169-574: Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple ( Tamil : கீரிமலை நகுலேஸ்வரம் கோயில் ), historically known also as the Thirutambaleswaram Kovil of Keerimalai , is a famous Hindu temple in Keerimalai , located north of Jaffna , Northern Province , Sri Lanka in the suburb of Kankesanthurai . One of the oldest shrines of the region, it is the northernmost of the island's Pancha Ishwarams of Siva , venerated by Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus around
338-469: A Paadal Petra Sthalam along with its west coast Ishwaram counterpart Ketheeswaram temple , Mannar , and was praised for its tradition by Arunagirinathar upon his visit. The Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and Manmiam works note it as Dakshina/Then Kailasam ( Mount Kailash of the South) for its longitudinal position and pre-eminence, it lies directly east of Kudiramalai west coast Hindu port town, while it
507-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
676-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
845-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
1014-692: A Chola regent of Sri Lanka. In the 6th century, a special coastal route by boat travelled from the Jaffna peninsula southwards to the Koneswaram temple, and further south to Batticaloa to the Thirukkovil . Koneswaram temple of Kona-ma-malai is mentioned in the Saiva literature Tevaram in the late sixth century CE by Thirugnana Sambandar . Along with Ketheeswaram temple in Mannar, Koneswaram temple
1183-656: A Sanskrit treatise on another Pancha Ishwaram, Koneswaram of Trincomalee , recalls events in the Naguleswaram shrine. On Saivism in the 6th century, the Suta Samhita of the Skanda Puranam mentions Naguleswaram as among ancient sites of pilgrimage. Arab navigators spread the wonders of the temple's springs to the West, and James Emerson Tennent , citing Lane's Arabian Nights elaborates on Keerimalai as
1352-523: A Thousand Columns among Europeans. The rocky promontory is dedicated to Siva in his ancient form of Kona-Ishvara, and is a major centre of pilgrimage today. The worship of Ishvara is noted to have been the original worship of the island; Charles Pridham, Jonathan Forbes and George Turnour state that it is probable there is no more ancient form of worship existing than that of Ishvara upon his sacred promontory. The construction time of Koneswaram has been estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on
1521-560: A benefactor of the temple of Konamalai. He spent his last days in the associated Brahmin settlement of Kantalai . The complex was destroyed in colonial religious attacks between 1622 and 1624 and a fort was built at the site from its debris. A 1632-built temple located away from the city houses some of its original idols. Worldwide interest was renewed following the discovery of its underwater and land ruins, sculptures and Chola bronzes by archaeologists and Arthur C. Clarke . It has been preserved through restorations, most recently in
1690-521: A black granite megalith while its multiple gold plated gopuram towers were expanded in the medieval period. One of three major Hindu shrines on the promontory with a colossal gopuram tower, it stood distinctly on the cape's highest eminence. The journey for pilgrims in the town begins at the opening of Konesar Road and follows a path through courtyard shrines of the compound to the deities Bhadrakali , Ganesha , Vishnu Thirumal , Surya , Raavana , Ambal - Shakti , Murukan and Shiva who presides at
1859-526: A call by D. Hieronymo de Azevedo the previous year to aid the latter in building a fortress in Trincomalee. The enterprise was abandoned. With the defeat of King Cankili II , all of the territory of the kingdom of Jaffna, comprising Trincomalee and Batticaloa, was assigned to the "spiritual cures of the Franciscans." This decision was taken by the bishop of Cochin, fray Dom Sebastião de S. Pedro. By
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#17327872112592028-461: A circular natural harbour which the temple crowns towards the north, is referred to in Sanskrit as Gokarna (Cow's Ear) and the deity's name Gokarneswara or Go—Natha . Pathmanathan offers the etymological link Thiru-Gokarna-Malai or Thiru-Gona-Malai based on this connection. The ethnographer Megasthenes writing in his Indica from 350 to 290 BCE, describes the island as being divided by
2197-507: A compound of Kona and Ishvara), Koneswaran , Kona—Natha and the goddess consort is called Mathumai Amman (another name for Mother goddess Amman ). It later earned the title Thiru Koneswaram Kovil . Trincomalee, the coastal peninsula town where Koneswaram is located is an Anglicized form of the old Tamil word "Thiru-kona-malai" ( Tamil : திருகோணமலை ), meaning "Lord of the Sacred Hill", its earliest reference in this form found in
2366-432: A decorated Vilvam ( Aegle marmelos ) tree on Swami Rock. In 1956, while scuba diving , photographer Mike Wilson and author Arthur C. Clarke discovered ruins from the sunken original temple spread on the shallow surrounding sea-bed. Relics found by Wilson and Clarke included masonry, architecture, idol images, carved columns with flower insignias, and stones in the form of elephant heads. These ruins, as well as
2535-556: A divine dip in the natural springs . These rituals are usually carried out by men. Keerimalai is particularly famous for this festival. The new moon or Amaavasai is a significant day, and according to Tamil astrologers, in the month of Aadi, the moon is in the ascendant in Kataka rasi, which is occupied by the Sun ; this concurrence is reminiscent of Siva and Sakthi in Hinduism. Hence, there
2704-519: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
2873-479: A gap of almost 400 years in 1894 ACE, local Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu people of under the urging of Hindu reformer Arumuka Navalar came together and built the present temple. However the temple was destroyed by fire in 1918 and had to be rebuilt. In 1983, the temple was occupied by the Sri Lankan army and devotees and priests were unable to visit the premises without special permits. At 16:00 on 16 October 1990,
3042-483: A long river, productive of a large number of gold and pearls in one half and that the inhabitants of this country are called Paleogoni , meaning Old Goni in Tamil and Greek , who Pliny adds worshipped Hercules and Dionysus (Bacchus) like the Pandyans of Tamilakam. The Vayu Purana , written in 300 CE specifically mentions the tallest mountain peak of the great gold and silver rich mountain range Malaya on
3211-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
3380-671: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
3549-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
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#17327872112593718-552: A praiseful poem of Raja Raja Chola I , who ruled the northern Malabar country from 993 to 1014 CE was discovered in the 1970s within the premises of the Koneswaram temple. The 1033–1047 CE Tamil inscriptions of the nearby Choleeswaram temple ruins of Peraru , Kantalai and the Manankerni inscriptions reveal the administrative practices of the Chola King Ilankeshvarar Devar (Sri Cankavanamar) with
