Thiruparankundram Dargah - Revision history

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	The '''Thiruparankundram Dargah''', also known as '''Thirupparankundram malai Dargah''', is a [[dargah]] ([[Sufi]] shrine) located in [[Thiruparankundram]], [[Madurai district]] of the Indian state of [[Tamil Nadu]]. Located on the northeastern side of the Tirupparankundram hillock, the complex was built in the 14th century CE as a memorial for Sikandar Shah, the last ruler of the [[Madurai Sultanate]], and was expanded in the later years.~~<~~ref name="Open"~~>~~{{cite web\|url=https://openthemagazine.com/features/politics-features/the-hill-that-remembers\|title=The Hill that Remembers\|date=14 February 2025\|access-date=1 June 2025\|work=[[Open (Indian magazine)\|Open]]}}~~<~~/ref~~><~~ref name="Outlook"~~>~~{{cite web \|url=https://www.outlooktraveller.com/experiences/spiritual/madurais-thiruparankundram-hills-stand-as-confluence-of-religions \|title=Madurai's Thiruparankundram Hills Stand As Confluence Of Religions \|work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]] \|date=22 August 2023 \|access-date=1 February 2025 }}~~<~~/ref~~>~~ The death anniversary of Sikandar Badusha is commemorated as the Santhanakoodu festival on the 17th night of the [[Islamic month]] of [[Rajab]] every [[Hijri year]].~~<~~ref name="PT"~~>~~{{cite web\|url=https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/tamil-nadu/tiruparankundram-hill-rituals-naming-dispute-201627\|title=The sacred hill of Madurai: Two faiths and one dispute\|date=13 August 2025\|work=[[Puthiya Thalaimurai\|The Federal]]\|access-date=1 September 2025}}~~<~~/ref~~><~~ref~~>~~{{cite web \|url=http://dargahinfo.com/DargahDetails.aspx?DargahID=212 \|title=Thiruparankundram Dargah \|work=Dargah Info \|date=2019 \|access-date=1 February 2025 }}~~<~~/ref~~>~~		The '''Thiruparankundram Dargah''', also known as '''Thirupparankundram malai Dargah''', is a [[dargah]] ([[Sufi]] shrine) located in [[Thiruparankundram]], [[Madurai district]] of the Indian state of [[Tamil Nadu]]. Located on the northeastern side of the Tirupparankundram hillock, the complex was built in the 14th century CE as a memorial for Sikandar Shah, the last ruler of the [[Madurai Sultanate]], and was expanded in the later years.<ref name="Open">{{cite web\|url=https://openthemagazine.com/features/politics-features/the-hill-that-remembers\|title=The Hill that Remembers\|date=14 February 2025\|access-date=1 June 2025\|work=[[Open (Indian magazine)\|Open]]}}</ref><ref name="Outlook">{{cite web \|url=https://www.outlooktraveller.com/experiences/spiritual/madurais-thiruparankundram-hills-stand-as-confluence-of-religions \|title=Madurai's Thiruparankundram Hills Stand As Confluence Of Religions \|work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]] \|date=22 August 2023 \|access-date=1 February 2025 }}</ref> The death anniversary of Sikandar Badusha is commemorated as the Santhanakoodu festival on the 17th night of the [[Islamic month]] of [[Rajab]] every [[Hijri year]].<ref name="PT">{{cite web\|url=https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/tamil-nadu/tiruparankundram-hill-rituals-naming-dispute-201627\|title=The sacred hill of Madurai: Two faiths and one dispute\|date=13 August 2025\|work=[[Puthiya Thalaimurai\|The Federal]]\|access-date=1 September 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web \|url=http://dargahinfo.com/DargahDetails.aspx?DargahID=212 \|title=Thiruparankundram Dargah \|work=Dargah Info \|date=2019 \|access-date=1 February 2025 }}</ref>

	== History ==		== History ==
	Sikandar Shah, the last ruler of the [[Madurai Sultanate]], was killed by Kumara Kampana in the war with the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] in the 14th century CE. After the war, the followers of Shah, who was believed to be a [[Sufi mystic]], built a memorial for him atop the hill, which was expanded in the later years.~~<~~ref name="Open"/~~><~~ref name="Outlook"/~~>~~		Sikandar Shah, the last ruler of the [[Madurai Sultanate]], was killed by Kumara Kampana in the war with the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] in the 14th century CE. After the war, the followers of Shah, who was believed to be a [[Sufi mystic]], built a memorial for him atop the hill, which was expanded in the later years.<ref name="Open"/><ref name="Outlook"/>

