View source for Impalement of the Jains in Madurai

{{Short description|Fictional 7th-century event}}
The '''impalement of the Jains''' is a 7th-century event, first mentioned in an 11th-century apocryphal [[Tamil language]] text of [[Nambiyandar Nambi]], purportedly as a warning to others.<ref name="Harman1992">{{cite book | author = William P. Harman | date = 1992 | title = The Sacred Marriage of a Hindu Goddess | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass Publ. | pages = 42– | isbn = 9788120808102 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=F_siW9T3ev4C&pg=PA42}}</ref> As per then and current scholarship, this event was fictional but written down to demonstrate the superiority of Shaivite religion and kings over Jains and Vaishnavas.<ref name="Klostermaier2007">{{cite book | author = Klaus K. Klostermaier | date = 5 July 2007 | title = A Survey of Hinduism: Third Edition | publisher = SUNY Press | pages = 255– | isbn = 978-0-7914-7082-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E_6-JbUiHB4C&pg=PA255}}</ref> Similar stories of impalement of Vaishnavas are also found.{{sfn|Cort|1998|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=WWfnXbVWjKcC&pg=PA182 182–]}} According to this apocryphal text, Jain monks allegedly persecuted the 7th-century [[Shaivite]] child-saint [[Sambandar]] and tried to kill him. When that failed, they challenged him to a philosophical debate. Sambandar defeated the Tamil [[Jainism|Jain]] monks in a series of debates and contests on philosophy, thereby converted a Jain [[Pandyan]] king to Shaivism. The story ended with the [[impalement]] of 8,000 Tamil Jains or Samanars as they were called.<ref name="Amore2010">{{cite book | author = Roy C. Amore | date = 30 October 2010 | title = Developments in Buddhist Thought: Canadian Contributions to Buddhist Studies | publisher = Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press | pages = 69– | isbn = 978-0-88920-701-1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wNHfAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69}}</ref> According to the early version of the legend, the Jains voluntarily impaled themselves in order to fulfill their vow after losing the debate. According to a much later version of the legend found in ''Takkayakapparani'' – a war poem, the newly converted king ordered the Jains to be impaled at Sambandar's instigation. There's no mention of any such story in the numerous Shaivite, Jain and Vaishnavas texts of those times, the first mention occurs four centuries later. The Pandyan king, variously called "[[Koon Pandiyan]]" or "Sundara Pandyan" in the legend is identified with the 7th century ruler [[Arikesari Maravarman]]. 

Scholars question whether this story is a fiction created in the 11th-century, or reflects an actual massacre. This event is not mentioned in few other texts of Sambandar. After Nambiyandar's work, the story appears in many inconsistent versions in various Hindu texts. The Jain sources do not mention the legend.

== The legend ==
Sambandar, sometimes referred to Thirugnana Sambandar or Campantar or Ñāṉacampantar, was a child prodigy and poet-saint of Shaivism who lived in early 7th-century.<ref name="Dehejia 1987 pp. 53–61"/> According to early Tamil legends and literature, he began composing hymns as soon as he started speaking as a baby and who mastered the Vedas by age three. His gifts were attributed to being breastfed by the Shakti goddess [[Parvathi|Umadevi]].{{sfn|Peterson|1989|pp=19–21}} As a child poet-saint, he attracted throngs of audiences, travelled through Tamil lands to Shiva temples accompanied by musician Tirunilakantayalppanar, composing melodious hymns in complex meters and rhythms.{{sfn|Peterson|1989|pp=19–21}} His career lasted about 12 years and he died at age 16.<ref name="Dehejia 1987 pp. 53–61">{{cite journal | last=Dehejia | first=Vidya | title=Sambandar: a Child-Saint of South India | journal=South Asian Studies | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=3 | issue=1 | year=1987 | doi=10.1080/02666030.1987.9628355 | pages=53–61}}</ref>

According to Tamil texts and Tevaram hymns such as III.345, Jain monks are depicted as one scheming against Sambandar and persecuting him.{{sfn|Peterson|1989|pp=20 with footnote 4}} Yet, Sambandar's own hymns and Tamil texts for the next three centuries make no mention of the impalement of any Jain. Around the end of 11th-century, hagiographical accounts appear with alleged Jain attempts to kill and torture the Shaiva child prodigy Sambandar followed by impalement of the Jains.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}}