3887-632: A recorded history from 300, when it finds mention in the Vayu Purana . Peiris notes that Koneswaram was one of the five recognised Iswarams of the Hindu deity Shiva in Lanka before the sixth century BCE; a widely famous centre of deity worship long before the arrival of the mythical exile Vijaya to the island, attributed to the period 543—505 BCE. Koneswaram is the easternmost shrine of the Iswarams ,
4056-485: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Koneswaram Saiddhantika Non - Saiddhantika Koneswaram Temple of Trincomalee ( Tamil : திருக்கோணேச்சரம் கோயில் ) or Thirukonamalai Konesar Temple – The Temple of
4225-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
4394-742: A small shrine and worshipped the Lingam enshrined there. This became known as the Thirutambaleswaram Kovil of Keerimalai and also the Naguleswaram Kovil of Keerimalai alluding to the sage. Naguleswaram temple of Kankesanthurai was restored during the reign of Prince Vijaya of Vanga (543-505 BCE). One of the oldest shrines of the region, it is the northernmost shrine on the island of the Pancha Ishwarams of Lord Siva , venerated by Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus around
4563-432: A straight diagonal path connected to Ketheeswaram and another former Jaffna temple and Paadal Petra Sthalam Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram. This pilgrimage path of 225 km (140 mi) is often traversed by foot according to Hindu custom. The complex also lies on exactly the same longitude as Mount Kailash . In line with custom of Tamil Hindu temple compounds, the complex houses shrines to several deities. Koneswaram
4732-610: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
4901-463: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
5070-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
5239-635: Is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
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5408-546: Is at Gokarna bay, in the middle of the ocean and is the island shrine of Uma's consort Shiva, known in the three worlds and worshiped by all peoples from the subcontinent, including the native tribes Naga , Deva and the Yaksha , the rivers, ocean and mountains. It continues that the shrine is the next pilgrimage spot for Hindus en route south following Kanyakumari of the early Pandyan kingdom and Tamiraparni island ( Kudiramalai ) and that worshipers should fast for three days at
5577-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
5746-541: Is dedicated to various aspects of the presiding goddess, whereas Sivarathri is dedicated to Siva. Devotees visit the temple to attend the daily pujas and make their offerings. Booths are erected outside for the sale of food, drink, brassware, pottery, cloth and holy images. These functions primarily attract Hindus to the temple. The main Thirukoneswaram Ther Thiruvilah Festival , the twenty-two-day annual chariot festival begins with
5915-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
6084-574: Is derived from the Sanskrit expression Gokarnesvara, which was applied as the name of the form of Shiva for whose worship the temple at Tirukōnamalai had been dedicated". In India there exists three other important Shaiva shrines named Gokarna. The Gokarna Shiva temple in Kalinga (modern day Orissa ) is also located on a mountain and the presiding deity is known as Gokarnasvamin. S. Pathmanathan states that both Shaiva shrines named Gokarna facing
6253-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
6422-511: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
6591-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
6760-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
6929-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
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7098-592: Is mentioned in the book Birds of Prey (1997) by Wilbur Smith , set in the 1660s. The Thirukonasala Mahatyam , describing the origins of the world, Lanka and Koneswaram based on puranic legends is now lost. The historical literature Mattakallappu Manmiyam ( Batticaloa Manmiyam ) that chronicles the history of Tamil settlement in Batticaloa, follows the Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and Dakshina Kailasa Manmiam in describing Koneswaram as one of
7267-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
7436-528: Is praised in the same literature canon by the 8th century Nayanar Saint Sundarar in Tamilakkam . Koneswaram henceforth is glorified as one of 275 Shiva Sthalams (Shiva abodes glorified in the Tevarams ) of the continent, part of the " Paadal Petra Sthalam " group. The only other temple from Eela Nādu (the country of the temple as named in the Tamil literature) is Ketheeswaram. During this period,
7605-592: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
7774-407: Is special significance of Aadi Amavaasai as a day when children remember their departed parents, notably their late fathers. It is customary for them to perform ablutions, offer prayers to the departed souls with the help of a priest ( Dharpanam ) and attend a temple of Siva. In Sri Lanka, Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple continues as the foremost shrine for Aadi amavaasai. Dakshina Kailasa Puranam ,
7943-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
8112-661: Is the easternmost shrine of the 5 ancient Iswarams of Shiva on the island, the others being Naguleswaram ( Keerimalai ), Thiruketheeswaram ( Mannar ), Munneswaram ( Chilaw ) and Tenavaram ( Tevan Thurai ). Koneswaram has attracted thousands of pilgrims from across Asia, its Shiva shrine mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata written from 400 to 100 BCE describe at length its attraction to pilgrims from many countries and from 600 to 660, it has been glorified as one of 275 Shiva Sthalams , or holy Shiva dwellings on
8281-659: Is the easternmost shrine of the five ancient Ishwarams of Shiva on the island. Mentioned as a widely popular bay temple of the island in the Mahabharata , Ramayana and Yalpana Vaipava Malai , the Mattakallappu Manmiam confirms its sacred status for all Hindus. Kachiyappa Sivachariar 's Kanda Puranam compares the temple to Thillai Chidambaram Temple and Mount Kailash in Saivite esteem. According to Professor S. Pathmanathan , "the name Kōnesvaram
8450-793: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
8619-498: The Four Vedas . The shrine of Muruga , adoring son of Konesar and his consort, was near one of the gopuram entrances of the complex. A rich collection of local texts written since the fourteenth century record the traditions pertaining to the shrine, including Konamamalai temple's use of the alternate name "Maccakeswaram". A temple of a thousand columns, during this medieval period, Koneswaram attracted pilgrims from around
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#17327872112598788-562: The Tevaram of the seventh century by Sampandar . Thiru is a word generally used to denote a "sacred" temple site while Malai means mountain or hill; Middle Tamil manuscripts and inscriptions mention the monumental compound shrine as the Thirukonamalai Konesar Kovil . Greek writer Strabo , quoting Eratosthenes and Onesicritus notes the island's proximity to the southernmost regions of India, next to
