District livestock farm in Hosur where the cricket ground was developed by Lt Col T. Murari. —DC
Krishnagiri:
Hosur is known for its salubrious climate and rapid industrial growth; but how many of us know that cricket in the southern part of India started from the cattle farm here, asked B. Venkatasami, 80, elaborating on the history of cricket in Hosur, 55 km from Krishnagiri on the Chennai-Bengaluru national highway.
Venkatasami, former MLA of the Swatantra Party of Rajagopalachari – the first Indian to become governor general of India – added that “Cricket was first introduced here by Lt Col T. Murari following his appointment as superintendent of the livestock research centre formed in Hosur as army remount centre.”
The octogenarian continued, “Murari, prior to his appointment at the Hosur cattle farm, served in the Second World War under king’s commission and later rose to the rank of a major.”
He has several firsts to his credit like the first Indian to become officer for the veterinary department and the first Indian to become member of the Marylebone Cricket Club and Madras cricket club during British rule.
Venkatasami recalled the history as narrated to him by his father late M. Beere Gowda. “The lieutenant colonel, while studying veterinary science in Oxford University, was approached by Hilson, director of agriculture department, asking him to join the department as officer.”
Following his consent, the British appointed Murari as superintendent of the livestock research station in Hosur, the first Indian to become officer of the veterinary department following the formation of Madras Veterinary College.
Murari, while in Hosur, formed a cricket team by training people who did menial jobs in the cattle farm. The team regularly played matches against teams in Bengaluru and Mysore.
He was also the first Indian to become member of the prestigious United Services Club in Bengaluru and was a founder-member of the Karnataka state cricket association, formerly known as Mysore cricket association.
Venkatasami was concerned about the status of the historical cricket ground formed by Murari. “A ground with a small visitors gallery to watch the game was there for some time after Independence, but the historical monument was removed for development works,” he rued.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Sanjeevi Anandan / October 21st, 2013
BONN, GERMANY – OCTOBER 17: Indian chess world champion Viswanathan Anand concentrates during his match against the Russian chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik on October 17, 2008 in Bonn, Germany. (Photo by Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images)
Even as one great man’s epic is about to draw to a weary ending, another man is preparing vigorously to sheath his story with one more epochal battle. Somewhere inside an elegantly dressed home in Chennai, Viswanathan Anand might be laughing in irony at the brouhaha that surrounds the departure of Sachin Tendulkar . The self-effacing genius enjoys living in the shade, long used to the skewed ways of the large masses of this nation.
As ironic as it might be, the World Championship of Chess, being held in India for only the second time ever is faced with the daunting task of competing with the farewell party of India’s foremost sporting icon. Not that Anand will be too fazed.
The modest man from Chennai has built a monumental career around his ability to navigate expertly around a complex maze of 64 squares. Matters of perception and market dynamics have rarely, if at all, bothered him or affected his love and hunger for mastering his craft.
Chess struggles for attention as it is and the hyperbole around the little maestro’s departure is only going to make matters worse. Anand might even afford a rueful smile in a private conversation with his confidant and spouse.
But under the glare of lights, he can be expected to deal with it in the most dignified manner possible. Their careers have run almost parallel and both men have shown exemplary character to enjoy an almost blemish-free run under intense public glare.
The similarities end right there though. An insanely cricket mad India cheered every run from the blade of the great cricketer. However, Anand had to satisfy himself with only fleeting acknowledgement every time he won a World Championship.
Breaking new ground is a refined habit with both these gentlemen. Sachin has collected more centuries and runs than was ever imagined possible. Anand, the country’s first chess grandmaster, usurped power from the customary champions of the Soviet bloc.
Sachin has been first among equals because his zeal for accumulation was unmatched. Anand was the first man from a famished third world country to usher in a new era, by winning the FIDE World Championships in 2000.
It was a victory that broadened the appeal of chess in Asia and expanded its market beyond the conventional hunting grounds around Europe. In a country abundant with patience even under duress, the success of chess isn’t entirely an anomaly. But it took the genius of Anand to pave the path for others to follow.
Thousands of other players have paraded their talent, but not one player has come close to emulating the greatest chess player India has ever known. He has been feted by the government – the Rajiv Khel Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan sit proudly in his overflowing cabinet of honours.
