Samanatham is a
panchayat village in the
Madurai district
Madurai District is one of the 38 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India., United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The city of Madurai serves as the district headquarters. It houses the famous Sri Meenakshi ...
of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
, India. It comes under the
Thiruparankundram
Thiruparankundram, also spelled Tirupparankundram or Tiruparangundram, is a neighbourhood in Madurai city in Tamil Nadu, India. It is about from Periyar Bus Terminus, the centre of the city and constitutes the southwest part of the Madurai cit ...
block
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.
"Sama Natham" a corrupt version of '
Samanar
Tamil Jains (Tamil Samaṇar, from Prakrit '' samaṇa'' "wandering renunciate") are ethnic-Tamils from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, who practice Jainism (Tamil ). The Tamil Jain is a microcommunity of around 85,000 (around 0.13% of the pop ...
Rattham' or 'blood of Jains' is situated about six kilometers away from Madurai and a winding path among Acacia bushes and thorns leads one to a place worshipped as Mayandi temple. The place is isolated and is located in an eerie environment. But for the 10 foot trident and stone pillars with a hanging bell, there is nothing to suggest that it is a temple.
Conversion of Jains at the point of sword
The villagers and the local boys are acquainted with the history of the place. They describe the place as "Samanar Rattham" or 'blood of Jains' where Jains, who refused conversion to Shaivism, were killed en masse after their defeat in the challenge of the Fire and Water debates with the Shaivite Saint,
Gnanasambandhar conducted before the Pandiya king,
Arikesari Maravarman (7th century CE). The place where the pogrom by impalement took place is called as 'Samanar Medu' in Samanatham.
These events recorded in the narrative of Gnanasambandhar are displayed in the fifth of the twelve festivals conducted in Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple. On these occasions, which are known as impaling festival, an image symbolising a Jain impaled on a stake is carried in procession. According to a tradition, the villages of Mela Kilavu and Kil Kilavu near Sholavandan are so named because the stakes (Kilavu) for impalement extended so far from the City of Madurai. On this, Edgar Thurston had also suggested the reading of A.Guerinot's 'Essai de Bibliographie Jaina', at Annales du Musee Guimet, in Paris.
See also
*
Impalement of the Jains in Madurai, a Shaivite legend about the killing of around 8000 Jains by the
Pandyan
The Pandya dynasty (), also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing sinc ...
king
Koon Pandiyan at Samanatham
References
Villages in Madurai district
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