Gods, Kings & Slaves: The Siege of Madurai - R. Venkatesh - Book Review

Gods, Kings & Slaves: The Siege of Madurai by R. Venketesh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The key reason for me to touch upon this book was 'Madurai'. Historically Madurai has been associated with Sangam Literature, Meenakshi Amman Temple and the Pandian Dynasty. And this book is about the downfall of the Pandyan dynasty which once had its wings spread across the entire Southern India and Sri Lanka.

The timeline of the story is late 13th and early 14th century. There are two parallel story lines. One revolves around Veera who is the illegitimate son of the ruling Pandian king Kulasekharan Pandian. The story deals with Veera's fight for power with his brother Sundar who is the legitimate son of the king. On the other side, we are taken through the Gujarat Region where an young boy Chand Ram is born with the prediction that he would become the ruler of Hindustan. Chand Ram is castrated when he tries to elope with a slave girl from the king's Harem and later he becomes slave to a Arab tradesman, where he is named Malik. Further he becomes the slave of Allaudin Khilji and later the general of the great ruler.

Malik becomes a great strategist and becomes the key for Khilji to acquire the wealth of temples from South India. Veera becomes king and doesn't expect the sudden strike from Malik along with his brother Sundar. Madurai has been left unprotected as no one expects a strike. Thus ends the mighty Pandyan dynasty.

What impressed me in the book was the vivid writing. Right from the childhood of the princes, the childhood fights, politics of crowning the princes, the strategies of Veera's war in Lanka or Malik's war in Warangal, the deception all make it a great reading. The Human emotions and psychology have been captured wonderfully. When Veera is afraid in the last war, the author portrays how the administrative nature of King's work has depleted the warrior in him. Even at the end when the entire city is destroyed, the brothers would be fighting for the rule which reflects the ego and rivalry they had in them. Similarly in Delhi, Khilji would have become a very timid person afraid of the great strategist Malik and would suffer a very bad end.

A great book to read if you are interested in History and wish to know about what happened in India in the 1300s.

View all my reviews

Happy Reading!

Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 2

Hi Guys,

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil -1, click here)

Let me continue my trekking experience.

11.25 am: We hit the road. At the last leg of the roadless journey, we started to feel the heat. The sun was heavy and we realized the mistake of not taking a water bottle with us. The first thing we saw on the road was a Ice Cream vendor. Our initial thought was to buy, but soon we realized that eating an Ice Cream at this state would damage our throat completely. After some time we saw a vendor selling fruits and we bought some pieces of water melon and it quenched our thirst completely. Luckily no monkey interfered us when we were eating. After eating the flesh part, we gave the skin of the fruit to a monkey and it accepted happily.

The roads were constructed amidst the jungle and hence we didn't feel the heat here too.

Devotees walking down the hill after completing the prayers

11.45 am: The water melon was enough for some time, after which the tiredness stared setting in. After walking on the road for some 20 minutes, some tourist buses came into our sight which meant the temple was nearby. Just before the temple, we saw the tree where the famous incident between Tamil poet Avvaiyar and Lord Murugan took place (for more details of the incident, click here)

The tree on the left side is the tree where the famous incident between Lord Murugan and Tamil poet Avvaiyar took place.

11.50 am: It took us another five minutes to reach the first temple, namely Pazhamudhircholai, which is one of the six abodes (Arubadaiveedu) of Lord Murugan. We got two water bottles here and emptied it quickly (we were that much thirsty). We continued to walk upwards towards the next temple. After drinking the water, it started to sweat so much for me and Bala, but Saravana had no sweat. We were drenched with sweat in some 5 minutes.

Pazhamudhircholai Temple

12.00 pm: The next temple namely Raakaie Amman Temple was some 250 m away from the first one, but it took us some five minutes because of the steep nature of the road. I will say more about the temple in the last post. To reach the temple you have to climb some 70 steps and there are lot of monkeys here. The temple mainly has access to Noopura Gangai, which is a perennial stream starting from a waterfall somewhere above. The water comes through some pipe or some other means and devotees take bath here. The water is wonderful here. It has lot of medicinal properties as it brushes through many herbal leaves.