8957-565: The Ashta Dasa Shakthi Peetha Stotram by the Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara (788—820). The Vishnu - Thirumal temple was likely the first temple encountered on the promontory – and is mentioned in Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën written in 1726 by François Valentijn . The temple closest to the sea end was likely that dedicated to the goddess, where the current reconstructed Shiva temple stands. Smaller shrines within
9126-531: The Ati Konanayakar temple was built in nearby Thampalakamam to house the idols on procession that survived. The destruction of the Konesar temple is historically viewed as the biggest loot of one of the richest temples of Asia. Gold, pearls, precious stones and silks collected for more than a millennium were robbed within a few hours. A site plan by De Quieroz states: "On the first rise to the summit of
9295-644: The Charana Shrungarahita Stotram on Nataraja . In Kanda Puranam , the epic authored by Kachiyappa Sivachariar , Koneswaram is venerated as one of the three foremost Shiva abodes in the world, alongside Thillai Chidambaram Temple and Mount Kailash. The Vishnu-Thirumal shrine of the Koneswaram complex repaired by Kullakottan Chola was referred to as the Thirukonamalai Macchakeswaram/Macceswaram Kovil in some Middle Tamil inscriptions such as
9464-535: The Dakshina Kailasa Manmiam – three chapters of the Skanda Puranam of unknown antiquity – manuscripts of which have been discovered and dated from the 5th – 7th century. It was in the Puranas that the shrine first found reference as Koneiswara Parwatia , motivating Kullakottan Chola who learnt of its sanctity to sail to Trincomalee and develop the temple. The compiler of
9633-556: The Far East and conquest of Srivijaya of the Malay Archipelago . The Koneswaram temple compounds and its adjacent region, from Periyakulam and Manankerni in the north, Kantalai and Pothankadu in the west, and Verugal in the south, formed a great Saiva Tamil principality. Residents in this collective community were allotted services, which they had to perform at the Koneswaram temple. An inscriptional record containing
9802-536: The Indian Ocean . The monument contains its main shrine to Shiva in the form Kona-Ishvara , shortened to Konesar . The original kovil combined key features to form its basic Dravidian temple plan, such as its thousand pillared hall – "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam" – and the Jagati . Regarded as the greatest building of its age for its architecture, elaborate sculptural bas-relief ornamentation adorned
9971-522: The Jaffna kingdom paid homage to the Koneswaram shrine under its sovereignty, offering gifts of gold and silver. Among the visitors were King Singai Pararasasegaram and his successor King Cankili I . King Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan (1380—1410 CE) had the traditional history of the temple compiled as a chronicle in verse, entitled Dakshina Kailasa Puranam , known today as the Sthala Puranam of Koneswaram Temple . The literature describes how from
10140-546: The Kantalai tank after finding them in ruins. He was the son of the king Vara Rama Tevan, who had been a prolific benefactor of the Konesar temple. Kulakkottan visited the Munneswaram temple on the west coast, before settling ancient Vanniars in the east of the island. According to the chronicles, he extensively renovated and expanded the shrine, constructed several lofty gopuram towers and lavished much wealth on it; he
10309-468: The Konesar Kalvettu , the 17th-century stone inscription chronicle of the temple, gives the shrine's date of birth as circa 1580 BCE. Archaeologists point to its initial phase consisting of a rock cave, multilayered brick shrine style popularly constructed to Tamil deities of a range of faiths during the Sangam period (see Religion in ancient Tamil country ). Contemporary historians such as S. Pathmanathan and Paul E. Peiris suggest Koneswaram temple has
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#173278721125910478-454: The Pagode of Triquinimale as a principle temple of its kingdom while Portuguese Catholic priest and author Fernão de Quieroz described it as the "Rome of the Hindus of the Orient more frequented by pilgrims than Rameshwaram , Tirumalai - Tirupati , Kilvelur , Kanchipuram , Jagannath in Odisha or Vaijayanti in Bengal ." Furthermore, he described the splendor of the famous temple of Tenavarai at its zenith as similar in its greatness on
10647-402: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
10816-418: The Saraswathi Mahal Library and forced conversion in the Tamil country was conducted by the Portuguese upon their arrival to the island and conquest of the Jaffna kingdom ; the temple had been paying protection fees of 1280 fanams a year to the Portuguese. Trincomalee witnessed several naval battles of Europe's Thirty Years' War under Phillip II 's man Filipe de Oliveira . Between 1639 and 1689 CE,
10985-512: The Sri Lankan Air Force dropped three bombs at Naguleswaram. The first fell on the front of the temple destroying two temple chariots and other buildings, the second bomb fell on the southern courtyard of the temple destroying the premises of the priest. Two days later, on 18 October at 14:30, the Sri Lankan Air Force returned and bombed the temple during the Kedara Gowri fast when thousands of devotees were present, killing 180 Tamil civilians, including 5 infants. Temple buildings, its ancient gopuram,
11154-401: The Tevaram . A major shrine to the deity Bhadrakali exists within the Mahabaleshwar Temple complex, and similarly the Bhadrakali Amman Temple of Trincomalee , dedicated to the same deity and significantly expanded by Rajendra Chola I , stands on Konesar Road before the entrance to Swami Rock. Heralded as "Dakshina Kailasam"/"Then Kailasam" (Kailash of the South) because it lies on exactly
11323-411: The Three Pagodas of Thirukonamalai , the other two dedicated to Vishnu-Thirumal and that of the Mother-Goddess ( Tirukkamakkottam – a consort of Shiva) on the promontory over a far greater area than at present. This latter temple to the goddess – Ambal/Uma/Shakti/Shankari Devi – was one of the 18 Maha Shakthi Peethas, those Shakti Peethas consecrated to the goddess which are mentioned in
11492-471: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
11661-429: The Vanni region flourish. The Vanniar claim descent from this chief. Kullakottan's restorations took place despite interferences from the queen of the Pandyan King Pandia, who was absent from his throne in Anuradhapura on a visit to Jaffna. Kullakottan constructed and re-established the large temple of Shiva, the temple of Vishnu and that of the Mother-Goddess ( Tirukkamakkottam ) on the promontory, these shrines of
11830-421: The Yoga Sutras , Patañjali 's place of birth at the temple corroborates Tirumular 's Tirumandhiram , which describes him as hailing from Then Kailasam and his self description as a "Gonardiya" from Gonarda , "a country in the southern and eastern division" of the Indian continent. Both men were ardent disciples of Nandhi. Patanjali famously visited the Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram , where he wrote
