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Children of midnight! Maruthu Pandiyar: Two brothers on one mission!

MAJOR KULBIR SINGH. Dated: 9/20/2017 11:18:26 AM

‘They were the first to issue a proclamation of independence from the colonial British rule from Trichy Thiruvarangam Temple, Tamil Nadu on 10 June 1801, 56 years before what is generally said to be the First War of Indian Independence which broke out mainly in Northern India in 1857’.
By: Major Kulbir Singh
The Marudhu Pandiyar brothers (Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu) ruled Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu, India, towards the end of the 18th century. They were the first to issue a proclamation of independence from the colonial British rule from Trichy Thiruvarangam Temple, Tamil Nadu on 10 June 1801, 56 years before what is generally said to be the First War of Indian Independence which broke out mainly in Northern India in 1857. Periya and Chinna Marudhu, sons of Mookiah Palaniappan, and Anandayer, also known as Ponnathal. The elder brother was born on 15 December 1748 in the small hamlet of Narikkudi near Aruppukkottai in then Ramnad state (now Virudhunagar district); the younger was born in Ramnad in 1753. Their father was a general in the Ramnad state military, and he moved his family to Virudhunagar from Narikkudi. The Marudhu brothers were trained in native martial arts at Surankottai, which traditionally served as a training centre for the Ramnad army.[ Muthu Vaduganadha Thevar, the Raja of Sivagangai, a principal state near Ramnad, came to know of their brave and courageous deeds (They were believed to have killed a couple of tigers that had entered their kingdom. Although the accuracy of the story is questionable, it gave them a legendary status and made them well known throughout the kingdom) and requested the Ramnad king to assign them to serve the Sivaganga state army.[citation needed] They were good at aerodynamics and craftsmanship and is said to have invented the Valari, a variant of the boomerang. They were in close association with Veerapandiya Kattabomman of Panchalankurichi. Kattabomman held frequent consultations with Marudhus. After the execution of Kattabomman in 17 October 1799 at Kayattar, Chinna Marudhu gave asylum to Kattabomman’s brother Oomadurai (mute brother). But, the British took this reason to invade and attacked Sivaganga in 1801 with a powerful army. The Maruthu Pandiyars and their allies were quite successful and captured three districts from the British. British considered it as a serious threat to their future in India that they rushed additional troops from Britain to put down Maruthu Pandiyars’ rebellion. These forces surrounded Maruthu Pandiyars’ army at Kalayar Koil, and the latter scattered. The Maruthu Brothers and their top commanders escaped. They regrouped and fought the British and their allies at Viruppatchi, Dindigul and Cholapuram. While they won the battle at Viruppatchi, they lost the other two battles. The Marudhu Pandiyars, along with the war leader Sivanandi and many of their family members, were captured at Cholapuram. They were hanged in the fort of Tirupputhur, in what is now Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu, on 24 October 1801.
Maruthu Brothers are good in aerodynamics and invented many variants of spears and boomerangs. They also founded guerilla war tactic in India during the early stages of colonisation. A commemorative postage stamp was released in October 2004. Every year people conduct Maruthu Pandiar Guru Puja in October.
British attacked Sivaganga in 1801. The Maruthu Pandiyars and their allies were quite successful and captured three districts from the British. The British considered it such a serious threat to their future in South Asia that they rushed additional troops from Britain to put down the Maruthu Pandiyars’ rebellion. These forces surrounded the Maruthu Pandiyars’ army at Kalayar Koil, and the latter scattered. The Maruthu Brothers and their top commanders escaped. They regrouped and fought the British and their allies at Viruppatchi, Dindigul and Cholapuram. While they won the battle at Viruppatchi, they lost the other two battles. The Marudhu Pandiyars and many of their family members were captured at Cholapuram they were infamously hanged at same time on the English month of October 24, 1801. Indian Government deliberately at times tries to hide historical facts such as Maruthu Pandiyar’s fight against the British. Indian Government celebrated the 100-th anniversary of the Sepoy mutiny with great fanfare. There were numerous programs about the mutiny in the Indian Government controlled All India Radio. But not even a mention was made in All India Radio about Maruthu Pandiyar led rebellion against the British on its 150-th anniversary. Indian Parliament commemorated in 2007 the 150th anniversary of north-Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 as the First Indian Independence War but there was no such commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the south-Indian Vellore Mutiny in 2006. This seems to have irked the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa Jeyaram. On August 14, 2007, she expressed shock at the National Implementation Committee for Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the First War of Independence for not recognizing stalwarts and heroes from India’s southern peninsula. She pointed out that chieftains from Tamil Nadu waged wars against British rule well before 1857. She recalled the role of Pulithevan, Velunachiyar, Muthuramalinga Vijayaragunatha Sethupathy and the Maruthu Pandiar brothers in the fight against British rule. She said, “Ms. Velunachiyary’s role was no less than that of the Jhansi Rani”.
In September 2010, Indian Government Ministry of Culture announced grants of Rupees 2 crore (20 million) each to conduct research on 12 freedom fighters from north-Indian Sepoy Mutiny but nothing to do research on south-Indian Vellore Mutiny or any of the freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu or other southern states. Thus Tamil Nadu’s early wars against British rule were ignored and swept under the rug while North Indian wars are researched and publicized. Well now may be it would be done!