THOOTHUKUDI: An archaeology student found a stone inscription belonging to the 13th century near the Maruthur anicut in Thoothukudi district. The inscription revealed that Kulasekarapandian, a king from the Pandyan dynasty built a temple on the banks of the Thamirabarani River at Maruthur.
Nearly 24 students of the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University’s archaeology department, led by the department head (in charge) Sudhakar and professors Mathivanan and Murugan took out a field visit to the Maruthur anicut. During the outing, Rahul Krishna, a first-year student, discovered a heap of stone bars near the Maruthavalli and Cholavalli temples located on the anicut.
Sudhakar said that the readable stone inscription was found to be engraved during Kulasekarapandian’s rule between 1190 and 1216, revealing that a mandapam was built during the Pandyan king’s rule.
Writer Muthalankurichi Kamarasu, who was a part of the team, said that given the nature of the stone inscription, there may have been an ancient stone mandapam that might have been demolished later during the uprising of the Cholas or during floods. The stones of the mandapam could have been used to build the anicut, he stated.
Meanwhile, Sudhakar said that the Maruthur anicut, built several centuries ago, is an architectural marvel. Given the debris, and the stone bars substituted for the anicut’s construction, a big stone mandapam may have been demolished, perhaps due to clashes between the Pandyas and the Cholas, or the Shaivaites and Vaishnavites. The anicut has a stone plank mentioning the year 1507, he said.
MS University’s vice-chancellor Chandrasekar appreciated Rahul Krishna for the finding. It is pertinent to note that there is a belief among the people on the Thamirabarani’s banks that the Maruthur anicut was built by demolishing a temple, to protect people from the fury of the floods.
The Maruthur anicut, the seventh structure across the Thamirabarani, irrigates nearly 20,567 acres as part of the Melakkal and Keelakkal channel, which fills 16 and 15 tanks respectively in the Thoothukudi district.
As per literary sources, the horseshoe-shaped anicut is the longest in the Thamirabarani basin and measures nearly 4,000 feet.
Recently, Kamarasu discovered a statue of Nandi and a woman deity in a sitting posture near the Maruthur anicut near the Muthalankurichi village and handed it over to the Tirunelveli museum.
It may be noted that when Kamarsu filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition a few years ago, seeking directives to collect the inscriptions and protect the ruins of archaeological importance, the Tamil Nadu archaeology department told the court they did not find anything.