11999-406: The "coming of the Franks" after the 16th century. The prediction reads "O King! The franks shall later break down the holy edifice built by Kulakoddan in ancient times; and no future kings of this island will rebuild it! Following the successive reigns of the cat eyed, the red eyed and the smoke eyed nations it will voluntarily revert to the Tamils." Pandyan king Jatavarman Veera Pandyan's insignia of
12168-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
12337-612: The 1950s. Granted ownership of villages in its floruit to form the Trincomalee District, Trincomalee village is located on the cape isthmus within the compounds. Revenue from the temple provides services and food to local residents. Koneswaram has many strong historical associations. The shrine is described in the Vayu Purana , the Konesar Kalvettu and Tevaram hymns by Sambandhar and Sundarar as
12506-630: The 19th century by Tamil scholar Masilamanipillai Muttucumaru on the temple and the Thirukonasala Vaipavam on Koneswaram was written by V. Akilesapillai in 1889, published sixty years later in 1952. In 1950, the Urban Council of Trincomalee recovered a number of the original shrine's statues buried five hundred yards from the Koneswaram site. The discovery occurred during digging for a water well . The statues are of gold and copper alloy bronze and are believed to be from
12675-511: The Coylot Wanees Country and across Asia, culminating in it becoming the richest and most visited place of worship in the world of any faith. The last rites during the funeral of King Bhuvanekabahu VII of Kotte , a Hindu monarch who signed all of his official proclamations in Tamil were conducted at Koneswaram in 1551. His closest religious official and most trusted ambassador was of Hindu faith. Historian Diogo do Couto described
12844-481: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
13013-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
13182-619: The Keerimalai springs, and later married the King Ukkira Singhan a scion of Vijaya's dynasty, at the temple's springs. Eliandurvan , one of the four brothers of the Mukkuvar king Vedi Arasan ruled at Keerimalai. "Maasi Magam" and "Aadi Amaavaasai" festival days, the latter falling during the Tamil month of "Aadi" (mid July-mid August) brings Hindu pilgrims to the town to carry out rituals for their forefathers and take
13351-514: The Konesar temple. Dating the reign of the king has proved difficult. The Konesar Kalvettu dates Kullakottan's renovations to specifically between 432 and 440. C. Rasanayagam notes that the Vanniar chiefs who were in control of the temple could not have multiplied so fast within 150 years causing the king Aggrabodhi I of Anuradhapura to take elaborate steps to contain the Vanniars in 593. He argues
13520-421: The Koneswaram shrine and the Trincomalee region at the time. Construction activities at the temple were aided by architect and Chola dignitary Muventavelan Kanavati. The Palamottai inscription from the Trincomalee district, found amongst the inscriptions in nearby Kantalai, records a monetary endowment to the "Siva temple of Then Kailasam (Kailash of the South)" by a Tamil widow for the merit of her husband. This
13689-645: The Nilaveli inscription of the 10th century, a Tamil rendering of the Sanskrit Matsyakesvara . In fact, Matsya is the fish incarnation of Vishnu, and this shrine's significance along with that of the third pagoda of the promontory to the goddess is expounded further in the Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and the Thirukonasala Puranam. The temple's "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam" earned it the title Pagoda of Trincomalee – Temple of
13858-557: The Pagoda is 600 fathoms long (1.2 km) and 80 feet at its broadest, narrowing to 30 feet." The complex stretches across Konesar Road off the promontory, and includes shrines to Ganesha, Murukan and Bhadrakali. Koneswaram of Konesar Malai is located 152 kilometres (94.4 mi) directly east from Kudiramalai , the ancient royal district and southern pearl-bank emporium of the Thiru Ketheeswaram temple, Mannar. Koneswaram lies on
14027-430: The Pagoda is 600 fathoms long and 80 feet at its broadest, narrowing to 30 feet." Regarding a prophetic Tamil inscription de Noronha found at the site, he added "When I went there to make this Fort, I found engraved on the Pagoda, among many other inscriptions, one that ran thus: Kulakottan has built this pagoda..." Under Dutch Ceylon , most of Trincomalee town was administered under Jaffna-dependent Vanniars again, while
14196-590: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
14365-696: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
14534-673: The Ther festival period. The deity and other holy artefacts are bathed in the water of the well in the complex's sacred precincts. Devotees are sprayed with the holy water following the Theertham. The Theppath Thiruvilah Boat Festival consists of Konesar and goddess Mathumai Ambal taken in a boat around the temple from Swami Rock via the Back Bay Sea to the Dutch Bay Sea. Religious discourses and cultural items take place throughout
14703-609: The Thousand Pillars and Dakshina-Then Kailasam (Southern / Ancient Kailash) is a classical-medieval Hindu temple complex in Trincomalee , a Hindu religious pilgrimage centre in Eastern Province , Sri Lanka . The most sacred of the Pancha Ishwarams of Sri Lanka, it was built significantly during the ancient period on top of Konesar Malai, a promontory overlooking Trincomalee District , Gokarna bay and
14872-737: The Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple Compounds on the extremity of the peninsula in his map of the Livro das plantas das fortalezas cidades e povoaçois do Estado da India Oriental document of 1635, but these temples are missing from the copy of the document stored at the Paço Ducal di Vila Viçosa library in Lisbon. The stone inscription discovered by the temple's destroyer has a Double-Fish insignia and its engraved prophecy, translated from ancient Tamil script, warns of
15041-551: The Vanniars of the Vannimai were a buffer state between Trincomalee and Mannar from the classical period. Other historians suggest that Kullakottan arrived to the island during the island's reign of The Five Dravidians of Pandyan descent, between 103 and 88 BCE, corroborating the Yalpana Vaipava Malai equation of his grandfather Manu Needhi Chola's identity with that of Ellalan Chola , a historical king who ruled
15210-428: The West, and passes into the place of Shiva called Thiruketheecharam at Manthottam in Mannar. These three rivers are described as "highly meritorious streams". He shipped stone blocks from Trincomalee to the temple of Rameswaram to renovate its sanctum sanctorum. Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan's successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan (Pararacacekaran V), a trustee at Rameswaram who also oversaw structural development of that temple and