	While the hill and the surrounding areas, which also hosts several [[Hindu temples]] including the [[Subramaniya Swamy Temple, Thiruparankundram\|Murugan Temple complex]], and [[Tamil Jain\|Jain]] relics, has seen coexistence of various religious practices over the years, it been a subject of occasional dispute since the early 20th century.~~<~~ref name="PT"/~~><~~ref name="Open"/~~>~~ Adjudicating in a related dispute, in October 2025, the [[Madras High Court]] declared that the hill was a protected monument as declared by the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] in 1908 and 1923, and affirmed the ownership of the hill to the temple excluding the {{cvt\|0.33\|acre}} of land on which the [[dargah]] is located. It also upheld a ruling that banned [[animal sacrifice]] at the site, while permitting the annual Santhanakoodu festival, and restricted prayers at the dargah to the occasions of [[Eid al-adha\|Eid]] and [[Eid al-Fitr\|Ramadan]].~~<~~ref~~>~~{{cite news\|url=https://www.news18.com/india/madras-hc-upholds-temples-rights-over-thiruparankundram-hill-bans-animal-sacrifice-ws-l-9633602.html\|title=Madras HC Upholds Temple’s Rights Over Thiruparankundram Hill, Bans Animal Sacrifice\|date=13 October 2025\|work=[[News18]]\|access-date=1 June 2025}}~~<~~/ref~~>~~		While the hill and the surrounding areas, which also hosts several [[Hindu temples]] including the [[Subramaniya Swamy Temple, Thiruparankundram\|Murugan Temple complex]], and [[Tamil Jain\|Jain]] relics, has seen coexistence of various religious practices over the years, it been a subject of occasional dispute since the early 20th century.<ref name="PT"/><ref name="Open"/> Adjudicating in a related dispute, in October 2025, the [[Madras High Court]] declared that the hill was a protected monument as declared by the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] in 1908 and 1923, and affirmed the ownership of the hill to the temple excluding the {{cvt\|0.33\|acre}} of land on which the [[dargah]] is located. It also upheld a ruling that banned [[animal sacrifice]] at the site, while permitting the annual Santhanakoodu festival, and restricted prayers at the dargah to the occasions of [[Eid al-adha\|Eid]] and [[Eid al-Fitr\|Ramadan]].<ref>{{cite news\|url=https://www.news18.com/india/madras-hc-upholds-temples-rights-over-thiruparankundram-hill-bans-animal-sacrifice-ws-l-9633602.html\|title=Madras HC Upholds Temple’s Rights Over Thiruparankundram Hill, Bans Animal Sacrifice\|date=13 October 2025\|work=[[News18]]\|access-date=1 June 2025}}</ref>

	== Gallery ==		== Gallery ==
	~~<~~gallery~~>~~		<gallery>
	Full side view.jpg\|Side view of the dargah (2013)		Full side view.jpg\|Side view of the dargah (2013)
	Door and plaque at Thirupparankundram Dargah.jpg\|Entrance to the dargah		Door and plaque at Thirupparankundram Dargah.jpg\|Entrance to the dargah
	~~<~~/gallery~~>~~		</gallery>

	== See also ==		== See also ==

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2026-02-21T10:22:15Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox religious building
|name = Thiruparankundram Dargah
|image =Thirupparankundram Dargah on top of the Hills.jpg
|caption = Sultan Sikandar Shah's Dargah
|coordinates = {{coord|9.876518|78.069133|display=inline,title}}
|religious_affiliation = [[Islam]]
|location = [[Thiruparankundram]], [[Madurai]]
|established = 14th–18th century
|architecture= Indo-Islamic
|website =
}}
The '''Thiruparankundram Dargah''' is an Islamic monument on the top of the [[Thiruparankundram]] hill, near [[Madurai]] in [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]. The monument was built in the 17th to 18th-century over the 14th-century grave of Sikandar Shah – the last sultan of [[Madurai Sultanate]].<ref name=branfoot155>Crispin Branfoot (2003), ''The Madurai Nayakas and the Skanda Temple at Tirupparankundram'', Ars Orientalis, Volume 33, pp. 155–157 (context: 146-179), {{JSTOR|4434276}}</ref> It is a major pilgrimage site for Tamil Muslims of the region.<ref name=Shokoohy67>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, p. 67</ref>