Ironically though, the unparalleled success of Anand is still not enough to excite nearly as much attention as anything to do with cricket might. Sample this – in 2010, a bevy of leading sportspersons donated their prized possessions to The Foundation, a charity run by actor Rahul Bose. A bat with which Sachin scored an obscure one-day international century in New Zealand fetched a whopping 42 lakhs. Even the racket with which Leander Paes won the 2010 Wimbledon mixed doubles title managed to get a bid for 7 lakh. In stark contrast, the 2008 World Championship medal of Anand managed a number that wasn’t worth a mention in the media around the time.
Anand has learnt well enough that his is a pursuit in solitude, only occasionally acknowledged even by his ardent fans. As polite and polished as Anand might be to his fans, he is a chess player driven by the quest for a place in the history of the game. It is this focus on his goals that lead Anand and his wife Aruna to find home in Spain.
The relocation helped Anand avoid even the limited attention in India and allowed him to pursue his ambition without the distractions that surrounded his time in India. The reigning champion has since moved back to India and was all set to celebrate a grand event of unmatched scale on his home soil. As fate would have it, Sachin’s plans intervened with the harvest plans of chess.
Anand is the only chess player to have won the World Chess Championships in all three formats – knock-out (2000), tournament (2007) and classical (2008 – current). While people close to the game of chess might rue the likely travesty in November, Vishy may be secretly enjoying the fact that all the attention will be on Sachin.
Even at his tender age of 22, Magnus Carlsen is a once in a generation talent in the opinion of experts as well as his opponents. Anand will need his sharpest skills to overcome the challenge from the charismatic Norwegian, who is nearly half the champion’s age. It might help ease the pressure on Anand just a tad that the event itself might escape the intense glare of the media.
Anand may have sincerely hoped for a big boost for the game of chess in India, riding on the back of an exuberant campaign ahead of the World Championships. But considering the enormity of the occasion, the world No. 7 will be happy to hunt his young opponent down in a quiet room inside the Hyatt Regency in Chennai between the 9th and 28th of November.
source: http://www.sportskeeda.com / SportsKeeda / Home> Chess – World Chess Championship 2013 / by Anand Datla, Tennis Expert (Featured Writer) / October 21st, 2013
As the nation celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, his faithful stenographer who took the speeches of the celebrated monk to the world, remains unhonoured and unsung.
Josiah Goodwin, an Englishman, followed Swami Vivekananada from London and documented his speeches in UK, Sri Lanka and India before he died in 1898 in Ooty following illness. He was buried near a church in Ooty.
“In his death I have lost a friend as true as steel, a disciple of never-failing devotion,” said Swami Vivekananda from Almora (UP) on receiving word about Goodwin’s demise.
Born to an English couple at Yorkshire in 1870, Goodwin came in contact with Swami Vivekananda during his second visit to the United States in 1895. “Followers of Swami Vivekananda placed an advertisement for a stenographer and Goodwin, who had come to the US in search of job, was chosen. From then, Goodwin travelled with Swamiji recording his speeches,” said a senior monk at the Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai.
Vivekananda had such immense faith in Goodwin’s work that he started calling him ‘My faithful Goodwin’. “Though Goodwin was chosen to record Swamiji’s speeches for a salary, he refused to take money after a while,” said the monk. Goodwin travelled along with Vivekananda to the UK and India. “In 1897 when Swamiji reached Colombo, apart from the speeches delivered by him, Goodwin also recorded the reception given to the spiritual master at various places including the mammoth rally from Egmore to Vivekananda House in Madras,” said the monk.
After accompanying Vivekananda through his tour to Almora, Goodwin was sent back to Madras by the Swamiji with a plan to start a newspaper in English with Goodwin as its editor. But the newspaper plan did not materialise and Goodwin was involved in bringing out an English monthly journal of the ‘Mutt’ called Brahmavadin, which is now called the Vedanta Kesari.
“The Englishman could not withstand the heat of Madras and migrated to the cooler climes of Ooty but hardly took care of his health and finally died in 1898,” the monk narrated.
On hearing about Goodwin’s death, Vivekananda wrote a small poem to his mother called ‘Requiescat in Pace’ (Rest in peace). This poem is inscribed in Goodwin’s grave at the cemetery at St Thomas Church, Ooty.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> Swami Vivekananada / by B SivaKumar, TNN / October 21st, 2013
K Raja Mohamed explains his collection of seashells to two tourists from UK at his India seashell museum at Mahabalipuram on Sunday. An avid collector of seashells, his find of 40,000 shells is on display at the museum all round the week. —DC
Mahabalipuram:
For the first time in the country, an exclusive museum has been set up in the coastal town of Mahabalipuram to conserve and document marine life, particularly seashells and their biodiversity.
