Impalement of the Jains in Madurai: Difference between revisions

The '''impalement of the Jains''' is an alleged 7th-century event, first mentioned in an 11th-century [[Tamil language]] text of [[Nambiyandar Nambi]]. According to this hagiographic text, Jain monks allegedly persecuted the 7th-century [[Shaivite]] child-saint [[Sambandar]] and tried to kill him. When that failed, they challenged him to a philosophical debate. Sambandar defeated the Tamil [[Jainism|Jain]] monks in a series of debates and contests on philosophy, thereby converted a Jain [[Pandyan]] king to Shaivism. The episode ended with the [[impalement]] of 8,000 Tamil Jains or Samanars as they were called. 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 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]].  

Scholars question whether this story is a fiction created in the 11th-century, or reflects an actual massacre. This event is not mentioned in few other texts of Sambandar. After Nambiyandar's work, the story appears in many inconsistent versions in various Hindu texts. The Jain sources do not mention the legend, and there is no historical evidence of the event having taken place.

The most extensive version of the legend occurs in [[Sekkilar]]'s text ''[[Periya Puranam]]'', composed in the first half of the 12th-century.{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=180}} According to this version, the Jains themselves proposed that they be impaled if defeated by Sambandar.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} 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 [[Mangayarkkarasiyar|Mangaiarkkarasi]] (a former [[Chola dynasty|Chola]] princess) and the minister [[Kulachirai Nayanar|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 feather]]s and [[mantra]]s. Sambandar then cured the king by applying [[vibhuti|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 [[kyphosis|hunched back]], transforming him into a handsome man. The king converted to Shaivism, and the Jains chose to die by impalement on stakes.{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|pp=180-181}}

[[Ottakoothar]]'s ''Takkayakapparani'' – a war poem – portrays Sambandar as an [[avatar|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]].{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=182}}

The victory of Sambandar over the Jain monks came to be celebrated in some Shaivite temples,{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} including the annual festival at the [[Meenakshi Amman Temple|Meenakshi temple]].{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=181}} The impalement of Jains is depicted on the wall frescoes of the Golden Lily Tank of the Meenakshi temple.{{sfn|Steven Paul Hopkins|2002|p=81}}{{sfn|Ashim Kumar Roy|1984|p=111}} The stone carvings at the [[Thiruvedagam]] Shaivite temple also depict the events from the legend.{{sfn|Klaus K. Klostermaier|2005|p=176}}

Thus, there is no contemporary historical record of an actual massacre having taken place.{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=181}} The legend is first mentioned in the writings of the 11th century Shaivite scholar [[Nambiyandar Nambi]].{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} Subsequently, several versions of the legend appeared in Shaivite texts, such as [[Sekkilar]]'s ''[[Periya Puranam]]'', [[Ottakoothar]]'s ''Takkayakapparani'' and ''Thiruvilayadal Puranam''.{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=181}}

For all these reasons, a number of scholars doubt the historicity of the incident. Ashim Kumar Roy, in his book ''A History of the Jainas'', concludes that the story was made up by the Saivites to prove their dominance. According to him, such stories of destruction of one sect by another sect were a common feature of the hagiographical Tamil literature, and were used as a way to prove the superiority of one sect over the other. There are stories about a Jain king of [[Kanchipuram|Kanchi]] persecuting the [[Buddhist]]s in a similar way.{{sfn|Ashim Kumar Roy|1984|p=111}} Similarly, parallel mythical stories in 11th and 12th-century texts allege persecution of Shaiva Nayanar saints by Jains.{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=165}} On similar grounds, [[K. A. Nilakanta Sastri]] argues that the story is "little more than an unpleasant legend and cannot be treated as history".{{sfn|K. A. N. Sastri|1976|p=424}}

[[Paul Dundas]] writes that the story represents the abandonment of Madurai by Jains for economic reasons or the gradual loss of their political influence. He mentions that alternatively, the massacre is "essentially mythical": the Jains in the Shaivite legend represent the [[demon]]ic forces while the impalement stakes represent the ''yupa'' (the stake of wood used in the [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] sacrifices).{{sfn|Paul Dundas|2002|p=127}} John E. Cort supports this view, stating that "the legend (at some point in the tradition the number of Jains who were impaled got fixed at eight thousand) might well be a representation of the triumph of [[Āgama (Hinduism)|Agamic]] Shaivism's triumph over Jain asceticism".{{sfn|John E. Cort|1998|p=181}}

* [[Tamil Jain]]

* {{cite book | author=John E. Cort | title=Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWfnXbVWjKcC&pg=PA181 | access-date=25 July 2013 | year=1998 | publisher=State University of New York Press | isbn=978-0-7914-9985-6 }}