==Location==
[[File:Thirupparankundram Hills..jpg|thumb|left|The Thirupparankundram Hill]]
The Thirupparankundram Dargah is located in Thiruparankundram town on its landmark rocky hill that towers to a height of {{convert|1048|ft}} and has a circumference of over {{convert|2|mile}}. The town is about {{Convert|6|km}} southwest of Madurai city.<ref name=Shokoohy67/> Thiruparankundram hill is also home to many Hindu and Jain monuments that date between the 2nd-century BCE and the 16th-century. The Muslims call it Iskandarmalai ("hill of Sikandar), while the Hindus call it Skandamalai (lit. "hill of Skanda (Murugan, Kartikeya) – the god of war").<ref name=branfoot148/> The dargah is near much older Kasi Viswanathar cave temple that is also near the top but on the south side. The trails to both on the south and the east of the hill go together uphill.<ref name=branfoot148>Crispin Branfoot (2003), ''The Madurai Nayakas and the Skanda Temple at Tirupparankundram'', Ars Orientalis, Volume 33, pp. 148–157 (context: 146-179), {{JSTOR|4434276}}</ref>

==History==
The town of Thiruparankundram was likely the capital of the short lived [[Madurai Sultanate]]. This South Indian Sultanate was formed after the army of Ala al-Din Khalji of Delhi Sultanate raided the Tamil country in 1310 under the pretext of helping Sundar Pandya, with Madurai as one of the primary targets. The Muslim army devastated the Madurai region looting towns and demolishing temples over a year, states Mehrdad Shokoohy.<ref>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, p. 33–34; Quote: "Since the thirteenth century the area also appears to have been known to the sultans of Delhi and, with the expansion of the sultanate towards the south at the time of 'Ala al-Din Khalji the first campaign against the region was made, apparently under the pretext of helping Sundar Pandya, the ruler of Madura who had been overthrown by his brother Vira. (...) The campaign started on Tuesday 24th of Jumada II 710/18, November 13 1310 and altogether lasted for a year, during which Ma'bar was overrun by the Muslims, the temples were demolished and the towns looted. Amir Khusrau who recorded the campaign in detail, sums up the conquest: "At every corner conquest opened a door to them, and in all that devastated land wherever treasure remained hidden in the earth it was sifted, searched through, and carted away (...)"."</ref> Before returning to Delhi after this social and political chaos, they had established a Muslim rule controlled from Madurai-Thiruparankundram.<ref name=Shokoohy33>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, p. 33–35</ref>

After the Khalji era came the Tughluq era of the Delhi Sultanate, when Jalal al-Din Ahsan governed the Madurai Sultanate. About 1334 CE, Ahsan rebelled and broke away from the Delhi Sultanate. He declared himself as Sultan Ahsan Shah, according to the memoirs of Moroccan traveller and scholar [[Ibn Battuta]] who visited the Madurai region. This was the start of the separate Madurai Sultanate.<ref name=Shokoohy33/> The Sultans who succeeded Ahsan Shah took the name "Shah". Islamic historians of the 14th-century refer to their 1334–1377 Muslim rule as the ''Ma'bar sultanate''.<ref>Crispin Branfoot (2003), ''The Madurai Nayakas and the Skanda Temple at Tirupparankundram'', Ars Orientalis, Volume 33, pp. 155–157, {{JSTOR|4434276}}, Quote: "These raids [by the Khalji and Tughluq generals of the Delhi sultanate] led to the rule from ca. 1334 through the middle of the fourteenth century of the Madura sultanate (or sultanate of Ma'bar) over southern India until its overthrow by the Vijayanagara generals in ca. 1377"</ref> These Sultans had lost the direct support of the Delhi Sultanate and struggled to rule the local population. The Madurai Sultanate armies "brutally repressed" the local Hindu populations, states Shokoohy, and found themselves in constant wars with neighboring Hindu kingdoms.<ref>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, p. 33–34; Quote: "Ibn Battuta, however, describes in detail many of the events of the time of these sultans, quoted in most modern studies of the sultanate. From his account it appears that the Muslims, who by rebelling against Muhammad bin Tughluq had cut themselves off from the resources of Delhi, were engaged, perhaps out of desperation, in constant battles with the neighbouring Hindu states, and had to rely entirely on their own forces, which often exercised fierce and brutal repressive methods on the local people."</ref>