The museum is a now home to about 40,000 types of shells collected over a period of 33 years from different seabeds of Indonesia, Philippines, Australia and Japan. The rib cages of whales and teeth fossils of sharks have also been preserved in the museum which is now a hit with foreigners.
“Since my childhood, I have been collecting shells as a passion. It all started from the coastal waters of Cuddalore and then extended to the shallow waters of Kasimedu and Rameswaram coast,” says a beaming Raja Mohammad, founder of India Seashell Museum.
“There have been days when I had to cough up my day’s food expense to buy a shell or a marine fossil that cost several lakhs. The museum is now open to the public at a nominal charge and we have approached former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, seeking his expertise on converting the museum into an interpretation centre for children and a place for studies on seashells and marine organisms. He has responded positively and will soon visit the centre.”
“The shell museum is a dream come true and I want to convert the centre into a resource place for those who want to explore marine shells and their anatomy and biology. This is the biggest museum in south Asia for shells and the process of collecting more specimens is under way,” says Mohammad who is a school dropout and depends on marine biologists for technically supplementing his museum.
“The collections are amazing. I never thought that seashells were so rich in colour. It is a beautiful experience to gaze at the specimens collected from the seabed,” says foreign tourist Anne Hallam from the UK.
“The museum with expensive pearl varieties and rare exhibits from different parts of the world is highly informative,” says another foreign tourist, Meryl Prothero.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by C.S. Koteswaran / October 28th, 2013
A statue of Rani Mangamma, a Nayak queen of the 17th century who undertook major irrigation and flood management projects and was well known for her administrative acumen has been found near a temple built in that era, a statement of a research body said.
The idol with a crown is seen with folded-hands, carrying a sword in her hip and a saree covering the ankles, a press release from the Pandiyan Historical Research Centre said.
The statue found chiselled onto a pillar opposite the temple.
The Centre’s secretary S Santhalingam said stone inscriptions in the temple revealed the queen had built it in 1693 in memory of her late father.
The athitana (standing place) mandapam of the temple was found damaged. The temple’s name was mentioned as “Hanuman, Azhwar”.
Though the inscription mentioned a temple of Lord Ganesha near the area, it could not be traced, the release said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by PTI – Madurai / October 20th, 2013
The St. Thomas Basilica in Mylapore, in the city of Chennai, India, is one of only three church in the world to have been built over the tomb of an apostle of Jesus. (JG Photo/Wahyuni Kamah)
It was a hot and clear day when a friend of mine dropped me off nearby St. Thomas Basilica in Mylapore, an old district in Chennai, India.
“This is a neighborhood where you can see different houses of worship, churches, mosques and temples,” she explained.
In ancient times, Mylapore engaged in active trading with the Roman Empire. The settlement of Santhome in Mylapore was mentioned by merchants from Arab when they came to the area in the 9th and 10th centuries.
When I was entering the huge compound of the white cathedral, it was hard to believe I was in India, a country where Hinduism is the major religion and Hindu temples are ubiquitous.
In Chennai itself, Catholics make up about 5 percent of the population and the cathedral was built by the Portuguese after they arrived in the 16th century with no local influence.
The St. Thomas Basilica is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore, and the complex houses some other buildings. One of the newer additions houses a museum and an underground tomb chapel. Pilgrims are allowed to pray in an underground tomb chapel without disturbing the sacred functions in the church.
There were only four other foreign tourists during my visit, while a mass was being held in Tamil.
Upstairs, a simple museum exhibits artifacts and the history of St. Thomas and the basilica, including how Christianity dispersed in India.
According to the tradition of the Christian church in Kerala on the south west coast of India, St. Thomas, one of Jesus’s apostles, arrived around 52 A.D. from Judea. He died as a martyr in 72 A.D. in the outskirts of Chennai, which is now known as St. Thomas Mount. The body of St. Thomas was buried on the spot where the basilica was later built.
In the 19th century, when the British colonized India, they rebuilt it as a church with a cathedral status.