In one version, at the request of queen [[Mangayarkkarasiyar]], Sambandar went to [[Madurai]] to counter the Jain monks in [[Koon Pandiyan|her husband's]] court. There the Jain monks allegedly attempt to burn the house he was staying in, but he remains unharmed.{{sfn|Peterson|1989|pp=272–273}}{{sfn|Prentiss|1999|p=43}} Then he is challenged to a debate by the Jain monks with the condition that the losing side convert to the winning side, or commit suicide by impaling themselves to death. Sambandar defeats the Jain monks in debate, the [[Pandya dynasty|Pandya]] king and some Jains convert to Saivism. Other Jain monks die of impalement to honor the terms they made.<ref name="Harman 1992, p. 42">{{harvnb|Harman|1992|pp=42–43}}</ref>{{sfn|Cort|1998|pp=180–181, Quote: "Needless to say, the king is converted. The Jains have chosen to die if they get defeated. Their chosen death is by impalement on stakes."}} 

According to another version of the legend, the Pandyan ruler, who was a Jain, once suffered from high fever. Sambandar offered to help the king. The Jains monks opposed this, arguing that a Brahmin from the [[Chola dynasty|Chola]] country should not be trusted. They alleged Sambandar to be a part of conspiracy against the Jains, the king, the queen and a minister. The Jains sought to demonstrate Sambandar's incompetence by challenging him to a debate, and declared that they would become his slaves if defeated. Sambandar rejected the condition about slavery, and according to the second version of this legend, proposed that the Jains be impaled if defeated. He defeated the Jains in the ensuing debate, and the Shaivite devotees impaled the defeated Jains. Some Jains converted to Shaivism to escape the impalement.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}}

In the third version, the condition about the losers' impalement was put forward by [[Shiva]] (instead of Sambandar).{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} The fourth version states that, after defeating them in a debate. Sambandar did not want any impalement and urged the Jains to become Shaivites. However, the Jains refused the offer and voluntarily impaled themselves.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}}

;Periya Puranam
The most extensive version of the legend occurs in [[Sekkilar]]'s text ''[[Periya Puranam]]'', composed in the first half of the 12th-century.{{sfn|Cort|1998|p=180}} According to this version, the Jains themselves proposed that they be impaled if defeated by Sambandar.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} The legend goes like this: the Pandyan king had come under the influence of Jain monks living around the hills of Madurai. This perturbed the queen [[Mangayarkkarasiyar|Mangaiarkkarasi]] (a former [[Chola dynasty|Chola]] princess) and the minister [[Kulachirai Nayanar|Kulachirai]], who remained staunch Shaivites. The two invited Sambandar to Madurai to counter the Jain monks. The Jains set fire to Sambandar's dwelling, but Sambandar transferred the fire to the king's body in form of a fever. The Jains unsuccessfully tried to cure the king's fever with [[peacock feather]]s and [[mantra]]s. Sambandar then cured the king by applying [[vibhuti|sacred ash]] to his body and chanting the ''[[Om Namah Shivaya]]'' mantra. The Jains then challenged Sambandar to a series of contests, vowing to kill themselves if defeated. In the fire contest, two manuscripts, containing Jain and Shaivite hymns respectively, were thrown into fire. The Jain manuscript burned, while the Shaivite manuscript remained unscathed. In the water contest, the Jain manuscript was carried away by the river, while the Shaivite manuscript came back to the shore undamaged. Finally, Sambandar miraculously cured the king's [[kyphosis|hunched back]], transforming him into a handsome man. The king converted to Shaivism, and the Jains chose to die by impalement on stakes.{{sfn|Cort|1998|pp=180-181}}

