Thiruvarangan Ula — Preservation of Hindu faith
Since the rise of the Independence movement, Indians have been taught about the great deeds of their kings, especially the Hindu kings, who bravely fought the Islamic invaders and the British empire. However, one question has always bothered me. So many countries across the world have lost their native beliefs and faiths to the invading army. Though the Indian kings had fought bravely, they had all been defeated. The country was ruled by Mughals and the British for centuries, and still, Hinduism remains to be the major religion of India.
I rather expected the answer to come from a socio-political perspective. Still, it came from a historical novel, which acted as a small example showcasing the strength of common people. The novel was introduced to be my property owner of the house in which my friends were staying during 2013–2015. He was known for his unnecessary and irrelevant anecdotes to explain a simple situation. While he was discussing how people were greedy then, he started talking about how people used to be unselfish and helped the kings to save the famous Srirangam temple from destruction by Malik Khafur. He said that these events were documented in the book called Rangar Ula (the tour of Rangar (Vishnu)).
From how he explained the story, I imagined Malik Khafur’s army carrying the idol from the temple after breaching the kingdom's defense. Then I thought that he would have tried to carry it with him as a bounty. The process might have been stopped by the local king. So, Malik would have tried to find an escape route from the city while carrying the idol secretly with him, during which process he might have been defeated. Finally, the idol could have been restored after a journey around the city for a week or so. At least, that’s how the owner explained the story to me. Also, I had taken the visual references from the famous Dasavatharam movie by Kamalahaasan, where there was a similar scene. Hence, it seemed to be a story of just another king trying to save his kingdom from the invaders. Hence, I didn’t know that this story would answer my question in the future.
Six years later, when I was watching an interview of a notorious Hindu activist, I noticed him referring to the same incident, “Malik Khafur tried to loot the idol and properties of Sri Rangam, but we had stopped him successfully. However, today’s businessmen are successful in doing the same.” He further explained why non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple premises (because the law says that they have no business there) and explained the temple's architecture. Since I had already read Ponniyin Selvan in the meantime, I was intrigued by the historical and architectural details specified by the activist. So, I looked for Rangar Ula and found out that the actual name of the book was “Thiruvarangan Ula,” and it had four parts.
When I finished reading the first volume, most of the misconceptions about the incident were broken. Firstly, the book was not about Malik Khafur’s invasion but the second invasion, which followed Malik Khafur’s. The preceding history was that Malik Khafur invaded the temple, took the idol, and returned to Delhi. Nobody could stop him. However, a few followers of God had gone to Delhi and retrieved the idol, which was under the custody of Khafur’s assistant, Ulugh Khan. Knowing this, Ulugh Khan’s daughter, who was in love with the idol, followed the group to Srirangam only to be detained by the temple authorities. She laid her life before the temple to prove her unadulterated love for Srirangan. On seeing this, the followers felt guilty and built a shrine for the Islamic girl inside the temple and worshipped her as the wife of the Lord. On knowing the death of her daughter, Ulugh Khan wanted revenge on the temple. This revenge was the history behind the story of the book. So, the book was not about Malik Khafur’s invasion. It was about Ulugh Khan’s invasion. While Malik Khafur wanted an Islamic rule in India, Ulugh Khan’s ambition was only to destroy Srirangam.
The second misconseption was about the rulers of the region. When Malik Khafur invaded the Tamil-speaking kingdoms, some of them surrendered, and others abandoned their kingdoms out of fear. So, none of them were trying to defend Srirangam when Ulugh Khan’s army arrived. It was the people of Srirangam who had put up a tragic fight and sacrificed their life. Hence, the answer to my question. The Hindu faith was not enforced on the people by their rulers. Instead, everyone had their faith individualistically. Individual faith is one of the most important characteristics of the religions that have originated in India. No one is an authority over these religions. Even the ten forms of Vishnus are not the creators of the religion. They were merely the followers of the core of the religion, which is said to be Vedas. However, Vedas do not dictate anything to their followers. More than that, there is no single holy book that every Hindu follows. Every Hindu learns the various aspects of the religious faith and interprets it in their way. This form of individualism allowed the devotees of Srirangam to own their faith and stand up to protect it at their individual level, unforced by any authority. Individual freedom while following a common religion is the reason why Hindus have remained Hindus regardless of who ruled them.
The third on the list is who, how far, and how long the idol was taken away from the temple. When the information about the invaders arrived, the people of Srirangam decided to take the idol away into the forest. While a group of people moved the idol and the ornaments from the temple to a forest, another group stayed back at the temple to distract the invading army from following the first group. This was one of the greatest sacrifices people had made for their faith. They were not commanded by a ruler; there were no trained soldiers defending them; there were no army men even to lead them; they decided to fight back just as the last hope, and they knew what was coming to them. This tragic struggle is the epitome of the extreme measures a free group of believers would take to preserve their faith because they knew that when they lose their faith, they lose their freedom. After that incident, almost all of the south Indian kingdoms were defeated. So, the idol had to shift to various places in Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh to hide and escape from Ulugh Khan’s army, to be restored in Srirangam after almost fifty years. Therefore, it clearly was not a one-week event.
To be fair, my perspective on Indian kingdoms and religions has changed a bit after reading all four parts. The incidents described in the book were tragic and depressing. The sorrow only gets worse until almost the end. It is a misfortune that Indians know more about other countries’ history than their own history. There is no better incident in the world that motivates us to unite for a common cause and never to give up even when all the odds are against us. It took two generations of people’s efforts and half a century of patience to protect and restore a community’s faith. There is no better demonstration to show that time can be one’s best friend or worst enemy, depending on their patience level.
