from Aḷagarmalai, but there is nothing whatever to recommend it as the place. Aḷagar Tirumalai or Tirumālirunjolai is reachable by a shorter road from Kāḷaiyār Kovil, and by a somewhat longer road from Iḷaiyānguḍi, and that would be the place to which they would naturally retire for greater protection from either place. The well referred to in the account above from which water was drawn for divine service by the fugitives, is pointed out in this last place, but there is no recollection, in the locality of this particular incident, or of the image of Ranganātha having been there at all. When the Muhammadans got a firm footing in Madura, Tirumālirunjolai would certainly have become untenable and these fugitives with their idols must have retired farther into Tinnevelly, and thence into the Travancore country for safety. A study of the Muhammadan coins found in Madura confirms the second Muhammadan conquest of Madura implied in this account of the sack of Śrīrangam.