Miracle report

The Dutch adventure (1648-1653) on Lord Thirusenthil' s 2nd abode -Thiruchendur, Tamilnadu, India

M. Rennel, the French author of A Description, Historical andGeographical of India (published in Berlin, 1785), gives a picture ofthe temple which he says he got from a soldier in the service of theDutch Company. He relates an incident which offers a reasonableexplanation of the Thiruchendur tradition and miracle. "In a sea attack by the Dutch in 1648, the Dutch camped in the ancienttemple and tried their best to destroy it by fire and heavy bombardment.But they only partially succeeded and the high tower defied all theirefforts." As a matter of fact, the capture of the ancient statue of LordThirusenthil was one of the Dutch short lived achievements. The Portuguese were the earliest European traders to land at Thirumalai(1623-1659AD) . The Tamils were eager to have foreign trade relations withthe Portuguese and signed a business agreement in 1639AD. Another business agreement was also signed with the Dutch in 1646 byterms of which the Dutch were allowed to build a fort at the same area.This brought the Dutch into war with the Portuguese. After the war, thePortuguese seized a Dutch boat laden with goods and chase the Dutch outof their fort and destroyed it.
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Later the Dutch sought the aid from their headquarters in Sri Lanka. TheDutch came in 10 boats and landed at Thirumalai. They also seized thePortuguese Church and occupied the ancient Temple of Lord Murugan atThiruchendur and fortified the Temple with guns. The Tamils were sorely distressed and they appealed to Thirumalai Nayak.The Nayak sent a word to the Dutch to vacate the temple. The request wasrejected and the Dutch nevertheless ravaged the country all around itand demanded 40,000 reals as a ransom to quit the place. The amount wasalso pressed for payment but only a small amount could be raised.
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So the Tamils at Thiruchendur gathered an army consisting of 4elephants, 60 horses and 600 men to chase the Dutch out of the temple.The attempt was unsuccessful with the loss of 50 men of the Tamil Army.The people were utterly helpless and sorely tried.**** So the Tamils are defeated and the Dutch carry away the statues ofThirusenthil Muruga and the statue of Siva Nataraja. The Dutch wasdreaming the statues was made of gold. In 1648 the Dutch leftThiruchendur, taking all the temple icons and demanding an enhancedransom of 100,000 reals.
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The popular tradition goes that the Dutch tried to melt the gold statuesbut proved hard. So the Dutch decided to sail back to Sri Lanka with thestatues. On their way back, the sea suddenly grew boisterous and rockedthe ship violently. Unable to control the ship, the Dutch decided tothrow the statues into the sea to save their lives.
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Soon after the Dutch released the statues into the sea, the seaimmediately turned calm. The Dutch were surprised by this miracle.Knowing the statues are gone, the Dutch sailed away.
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In 1653, a local administrator of the Nayaks at Thirunelveli,Vadamalaiyappa Pillaiyyan had a dream. In the dream, Lord ThirusenthilMuruga advised him to find the lost statues under the sea. In the dream he was informed that the icon would be found at the spotwhere a lime fruit would be found floating and the place marked by thecircling overhead of a kite, the bird of Lord Vishnu.
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Acting to the advice conveyed to him in the dream, he put out to sea andfollowed the instructions. Suddenly they found the lime fruit and a birdflying on a spot!
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An so Vadamalaiappa Pillai recovers the original icon exactly asforeseen in his dream. The people rejoice and return the icons to theTemple.
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In 1653, Vadamalaiappa Pillai reinstalled the original icon in thetemple.

received via forwarded e-mail
acknowledgements: n.balasubramanian, arumugam manickam (original sender)

srini