Pope Pius XII increased the status of the cathedral into minor basilica in 1956, and it has become a popular destination for Christian Indians since. The St. Thomas Basilica in Chennai is allegedly one of the three churches in the world that was built over the tomb of the 12 apostles of Jesus.
Stained-glass windows show images of St. Thomas inside.
Back outside on Kutchery Road in the Santhome neighborhood, many of Santhome’s buildings are related to Catholicism, such as the college, pastoral center and school, I also passed a Hindu quarter with shops selling goods needed for services and ceremonies in Hindu temples.
Just a few meters across, I spotted a small Jain temple. Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world with most of its followers hailing from India.
By the end of my temple trail in Santhome, I was almost overwhelmed by the great diversity of faith, but at the same time, it was a relief to see that people of different religions can live peacefully side by side.
source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com / Jakarta Globe / Home> Category: Features, Travel / by Wahyuni Kamah / October 20th, 2013
The city police commissioner’s office in Egmore that is being vacated was, for long, a bungalow in a paddy field.
At one point, the police department functioned from the above building on Police Commissioner Office Road in Egmore. It is not known why and when the office moved from Pantheon Road to here and then back — Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
According to historians, the property was bought by Arunagiri Mudaliar for Rs. 36,000. On May 1, 1842, the police moved into the bungalow from their headquarters in Vepery for a monthly rent of Rs. 165.
“In 1856, when Lt. Col. J.C. Boulderson, 35 regiment of Native infantry, took charge as the first police commissioner of Chennai, the land and bungalow were purchased by the police for Rs. 21,000 and till date, the office is situated on the same land,” said historian V. Sriram. “The building is a classic colonial bungalow with two storeys. It has Doric columns with Madras terrace.”
After 170 years, the police are all set to move lock, stock and barrel to the same locality — Vepery — where they were headquartered earlier.
A close study of the building’s history raises certain questions. “There is another building on Police Commissioner Office Road which houses the police photographer’s department currently. It has a circular plaque with the inscription — Colonel W.S. Drever CSI Commissioner of Police, R.F. Chisholm, architect. The year inscribed on the plaque is 1882,” said Mr. Sriram. Why and when did the office move from Pantheon Road to Police Commissioner Office Road and then back, he wondered.
The current move to Vepery seems to have left senior police officers with a heavy heart.
“Ours is a very old police force that has been functioning from this building for over a century. This is like second home for many of us,” said a senior police officer.
The commissioner’s office on Pantheon Road may gradually be converted into a police museum — Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
The commissioner’s office on Pantheon Road will be temporarily used as the offices of the joint commissioner of police (east), deputy commissioner (security), armed reserve administration office and a few other wings of the police.
After these sections are shifted to the new building, the commissioner office in Egmore may be converted into a police museum.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / byu Vivek Narayanan / Chennai – October 11th, 2013
The custom in this village too is that the first delivery of a woman has to be at her parent’s place and the second delivery at her in-law’s place. But Meenakshipuram, a village in Sirumalai Hills, broke with custom a long time ago. For years, no babies have been delivered in this village. Pregnant women leave their hill home for the plains after the bangle ceremony in the seventh month of pregnancy and return only after the delivery.
This breakdown of custom is no act of rebellion. With no clinics around and, worse, no road to reach a hospital in the event of an emergency, villagers have been left with no choice but to leave their homes in the otherwise pretty and pleasant hill country for the heat and dust of the plains. Lakshmi, a 45-year-old resident, says she can’t remember when a baby was born in Meenakshipuram last. Women are taken to downhill for delivery. “It is normal tradition for the first delivery to be at the parent’s home and the second baby to be at the in-laws’ house, but Meenakshipuram women have to go down for all deliveries,” she says.
The primary health care centre at Katchaikatti near Vadipatti, a village at the foot of Sirumalai Hills, is where most villagers head in times of a health issue. Most of the villagers in Meenakshipuram migrated up the hill from villagers in the plains. So, most of them have relatives in the plains and the women go and reside in their houses. Or else, they rent a house in Vadipatti for a couple of months.
“We either stay in our relatives’ house or take up a house on rent. We return to Meenakshipuram a month after delivery,” says Murugeswari, another young mother in the village. While the daughter in-laws of the households naturally go to stay in their mother’s house for delivery, the daughters of the village don’t have the fortune of returning to their mother’s home. “Our daughters don’t come back here for the last month of pregnancy and we accommodate them downhill itself,” says Sundarambal, an elderly woman.