Ahsan Shah and several sultans who succeeded him were slain in these battles, or assassinated by their own nobles.<ref name=Shokoohy33/> In 1372, Ala al-Din Sikandar Shah became the Sultan of Madurai Sultanate. To the north in Karnataka, the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] had been founded and its large army joined the war against Sultan Sikandar Shah. They surrounded and closed in on Thiruparankundram in 1377 CE.<ref name=Shokoohy33/><ref name=Shokoohy67/> Sikandar Shah, his court officials and soldiers moved to the top of the Thiruparankundram hill. The Vijayanagara forces pursued them and killed them. Several other Muslim graves are found along the trail to the hilltop, some with large tombstones. These are of soldiers and officials of the Madurai Sultanate. Sikandar Shah died on Thiruparankundram hill in his last battle, and the Hindu general allowed the Sultan's grave to be built there. Till the 17th-century, the hilltop had only the grave. The Muslim community of the region then built a larger monument and a regional Muslim pilgrimage site called the Thiruparankundram Dargah.<ref name=branfoot148/><ref name=Shokoohy67/>

==Description==
The Thiruparankundram Dargah has Sultan's grave with a tombstone and a large rock diagonally placed on top. Over this grave is a more modern shrine consisting of a square tomb chamber, and to its east is an attached mosque. The hall of the mosque is about {{convert|30|cm}} above the level of the tomb chamber.<ref name=Shokoohy67/> Mehrdad Shokoohy has published detailed plan and sectional drawings of the Thiruparankundram Dargah.<ref>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, pp. 67–68 with Figure 11</ref>

The Thiruparankundram Dargah mosque has a front colonnaded porch and leads into an ante-chamber. This is connected to the prayer chamber via a single door. The floor is uneven and at different levels, likely reflecting the contour of the rocky hill underneath. Most of the architecture uses stone blocks and the pillars in the hall have the ''Nagapadam'' carving style and lotuses found in Tamil Nadu monuments that predate the Madurai Sultanate. The monument's roof is made of stone slabs.<ref>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, pp. 67–73 with Plate IX-XI, Figure 12 and 13</ref> The mosque has no distinct ''mihrab'', and it opens into the tomb chamber of Sikandar Shah.<ref>Mehrdad Shokoohy (1991), ''Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and Other Muslim Monuments in South India'', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 1, Number 1, Cambridge University Press, pp. 72–73 with Plate IX-XI</ref>

==Folklore and pilgrimage==
[[File:Door and plaque at Thirupparankundram Dargah.jpg|thumb|left|The plaque at the top of the hill dargah displaying the name of the saint and the year he was martyred.]]
The regional Muslims consider Sultan Sikandar Shah as a martyr and saint. Their folklore states that Sikandar Shah arrived here in late 12th-century (died in late 14th-century). He performed miracles such as magically giving vision to blind people. When the Sultan died, according to this legend, rocks of the hills rose on their own, flew in the air and covered the grave of Sikandar Shah. His miracles continue to this day and helps the Muslim pilgrims, states the dargha information board. The Dargah plaque reflects this mythistory.<ref name=erwadi>[http://www.ervadi.com/related-dargahs/thiruparankundram-dargah Erwadi: Thirupparankundram Dargah], Thirupparankundram; For 2020 archive see: [https://web.archive.org/web/20200707144353/http://www.ervadi.com/related-dargahs/thiruparankundram-dargah Thiruparankundram Dargah: Hazrat Sulthan Sikandhar Badhusha Shaheed Razi]</ref>

The [[anniversary]] [[Urs]] Santhanakoodu festival of Sultan Sikandar Shah is commemorated on the 17th night of the Islamic month of [[Rajab]] every [[Islamic calendar|Hijri]] year. Thousands of people visit the dargah at the hill top on this day. Arrangements are made by the dargah committee and the local police for the welfare of the pilgrims.<ref name=erwadi/>

==See also==
* [[Thiruparankundram]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Thiruparankundram]]
[[Category:Ziyarat]]
[[Category:Mosques in Madurai]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Madurai]]
[[Category:Religious buildings and structures in Madurai]]
[[Category:Dargahs in Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Erwadi-related dargahs]]
[[Category:Madurai district]]

[[bpy:থিরুপারানকুন্ডরাম]]
[[it:Thiruparankundram]]
[[ja:ティルッパランクンダム]]
[[pt:Thiruparankundram]]
[[ta:திருப்பரங்குன்றம் தர்காஹ்]]