The Forgotten monuments

The Forgotten monuments

 During the early hours of Sunday, on 18^th November 2012 a group of socially conscious people belonging to various part of Madurai assembled in front of Madurai Kamraj University to proceed to towards 2300 years old monument. A group of people in Madurai initiated Green Walk to protect the micro eco system in and around Madurai city, which also has historic significance

Glorious of Madurai:

Madurai has surrounded by mountains, which bears the name of animals such as Yanai malai (Elephant Mountain), Nagamalai (Cobra Mountain) and Pasumalai (Cow Mountain). Madurai is one of the oldest cities in the world. The history goes back beyond 2500 years. The city has referred by various Greek scholars in different time like Periplus, Ptolemy etc. Madurai had trade with ancient Europe and west Asia through its port at Korkkai.

The spread of Jainism:

India is home of major religions inn the world such as Hinduism, Buddism,Jainism and Seekism. Though Jainism born in the North of India it spread widely in the south. The Jain monks developed many centres of worship, which grew as hub of trade and religious activities. In Madurai district the Indian Archaeological Department identified    as many as 15 centres. They are-

      

01	Karangalakudi
02	Keelavalavu
03	Harithapatti
04	Kidaripatti
05	Yanamalai
06	Thiruvathavur
07	Thiruparamkundram
08	Keelakuyilkudi
09	Vikramangalam
10	Mettupatti
11	Puliyangulam
12	Thenparamkundram
13	Mangulam
14	Varichiyur
15	Karadipatti

The above-mentioned places are invariably situated in hillocks or mountains. All the caves are used as place for retreat. Their contribution to tamil language is enormous. The major texts such as Silapathikaram, Sivagasinthamani, valaiavathi are written by jain monks. The famousTamil collection Naladiar are also jain monks contribution.

Mettupatti-Sittarmalai:

Sittarmalai is located west ofmadurai around 35 kms  on way to Usalampatti and Madurai. The lush green and beautiful mountaingives joyand peace. The mountain is locally called Sittarmalai, which means mountain belongs to sittars.  In Tamil Sittars usually known as religious wanderer.

Sittar has 15 beds in the top of mountain cave, which is used by Jain monks in different times. According Mr. Santhalingam (archeologist)from Madurai these caves are belong to B.C 2cd century. The Mettupatti inscription  is earlist eveidence for name”Madurai”. The inscription is written bhrami script but the language used  is tamil. The inscription mentions the word “amanan, Madurai”  The tamil word “amanan” denotes Jain. The inscription follows Tholkapaiam’s grammatical paten. The inscription also describes the sponsor of the bed and jain monk’s name. For  instance one of the bed was sponsored by “Pidil Athan”, in which “Pidil” is name of the village  is located near to Mettupatti and “Athan” is name of the person. More over, Mettupatti is located in “peruvazhi” literally  means grate root. During the olden days Pandiya kingdom and Chera kingdom was connected by a big road, ( which was used by all kind of traders. The trade root is Kambam, Chinamanur,Virapandi, Mettupatti, Vikramangalam, Keelakuyilkudi and Madurai.

Need for conservation:

Monument like Sidder malai is though identified by Archaeological Survey of India and documented but in terms of maintains it is poorly done so. The mountain is surrounded by cernity of Vaigai river bedand lush green coconut groves as well as paddy field added moment of joyfulness. The indiscriminate greedily illicit digging of mountains in and around Madurai for granites is real threat for historically important monument like this. It needs to protect at least for naming Madurai as place. Social volunteers who have concern for Mother Nature this time for now to stand up against exploitation our local echo system like mettupatti malai.