Raakaie Amman Temple

12.20 pm: We didn't take bath at the temple, but then we collected water and there were some 15-20 people standing in the queue. So, it took us 15 minutes before touching the water and then finishing our prayers.

A view from the Raakaie Amman Temple

12.30 pm: After eating some snacks at the base of Raakaie Amman Temple, we starting moving downwards. Moving downwards was very easy but the path was very steep and we had to control our legs in order to avoid falling down. We entered the Pazhamudhircholai temple and after finishing our prayers there we started walking down.

12: 40 pm: We started moving down.

I will conclude the trekking experience in my next post.

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 3, click here )

Happy Reading and Viewing!!!

Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 1

Hi Guys,

This time I am going to write about my trekking experience at the hill of Azhagar Kovil (temple). Actually I was not sure whether trekking was the right term, but found out that trekking means walking a long distance where common travel is not available. My experience would fall in between the category of walking and trekking.

I would write about write about the history of the temple and hill at the end of the posts ( I hope to have a series of posts). I am planning to carry out a photo descriptive post.

To start with, the persons involved in the trek were myself and my friends Bala Kumar and Saravana Kumar. Bala was the organizer and actually 6-7 persons were supposed to come, but each pulled off at the last minute. Anyway we three had some good time together. We boarded the bus at sometime around 9 am. If you are wondering how I am depicting the right time from here on, I am using the time present in the photographs.

9.42 am: We reached Azhagar Kovil bus stop and started walking towards the temple.

9.47 am: Reached the entrance of the temple

9.52 am: Started our journey towards the hill. Stepping into the trees created something exhilarating. The temperature became suddenly cool and we felt separated from the whole crowd outside. A few monkeys welcomed us. There where few other devotees and sellers selling raw mangoes, cucumbers, amla water melon and a few other eatables.

9.55 am: We started taking a few photographs. Myself and Bala had cameras. Bala was more focussed on taking macro shots of insects and flowers there. I was concentrating on the nature surrounding and also capturing ourselves. We were full of energy as we entered and we climbed the side paths and few rocks here and there and took some photographs. We also asked Saravana to take a stick with him in order to protect us in case any monkeys attacked us. We also crossed a Snake temple (temple that had lot of snake statues). People had tied many colourful clothes in the tree - some prayers.

Monkey eating Raw Mango given by some devotee

An Interesting pose

10.05 am: We started meeting few steps cut out of rocks. Again we were not trying to advance quickly. A small stream with clear water was accompanying us all along the path.

Saravana with stick - Monkey Chaser

The three of us

10.20 am: The stream was close and it was quite broad. It was clear and the presence of water increased the number of creatures surrounding. Bala was more focussed on taking spiders, dragonflies and butterflies that were around. Saravana was helping Bala by finding creatures. In the process, he often forgot the stick and we had to remind him to take it back.

Bala taking a picture

A bunch of beautiful flowers with a fly on it

Water Spiders present

10.30 am: We were roaming around the same place. Some 3-4 monkeys were carrying their little ones and travelled across our path. Monkeys were generally afraid of us and move away or stay undisturbed. I think they will attack only if we have some food with us.

Monkey drinking water

The stream that was accompanying

Roots of trees

11.10 am: We had spent something around forty five mintues at two different places. Bala was trying desperately to capture some butterflies and dragonflies. Dragonflies here were really striking in nature. They had hues of bright blue and red. We started moving ahead by 11.05 am.

A Dragonfly found there

The path ahead

11.15 am: We were making some good progress and started seeing some steep steps and some heavy transportation which meant that we were nearing the road, which was nearly half way.

11.25 am: We reached the road. The stream was quite big and it started flowing at some distance down the road.

