Madura

“ THE GREAT GOPURA MADURA TEMPLE
flat-roofed city with the great gopuras, or temple gateways, standing like so many Gibraltars in its midst. These gopuras loom and dwindle away toward the sky in such a way as to make all things seem toys, and the people pygmies. One such monument would be architectural fame for any city, but Madura's rich shrine is protected by nine such soaring, pyramidal sky-scrapers, the four in the outer wall nine stories in height. ”

“ Outside the fort of Madura, resided those men who led a life of religious devotion and poor classes of people such as the Pânar and other lower castes. [28]
West of Madura was the hill Parankunru sacred to Subramanya [29] according to the poet Nakkirar. This hill is south-west of modern Madura but directly west of the ruins now known as old Madura; east of the capital was another hill, where there was a temple dedicated to Vishnu. ”

“ The author of the Chilappathikaram states that the revenue of the towns of Thankâl and Viyalur were once assigned by a Pandyan king to the temple of the goddess at Madura. [64] Modoura—The royal city Of the Pandyan is old Madura which is six miles south-east of the modern town of Madura.
North of the Pandyan kingdom lay the country of the Vedduvar or Vedar [65] (the Batoi of Ptolemy) , which was also known as Panri-Nadu or “the land of pigs“ — the capital of this province was Nâgai or Nâga-paddinam. Very little is known of this town from Tamil poems of this period. ”

“ MADURA, n.p., properly Madurei, Tam. Mathurai. This is still the name of a district in S. India, and of a city which appears in the Tables of Ptolemy as "Μόδουρα βασίλειον Πανδιόνος." The name is generally supposed to be the same as that of Mathurā, the holy and much more ancient city of Northern India, from which the name was adopted (see MUTTRA) , but modified after Tamil pronunciation. [5] [On the other hand, a writer in J. R. As. Soc. (xiv. 578, n. 3) derives Madura from the Dravidian Madur in the sense of 'Old Town,' and suggests that the northern Mathura may be an offshoot from it.] ”

“ It describes very vividly the proud and wealthy city of Madura, the scenes in the street’s and in the palace, the personal appearance of the Pandya, and the manner in which he reçeives and rewards his courtiers; and concludes with the advice that the king should follow in the footsteps of his pious ancestors, perform sacrifices, advance the welfare and secure the loyalty of his subjects, and enjoy the good things that the gods give. It will be seen from the poem that the author was an ardent lover of Nature, and a keen observer of men and manners. ”

“ In the Manual of the Madura district, the Patnūlkārans are described as “a caste of Surat silk-weavers, whose ancestors were induced to settle in Madura by one of the earlier Nāyakkan kings, or in response to an invitation from Tirumala Naik, and who have thriven so well that they now form by far the most numerous of all the castes resident in the town of Madura. They are very skilful and industrious workmen, and many of them have become very wealthy. ”

“ Madura was doubtless the most famous and important town in Tamilakam at this period, being the capital city of the Pandyas, who were renowned as the most powerful of the Tamil kings, and munificent patrons of poets. What distinguished it however from other towns in the Tamil country were the high towers over the four gates of the fort. ”

“ MADURA, a city and district of British India, in the Madras Presidency. The city is situated on the right bank of the river Vaigai, and has a station on the South Indian railway 345 m. S.E. of Madras. Pop. (1901) , 105,984. The city was the capital of the old Pandyan dynasty, which ruled over this part of India from the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 11th century A.D. Its great temple forms a parallelogram about 847 ft. by 729 ft., and is surrounded by nine gopuras, of which the largest is 152 ft. high. These ornamental pyramids begin with doorposts of single stones 60 ft. ”

“ These missionaries seem to plant their stations wherever there are important Hindu temples. The wonder is that the natives are so tolerant.
276 Madura was our next destination, and we were not sorry to get away from our stifling little barn of a room at the bungalow, leaving in the early morning about daybreak for the 5.45 Madras mail. ”

“ Writing is on the palm-leaf only. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 28–31; and Cust’s Modern Languages, pp. 138, 139.
589 Eden reads (p. 260) : “Giaua the lesse, is as bygge as the Ilande of Madera, and is but half a leaque distante from Giaua maior;” thus confusing the island of Madura with the Portuguese island of Madeira. Madura has the same formation, vegetation, and manners and character of its inhabitants, as Java. The name is derived from the Hindu legend, which represents it as the kingdom of the hero and demi-god Baladewa, and is a corruption of the Sanskrit Mathura. ”