15379-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
15548-583: The complex to Ganesha , Durga , Murukan , Agastya , and the Navagraha including the sun god Surya would have been customary near the main shrine in the centre to Shiva – the Murukan shrine is hailed at large in the Tiruppugal series of Arunagirinathar. The temple to Bhadrakali is located further along in the complex inland along Konesar Road, benefitted from Rajendra Chola I. The Kali temple
15717-523: The compound becoming the Three Pagodas of Tirukonamalai. The Yalpana Vaipava Malai and Konesar Kalvettu , as well as a 16th-century Tamil inscription in Trincomalee and Tamil copper-plate inscriptions of the temple relate many details about Kullakottan's founding of Trincomalee and the Vanni. Modern historians and anthropologists agree as historically factual the connection of the Vanniars with
15886-589: The continent in Tevaram . Swami Rock is heralded as a Shiva Upa Peetha (base) of Lanka in the Sivacharita , a Sanskrit work in praise of Shiva, and subsequent manuscripts of the Pithanirnaya (Maha Piitha Nirupana) as a general Sakta Peetha of Lanka with a temple of the compounds dedicated to the goddess Indraksi Devi and a male deity Raksasesvara – a reference to Ravana . Kullakottan reconstructed
16055-455: The country of the " Koniakoi people," found south up to a coastal promontory on an eastern limit, and describes the island as extending towards Ethiopia and being home to elephants. The temple was constructed atop Swami Rock, also called Swami Malai or Kona-ma-malai, a cliff on the peninsula that drops 400 feet (120 metres) directly into the sea. " Listen as I now recount the isle of Tamraparni below Pandya-desa and KanyaKumari, gemmed upon
16224-689: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
16393-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
16562-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
16731-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
16900-483: The early classical to medieval era, the temple flourished in the early centuries of the First Millennium. Hindus built at least three great stone temples with gopura on Swami Rock during Koneswaram's zenith, one to Vishnu-Thirumal, one to the goddess and the principal temple of the complex to Shiva at its highest eminence. Mahabharata , the Hindu epic written between 400 and 100 BCE notes that Koneswaram
17069-787: The eastern coastline and existing on mountains is not a coincidence, and that the Kōnesvaram temple was likely first established by settlers from Kalinga whose "favourite deity was Gokarnasvamin enshrined on the Mahendra mountain in Kalinga". In the Tamil language , temples are known as kovils , ; thus the temple complex is known locally as Konecaram Kovil ( Tamil : கோணேச்சரம் ), the abode of Kona — Ishvara (the Chief Lord or God). The presiding Shiva deity's names are Konesar ( Tamil : கோணேசர் ) (pronounced Konechar or Konasir –
17238-707: The end of 1619, a small Danish fleet had arrived at Trincomalee; in May 1620, the Danes occupied Koneswaram temple and began works for the fortification of the peninsula before being defeated. The shrine was attacked and destroyed on 14 April 1622, the Tamil New Years Day , by the Portuguese general Constantino de Sá de Noronha (who called it the Temple of a Thousand Pillars ). Eleven brass lamps had been lit in
17407-462: The exile's arrival. Pathmanathan differs from Peiris in his view on the shrine's birth however, stating that Koneswaram temple was most likely established as a Hindu shrine by the mercantile communities that frequented the island from the fourth-century BCE. Kalinga region in India, where another temple dedicated to Shiva in the form Gokarnasvamin at Mahendra mountains is found. The Yalpana Vaipava Malai , an 18th-century Tamil chronicle connects
17576-406: The figure Vijaya and seven hundred of his followers to the shrine, stating they extensively repaired the five Iswarams upon their arrival to the island, before mixing with native tribes on the island forming matrimonial links with the Tamil kingdom through Pandyan queens. The Encyclopædia Britannica currently appears to follow this view, although in volume 10 of the encyclopedia, printed in 1974,
17745-457: The fort was occupied by the Dutch on what they called "Pagoda Hill". Batticaloa district remained dependent to Trincomalee's fort until 1782. No ceremonies were permitted to take place on Swami Rock until British rule of the island , when pilgrims were permitted to return and worship Shiva at the fortressed sacred site. By the mid-19th century, sailors, the high priest and other pilgrims visited
17914-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
18083-493: The hoisting of the temple Nandi flag. This is followed by temple processions of Konesar and his consort Mathumai Ambal, installed and pulled in an ornate chariot temple car while deities Pillayar and Murugan with his two consorts Valli and Theivayanai are taken ahead in two other decorated chariots. This is conducted throughout Trincomalee district, and follows Kulakottan's stone scriptures detailing how Hindus in Tamil villages like Sambaltivu, lands which historically belonged to
18252-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
18421-416: The island as the great "Island of Coliadis" whose inhabitants worship the multi-towered Cholian temple to Venus on their Cholian rock promontory, phallic-shaped and located at the end of the island's Ganges river by the ocean. The Chola royal Kankan ( Kulakkottan ), a descendant of the legendary King Manu Needhi Cholan of Thiruvarur , Chola Nadu , restored the Koneswaram temple at Trincomalee and
18590-406: The island from 205 to 161 BCE that shared many character traits with the legendary Manu Needhi. In Geography of Avienus , a poem of Latin geographer and writer Rufius Festus Avienius in 350 CE, the author bases his writing on the island on Orbis descriptio by Alexandrian Greek poet Dionysius Periegetes (117—138 CE), who called the island the "great Island of Coliadis " whose inhabitants worship
18759-423: The island to Koneswaram and how idolatrous navigators would descry Koneswaram from the sea. In a 1613 written letter by Jesuit fray Manuel Barradas, Koneswaram is described as a "... massive structure, a singular work of art. It is of great height, constructed with wonderful skill in blackish granite, on a rock projecting into the sea, and occupies a large space on the summit." King Ethirimana Cinkam had resisted
18928-536: The island to intervene and decisively defeat Chandrabhanu of Tambralinga , a usurper of the northern Tamil throne; he proceeded to implant the Pandyan bull flag of victory and insignia of a "Double Fish" emblem at Konamalai while he subjugated the other king of the island. Historically, the Pandyans were known to have sculpted two fishes facing each other on the ceilings of their multi-storey temple gopurams once they were completed (and left it with one fish in case it
19097-599: The island, and that "to the east of this island at the shore of the sea lies a great Siva temple in a holy place called Gokarna ." Gokarna is also a place name in Karnartaka, India , Kalinga , Tamil Nadu and Nepal all associated with ancient Shiva temples and some with Ravana of the Ramayana , the former temple in Karnartaka ;– the Mahabaleshwar Temple – also earning praise in