The last leg of roadless travel

Will continue the rest of the journey in my next part.

(To Read Trekking at Azhagar Kovil - 2, click here)

Happy Reading and Viewing!!!

Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal - 2 : Remnants of History!

Hi Guys,

I got a little busy and was a little slow on blogging. But the new IndiRank (77 for both my blogs) has increased my energy levels and it has renewed my interests.

For my previous post, I got a few comments that they were not aware of the palace existing in Madurai. Actually it is not very surprising as our tourist department takes no steps in preserving the place. For interested people, the palace is in the center of the city and just a kilometer away from the Meenakshi Amman Temple.

In this post, let me post a few photos that are remnants from the past. The palace has a small museum in the side room, that is actually the Dancing Hall or the Nataka Shala, where dance and entertainment took place. A lot of paintings, records, instruments, tools from the past are kept. Apart from that, there is also a statue collection outside the palace.

Stone inscriptions in the museum

A 17th century Chola Dynasty stone inscription

Statue of a God

Lot of statues have broken or detached head. Whoever conquered the temple or palace, didn't wish the statues to remain and so, they just broke of the head. So, lot of Gods and Goddess remain without head.

The King's chair

A God with six faces

Ancient window made from stone

This is it for now. Will post a few more photos in my nest post.

Happy Viewing!!!

Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal - 1

Hi Guys,

Two years back, during one of my posts, I had written that despite being in Madurai since my childhood days, I have never visited Thirumalai Nayakar Palace which is in one of the few palaces remaining in south India and also one of the very few tourist attractions of the city.

Last week, I had a chance to visit the palace along with few of my friends. The palace was a beautiful place with big pillars and superb architecture. I thought of posting the photos in a single attempt, but then looking at the number of photos, I have decided to present it in a series of posts.

The palace was built by King Thirumalai Nayak and the palace has been named after him. He ruled the city from 1623-1659 and the palace has been erected approximately by 1639. The architecture is a mixture of Dravidian and Islamic style. The actual palace is said to be four times larger than what it is today.

Here I will be presenting a few photographs and in the upcoming posts, I will be concentrating on a particular category of photographs.

Entrance of the Palace

Whole View of the Courtyard

The gigantic Pillars in the palace

Beautiful dooms in between the pillars

Inside the Nadana vilasam (Dancing Hall)

A view of the rear side of the palace

 Happy Viewing!!!

Different People!

Hi Guys,

It’s already 10.40 pm and I’m in a very energetic state, thanks to the powerful nap in the afternoon. In this post I’m going to write about two interesting conversations I had in the recent weeks.

Customer Satisfaction

2-3 weeks back, I went to a nearby Hair Salon to trim my hair. The barber is a friendly person and since I had become one of his regular customers he used to speak with me now and then. Last time, I noticed that there were some 5-6 newspapers in the waiting bench. I asked him whether they were old papers and he said that all were the current day’s newspapers.

Regularly people used to keep just 1 paper and I was surprised. I asked him the same question and his answer was interesting. He said that on a busy day, when lot of customers wait, if there is only one paper, then few customers might be feeling frustrated and they will leave the salon and it will result in losing of customers.

So, he regularly buys 3 English and 3 Tamil Dailies. So even if there are six customers they will wait patiently. It also boosts the value for the Salon, as customers feel happy that there will be lot of dailies and the barber feels proud. He said all the six dailies might cost around Rs. 15 or 20 and even if it results in one extra customer it is profit for him.

We speak about Customer Satisfaction for big value products and here a small salon owner has implemented it. His motive is simple – Spend some money on satisfying customers and you will get more money in return.

A Rare act of Honesty

A few days back, when I was going to a nearby industry for my project work I used to catch a bus around 7.15 am. The crowd will be very less in the morning, that too in this winter season. So, most of the seats will be empty. The first bus journey will take around 20 minutes.

