Tirunelveli Region Travelogue (Pandyan Yatra 2015) Part 1: Planning the Site Seminar

@ Kazhugumalai Photo courtesy: Ms Ramamani Jeyaraman

@ Kazhugumalai Photo courtesy: Kishore Mahadevan

@ Kazhugumalai Vettuvankoil Photo courtesy: Kishore Mahadevan

For the last five years, Tamil Heritage Trust (THT), an organization of heritage lovers in Chennai, have been organizing the site seminar every year as annual event. 'Prof Swaminathan mooted and organized the concept of a Site Seminar, to familiarize a few individuals passionately interested in the heritage of the Tamil country, but clueless about where and how to start.'  Table 1 shows the list of site seminars organized by Tamil Heritage Trust.

Table 1. List of Site Seminars Organized by Tamil Heritage Trust

Year	Name of the Site Seminar	Place or Region	State
2010	Mamallapuram Site Seminar Athyanthakaama Ashrama Vijaya	Mamallapuram	Tamil Nadu
2011	Ajanta and Ellora Site Seminar Paranjothi Yathirai	Ajanta & Ellora	Maharashtra
2012	Mukkudai Yathirai	Pudukkottai District	Tamil Nadu
2013	Site Seminar: Srirangam Tiruvaranga Ulaa	Srirangam	Tamil Nadu
2014	Gurjari Yatra - Gujarat Site Seminar	Gujarat Select Monuments	Gujarat
2015	Pandyan Yatra	Tirunelveli Region Select Monuments	Tamil Nadu

For the sixth site seminar 2015, 'the southern sections of Pandyan territory, centered around Tirunelveli region' was identified as the heritage site for and the Pandyan Yatra was undertaken by a team of 24 members between January 23 Friday and January 27 Tuesday 2015, both dates inclusive. I was one of the fortunate participant of the Pandyan Yatra.

THT's Pandyan Yatra was NOT a religious tour, or a pleasure trip or sightseeing excursion. Instead Pandyan Yatra clearly focused to cover only on art, archaeology, architecture, epigraphy, history, iconography aspects of the monuments.  The purpose of Pandyan Yatra was to intensely explore the heritage of the southern sections of Pandyan territory for deeper understanding the heritage of the region. 

Tirunelveli region was under the rule of the Pandya Dynasty and was known as 'Thenpandiyanadu'. The Imperial Cholas included this region under the province called 'Mudikonda Cholamandalam'. The Madurai Nayakas preferred to call it as 'Tirunelveli Seemai'. The British East India Company formulated the 'Tinnevelly district', which was composed of the present Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts and parts of the Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram districts.

Map of Tirunelveli Region

The region also comprise all five geographical traditions of Sangam Tamil Literature: Kurinji (mountains), Mullai (forest), Marudham (paddy fields), Neithal (coastal) and Palai (desert). Ancient holy hill 'Pothigai,' the abode of Tamil sage Agasthiyar (who developed Tamil language) forms part of this region. The   crawling   clouds  on the Western Ghats, the picturesque Pothigai hills and the Kurtallam water falls are  the  special features which make  Tirunelveli  unique. Tirunelveli region is blessed with the perennial river Thamirabharani - the lifeline of the region and forms the major river basin in this region. The other  streams include Vaippar, Nambiar and Hanumanathi. The fertile land is blessed with lush green paddy fields, coconut groves, banana plantations,  water-falls and palm trees add a picturesque dimension. The region is dotted with many early Pandyan rock-cut caves and well-preserved structured temples built by Pandyas, Cholas and Nayakas.

Since the culturally rich Tirunelveli region is very vast, it is not easy to travel the entire region. Therefore the site seminar set to catch a glimpse of the region's heritage and planned to focus on some specified heritage monuments as shown in Table 2:

Table 2: Itinerary of Pandyan Yatra 2015

Date	Monuments	Region
23 Jan 2015	Kazhugumalai - Jain Monastery,	Kovilpatti Region
	Kazhugumalai - Vettuvankoil,
	Kazhugumalai - Kazhugachalamurthy Temple
24 Jan 2015	Malayadikurichi Rock cut Cave of Early Pandya	Sankarankovil Region
	Thirumalapuram Rock cut Cave of Early Pandya
	Singampatti Zamin Palace located near the foothills of Manjolai Estate
	Kutraleeswaran Temple and Chitra Sabha - one of five dancing halls of Lord Nataraja
25 Jan 2015	Mannar Koil Rajagoplalaswami Temple. Ashtanga Vimana.	Ambasamudram Region
	Thiruvalivaram Tiruvalisvarar Temple
	Brahmadesam Temple
	Kallidaikurichi Temples
	Ambasamudram Temples,
	Thirupudaimarudur Temple
	Cheranmadevi Bhakthavatsala Perumal Temple
26 Jan 2015	Tirukurungudi Nambi Temple (108 Divya Desam)	Nanguneri & Tirunelveli Region
	Tirunelveli - Palayankottai Museum,
	Nellaiappar Temple,
	Nanguneri Vanamamalai Perumal Temple
27 Jan 2015	Srivaikuntam Vaikuntanathaswami temple Navatirupati (108 Divya Desam)	Toothukudi Region
	Alwartirunagari Temple Navatirupati (108 Divya Desam)
	Tirukolur. Temples
	Krishnapuram Temple