19266-472: The king's companions. In 1468 CE Saint Arunagirinathar Swamikal paid homage at Koneswaram during his pilgrimage from Jaffna 's Nallur Kandaswamy temple to Kadirkamam. At Koneswaram, he offered a garland of Thiruppugazh verses in praise of the Sthalam. The population, he stated, at Koneswaram, where the deep ocean rolled its furious waves, was vast, the temple well organised and the priests well versed in
19435-443: The koil that forms a distinct part of the site plan of classical Dravidian temple architecture. Ruins of this feature at Koneswaram indicate that the hall was a structural addition erected by Pallava artisans, dated between 537 and 668. It formed one of the nine prakara or major courtyard compounds of the Koneswaram complex. Two other temples were prominent compound monuments on the promontory, containing prolific gopura structures over
19604-406: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
19773-674: The library housing palm leaf manuscripts and statues incurred substantial damage. The bombing was carried out despite the presence of temple identification flags at four corners of the temple, as instructed by the International Committee of the Red Cross . No access to the area was granted to devotees until 1997, when the Chief Priest was allowed to visit with an Additional GA of the Sri Lankan government. The temple
19942-537: The middle of Sivanoli Padam Malai , three rivers or "kankai" ( Ganges ) were generated to rise out of Shiva's foot print – Mavillie-Kankai flowing towards the North, reaches Shiva's abode at Trincomalee, and falls into the sea south of it. Manikka-Kankai flows towards the East and passes by the temple of Kadirkamam , dedicated to Muruga, son of Shiva, and then falls into the eastern sea. Kavary-Kankai flows towards
20111-403: The multi-towered Cholian temple to Venus on their Cholian rock promontory by the sea. A twelfth-century commentary on Periegetes by Eustathius of Thessalonica also compares the shape of Konesar Malai to a phallus. The Portuguese historian De Quieroz cited poetic and inscriptional evidence to date Kullakottan's renovations to 1589 BCE, based on a Tamil poem by Kavi Raja Virothayan he read which
20280-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
20449-605: The natural springs. Carried out largely by men, “Keerimalai” is particularly famous for this festival. The temple was largely destroyed by Jesuit missionaries following the Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom , restored by Arumuka Navalar in 1894, was occupied by the Sri Lankan Army in 1983 and bombed by the Sri Lankan Air Force in 1993. After nearly twenty years, a major expansion and reopening of
20618-533: The next few centuries. The 8th–10th century Kanda Puranam (a Puranic Tamil literature epic and translation of the Skanda Puranam ) authored by Kachiyappa Sivachariar of Kanchipuram describes the Koneswaram shrine as one of the three foremost Shiva abodes in the world, alongside Chidambaram temple in Tamil Nadu and Mount Kailash of Tibet. Several inscriptions written in the Tamil and Vatteluttu scripts interspersed with Grantha characters relate to
20787-472: The night before Puthandu at the Dutch Bay Sea beach. Thereafter the deities are taken to the temple early morning the next day on Puthandu by road through the Fort Frederick entrance. The Trincomalee Bhadrakali Amman Temple and other Hindu temples have held their water-cutting Theertham festivals in the Back Bay Sea (Theertha Kadatkarai) for several centuries. The Koneswaram Poongavanam Festival –
20956-620: The nine most important and sacred sites in the world for all Hindus. The statue of Shiva was reconstructed in 2018. The Koneswaram temple is well known for its celebration of the traditional Ther chariot festival, the Navaratri and Sivarathri functions. The Ther Chariot Festival lasts for twenty two days in April and focuses on preparing the deities and the community for Puthandu, the Tamil New Year. Navaratri lasts for nine days and
21125-465: The ocean. The gods underwent austerities there, in a desire to attain greatness. In that region also is the lake of Gokarna. Then one should go to Gokarna, renowned in the three worlds. O Indra among kings! It is in the middle of the ocean and is worshipped by all the worlds. Brahma, the Devas, the rishis, the ascetics, the bhutas (spirits or ghosts), the yakshas, the pishachas, the kinnaras, the great nagas,
21294-527: The old Koneswaram temple and a portion of the prophetic inscription are seen today at the door entrance to Fort Fredrick. The shrine was known to Europeans as the Pagoda of Trincomalee – Temple of a Thousand Columns. The main shrine was built upon the jagati while its thousand pillared hall was the Aayiram Kaal Mandapam – a distinctly thousand pillared platform close to the vimana of
21463-537: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
21632-424: The others being Naguleswaram ( Keerimalai ), Thiruketheeswaram ( Mannar ), Munneswaram ( Chilaw ) and Tenavaram ( Tevan Thurai ). The historian Diogo de Couto of the 16th century adds Ramanathaswamy Temple , Rameswaram to this group of principle temples in the region most revered on the Indian subcontinent. Other writers point to the worship of Ishvara by mythical royals on the island like Kuveni before
21801-452: The pillar on Swami Rock, display Tamil, Pallava , and Chola architectural influence of the 3rd–9th century era. Corroborated by the discovery of Pallava Grantha and Chola script inscriptions and Hindu images found in the premises, this suggests that the dynasties took a keen interest in the temple. Wilson and Clarke also retrieved the legendary Swayambhu lingam from the ocean floor. According to legend, this large natural stone obelisk
21970-729: The point where the sea stretches out towards the South and the ocean curves the blue straits of the deep into its familiar paths and soon here the tall ridges of the Cholian rock will lie open before you and you will behold the towers of the roof stretched out. — Geography of Avienus poem of Rufius Festus Avienius , 350 CE Latin geographer and writer on the island, based on Orbis descriptio by Alexandrian Greek poet Dionysius Periegetes (117—138 CE): ( Inde convenus ante promontoriam Auatrale, Confestim ad magnam Coliadis insulam perveneris, Taprobanen Aaianoram elephantam genitricein ), mentioning
22139-603: The progenitor of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh – made rich donations after visiting Konamamalai on Tamil New Years Day 1223 CE, according to a Sanskrit inscription in Grantha script excavated on a doorjamb at the Hindu temple. A millennium-old Tamil inscription of the Chola Vatteluttu alphabet was discovered in October 2010 when digging for construction on an esplanade on
