हिंदीOn this day

Nayakas of Madurai

The Nayakas of Madurai began as Vijayanagara governors in 1529 and ruled the far south for two centuries. Much of the Meenakshi temple as pilgrims see it today, its towering gopurams and pillared halls, was built in their time.

  1. Vishwanatha Nayaka1529–1564
  2. Krishnappa Nayaka I1564–1572
  3. Virappa Nayaka1572–1595
  4. Muttu Krishnappa Nayaka1601–1609
  5. Muttu Virappa Nayaka I1609–1623
  6. Tirumalai Nayak1623–1659
  7. Chokkanatha Nayak1659–1682
  8. +4
Period: 1529–1736 CERegion: The old Pandya country of southern Tamil Nadu, from Tiruchirappalli to KanyakumariCapitals: Madurai, Tiruchirappalli
Photo: BOMBMAN · CC BY 2.0

01Vishwanatha and the palayams

Vishwanatha Nayaka, son of the Vijayanagara general Nagama Nayaka, was sent to restore order in the Pandya country in 1529. With his minister and general Ariyanatha Mudaliar he divided the land into seventy-two palayams, each held by a palayakkarar, a chief who kept troops and guarded one bastion of the Madurai fort. He rebuilt the fort walls and cleared forest for farmland. The palayakkarars, the poligars of British records, remained the backbone of the south until their revolts against the Company in the 1790s.

02Tirumalai Nayak

Tirumalai Nayak, from 1623 to 1659, brought the court back to Madurai from Tiruchirappalli and built on a scale no Nayaka matched. His palace, the Tirumalai Nayak Mahal, finished around 1636, still has its great hall of round pillars and a painted dome. He built the Pudhu Mandapam opposite the Meenakshi temple’s east gate, and the Mariamman Teppakulam tank where the float festival is held in Thai. He fought off invasions from Mysore and Bijapur and kept his throne through the collapse of Vijayanagara.

Madurai, city of the Sangam
Place · Pandya capital from before the MauryasMadurai, city of the SangamThe Pandya capital on the Vaigai, home of the third Tamil Sangam, the assembly of poets whose work became Tamil’s classical canon. Megasthenes heard of its pearl-rich kingdom in Pataliputra.Read →

03Mangammal and the end

Rani Mangammal ruled as regent for her grandson from 1689 to 1706. She is remembered in the south for roads lined with avenue trees, choultries for pilgrims, and water tanks, and for keeping the Mughals and the Marathas at bay by careful diplomacy. Her Tamukkam palace in Madurai now houses the Gandhi Memorial Museum. The line ended with Queen Meenakshi, who was tricked and imprisoned by Chanda Sahib in 1736; Madurai passed to the Nawabs of Arcot.

The rulers

  1. 1Vishwanatha NayakaFounder; the seventy-two palayams1529–1564
  2. 2Krishnappa Nayaka I1564–1572
  3. 3Virappa Nayaka1572–1595
  4. 4Muttu Krishnappa Nayaka1601–1609
  5. 5Muttu Virappa Nayaka IMoved the court to Tiruchirappalli1609–1623
  6. 6Tirumalai NayakTirumalai Nayak Mahal; Pudhu Mandapam1623–1659
  7. 7Chokkanatha NayakTook Thanjavur, 16731659–1682
  8. 8Rangakrishna Muttu Virappa1682–1689
  9. 9Rani Mangammal (regent)Roads, choultries, careful diplomacy1689–1706
  10. 10Vijayaranga Chokkanatha1706–1732
  11. 11Queen MeenakshiLast ruler; captured by Chanda Sahib1732–1736

What they left

  • The gopurams and mandapams of the Meenakshi temple
  • Tirumalai Nayak Mahal, Madurai
  • Mariamman Teppakulam and the Thai float festival
  • The palayam system of the far south

People

Puli ThevarWarrior
fought 1755–1767 CE

Puli Thevar

Palaiyakkarar of Nerkattumseval

KrishnadevarayaRuler
reigned 1509–1529 CE

Krishnadevaraya

Greatest emperor of Vijayanagara, poet-king

Veerapandiya KattabommanWarrior
1760–1799 CE

Veerapandiya Kattabomman

Palaiyakkarar of Panchalankurichi, hanged at Kayathar

Places

Madurai, city of the SangamStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Madurai, city of the Sangam

The Pandya capital on the Vaigai, home of the third Tamil Sangam, the assembly of poets whose work became Tamil’s classical canon. Megasthenes heard of its pearl-rich kingdom in Pataliputra.

Rock Fort, TiruchirappalliStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Rock Fort, Tiruchirappalli

An 83-metre rock over the Kaveri at Tiruchirappalli, with Shri Ganesh on the summit, the Thayumanaswamy temple halfway up, and Pallava cave shrines cut into its flanks. In the 18th century whoever held it held the Kaveri delta.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, SrirangamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

The first of the 108 Divya Desams, on an island between the Kaveri and Kollidam, with seven concentric walls and 21 gopurams. Ramanujacharya lived and taught here.

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, MaduraiRebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Madurai

The temple of the fish-eyed Devi who ruled Madurai as a Pandya princess and married Shiva. Plundered in 1311, it was raised again by the Nayaks into the city of fourteen gopurams that stands today.

Dindigul Rock FortStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Dindigul Rock Fort

A bare granite whaleback in the middle of Dindigul, walled by the Madurai Nayakas in 1605 and fought over by Mysore and the Company. In the 1770s the country around it sheltered Rani Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga while she built the army that won her kingdom back.

Battles

Polygar Wars

The palaiyakkarars, hereditary chiefs of the far south, refused to pay tribute to the Company and fought it for six years, from the walls of Panchalankurichi to the hills of Kongu.

1799–1805