“ Madura was celebrated as the seat of learning in this part of the world, its college being famous all over the East, and, previous to the changes which took place after the Mohammedan conquest, exercised a strong degree of influence over the entire of the native population. It continued to flourish during seven centuries, its institutions securing to both male and female children, for the sex was not degraded in those days, an education of a very liberal nature. ”

“ Its doorposts alone, whether 57 ft. or 60 ft. in height, are single blocks of granite, carved with the most exquisite scroll patterns of elaborate foliage, and all the other carvings are equally beautiful. Being unfinished, and consequently never consecrated, it has escaped whitewash, and alone, of all the buildings of Madura, its beauties can still be admired in their original perfection.
The great temple at Madura is a larger and far more important building than the choultrie ”

“ If a lady from outside is to be accepted as consort, she is generally adopted into one of these families. The title Karta, or doer, appears also to have been used as a titular name by some of the rulers of Madura. [At the Madras census, 1901, Kartākkal was returned by Balijas claiming to be descendants of the Nāyak kings of Madura and Tanjore.] The Tekkumkur and Vadakkumkur Rājas in Malabar are said to have first conferred the title Karta on certain influential Nāyar families. ”

“ MADURA (Dutch Madoera) , an island of the Dutch East Indies, separated by the shallow Strait of Madura from the N.E. coast of Java. Pop. (1897) , 1,652,580, of whom 1,646,071 were natives, 4252 Chinese and 558 Europeans. It extends from about 112° 32′ to 114° 7′ E., and is divided into two nearly equal portions by the parallel of 7° S.; the area is estimated at 1725 sq. m. It is a plateau-like prolongation of the limestone range of northern Java, with hills (1300 to 1600 ft. high) and dales. The formation of the coast and plains is Tertiary and recent alluvium. Hot springs are not infrequent ”

“ All of them pass for pure vegetarians. The proud position of Madura to this day as second city in the Presidency is mainly, if not solely, due to her prosperous and industrious community of Saurāshtra merchants and silk-weavers, who have now grown into nearly half her population, and who have also come to a foremost place among the ranks of her citizens. ”

“ The Collector called upon the Hindus to put the Siva temple in order within a year, on pain of its being treated as an escheat.
Near the town of Madura is a large isolated mass of naked rock, which is known as Ānaimalai (elephant hill) . "The Madura Sthala Purāna says it is a petrified elephant. The Jains of Conjeeveram, says this chronicle, tried to convert the Saivite people of Madura to the Jain faith. Finding the task difficult, they had recourse to magic. They dug a great pit ten miles long, performed a sacrifice thereon, and thus caused a huge elephant to arise from it. ”

“ This is probably due to the fact that the bulk of the Madura trade is in a higher class of cloth than at Salem, and the weavers are consequently less affected by fluctuations in demand for their goods due to seasonal variations. In various ways the Saurāshtras of Madura have furnished evidence that they are a progressive community, particularly in the attention which they pay to education, and the keenness with which they are on the look-out for improvements in the methods of carrying out their hereditary craft. ”

“ This would include approximately, the northern half of the modern district of Madura and the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts. It would exclude Madura, the capital of the Pandya. The commentator Chenâvaraiyar and after him, Nachchinâr-kkiniyar accepted this definition of Chen-Tamil-nadu, and they mention the names of the surrounding Nadus in the following order from the South-east to the North-east of Chen Tamil Nadu :—Ponkar, Oli, Then-pandi, Kuddam, Kudam, Pauri, Karka, Cheetham, Pooli, Malayamanadu, Aruva and Aruva vada thalai. ”

“ In the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is stated that “in Madura and Tinnevelly, the Dēvāngas, or Sēdans, consider themselves a shade superior to the Brāhmans, and never do namaskāram (obeisance or salutation) to them, or employ them as priests. In Madura and Coimbatore, the Sēdans have their own dancing-girls, who are called Dēvānga or Sēda Dāsis in the former, and Mānikkāttāl in the latter, and are strictly reserved for members of the caste under pain of excommunication or heavy fine.” ”