22308-622: The promontory's height. The annual Koneswaram Temple Ther Thiruvilah festival involves the Bhadrakali temple of Trincomalee , the Pavanasam Theertham at the preserved Papanasuchunai holy well and the proximal Back Bay Sea (Theertham Karatkarai) surrounding Konesar Malai. The Sinhalese king Gajabahu II who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1131 to 1153 CE is described in the Konesar Kalvettu as a devout worshipper of Shiva and
22477-460: The promotion of Saivite belief, donated part of his revenue to Koneswaram. The powerful Jaffna emperor Martanda Cinkaiariyan (Pararasasekaram III) took the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta to Sivanoli Padam Malai in 1344 CE along with four yogis who were in the habit of visiting the foot-mark on the mountain peak annually; and with these men they were also accompanied by four Brahmanas and ten of
22646-479: The right side of Konesar Road leading to the shrine. Involvement of the medieval Pandyan Dynasty in the affairs of the Tamil country became stronger after the conquest of Pandyan king Srimara Srivallabha from 815 to 862, a strongly welcomed intervention by the local Tamils on the island. While under Pandyan suzerainty in 1262 CE, Prince Jatavarman Veera Pandyan I , brother and lieutenant of King Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I repeated his brother's 1258 conquest of
22815-412: The rock was a Pagoda , another at mid-ascent – the principal one of them all at the highest eminence, visited by a concourse of Hindus from the whole of India." He describes three temples of the compound on the promontory, stating that pilgrims leaped from the last temple into the ocean in sacrifice to their idols. In his dispatch to Philip III, King of Portugal , Constantine described: "The land of
22984-410: The rock, broke a coconut and said prayers, performing sacred rites every January. Fruits and other offerings were often cast over the edge of the cliff, falling to the ruins below. The first photograph of the shrine's remains and its promontory was taken in 1870. Literature on the shrine began to be written as the site began to regain popularity among pilgrims. Thirukonasala Puranam was written during
23153-527: The same longitude as the Tibetan mountain Mount Kailash (the primary abode of Shiva), Koneswaram's early black granite rock-cut architectural style shared similarities to Kailasanathar Temples of the subcontinent. Its traditional history and legends were compiled into the Sanskrit treatises Dakshina Kailasa Puranam – Sthala Puranam of Koneswaram , written in 1380 by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan , and
23322-461: The shrine and the main statues were taken out to town during the ther procession in the festive period, during which time Portuguese soldiers entered the temple dressed as Iyer priests and began robbing it. In an act of religious zeal, the temple was then levered over the edge into the sea. Fleeing priests buried some of the temple's statues in the surrounding area, and all remaining priests, pilgrims and employees were massacred. The final monument of
23491-684: The shrine and was tasked with growing oil seed for Koneswaram annually. Trincomalee figured prominently during the medieval golden age of the Tamil Chola Dynasty , due to the proximity of the Trincomalee bay harbour with the rest of the continent and its benefits for the Chola's maritime empire and the two powerful merchant guilds of the time – the Manigramam and the Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu in their trade with
23660-445: The shrine's establishment is attributed to Tamil migrants. Encyclopedia Americana and New International Encyclopedia note that early Tamil rulers erected the temple of a thousand columns on the hilltop. The prince Kulakottan of the Chola Dynasty extensively renovated the Koneswaram temple and the Kantalai Tank , responsible for irrigating plains belonging to the shrine. Due to royal patronage by various Tamil dynasties from
23829-454: The shrines built to Vishnu-Thirumal and the goddess Ambal-Shakti. Together, they became known as the Three Pagodas of Thirukonamalai. A site plan by De Quieroz states: "On the first rise to the summit of the rock was a Pagoda, another at mid-ascent, and the principal one of them all at the highest eminence, visited by a concourse of Hindus from the whole of India." In his dispatch to Philip III, King of Portugal, Constantine described: "The land of
23998-444: The siddhas, the charanas , the gandharvas, humans, the pannagas, rivers, ocean and mountains worship Uma's consort there". Mahabharata. Volume 3. pp. 46–47, 99 . Vyasa , Mahabharata . c.401 BCE Corroborating the map of Ptolemy drawn four hundred years later, this text also elaborates on two ashrams of the Siddhar Agastya in the region, one near the bay and another atop the Malaya mountain range. The Trincomalee Harbour ,
24167-427: The site of the shipwreck of Sinbad the Sailor during his sixth voyage, where he collected pearls , hyacinth and ambergris . Arjuna of the Mahabharata fell in love with the Nagakanya (daughter of the Naga king) Ulupi , who bore them a son, Iravan . Following destruction by the Portuguese in 1621, Naguleswaram's Brahmin priests hid the main icons in a well before fleeing, which were since recovered. After
24336-416: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
24505-443: The temple complex was destroyed two years later in 1624. Temple stones and its carved pillars were used to construct Fort Fredrick to strengthen the colonists' influence over the eastern seaboard of the island against other invading European armies, including the Dutch navy during the Dutch–Portuguese Wars . A new church and village were built in and around the fort. An extensive campaign of destruction of five hundred Hindu shrines,
24674-485: The temple from this period. Koneswaram temple is mentioned in the 10th century Tamil Nilaveli inscriptions as having received a land grant in the Tamil country of one thousand seven hundred and ten acres (two hundred and fifty four vèli ) of dry and wet land to meet its daily expenses – revealing the temple's role in providing various services to the local community by 900—1000 CE. The fertile Koddiyapuram area of Trincomalee district paid one hundred avanams of rice to
24843-460: The temple occurred in 2012. Keeri in Tamil and nagula in Sanskrit mean " mongoose ". Keeri-malai in Tamil means "Mongoose-Hill". The temple is situated adjacent to the mineral water springs. The legendary sage Nagula Muni , shrunk by age and austerity while meditating at a cave in Keerimalai was likened to mongooses that frequented the area. The sage bathed in the springs and was cured of his mongoose face. In gratitude, Nagula Muni constructed
25012-420: The temple saw structural development in the style of Dravidian rock temples by the Tamil Pallava Dynasty . This occurred when Pallava King Narasimhavarman I (630–668 CE) armies conquered the island and when the island was under the sovereignty of his grandfather King Simhavishnu (537–590 CE), when many Pallava-built rock temples were erected in the region and this style of architecture remained popular in
