Where are 'Sathymangalam' and' Sathy'a'mangalam? The two are not the same!
Though the modern age has recorded incidents of sons deserting their parents or parents abandoning their newborn, particularly a baby girl, such vicious acts were not found in the past.
Legend has it that Moses was left in a basket amidst reeds and bulrushes along the Nile and Karna was set afloat on river Ashwa. However, the two incidents are justified with convincing reasons, as the former was after the order of the Egyptian Pharaoh to drown Hebrew baby boys at birth and the latter was for his divine birth to unmarried Kunti.
Similar to such records in the Bible and Mahabharatha, there was an incident in the history of Kongunadu too.
Poonthurai Nadu was one of the 24 divisions of Kongunadu in earlier times with the rivers Cauvery, Noyyal, Bhavani, and the hill Chennimalai as its boundaries. “Poonthurai” got its name from a king called “Pundrurai” who is mentioned in the 44th song of the Sangam Literature Agananuru.
Varanavasi Gounder, the chieftain, who ruled Poonthurai Nadu in the sixteenth century, came across a basket, that was set afloat on river Cauvery, and discovered to his shock that it contained a physically disabled child. Realizing the inability of the parents to bring up such children, he established a home for nursing them in a village called Sathymangalam. He also donated the revenue of a few villages to bear the expenses of the charitable home at Sathymangalam. From then on, Sathymangalam came to be called as “ Mudavaandi Sathymangalam”
Lauding Varanavasi Gounder’s mercy for the physically disabled, Achutharayan (1529 – 1542) the Vijayanagar ruler of Kongunadu, inscribed a large epigraph, which is still cherished in the museum of Kalaimahal Kalaiokoodam, Erode. Apart from this, there is also a palm leaf manuscript with mentions of the contributions, which must be made by people of different communities to the home.
Varanavasi Gounder also appointed many “Kalaadis” (strong-muscled men) in the home to look after the physically disabled. The strong men carried them in covered bullock carts and collected money from the villages showing the copper plate inscription provided by Varanavasi Gounder.
However, during British rule, the home was shifted to Coimbatore and half of its revenue was ordered to be paid to the municipal administration.
Popularly called “Langar Khana” the home was functioning on Range Gowder Street with 42 Kaladis looking after 32 physically disabled persons.
In due course, when Kaladis became more in number than the physically disabled, corruption was widespread in the administration of Langar Khana leading to its closure. Still, its name is often heard from the mouths of elderly Coimbatoreans, whenever they refer to any building on Range Gowder Street. A popular Mosque on the street is still called “Langar Khana Palli”
The “Sathymanagalam” of this story is not the Sathy’a’mangalam, which is near Bannari. The home for the physically disabled was functioning in “ Sathymangalam” which is now Kaspapet in Erode and never in Sathy’a’ mangalam near Bannari.
Legend has it that Moses was left in a basket amidst reeds and bulrushes along the Nile and Karna was set afloat on river Ashwa. However, the two incidents are justified with convincing reasons, as the former was after the order of the Egyptian Pharaoh to drown Hebrew baby boys at birth and the latter was for his divine birth to unmarried Kunti.
Similar to such records in the Bible and Mahabharatha, there was an incident in the history of Kongunadu too.
Poonthurai Nadu was one of the 24 divisions of Kongunadu in earlier times with the rivers Cauvery, Noyyal, Bhavani, and the hill Chennimalai as its boundaries. “Poonthurai” got its name from a king called “Pundrurai” who is mentioned in the 44th song of the Sangam Literature Agananuru.
Varanavasi Gounder, the chieftain, who ruled Poonthurai Nadu in the sixteenth century, came across a basket, that was set afloat on river Cauvery, and discovered to his shock that it contained a physically disabled child. Realizing the inability of the parents to bring up such children, he established a home for nursing them in a village called Sathymangalam. He also donated the revenue of a few villages to bear the expenses of the charitable home at Sathymangalam. From then on, Sathymangalam came to be called as “ Mudavaandi Sathymangalam”
Lauding Varanavasi Gounder’s mercy for the physically disabled, Achutharayan (1529 – 1542) the Vijayanagar ruler of Kongunadu, inscribed a large epigraph, which is still cherished in the museum of Kalaimahal Kalaiokoodam, Erode. Apart from this, there is also a palm leaf manuscript with mentions of the contributions, which must be made by people of different communities to the home.
Varanavasi Gounder also appointed many “Kalaadis” (strong-muscled men) in the home to look after the physically disabled. The strong men carried them in covered bullock carts and collected money from the villages showing the copper plate inscription provided by Varanavasi Gounder.
However, during British rule, the home was shifted to Coimbatore and half of its revenue was ordered to be paid to the municipal administration.
Popularly called “Langar Khana” the home was functioning on Range Gowder Street with 42 Kaladis looking after 32 physically disabled persons.
In due course, when Kaladis became more in number than the physically disabled, corruption was widespread in the administration of Langar Khana leading to its closure. Still, its name is often heard from the mouths of elderly Coimbatoreans, whenever they refer to any building on Range Gowder Street. A popular Mosque on the street is still called “Langar Khana Palli”
The “Sathymanagalam” of this story is not the Sathy’a’mangalam, which is near Bannari. The home for the physically disabled was functioning in “ Sathymangalam” which is now Kaspapet in Erode and never in Sathy’a’ mangalam near Bannari.