Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 31

JANUARY, 1917)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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labuared chiefly among the Parishs. The indeed brought converts from the Chetty, the Vaduga and other communities, but they were primarily the uplifters of the depressed classes. They did not only give them the consolations of their religion, but also bettered their worldly position. They saved them from death by starvation. In a terrible famine, for instance, which broke out in Trichinopoly in 1646 and 1647 and which swept away thousands of people, Alvarez "treated patients who came from great distances, sometimes 24 miles." Suoh acts of humanity and sympathy could not but bring their recompense. Many men of position deserted their religion and joined the new one, and bequeathed their fortunes to it, and Alvarez utilized these in building two churches for high castes, in Trichinopoly, and in the vicinity of the great stronghold of Hinduism. -Srirangam. The erention of the latter church caused a great alarm among the Hindus. A number of soldiers geized the missionary and brought him before the Trichinopoly governor, whe ordered him and his followers to be kept in irons till a heavy ransom was paid; and they were liberated only when it was clear that they were too poor to pay. The governor, however was so indignant that he sent Alvarez out of his territory, and esized his property. But De Costa who had been all this time working at Tanjore, proceeded to Madura to appeal to the Naik in person, and in an interview which he got after 15 days waiting, obtained the Näik's order for the restoration of everything to the Christians
SECTION VIII.
The death of Tirumal Nalk. Tirumal Naik died, if we are to believe tradition, * violent death. It is said, that in the later days of his life, he displayed such undue sentiment of reverence towards Christians that a feeling grew that the king's partiality to Christianity might end in his ultimately professing it; and many a desperate man prepared himself to avert the catastrophe. A party of oonspirators, headed by the temple priest, Kula Sekhara Bhatta, resolved to murder the monarch, justifying their outrage as a 00cessary sacrifice at the altar of their gods. A dark vault under the pagoda of Minakshi, in the most interior part of it, was selected for the scene of the crime. The traitors then enticed Tirumal into the fatal chamber by reporting that the goddess preserved there a secret treasure, and had intimated to them in a vision that it could be discovered by the king alone in person. The greedy credulity of Tirumal Naik did not suspect the designs of his advisers, and he therefore found himself helpless in the dungeon, where the cruelty of his enemies left him to the slow death by starvation. The inquiries of the surprised, but superstitious, populace were satisfied and silenced by the authoritative statement of the temple priest that the king, while engaged in the worship of his goddess, was absorbed by her into her personality, in recognition of his immense devotion and magnificient liberality in the caụse of religion. To a people steeped in superstition and not unacquainted with miracles, the report of the priest could hardly have seemed wanting in veracity It seemed but natural to them that a prince, so devoted, 80 pious, and so charitable, should receive . special mark of divine favour, and get an easy and miraculous entry into heaven. It was, in their view, virtue reaping its reward, and labour itt tit return.