Madurai Veeran Kathai

[ravipillay02]

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Dear All

I am from South Africa. I am interested in the history of Madurai Veeran who is widely worshipped here as a protector of Amman. As such I am looking for a transliteration of the Madurai Veeran Kathai.

With best wishes


Ravi Pillay

 

[kunjuppu]

ravi,

best wishes in your search.

i googled and came across this interesting temple - of tamils of guyana, who left our shores a couple of hundred years ago.

i know of them, but did not realize that like the south african tamils, these too have managed to maintain their unique tamil identity.

definitely a must visit for me next time in nyc.

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.. another interesting ditty from facebook

https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=111594158896&topic=19892&post=123214

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Madurai-Veeran/111594158896?sk=wall

 

[ravipillay02]

Thank you

Dear SirThank you for the links and information - will follow-up on that.With best wishes

 

[happyhindu]

Hello Ravi Pillay,

By folk tradition, the elevation of Madurai Veeran as a protector god (kaval deivam) by the Arunthathiar community is traced back to the madurai nayak period. The Madurai Veeran Kathai is also related to this period. The story is described in the book "Studies in tamil folk literature" by vanamamalai. In this story Madurai Veeran is described as a Chakkli (arundathiyar) hero.

However, there are claims that Madurai Veeran was a 7th century hero and he is the god of the pallar comunity. There is also a Madurai Veeran temple in Nallur village bordering Veliyur where the idol of Madurai Veeran rides a lion. The lion vahanam is a departure from the usual pose of Madurai Veeran commonly found with a sword standing on bare ground.

Maybe there was more than one Madurai Veeran and legends rolled various events of "Madurai Veeran" into a single character.

There are folk traditions that Mariamman was the deity of cholas. Worship of various Ammans is a common feature; and all over south there are various forms and versions of Amman. Though each differs, yet perhaps today bhaktas would like to see them all as the same.

Its quite possible that the new Madurai Veeran is the god of the arunthathiyars. But the old Madurai Veeran was perhaps a 7th century warrior deity (of Pandyas? or Pallavas?) who protected a valiant Amman (against the Cholas?). Maybe both Madurai-Veeran and Amman became martyrs. And so perhaps they both got elevated as kaval deivams by a group of people who were captured and made into Pallars. Just a speculation.

Madurai Veeran is worshipped to control evils with various ceremonies to ward off disasters affecting crops, cattle, and illnesses. He is the protector of agricultural fields and so definitely he should be associated with the presentday agricultural community imo.

Best wishes in your search. Request you to please post what you have come across also. Would like to hear about the ways in which you worship Madurai Veeran, i mean i would love to read about the ceremonies which people in south-africa follow for madurai veeran worship.

Regards.

 

[Iyyarooraan]

The Madurai Veeran story was well brought out on silver screen enacted by MGR with "vellayammal" etc. in the late fifties. It was only a cinematic treatment and a very well run film in those days. I cannot recall the religious part of it in the film. Maybe the people who made the film knew much about it.

 

[happyhindu]

The Madurai Veeran story was well brought out on silver screen enacted by MGR with "vellayammal" etc. in the late fifties. It was only a cinematic treatment and a very well run film in those days. I cannot recall the religious part of it in the film. Maybe the people who made the film knew much about it.

Sir if you have seen the movie, please could you mention a gist of it. Is it a different story or the same madurai veeran kathai folk story (of madurai veeran killed by the madurai nayaks for falling in love with a 'vellaiammal' of their household) ?

I came across the deity Madurai Veeran only a few months back when i started studying various kula-devas and how they are related to various clans. From what i understand Madurai Veeran is the kula deity of several Pallar families. How Madurai Veeran became the diety of chakkalis or Arunthathiyars is a mystery to me.

Since the term Madurai Veeran simply translates to a brave warrior of madurai, i suppose there was more than one madurai veeran. Or perhaps a section of Pallars became downgraded as arundathiyars.

 

[Iyyarooraan]

Sir if you have seen the movie, please could you mention a gist of it. Is it a different story or the same madurai veeran kathai folk story (of madurai veeran killed by the madurai nayaks for falling in love with a 'vellaiammal' of their household) ?

I came across the deity Madurai Veeran only a few months back when i started studying various kula-devas and how they are related to various clans. From what i understand Madurai Veeran is the kula deity of several Pallar families. How Madurai Veeran became the diety of chakkalis or Arunthathiyars is a mystery to me.

Since the term Madurai Veeran simply translates to a brave warrior of madurai, i suppose there was more than one madurai veeran. Or perhaps a section of Pallars became downgraded as arundathiyars.

As I have written already, there was not any religious elaboration in the film. Madurai Veeran was good man (MGR had always to be good man/Samaritan), he married two. By a wrong judgement of the king he was punished to lose one leg and an opposite hand and the wives die with him. I know he was a sort of "kaval daivam" and praised as a hero and worshipped as a protector.