The Panguni Uthiram festival has been celebrated across all temples in Tamil Nadu since ancient times. This usually marks the celestial wedding of God and Goddess in most of the temples. The ‘Bhooloka Vaikuntam’, Srirangam, is no exception to this. For thousands of years, Panguni Thirunal has been one of the important Utsavams celebrated in the temple, in which the day of Uthiram (Uthirapalguni Nakshatra) marks the ‘Serthi’ of Arangan and Thayar. However, this festival also brings back some dark memories of a catastrophe that happened in the early 14th century.
After the internal rivalry that plagued the Pandyan country during 1300, Tamilagam was invaded three times by Delhi Sultanate forces. First by Malik Kafur in 1311 in which he returned with a lot of wealth from there. The second was a few years later by Khusrau Khan, which didn’t have a major impact. The third one came in 1323. That was the one that has made a lasting impact on the culture and heritage of Tamil Nadu.
During the reign of Ghyasuddin Tughlaq, his son Ulugh Khan (who later ascended the Delhi throne as Muhammed Bin Tughlaq) came with an army towards Deccan. His aim was not only to loot the wealth but also to subdue these kingdoms and make them serve under the Delhi Sultanate. He met with success in Warangal, and the Hoysalas, who were ruling the Dwarasamudras, also gave up. Veera Vallala III had to agree to peace with Ulugh Khan and let him pass through the kingdom towards Mabar (Madurai). Even after the raid by Malik Kafur, the Madurai Pandya Kingdom still had a lot of wealth, and that was the target of Ulugh Khan. He passed through the Servarayan Hills and reached Kannanur Koppam, which is now known as Samayapuram. Kannanur served as the second capital of Hoysalas during those days.
At the same time, Srirangam was busy with the Panguni Uthiram festival. On the evening of the seventh day, after Azhagiya Manavala Perumal, the Utsava Murthy, had completed the procession, the news of the Sultanate forces reaching Samayapuram reached the temple authorities. They discussed whether to go ahead with the next day’s event, in which the Perumal is taken to the Varaha temple near the Kaveri River. It was known as ‘Pandriazhvan Medu’ during that time. Given the proximity of the place to Samayapuram, few objected to this. But there are valid counterarguments. One, the region had seen many battles since the Sangam days between Tamil kings, which didn’t have any impact on temple affairs. Second, they knew that Ulugh Khan was on the way to Madurai, and why would he come to a temple event? Convincing themselves, the temple authorities decided to go ahead with the event on the 8th day of the Panguni festival.
They were grossly mistaken. Knowing about the Srirangam temple and the kind of wealth it had, Ulugh Khan decided to attack the temple. His first target was the devotees who were assembled at the Varaha Swami temple. There were thousands of them, including men, women, and children, who came from faraway places to witness the festival. The Sultan’s army mercilessly pounced on them. Without even knowing why they were being attacked, they couldn’t even defend themselves. Kovil Ozhugu, which details the history of Srirangam temple, mentions that about 12,000 devotees were massacred. This was mentioned as ‘Panniraayiravar Mudithiruththiya Pandriyazhvan Metu Kalagam’, a battle that removed the heads of 12000 devotees.
The news quickly reached the temple where the Azhagiya Manavala Perumal was all set to leave for the Kaveri River. Realizing the danger, two of the Acharyas, Pillai Lokacharyar and Swami Vedanta Desikan, decided to safeguard the Perumal. As Pillai Lokacharyar was old, it was decided that he would leave for the south of Tamilagam along with the Utsava Murthy in a Palanquin with a few of the temple treasures. Vedanta Desikar left for north Tamil Nadu with all important texts. When Ulugh Khan’s army attacked the temple, they heard that the Azhagiya Manavala Perumal had been taken to safety. One of the divisions of the army was set out to chase them. The rest of the army sacked the temple and killed whoever was there to defend it.
Pillai Lokacharya took the Perumal through the jungles safely, avoiding the chasing army. Due to exhaustion, he attained Paramapatham at a place called Jothishkudi near Madurai Anaimalai. His disciples took the Perumal through Tirunelveli and Aralvazmozhi to Kerala. After some years, Perumal went to Melkotte in Karnataka and then to Tirupathi.
Meanwhile, Ulugh Khan captured Madurai and installed Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan as governor of Madurai. However, after Ulugh Khan left for Delhi, Ahsan Khan declared independence and made Madurai a separate sultanate. This sultanate created havoc in Tamilagam, and for 48 years it plunged into darkness. Many temples were destroyed, and poojas were stopped. Fortunately, Kumara Kampala of Vijayanagar came with an army in the 1360s and destroyed the sultanate.
Gopanna Raya, who was a general of Kampanna, heard about the happenings at Srirangam Temple and decided to bring back Azhagiya Manavala Perumal. He went to Tirupathi, took Perumal with him to Ginjee, performed poojas, and then took the swami to Srirangam. At that time, no one could vouch whether the Vigraha was the same one that was taken away during the raid of Ulugh Khan. Luckily, there was a washerman who lived through this time and he was brought in to verify the vigraha. Unfortunately, he was blind, but just by the smell of the dress, he could confirm that it was indeed ‘Namperumal’—our God. Gopanna installed the Vigraham in the temple and restored all the rituals and pooja. This event was inscribed in the Srirangam temple.
Nowadays, Srirangam residents started lighting Moksha Deepa in memory of the innocent devotees who gave their lives during the festival. A fitting tribute indeed.
TS Krishnan is a Tamil scholar and author.
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