;Takkayakapparani
[[Ottakoothar]]'s ''Takkayakapparani'' – a war poem – portrays Sambandar as an [[avatar|incarnation]] of the war god [[Murugan]] (Skanda) in verses 6.169–220. Composed after the Nampi version, sometime in the second half of the 12th-century, Sambandhar is depicted in ''Takkayakapparani'' as one born on the earth to exterminate the Jains. In this version, Sambandar defeated the Jains in a war-like contest. At the instigation of the child-saint, the Ottakoothar version states that the Pandyan king ordered the Jains to be impaled on stakes. ''Takkayakapparani'' describes this as a "sweet tale" narrated by the goddess [[Sarasvati]] to Murugan's mother [[Parvati]].{{sfn|Cort|1998|p=182}}

The ''Thiruvilayadal Puranam'' similarly states that the king Kunpandyan ordered the killing of 8,000 Jains after his conversion to Shaivism.{{sfn|C. Bhavani|S. Ganeshram|2011|p=160 }}

== Commemorations ==

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

== Historicity ==

Scholars question whether this story is a fiction created in the 11th-century, or reflects an actual massacre.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|pp=127-129}} Although [[Sambandar]] prominently features in the various versions of the legend, his writings do not mention the story.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=127}} Other contemporary writings in [[Tamil language|Tamil]] or other languages do not make mention of the legend. A number of 9th and 10th century Pandyan inscriptions mention the important events from the reigns of the preceding Pandyan kings since the 7th century. However, the alleged massacre of the Jains is not mentioned in any of these inscriptions.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=128}}

The Jain records do not mention the legend.{{sfn|Oliver Freiberger|2006|p=128}}{{sfn|Paul Dundas|2002|p=127}} Even after the alleged massacre, the Jains continued to be concentrated in Madurai during the 8th and the 9th centuries. The Jain authors in Madurai composed several works during this period, including ''Sendan Divakaram'' (a Tamil dictionary of Divakara), ''Neminatham'', ''Vachchamalai'' and two Tamil grammars by Gunavira Pandita. The Jain authors have not accused Shaivites of any massacre.{{sfn|Ashim Kumar Roy|1984|p=111}}

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

;Tamil inscriptions
Champakalakshmi – a scholar of Tamil studies and a historian, in a review of Jain and Hindu epigraphical evidence found over the 19th and 20th-century states that one must consider three evidences to establish the historicity of any alleged Jain-Hindu religious conflict and the alleged impalement of the Jains. These include the literary sources from the relevant period, whether any such events are mentioned in any 7th- to 14th-century inscriptions, and finally whether this can be inferred indirectly from the sudden lack of inscriptions and Jain activity in Tamil region.<ref name=Champakalakshmi/> 

Scholars have dismissed the late literary sources with allegations that Jain monks persecuted Sambandar and other Shaiva saints, as well as the impalement of Jain monks as myth and fiction. There are no inscriptions from the period that makes any mention of either. The third evidence, states Champalakshmi, suggests the reverse. Jains continued to thrive in Tamil Nadu through about the 14th-century, get gifts and land grants from the royals and wealthy patrons and create new bas-reliefs, Jinalaya (temples) and Jaina art in rock. The number and frequency of Jain inscriptions actually ''increased'' over these centuries. This implies prosperity and freedom of movement, something that would be unlikely if the Jain and the Shaiva communities were violently persecuting and systematically destroying each other. Such epigraphic evidence of a thriving Jain culture midst Tamil people is neither isolated nor distant, but found exactly in the regions where the 12th-century literature alleges that Jains tried to kill Shaiva poet-saints and Shaiva devotees impaled the Jain monks.<ref name=Champakalakshmi>R Champakalakshmi (1978), ''Religious conflict in the Tamil Country: A Re-appraisal of Epigraphic Evidence'', Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India, Volume 5, Epigraphical Society of India Mysore, pp. 69-78</ref>

According to Champakalakshmi, the same approach to epigraphical evidence suggests that there must have been some great changes in Tamil region and more broadly South India between the 5th- and 7th-century CE when there is sudden and unexplained absence of any new inscriptions. Prior to this period of silence was a period from which many Tamil Brahmi inscriptions in evolving scripts are found in rocky hills of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Jain and Hindu inscriptions resume and then increase about and after the 7th-century, but in Tamil and Grantha scripts. The literary evidence nevertheless cannot be completely ignored, states Champakalakshmi. At the least, it implies that the two religious traditions were competing for patronage, that there was a concerted attempt to popularize Shaivism and Hindu temples through a mix of spiritual ideas and Purana-style folklore.<ref name=Champakalakshmi/>

