Chinnamanur
Chinnamanur is
a town and a municipality in Theni district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. As of 2011, the
town had a population of 42,305. The town is one of the major trade center in
the district and supports basic needs for more than 1, 00,000 population in and
around the town.
Geography
Chinnamanur is
located at 9°50′N 77°23′E. It has an average elevation of
375 metres (1,230 ft). Chinnamanur town is at a height of 374 m above sea
level. This town was initially called Harikesarinallur and is known for the
Sivagamiamman Temple that is situated on the banks of Mullai River. The town is
also mentioned in the Tamil grammatical work, Tholkappium.
Demographics
According to 2011 census, Chinnamanur had a
population of 42,305 with a sex-ratio of 1,007 females for every 1,000 males,
much above the national average of 929. A total of 4,015 were under the
age of six, constituting 2,120 males and 1,895 females. Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes accounted for 17.08% and .03% of the population
respectively. The average literacy of the town was 75.61%, compared to the
national average of 72.99%. The town had a total of 11545 households.
There were a total
of 16,827 workers, comprising 430 cultivators, 3,840 main agricultural
labourers, 405 in house hold industries, 10,845 other workers, 1,307 marginal
workers, 41 marginal cultivators, 369 marginal agricultural labourers, 87
marginal workers in household industries and 810 other marginal workers.
History
Copper
inscriptions, which are all taken from Chinnamanur in the British period, are
available in London museum. Chinnamanur, stands back to a very historic period
when the king of Madurai, Thiru. Rajasimar came to this land. It is a tradition
in India where Lord Shiva is worshipped by presenting cow's milk on the Shiva
lingam and performing the rituals. King Rajasimeshwaran being no exception had
been performing the same kind of rituals. Once when a milkman was bringing milk
to the king’s place, he was hindered by a root in the ground, which was
irregular in shape, almost like a rock.
The man fell down
spilling all the milk on the root. He continued bringing milk the next day and
the same incident took place. This continued for some days together. The man
planned to chop down the root and ran an axe over it. The moment he stuck it he
found the root bleeding. Immediately after that he was stupefied seeing a long,
swift and a luminous light with great intensity from the sky to the land in the
same place of the root. The milkman ran to the king and told about the incident
which took place in the midway.
The king, a very
pure devotee of Lord Shiva, became exuberant and realized that it is some play
of the almighty and rushed to the place. The king was astonished seeing the
vibrant energy of the lord standing from sky to land and raised his hands above
his head, pleading in the Namaste posture told, "Siva perumane".
"Oh lord, you are so energetic, vibrant, luminous and I am flabbergasted
looking at you. All my power and potentials are underneath your foot. Eshwara,
how can I worship this marvelous, spectacular appearance of yours. Kindly come
down to the level of common people as we always seek your eternal bliss".
By these humble words of the king, Lord Shiva comes down to the same height of
King Rajasimeshwaran in the form of lingam, as worshiped everywhere.
The king becomes so
glad that the Lord himself has accepted his worship and hugs the lingam
tightly. As soon as he hugs the lingam, the love and warmth melts the lingam
and the ornaments worn by the king gets embossed on it. These embossed
ornaments are seen even today. A temple was then constructed by the king with
the lingam as the deity in the middle, named as 'Thiru Poolanandeshwarar
Sivakami Amman temple', Sivakami wife of lord Shiva who is commonly known as
Parvati.
Even today, in the
temple, the lingam is traditionally worshiped with deeba aradanai (tradition of
showing lighted lamp to the idol). The aradhanai shows the reflections of the
embossed ornaments of king Rajasimeshwaran on the lingam. The deity has various
other names like, 'Palkonda naadar' meaning, the lord who asked for milk;
'Alavodu alavanavar' meaning, the lord who came down for the humble request of
a true devotee; ' Tazhuva Kudaindavar' meaning, the lord who was compassionate
to the hug of an honest king and a true devotee.
The deity is also
named after the king as Rajasimeshwarar. This article is published to make many
devotees to seek the bliss of Lord Shiva and also for tourists and travelers
around the world. There are so many other evidences of Shiva in India, among
which Chinnamanur is a very little example.
Culture
Chithirai festival
and Vinayagar Chathurthi are widely celebrated in the town. Car festival is
also organized in the month of April/May every year. Vinayagar Chathurthi is
celebrated for three days with the third being special, involving rally with
108 Vinayagar statues throughout the town and ends up at the Mullai river
bridge in the west end of the town.
There are three big
mosques in the town and the main is Mohammad Nainarsha mosque (paeriya pallivasal),
cinna masjid (cinna pallivasal), and the samikulam pallivasal. Muslims are living
there peacefully. Before 30 years it seems not many of them were educated and
enrolled in the social activities like politics and doing a halal business(as
per the norms of the Islamic rule example Muslims normally won't do finance
business, since it is Haram and not halal). But at present, there are enormous
amount of people of this particular community becomes educated. Almost they are
engineers and working in India and in abroad.
People of this
particular community are Rowthers and they obviously follow the Hanafi Islamic
school of jurisprudence. This Particular community people were living
throughout Chinnamanur particularly in k.k.kulam south Muslim street, and the
people living in vadakku thaeru.and in saamikulam. According to mythology, this
town has been in existence since the King of Madurai, Rajasimeshwaran, arrived
here.
It is believed that
the temple was constructed at a site where the milkman of the king found a
root. The king was informed about the place and he built a temple and named it
as Thiru Poolanandeshwarar Sivakami Amman Temple. A Shiva Lingam is enshrined
in this temple. Chinnamanur is also famous for churches like the Roman Catholic
Church, Bethel Church India and Tamil Nadu Pentecostal Mission.
Schools
There are four
higher secondary schools including two governments aided (K.V.A. Girls Hr. Sec.
School and S.K.A. Boys higher secondary school) and two private running
matriculation schools (G.M.H.S.S. and S.M.H.S.S). There are also many high
schools providing education for students till 10 standards in Tamil as well as
English mediums. There is one Arts and Science College in the Eastern outskirts
of the town. The V.O.C. ITI for technical education is also functioning with
Students from the surrounding areas.
Hospitals
Govt. Hospital is
located in Ponnagar Road with operation theater facilities. Apart from that
there are many private nursing homes and hospitals in the town.