I will meet by friends at a bus terminus and from there we need to travel another 25 km in bus. So, I will take a Rs. 50 pass using which you can travel within the city any number of times for that particular day. Generally conductors ask for an ID card.

On that particular day, I just showed my ID card and the conductor said it was not necessary to show it during the first time. As usual the bus was empty and he started to converse with me. He said that per day around 25-50% of the users misuse the pass. They take the daily pass and just pass it on to someone else. So, that is why the conductors ask for ID cards.

Next he asked who I am and what I’m doing. He was so interested in speaking about education. He has chosen a vocational group in his higher secondary schooling and hence Maths is tough for him. As he had studied in Tamil Medium, understanding English is also tough.

After that, he has studied all the computer languages and he said that he is well versed in C, C++, Java, VB and Oracle. He has taught students in a school for around 9 years. He has finished BCA in correspondence.

Then somehow he has come into the conductor line (might have joined as it’s a permanent job). In an effort to join Government school as teacher, he has registered for doing MCA in correspondence. He said that he went into the Exam Hall and he was not able to attend questions in Operations Research, Computer Graphics and some other paper. He said that he was not even able to interpret the question. Not knowing English and Maths has made it tough for him.

These days people say about giving money and getting pass marks in correspondence exams. I thought of asking the same and then left the idea. After a while he said that, 'I can give money and pass the exam, but what is the use? I am not even able to understand the questions. I’m in such a poor state and what is the use of clearing the paper by giving money?'

It was just refreshing to hear this type of words from people. A few days later I was saying this to mom and she said that just 10% of people are like him and others think of doing anything for themselves with the help of money and power. True, but people like them do exist.

Meeting people like the above two creates a new perception and makes us understand life better.

Life is Beautiful!

Happy Reading!!!

Inside Teppakulam!

Hi Guys,

One of the famous places in Madurai is Teppakulam and we have never visited the temple inside. For a long time, Mom has been saying that we should visit it some day and we went there today evening. Before sharing today's experience, let me describe about the place.

Teppakulam (commonly called as Mariamman Teppakulam) is a man made Water Tank built by king Tirumalai Nayak. It is huge and covers 16 acres and it is the largest man made water tank in South India. This place was actually dug to take construction materials for building Meenakshi Amman Temple. While doing so, a Vinayaga Idol was taken out and as a result the king decided to built a temple at the center and water tank around it. It is said that the Vinayaga statue is inside the temple, but I found no statue inside and my mother says that it is none other than the Mukuruni Vinayagar found in Meenakshi Amman temple. The king also started the Teppathiruvizha (Float Festival), which is still celebrated in the month of January. On that day, the temple is decorated with lights and a decorated float goes round the temple. It is a feast to the eyes and stats say that around 100 thousand people visit the festival (Click here to see photos)

Coming back to the modern times, water is not regularly filled and is filled only for the float festival. The tank dries completely in summer and it has become a playground for youngsters. Today we went there by around 5.30 pm and when we went there were about 200-300 boys playing cricket inside the tank. We went through the dry tank towards the center. The temple was located 15-20 feet above ground level and steps were steep. The temple was protected by grills and there was no way inside it. The temple was very greenish in nature. It was filled with lot of trees and due to poor maintenance, some wild bushes have grown up. We walked around the temple and the atmosphere was just wonderful.

There were some people in the center and they had come to relax. Watching the whole region from inside was superb. Pictures speak better than words and here are some of the photos I took today.

The center temple

The main tower

The year of construction: 1635. So it is 375 years old

Some of the places were very poor

One group of cricketers

Herd of cows disturbing a match

Wild Bushes grown inside

Addicted to mobile phone?

Setting the field???

Ah! This was the most terrible thing. A Child Labor!!! Remember today is Child Labor Banishment day. When boys of his age were playing cricket, he was selling Ice Water.

Sun sets down!

A Pani Puri Shop

Flock of Birds

A view of the Vaigai River

View all the photos in my Picasa Web Album!

Happy Reading!!!