Impalement of the Jains in Madurai
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The impalement of the Jains is a South Indian legend,[1][2] first mentioned in an 11th-century hagiographic Tamil language text of Nambiyandar Nambi.[3][4] According to the legend, Sambandar, who lived in the 7th century CE, defeated the Tamil Jain monks in a series of debates and contests on philosophy, thereby converted a Jain Pandyan king to Shaivism. The episode ended with the (voluntary)[5][6][7][8] impalement of 8,000 Tamil Jains or Samanars as they were called.[9][10]
Tamil literature and Tevaram songs like III.345 portray Jain monks as conspiring and persecuting Sambandar. However, there is no reference to any impalement of Jainas in Sambandar’s own poems or Tamil writings for about 400 years after him.
According to the early version of the legend, the Jains voluntarily impaled themselves in order to fulfill their vow after losing the debate. According to a much later version of the legend found in Takkayakapparani – a war poem, the newly converted king ordered the Jains to be impaled at Sambandar's instigation. The Pandyan king, variously called "Koon Pandiyan" or "Sundara Pandyan" in the legend is identified with the 7th century ruler Arikesari Maravarman.
Sambandar was a child prodigy and poet-saint of Shaivism who lived in early 7th-century.[11] According to early Tamil legends and literature, he began composing hymns as soon as he started speaking as a baby and who mastered the Vedas by age three. His gifts were attributed to being breastfed by the goddess Parvati.[12] As a child poet-saint, he attracted throngs of audiences, travelled through Tamil lands to Shiva temples accompanied by musician Tirunilakantayalppanar, composing melodious hymns in complex meters and rhythms.[12] His career lasted about 12 years and he died at age 16.[11]
According to Tamil texts and Tevaram hymns such as III.345, Jain monks are depicted as one scheming against Sambandar and persecuting him.[13] Yet, Sambandar's own hymns and Tamil texts for the next four centuries make no mention of the impalement of any Jain. From around the end of 11th-century, different hagiographical accounts appear with alleged Jain attempts to kill and torture the Shaiva child prodigy Sambandar followed by the alleged impalement of the Jains.[14]
In one version, at the request of queen Mangayarkkarasiyar, Sambandar went to Madurai to counter the Jain monks in her husband's court. There the Jain monks allegedly attempt to burn the house he was staying in, but he remains unharmed.[15][16] Then he is challenged to a debate by the Jain monks with the condition that the losing side convert to the winning side, or commit suicide by impaling themselves to death. Sambandar defeats the Jain monks in debate, the Pandya king and some Jains convert to Saivism. Other Jain monks die of impalement to honor the terms they made.[17][18]
According to another version of the legend, the Pandyan ruler, who was a Jain, once suffered from high fever. Sambandar offered to help the king. The Jains monks opposed this, arguing that a Brahmin from the Chola country should not be trusted. They alleged Sambandar to be a part of conspiracy against the Jains, the king, the queen and a minister. The Jains sought to demonstrate Sambandar's incompetence by challenging him to a debate, and declared that they would become his slaves if defeated. Sambandar rejected the condition about slavery, and according to the second version of this legend, proposed that the Jains be impaled if defeated. He defeated the Jains in the ensuing debate, and the Shaivite devotees impaled the defeated Jains. Some Jains converted to Shaivism to escape the impalement.[14]
In the third version, the condition about the losers' impalement was put forward by Shiva (instead of Sambandar).[14] The fourth version states that, after defeating them in a debate. Sambandar did not want any impalement and urged the Jains to become Shaivites. However, the Jains refused the offer and voluntarily impaled themselves.[14]
- Periya Puranam
The most extensive version of the legend occurs in Sekkilar's text Periya Puranam, composed in the first half of the 12th-century.[19] According to this version, the Jains themselves proposed that they be impaled if defeated by Sambandar.[14] The legend goes like this: the Pandyan king had come under the influence of Jain monks living around the hills of Madurai. This perturbed the queen Mangaiarkkarasi (a former Chola princess) and the minister Kulachirai, who remained staunch Shaivites. The two invited Sambandar to Madurai to counter the Jain monks. The Jains set fire to Sambandar's dwelling, but Sambandar transferred the fire to the king's body in form of a fever. The Jains unsuccessfully tried to cure the king's fever with peacock feathers and mantras. Sambandar then cured the king by applying sacred ash to his body and chanting the Om Namah Shivaya mantra. The Jains then challenged Sambandar to a series of contests, vowing to kill themselves if defeated. In the fire contest, two manuscripts, containing Jain and Shaivite hymns respectively, were thrown into fire. The Jain manuscript burned, while the Shaivite manuscript remained unscathed. In the water contest, the Jain manuscript was carried away by the river, while the Shaivite manuscript came back to the shore undamaged. Finally, Sambandar miraculously cured the king's hunched back, transforming him into a handsome man. The king converted to Shaivism, and the Jains chose to die by impalement on stakes.[20]
- Takkayakapparani
Ottakoothar's Takkayakapparani – a war poem – portrays Sambandar as an incarnation of the war god Murugan (Skanda) in verses 6.169–220. Composed after the Nampi version, sometime in the second half of the 12th-century, Sambandhar is depicted in Takkayakapparani as one born on the earth to exterminate the Jains. In this version, Sambandar defeated the Jains in a war-like contest. At the instigation of the child-saint, the Ottakoothar version states that the Pandyan king ordered the Jains to be impaled on stakes. Takkayakapparani describes this as a "sweet tale" narrated by the goddess Sarasvati to Murugan's mother Parvati.[21]
The Thiruvilayadal Puranam similarly states that the king Kunpandyan ordered the killing of 8,000 Jains after his conversion to Shaivism.[22]
Commemorations
The victory of Sambandar over the Jain monks came to be celebrated in some Shaivite temples,[14] including the annual festival at the Meenakshi temple.[23] The impalement of Jains is depicted on the wall frescoes of the Golden Lily Tank of the Meenakshi temple.[24][25] The stone carvings at the Thiruvedagam Shaivite temple also depict the events from the legend.[26]