;Frescoes in temples
The Pandyan king mentioned in the legend (variously called "Kun Pandya" or "Sundara Pandya"{{sfn|Steven Paul Hopkins|2002|p=81}}) is identified as the 7th century ruler [[Arikesari Maravarman]].{{sfn|Klaus K. Klostermaier|2005|p=176}} Thus, the first mention of the legend dates nearly 500 years after the event supposedly took place. The [[Meenakshi Amman Temple|Meenakshi temple]] frescoes depicting the event were created only in the 17th century, around a thousand years after the incident.{{sfn|Ashim Kumar Roy|1984|p=111}}

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

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

== See also ==

* [[Tamil Jain|Tamil Jains]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===

{{ref begin}}
* {{cite book |author=Ashim Kumar Roy |title=A history of the Jainas |url=http://www.jainworld.com/book/historyofjainism/ch9a.asp |access-date=16 August 2016 |year=1984 |publisher=Gitanjali |chapter=9. History of the Digambaras |oclc=11604851 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223170524/http://www.jainworld.com/book/historyofjainism/ch9a.asp |archive-date=23 February 2018 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |author1=C. Bhavani |author2=S. Ganeshram |title=History of People and Their Environs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crxUQR_qBXYC&pg=PA159 |publisher=Bharathi Puthakalayam |year=2011 |isbn=9789380325910 }}
* {{cite book | first=John E. |last=Cort | title=Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWfnXbVWjKcC&pg=PA181 | access-date=25 July 2013 | year=1998 | publisher=State University of New York Press | isbn=978-0-7914-9985-6 }}
* {{cite book |author=K. A. N. Sastri |author-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjxuAAAAMAAJ |year=1976 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195606867 |oclc=750874057 }}
* {{cite book |author=Klaus K. Klostermaier |author-link=Klaus Klostermaier |chapter="In Every Town, Country and Village my Name Will Be Sung": Hindu Missions in India and Abroad |title=Mixed Messages: Materiality, Textuality, Missions |editor=J. Scott and G. Griffiths |publisher=Springer |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-312-29577-6 }}
* {{cite book |author=Paul Dundas |title=Jains |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ialKAbIyV4C&pg=PA127 |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-26606-2 }}
* {{cite book |author=Oliver Freiberger |title=Asceticism and Its Critics: Historical Accounts and Comparative Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2cbCr7M4SJ8C&pg=PA127 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-1997-1901-3 }}
* {{cite book |author=Steven Paul Hopkins |title=Singing the Body of God: The Hymns of Vedantadesika in Their South Indian Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6teBA7bmFwC&pg=PA81 |year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-802930-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Dorai Rangaswamy |first=M.A. |title=The Religion And Philosophy Of Tevaram, Book I (Volumes 1 and 2) |year=1958| publisher=University of Madras |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.90326/page/n5/mode/2up }}
* {{cite book |last=Dorai Rangaswamy |first=M.A. |title=The Religion And Philosophy Of Tevaram, Book II (Volumes 3 and 4) |year=1959| publisher=University of Madras |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.90325/page/n7/mode/2up }}
* {{cite book |author= R. Champakalakshmi| editor=Meenakshi Khanna |title=Cultural History of Medieval India |year=2007 |publisher=Social Science Press |location=Delhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbKv3zyIFD8C |isbn=978-81-87358-30-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Peterson |first=Indira Viswanathan |author-link=Indira Viswanathan Peterson |year=1989 |title=Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691067674 |jstor=j.ctt7zvqbj |oclc=884013180}}
*{{cite journal|author=B.G.L. Swamy|year= 1975|title=The Date of the Tevaram Trio: An Analysis and Reappraisal|journal= Bulletin of the Institute of Traditional Cultures|publisher=University of Madras| pages= 119–179}}
*{{cite book|author=G. Vanmikanathan|editor=N. Mahalingam|title=Periya Puranam: A Tamil Classic on the Great Saiva Saints of South India by Sekkizhar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffIMGgAACAAJ|year=1985|isbn=978-81-7823-148-8}}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Indian legends]]