Ramanathapuram (Ramnad)

01The Sethupathis

The Maravar chiefs of this coast took the title Sethupathi, lord of the Setu, as protectors of pilgrims crossing to Rameswaram and keepers of its temple, which they endowed and enlarged; the third corridor of the Ramanathaswamy temple was built under Muthuramalinga Sethupathi in the eighteenth century. Kizhavan Sethupathi, who ruled from 1674 to 1710, made Ramanathapuram a strong state and built the Ramalinga Vilasam palace, whose walls are painted with murals of battles, court scenes and the Ramayana. In 1730 Velu Nachiyar was born here, the only child of Chellamuthu Vijayaragunatha Sethupathi, and was trained in arms and languages before her marriage into Sivaganga.

02Jackson’s durbar and Vivekananda

In September 1798 the Company’s collector W. C. Jackson summoned Veerapandiya Kattabomman to Ramanathapuram over his unpaid tribute and kept him standing for hours in the Ramalinga Vilasam. Kattabomman refused to bow, and when guards tried to seize him he fought his way out; Lieutenant Clarke was killed in the scuffle. The scene became the most famous in Tamil ballad and film. A century later, in January 1897, Swami Vivekananda landed at Pamban on his return from the West, and Raja Bhaskara Sethupathi, who had helped send him to Chicago, received him and had a victory pillar raised; the Swami’s first public address on Indian soil after his return was given in this region.

The life of this place