Missing villages and wars - May the forces induced by sins calm down and find peace.

 

This civilization did not ascribe the horrors and cruelties inflicted on them to the people who caused them; but could only see them as humans under the spell of terrible forces.

This civilization was not designed to harbour and nurture hate.

It believed in the presence of the divine in every atom.

It believed in the immense power of the Universe to transform anything evil to its inherent goodness.

This is a prayer invoked by a Vedic Hymn. It prays for the transformation of a force from evil to good.

“இங்கே எவையெல்லாம் பயங்கர சக்திகளாக உள்ளனவோ,

இங்கே எவையெல்லாம் கொடூரமான சக்திகளாக உள்ளனவோ,

இங்கே எவையெல்லாம் பாவத்தினால் உந்தப்பட்டு இயங்குகின்றனவோ –

அவை அனைத்தும் நிதானமடைந்து, அமைதி பெறட்டும். எல்லாமே நன்மையை நாடட்டும்”.

All those Fearsome Forces surrounding us,

All the cruel forces,

And the forces induced by sins…

May they all calm down and find Peace.

May they all seek everything auspicious and good.

“யதிஹ கோரம் யதிஹ க்ரூரம் யதிஹ பாபம்

தச்சாந்தம் தச்சிவம் ஸர்வமேவ சமஸ்து ந:”

 

Melaiyur – ARIE No 51/1934-35 – A broken slab

A slab Highly damaged, seems to register a gift of land to the temple of Naagaabaranisuramudaiya Nayinar for the merit of Immadi Saluva Nayaka

 Many of the deities in this temple had resided in the earth and water for a few centuries to re-emerge in the recent decades. Saved for us, by our ancestors, the resolute devotees.

Pudhuppakkam

1.      Two broken slabs lying in the Selliamman temple - ARIE No 61/1923 Era Chola Rajakesari varman

Records Gift of land free of taxes to the temple of Bhatari by the assembly of Nallilamangalam of Merpalugur Nadu, a subdivision of Maniyirkottam

2.     ARIE No 62/1923 Era Pallava Aparajitavarman

Stone chipped off - seems to record a gift of land.

3.     ARIE No 60/1923 Era Pallava - Pottaraiyar On a slab built into the floor of the mandapa in front of the Saptamatrika Shrine in the Selliamman Temple in the same village  

Fragment, gift of land as Bhatta vritti by a member of the Nallilamangalam of Eyir Kottam

 

4.    ARIE No 59/1923 A slab set up by the side of an irrigation channel - Seems to dedicate a woman as a temple servant with a gift to 200 kuli of land at Pudupakkam for her maintenance

Payyanur

A Broken Pillar lying in the village ARIE No 110/1932-33 Era Rajaraja Chola III Seems to register a gift - Rajaraja Chaturvedhimngalam

Nandivaram

A slab at the Ganesa Temple in Grantha Script AR No 255/1910

Gift of a perpetual lamp to …....... At Nandipura by a certain Sekkilaan Kuttera

These are remnants of the terrible fate suffered in this area during invasions by hostile forces.

The British had been meticulous in mapping this land and many things they observed in this country, right from the times they came in to trade to capturing territories.

1879 Chingleput compilation of British content by Charles Stewart Crole around 1876 – 1879

1780 CE Page 193 “All horrors of war, before known or heard of were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house and destroyed every temple.

The miserable inhabitants, fleeing from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered, others without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank or sacredness of function – fathers torn from children, husbands from wives – enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, amidst the goading spears of drivers and the trampling of pursuing horses were swept into captivity in an unknown hostile land.

Those who were able to evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities; but escaping from fire, sword and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine. “

 

The effect of the frequent wars between the Native, Islamic and the European Christian Forces in the 1700s had terrible consequences.

Page 229 “The irrigation works were neglected, and famine, the natural result of such neglect, decimated the district, which, from emigration and the horrors of war, which from emigration and the horrors of war was at the close of Hyder Ali’s second invasion of it in 1780, nearly depopulated.

In the words of the 5^th Report of the Select Committee, appointed in 1812, “hardly any other signs were left in many parts of the country of its having been inhabited by human beings, than the bones of the bodies that had been massacred, or the naked walls of the houses, choultries and temples which had been burnt.”

The effect of such brutal wars resulted in Famine. Inability to nurture water bodies caused ruin to irrigation. Loss of livestock deprived the soil of nutrients as agriculture of those times were entirely organic. The manure of cows and bulls were most essential for soil productivity.

Bullocks were vital for transportation of goods and they played a very important part in sustaining the economy.

A study of the fateful circumstances and drawing appropriate lessons shall ensure that it is never ever repeated in this land.

And the ways the problems were collectively addressed both by the British and the Native of this land is a positive message for the future.