25181-448: The temple's ruins, literature on the shrine and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters from the 5th to 18th centuries but its exact date of birth remains vague. The evidence extant attests to the shrine's classical antiquity . Construction of Hindu temples was made possible due to the prevalent faith amongst the locals and mercantile communities in the region during the Sangam period. Kaviraja Varothiyan's Tamil poem inscribed on
25350-469: The temple, are entitled to hold poojahs as their Upayam during the annual festival period. Until April 1624 the Koneswaram Ther Festival occurred around Puthandu in April annually with five chariots and this tradition was reintroduced in April 2003, three hundred and seventy nine years later. The water-cutting Theertham Thiruvilah festival (holy bath) takes place annually in the centuries-old Papanasachunai holy well (Papanasam Theertham) on Swami Rock during
25519-674: The temple. In the same time period, the Ramayana in written form describes how King Ravana and his mother had worshipped Shiva at the shrine, when the former wanted to remove the temple of Koneswaram when his mother was in ailing health. This literature continues that as the king was heaving the rock, Shiva made him drop his sword. As a result of this a cleft was created on the rock, today called Ravana Vettu – meaning Ravana's Cleft . " Contemplator item qua se mare tendit in Austrum, Inque notum Oceanus freta ponti caerula curvat; Altaque coliadis mox hic tibi dorsa patescent rupis, et intenti spectabis cospitis arces ". -Translation: Mark also
25688-419: The temple; the old images were reinstalled amid opening ceremonies in the newly restored shrine on 3 March 1963. Some of the artefacts from the demolished temple, including De Sa de Noronha's translation of the prophecy sent to Portugal, are kept in the Ajuda Library of Lisbon (Bibliotheca da Ajuda), along with a painting and map of the original shrine. The chronicler António Bocarro shows three monuments of
25857-404: The tenth century CE. They depict a seated figure of Shiva (in the form of Somaskanda ), Shiva as Chandrasekhar , his consort goddess Parvati , the goddess Mathumai Ambal and Ganesha . They were taken in procession around the region before being reinstalled at Koneswaram. Other Koneswaram statues that survived remain at the Ati Konanayakar temple. A pillar from the original temple stands under
26026-414: The tenth-century CE Koneswaram idols as "among the finest examples of Hindu bronze sculpture known to exist", the seated Shiva Chola bronze "a masterpiece" and the battered stone work at the foot of Swami Rock as "probably the most photographed underwater ruins in the world." 350 years after its destruction, Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu people of Trincomalee organised the temple restoration committee to restore
26195-422: The wealth of the temple under the Pandyan's rule of the north of the island. The 13th century Tamil stone inscription in Kankuveli village records the assignment by Vanniar chiefs Malaiyil Vanniyanar and Eluril Atappar of income and other contributions from the rice fields and meadows of the Vannimai districts of the ascending Jaffna kingdom to the Koneswaram shrine. The Tamil Aryacakravarti dynasty kings of
26364-419: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
26533-448: The world from classical antiquity . Hindus believe its adjacent water tank, the Keerimalai Springs , to have curative properties, which irrigation studies attribute to high mineral content sourced from underground. Keerimalai is 50 feet above sea level, and situated west of Palaly . Hindus flock in large numbers on Aadi Amaavaasai day which falls during the Tamil month of Aadi , to carry out rituals for their forefathers and bathe in
26702-416: The world from classical antiquity. Its adjacent water tank , the Keerimalai Springs attribution to curative properties has been related in irrigation scientific studies to its high mineral content, sourced from underground. The Pandyan - Cholan princess Maruthapura Veeravalli built the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple two miles from Naguleswaram in 785 CE after she was cured of her facial disfigurement at
26871-467: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
27040-478: Was administered by a member of the Tamil military caste – the Velaikkarar , troops deployed to protect shrines in the state that were closely associated to King Ilankeshvarar Devar. King Gajabahu II who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1131 to 1153 CE is described in the Konesar Kalvettu as a devout worshipper of Shiva and a benefactor of the temple of Konamamalai. King Chodaganga Deva, a descendant of King Virarajendra Chola 's grandson Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva –
27209-435: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
27378-419: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
27547-410: Was crowned with the ephitet Kulakkottan meaning Builder of tank and temple . Further to the reconstruction, Kulakottan paid attention to agriculture cultivation and economic development in the area, inviting the Vanniar chief Tanniuna Popalen and several families to a new founded town in the area including Thampalakamam to maintain the Kantalai tank and the temple itself. The effects of this saw
27716-570: Was found to be ruins with the sacred icons vandalized or missing. The temple was not restored. On Monday 6 February 2012, a major reconstruction of the temple was completed under the authority of the chief priest, Sivasri Naguleswara Kurukkal, and Naguleswaram's Mahakumbhabhishekam took place. It was a monumental event with thousands of devotees who came to pray and receive blessings. Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
27885-422: Was incomplete). Sundara Pandyan had renovated the gopurams by gold plating the roofs and installing gold gilded Kalasam atop them, a work of art displaying affinity to Dravidian architecture. Swami Rock at this time is described as "Kona ma-malai, around which the ocean waves swept pearls, gold, precious stones, and shells from the depth of the ocean and heaped them along the shore." Local residents contributed to
28054-519: Was one of 69 naturally occurring lingams from time immemorial originally found on Mount Kailash of Tibet and housed in Koneswaram by King Raavan – his most sacred power object from mythological times. This lingam was reinstalled at the Koneswaram site. Publishing their findings in the 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane , Clarke expresses admiration for Swami rock's three thousand year veneration by Hindus. Identifying at least three Hindu temples as having been built on and around Swami rock, Clarke describes
28223-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
28392-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
28561-404: Was translated into English in 1831 by Simon Cassie Chitty. A major temple of the compound was built to the glory of the God Videmal by King Manica Raja 1300 years before the nativity according to Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën written in 1726 by François Valentijn . Some consider the story of Kullakotan to be mythical based on the travails of historical figures such as Gajabahu II , Kalinga Magha or
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