हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Sivaganga

Capital of the small Maravar kingdom that Rani Velu Nachiyar won back from the Nawab of Arcot and the Company in 1780. The Marudhu brothers ruled it for her and fell defending it in 1801.

Built: Seat of the Sivaganga kingdom, founded 1730Where: Tamil Nadu9.84° N, 78.48° E
  1. 1730 CE
  2. 1772 CE
  3. 1780 CE
  4. 1801 CE
Photo: Nileshantony92 · CC BY-SA 3.0

01A kingdom carved from Ramnad

In 1730 the Sethupathi kingdom of Ramanathapuram was divided, and Sasivarna Thevar became the first raja of Sivaganga, with his palace here beside the tank that gave the town its name. His son Muthu Vaduganatha Thevar married Velu Nachiyar, the Sethupathi princess. In 1772 the Nawab of Arcot, with Company troops, marched in to force tribute, and the raja was killed at Kalaiyar Kovil. The queen escaped with her daughter to Virupachi, near Dindigul, under the protection of Gopala Nayakar.

02The queen comes back

For eight years she built an army, with horsemen and guns from Hyder Ali of Mysore. In 1780, with the Marudhu brothers leading, her forces took Sivaganga back. She ruled through the 1780s with the brothers as her ministers and passed the throne to her daughter Vellacci. In 1801 the brothers rose against the Company with the southern league, and when Kalaiyar Kovil fell on 1 October they were taken and hanged at Tiruppathur. The Company then made Sivaganga a zamindari. The old palace of the rajas still stands in the town, and Tamil Nadu keeps a memorial to Velu Nachiyar here.

The life of this place

  1. 1730 CESivaganga became a separate kingdom under Sasivarna Thevar.
  2. 1772 CEThe Nawab of Arcot and Company troops took the kingdom; the raja fell at Kalaiyar Kovil.
  3. 1780 CEVelu Nachiyar and the Marudhu brothers retook Sivaganga.
  4. 1801 CEThe Company crushed the Marudhu brothers’ rising and annexed the kingdom.

People

Rani Velu NachiyarQueen
1730–1796 CE

Rani Velu Nachiyar

Queen who won back Sivaganga

The Marudhu brothersWarrior
Periya Marudhu 1748–1801; Chinna Marudhu 1753–1801

The Marudhu brothers

Rulers of Sivaganga, authors of the 1801 proclamation

Nearby

Kalaiyar KovilStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Kalaiyar Kovil

The Shiva temple and forest stronghold of the Sivaganga rajas, sung by Sundarar in the Tevaram. Here Raja Muthu Vaduganatha Thevar fell to the Company’s army in 1772, and here the Marudhu brothers made their last stand in 1801.

Pushpavaneswarar Temple, TiruppoovanamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Pushpavaneswarar Temple, Tiruppoovanam

The flower-forest shrine on the Vaigai near Madurai, sung by all three Tevaram singers. Its utsava murti is the golden form Shiva made for the devotee Ponnanaiyal, one of his Tiruvilaiyadal leelas.

Sowmya Narayana Perumal Temple, ThirukoshtiyurStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Sowmya Narayana Perumal Temple, Thirukoshtiyur

From the tower of this temple Ramanuja called out the eight-syllable mantra, Om Namo Narayanaya, to everyone in the street, after his guru had made him come eighteen times to learn it.

Kalamegha Perumal Temple, ThirumohurStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Kalamegha Perumal Temple, Thirumohur

Mohanapuram: the temple says that here Vishnu took the form of Mohini at the churning of the ocean and kept the amrita from the asuras. Its Sudarshana shrine draws devotees from across the south.