Tamil Heritage Trust - Site Seminar itinerary Brochure

Tamil Heritage Trust - Site Seminar itinerary Brochure

Tamil Heritage Trust - Site Seminar itinerary Brochure

The participants were provided with best available information to ensure a successful journey. The Pandyan yatra 2015 was slightly modified from the itinerary shown in Table 2 in terms of timing of visit and few cancellations and additions of places.

The participants organized number of weekend preparatory site seminar meetings on Sundays during 16th November 2014 - 18th January 2015 and invited few persons, who are familiar with these sites, to deliver the series of pre-visit lectures and power-point presentations. The participants also research out  on one or two places of interest and shared information through presentations. 

Arkay Center is conveniently located in Mylapore, and Mr Ramakrishnan has been very kindly hosting preparatory site seminar meeting there. V Chandrasekhar, has very kindly offered his house at "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41 and his residence has often been the venue for most site seminar meetings.. 

Table 3: The preparatory lectures for the Sixth Site Seminar:

Date	Talk on
16.11.2014	History of the Pandyas -Sangam, Early and Imperial by Ramakrishnan at  Arkay Center, Mylapore
30.11.2014	Iraiyanar Agapporul - a book on Tamil grammar, which changed the nature and subjects of Tamil Literature by Badri Seshadri  "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
	MaduraiKanchi - a Sangam era epic that describes the city in that period by Badri Seshadri  "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
14.12.2014	Madurai Sultanate The fall of the Pandyas & Muslim rule in Madurai by Ravishankar Thiagarajan  "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
	Singing along the Tambraparni - Verses from the Thevaram and Prabhandam by Pradeep Chakravarthi Navneet Krishnan has accompany Pradeep by singing some of these compositions.  "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
21.12.2014	Nanguneri Temple and Vanamamalai Mutt by Deivanayagam   "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
	Pandyan Cave Temples & Monoliths by Vijayakumar.S (Poetry in Stone)    "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
11.1.2015	Pandya temples by K.S Sankaranarayanan    "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
	Jina Images of Kazhugumalai as seen by Lisa by Ravishankar Thiagarajan    "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41
18.1.2015	Nellaiyappar and Kanthimathi Amman Temple by Siva Thiyagarajan and Kishore   "Shrinidhi", 12/1 Reserve Bank Colony MG Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Madras 41

 
The following documents were shared 'Athyanthakama' Yahoo Group:

1. பாண்டிய நாட்டில் பயணமும் படிப்பும் Kanaka Ajithadoss (Yahoo Group 20.11.2014)
2. Jaina Images of Kazhugumalai (PDF) shared 

The following documents published elsewhere were included in the Guide 'Pandyan Yantra':

1. A new Pandya Record and the Dates of Nayanmars and Azhvars  by Nagaswami R
2. A Brahmadeya Gift by Pandya Arikeari  by Nagaswami R
3. Kalugumalai: Jain Images by Dr. Lisa N. Owen
4. Malaiyadikurichi Inscriptions Tell Tales  by Pradeepchakravrthi
5. Nellaiyappar Temple: Rare kritis by Pradeepchakravrthi
6. Dakshinamurti on vimanas of Vishnu temples by RKK Rajarajan
7. நின்றிருந்துகிடந்த நெடியோன் ஜெயமோகன் November 24,2010 (http://www.jeyamohan.in/9346)
8. ஸ்ரீவைகுண்டம் ஆழ்வார்திருநகரி கிருஷ்ணாபுரம் ஜெயமோகன்

Pandyan Yatra 2015 (Guide Book) THT

This is a travelogue of Pandyan Yatra 2015 covering around 20 heritage monuments in 5 days. Traveling through 'Tirunelveli Seemai' is a fulfilling experience if you are a lover of culture, heritage and history. 'Tirunelveli Seemai' is the heritage land of the south and the cradle of ancient Thamirabharani river line civilization. The Thamirabharani river valley on either side of the river is fertile and there are large acres of lush green paddy fields, coconut groves and banana plantations. The lofty temple towers and the tall and imposing temple walls in the backdrop of majestic and picturesque Western ghats invited us  It gives me inspiration and satisfaction to bring you a travelogue of Pandyan Yatra 2015.


I would like to profusely thank Prof.S.Swaminathan, S/shri Badri Seshadri, R.Gopu, Ashok Krishnaswami, Siva Thiagarajan, Kishore Mahadevan, guest speakers, Kizhakku Pathippagam staff, Temple staff and Priests, ASI staff, participants and all others for contributing to the success of Pandyan Yatra 2015.