“ The capital of the Pām̃diyan Kingdom was Madura. The history of the kingdom is very imperfectly known. For a discussion of it see Sewell, Lists of Antiquities, Madras, vol. ii. Of course it has nothing to do with Parias. ”

“ Petroleum is found in small quantities.
The principal town is Sumenep; and there are populous Malay, Arab and Chinese villages between the town and the European settlement of Maringan. On a hill in the neighbourhood lies Asta, the burial-place of the Sumenep princes. Pamekasan is the seat of government. Bangkalang is a large town with the old palace of the sultan of Madura and the residences of the princes of the blood; the mosque is adorned with the first three suras of the Koran, thus differing from nearly all the mosques in Java and Madura, though resembling those of western Islam. ”

“ The road from the foot of the Pulney hills to Madura, a distance of upwards of forty miles, is very bad, but it passes through avenues of shady banyan and peepul trees most of the way, and is, therefore, not so wearisome for the natives on foot, as for a European jolting at the rate of three miles an hour in a bullock-cart without springs.
Near Madura there are tracts of rice cultivation, plantain groves, and topes of palm-trees ”

“ He ruled Madura from 1559 to 1563. Muttu Krishnappa (1602 — 1609) seems to have been the first to assume royal titles at Madura. His son, Muttu Virappa (1609 — 1623) , is stated, in the narrative of the Portuguese writer Barradas (above, p. 230) , to have paid a tribute in A.D. 1616 to the Vijayanagar king at Chandragiri of 600,000 pagodas; he had several vassal kings under him, and must have already obtained great power. It is possible that, in the time of Nuniz, Madura was not one of the greater provinces, but that it became so later. ”

“ The principal attraction to the traveler in Madura, which contains some fifty thousand inhabitants, is a remarkable and ancient pagoda, supported by two thousand stone columns. It was dedicated to Parvati, wife of Shiva, and is one of the largest and finest monuments of Hindoo art in existence, covering in all its divisions, courts, shrines, colonnades, and tanks twenty acres of ground. ”

“ A town and district of Southern India, probably Tiru-nel-vēli, 'Sacred Rice-hedge.' [The Madras Gloss. gives 'Sacred Paddy-village.'] The district formed the southern part of the Madura territory, and first became a distinct district about 1744, when the Madura Kingdom was incorporated with the territories under the Nawāb of Arcot (Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly) . ”

“ Near that mountain, there is a valley, which is guarded by a goddess who may give you trouble. Praying to Vishnu for heIp you should pass through this valley and reach Madura. Between these two routes there is a middle path which is more convenient, as it passes through woodlands and hamlets, and you may safely take that road.” Having ascertained the easiest route, they pursued their journey to Madura. In the course of their journey, Kannaki having complained of her sore feet and fatigue, one day they had to stop at a Kali temple, in a village inhabited by Vedas [13] . ”

“ Subsequently Madura became a province of the Hindu Empire of Vijayanagar. In the middle of the 16th century the governor Viswanath established the Nayak dynasty, which lasted for a century. The greatest of the line was Tirumala Nayak (reigned 1623-1659) , whose military exploits are recorded in the contemporary letters of the Jesuit missionaries. He adorned Madura with many public buildings, and extended his empire over the adjoining districts of Tinnevelly, Travancore, Coimbatore, Salem and Trichinopoly. ”

“ Another striking thing about the Madura temple is the force of realization and expression in the figure sculpture. Life-sized figures of different gods and demons are carved in stone in front of the columns in many of the halls of the temple, the columns themselves frequently white-washed, while the figures are left in the untouched stone and look in contrast like bronze figures, their elaborate detail and undercutting emphasizing this suggestion. ”

“ Mahadeo, the Indian term for a worm-knot or cup-marking, resolves as it stands into maha, great; and deo, Goddess: our English word maw, meaning stomach, is evidently allied to the Hebrew moi, meaning bowels; with moeder, the Dutch for womb, may be connoted Mitra or Mithra, and perhaps Madura. It is well known that the chief Festival celebrated in the Indian cave temples at Madura and elsewhere is associated with the lingam, or emblem of sex, and it may be assumed that the invariable sixfold form of the Kentish dene holes was connected in some way with sex worship. ”