In case of emergencies, the women are taken in mini-trucks kept to ferry agricultural produces to a nearby village, Sirumalai Pudur, from where they are transported to the PHC in an ambulance, villagers say. The health staff at Katchaikatti PHC also confirms that all the deliveries in Meenakshipuram are done in the PHC itself. “We monitor their pregnancy during our field trips. They are brought down for the last month and the baby is delivered in the PHC,” a health staff adds.
A village health nurse from Vadipatti frequents the village every week to monitor the health of the villagers.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by J. Arockiaraj, TNN / October 12th, 2013
We were a gang of five in Presidency College, Madras, in 1944 when we recalled the heady days of the Quit India Movement and spun and wore only khadi. We’d never met Gandhiji and were excited at the thought of being able to see and hear him at a prayer meeting. We were lucky that our classmate had a house by the side of the maidan from where we could have a ringside view of the dais and the people who had gathered.
We left college after lunch and took a bus to the Hindi Prachar Sabha grounds. Already we could see busload of people being ferried to and fro. Although it was just noon, the roads were choc-a-bloc with people walking to the venue. The prayer meeting would start only at 6pm. Such was the veneration Gandhiji was held in.
Standing on the terrace of my friend’s house we watched the crowds below. They were well behaved, patient and did not need the police to control them. Volunteers went round serving water to the thirsty as the afternoon sun was hot and relentless. Slowly evening set in. The heat became less, the clock ticked on, and just a minute before six, Gandhiji came onto the dais and bowed to the people. There were no loud, noisy claps to greet his appearance. It was as if one was in the presence of someone divine. The silence was electrifying.
Then my friend’s daughter, about 12, dressed in a pavadai and blouse, sang the prayer effortlessly and with full-throated ease. Gandhiji then started to speak. Did the crowd understand what he was saying? It did not matter. They had come all the way, borne the scorching sun just to have a darshan of him. Gandhiji spoke on, frail as he was. The setting sun cast an orange glow as he ended his speech.
What was it about Gandhiji, “an ugly old man” as Sarojini Naidu affectionately called him, that so endeared him to people? Why was he worshipped by the common man? Was it because he sacrificed his career, went to jail many times, and wasn’t afraid to give up his life for his principles, taught ahimsa? It may have been all of these. But what endeared him most to the common man was that he was like one of them, to whom they could relate. He wore the scantiest of clothes, wooden chappals and cheap rimless spectacles. He ate sparsely. If ever there had been a politician who was dear to the hearts of the common man, it was this man. No wonder they called him the Mahatma.
One could say that “the elements so mixed in him/ That nature could stand up to all the world and say This was a man”.
I am filled with nostalgia when October 2 nears. To have been ruled by the British, to have witnessed the fight for freedom, to have seen how people sacrificed their careers and even their lives, all led by one man and then to have been freed was an exhilarating experience.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Opinion / by Radha Padmanabhan / October 05th, 2013
Striking architecture, history and faith greet K. Jeshi as she visits some old monuments
Tipu Sultan offered prayers at Kottaimedu. His soldiers prayed at the Thondamuthur mosque. On their way to battle at Palakkad, they rested at Idayarpalayam with their horses. Then in the 1800s Athar merchants from Tirunelveli made Coimbatore their home and built the Athar Jamath mosque. According to M.I. Mohammed Ali, general secretary of Coimbatore District United Jamath (that heads 193 Jamaths in Coimbatore district), there are 120 mosques within the corporation limits. “In some mosques the older structures have given way to expansion while some Jamaths have taken efforts to preserve them.”
Minarets of Athar Jamath Mosque on the Oppanakara Street in Coimbatore / Photo: K. Ananthan / The Hindu
Athar Jamath Mosque
Oppanakkara Street
A pair of silver minarets shimmer in the morning. It’s 9 a.m. and sun rays filter into the Mosque on the bustling Oppanakkara Street, one of the oldest mosques in the city. Traders stroll in one by one, some of them straight from the market with their goods, spend a few minutes in silent prayer and get going. It is not just Muslims, people from other religious communities too stop by.
