MADURA, a town in the southern part of the Peninsula of India, in the Madras Presidency, in hit. 9° 55' 16* N., and long. 78° 9' 44" E. It gives its name to a revenue district, lying between lit. 9° 4' and 10° 44' N., and long. 77° 14' and 79° 20' E., and bounded on the S. by Tinnevelly, Palk's Strait, and the Gulf of Manaar. Madura is on the banks of the Vaiga river. It was the capital of the ancient Pandiyan monarchy, which was overthrown by Muhammadan invaders in the 11th century. Another Hindu dynasty, that of the Naiks of Madura, began about A.D. 1420. Tirtunala reigned from A.D. 1623 to 1660 or 1662, and the public edifices erected by him furnish evidence of his wealth and magnificence. The Naik dynasty ceased to rule in the middle of the 18th century, but so late as 1820 a great-grandson of Bhangaru, the last Naik, visited Madras from Vellikurchi, seeking pecuniary assistance from the Government. After the dynasty was set aside, the Madura district witnessed for years the con tests for dominion, in which Chanda Sahib, Muhammad Ali, Muzaffar Jung, Muhammad Yusuf, Polygars, and the British were engaged ; but it was finally, in 1801, placed under British rule.
In the legends of the south of India, Kula Sakara is said to have founded Madura city, and the story is abundantly illustrated in the sculptures of Tirumala Nayak's choultry, and in other buildings there. „ Seventy-three kings are said to have reigned prior to the accession of the Naik dynasty. Extant legends connect the city with fables about Agastiya, for it was the great seat of Tamil learning, and was famed for its Sangattar or College Council, with which the names of Agastiya and his 12 pupils are associated. Their names are Tholcapyar or Tiranathumagini, Athan kotasan, Thuralingam, Kiikip Nattathan, Viiminan, Vyapican, Vaypyan, Panarnbaran, Kalarambau, Sembootsay, and Avinayan. The three works published by them were the Paragatliyam, Sittagathyatu, and Tholmppyam. Madura has been both the political and religions capital of the extreme south. The Madura College exercised as great an authority over Tamil literature as the Academy of Paris in its palmy days in France. At the first institution of the Madura Sangattar, it would appear that some dispute arose immedi ately between the professors and the Saiva priests, connected not impossibly with that contention for pre-eminence of knowledge which has ever pre vailed in the Tamil countries.
Madura had formed the southern part of the Regnum Pandionis of Ptolemy, the l'andi Man dalam of the Indians, and its capital, the Madura of Ptolemy, was the royal residence of the ancient monarchs about the beginning of the Christian era.
Pandiya, the Pandion or Oi Pandiones of the Greeks, was the titular name of the dynasty of Madura, and the race were styled Pandyi, Pandiya; the king, the Pandyan or Pandiya Deva. Two embassies were Bent by the Pandiyan king to Augustus, the first of which he received at Tar ragona ; the second is mentioned by Strabo. The
friendship of the Romans was sought by only one other Hindu prince, 0 Kerobothros, the king of Chera or Kerala, who was also a Dravidian.
At the beginning of the Christian era, Pandiya territory appears to have embraced all the Pen insula south of the Cauvery. It was about the 2d century that the ruler, Vainsa Sekhara, founded a college at Madura, with a council or sangattar of 48 professors. The college was broken up between the 6th and 9th centuries. About the 11th century the town of Madura was destroyed by fire, the king and all his family perished, and the Pandiya dynasty was ended. This was followed by a long period of anarchy, till the Naiks became dominant in the 15th century. Their power culminated during the reign of Tirumala, and the dynasty allowed Christian missionaries, Robert de Nobilibus, De Britto, and others, to labour among the people. The great Hindu temple forms a parallelogram 847 feet long from north to south, by 744 feet broad, with 9 gopuras, one of which is 152 feet high. The principal structure is the Sahasra-stambha-mantapam or Hall of One Thousand Pillars (the actual number being 997), which was built by Arya Nayaga Mudali, the general and minister of Visivanath, the founder of the Naik dynasty. The whole is profusely ornamented both with sculptures and paintings. Several of the great buildings of Madura city are associated with the name of Tirumala. The palace is the most perfect relic of secular architecture in the Madras Presidency.
The Vellalar are the most numerous and the most respected class of agriculturists. They speak a pure Tamil dialect. The Maravar chiefly inhabit the two zamindari estates bordering the sea-coast. Their hereditary chiefs are the rajas of Ramnad and Siva-ganga. They were a martial race, and more than once rose against British authority. They bury their dead, and allow the re-marriage of widows. The Kallar are predatory, with headquarters in the Tributary State of Puducottah.
The Pulney Hills, called Varaha or Pig mountains, project across the district for about 54 miles. Their highest peaks attain an elevation of more than 8000 feet above sea-level. On this plateau a sanatorium for Europeans has been established at Kodaikanal, and coffee-planting is rapidly extending. The precipitous fortress of Dindigul, and the Elephant Rock, the Cow Hill, and tho sacred Skandatnalia, are in the neighbourhood of Madura town.
In Tiunevelly and Madura are valuable marbles. In Madura was a dangerous sport called jalicut. It consisted in making a bull infuriated, and then letting him loose, with cloths or money tied to his horns, which became the property of any person who could succeed in removing them. Since the year 1855 a prohibition existed against the sport being indulged in, and in 1859 certain village servants were dismissed for permitting it within the limits of their jurisdiction.—Orme, Friend of India ; Tennent's Hindustan, ii. p. 7 ; Caldwell's Grammar.