At the entrance, a giant hand-crafted wrought iron gate gives way to a hauz or a water pool (where Muslims perform a ritual before offering their namaz) and then comes the prayer hall. The building has Italian and Mohammedan architecture influences. The white pillars that dot the prayer hall are Italian while the colour scheme of white and green and the multi-coloured window glasses are quintessentially Mughal. Externally, the domes are decorated with geometric designs. “It was a thatched hut in the 1830s built by our forefathers who were athar sellers from Tirunelveli district,” says Abdul Kaleel, a retired Tahsildar and muttavalli (head imam ) of the mosque. The Jamath has over 1000 members, all descendants of athar merchants. An executive committee with 15 members looks into the maintenance of the mosque. The construction, spread across 10,000 sq.ft., began in 1860 and was completed in 1904, under the supervision of 52 athar families. “Our forefathers had their homes in the area and built the mosque here,” says Kaleel. The mosque is built beside the tomb of Hazrat Jamesha Waliullah, which is now a dargah. “On the same road, we have St. Michael’s Church, Koniamman temple and the mosque. All the structures are over 100 years and they stand testimony to a time when communities beautifully co-existed. Even today, the Koniamman temple car procession halts at the mosque for a few minutes and then proceeds,” he says. Personalities including Russian premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and stalwarts such as Kamarajar and Kalaignar Karunanidhi have visited the mosque. The prayer hall easily accommodates 3000 people during prayers on Eid. “Fifty years ago, we could see the minarets of the mosque when we trekked to the Marudhamalai Hills,” says Kaleel.
Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath Mosque
Kottaimedu
Hidayuthul Islam Shafi Jamat Mosque at Kottaimedu is one of the oldest mosques built by Tipu Sultan.in Coimbatore./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath stands tall at Kottaimedu. It dates back to the 17th Century and is one of the biggest mosques to be built in Coimbatore during the reign of Tipu Sultan. He is supposed to have offered prayers here. “The original mosque was built in 1776 by Tipu Sultan, which was destroyed by the British,”says T.I. Abdul Wahab, general secretary of Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath Mosque.
Hidayuthul Islam Shafi Jamat Mosque at Kottaimedu is one of the oldest mosques built by Tipu Sultan in Coimbatore./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
In 1901, Haji Mohammed Pillai Rawther raised the structure and it was completed in 1910. The inner pavement is of white marble slabs, ornamented with black borders. It is beautiful and lends coolness to the place. The white marble pillars represent Indo-Arabic styles. The floors are lined with exquisite pink carpets that came from Mysore. Traditionally, smaller size bricks were used for the construction of pillars, which were then polished with a mix of limestone and egg. The mosque also imparts education. A madrasa, a higher secondary school and an Arabic college function on its premises.
Ahle Sunnath Dakhni Jamath mosque or Tipu Sultan Mosque
Idayarpalayam
Ahle Sunnat Dakhni Jamat ( Tipu Sultan Mosque) at Idayarpalayam in Coimbatore is over 250 years old./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
A muscular limestone wall, two gleaming teak pillars with intricate work, an elaborate teak wood roofing with horizontal and vertical wood panels, and a central enclosure (for the Imam) that has a semicircular arch-like entrance with delicate carvings … the Tipu Sultan mosque at Idayarpalayam is a piece of history. Built in the Mohammedan style, it is as old as 250 years. “Tipu Sultan, his horses, and his soldiers rested at Idayarpalayam on their way to Palakkad, and that’s when he built the mosque,” narrates E. Nizamuddin, president of Ahle Sunnath Dakhni Jamath Mosque. He says references to this event can be found in the book Danayakan Kottai, a history on Tipu’s reign at Dandanayakan Kottai in Sathyamangalam. “ Those days, 13 people could stand in a single line inside the prayer hall and offer namaz. A small thinnai in the front accommodated some more and totally 40 people could worship at a time. Now, after making extensions, 400 people can pray together.”
The traditional prayer enclosure is covered on three sides with a single entrance and no windows. “This was a strategy followed by Tipu to protect themselves from backdoor attack by enemies,” he says.
The Jamath has over 600 members from Idayarpalayam and the president says with considerable pride how different communities co-exist peacefully. Now, they are geared up for the grand celebrations of Hazrat Noorsha Aulia’s dargah that completes 255 years on October 19. “The celebrations begin at the house of Oor gounder P. Radhakrishnan. He leads the procession of ‘santhanakudam’ that culminates at the dargah. This is followed by night-long prayers in which everyone participates.”
This article has been corrected for a factual error.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by K. Jeshi / October 15th, 2013
