Madurai Veeran

A legend says that he was born to Raja of Kasi Banaras.Varanasi Thulasingam and queen Karpagavalli.Having seen the newborn child who was born as a result of divine intervention, with the umbilical cord wound round around the neck, the King was shocked as this would be a bad omen for the kingdom. As advised by the royal astrologers, the child was placed in a basket an let go in the river.

The child, we received by a childless pair (Chinnaan and Chinni) who were cobblers by profession. They named the child Muthu Kumaran and reared him as their own, fearing the original parents might ask for the child, they left the country of origin and moved southwards and sought refuge in the kingdom of Raja Bommu (Bommulu Raja)under Vijayanagaram they are Rajakambalam Nayakar community . Raja Bommu/Bommannan appointed Chinnan as the Gatekeeper of his palace.

The boy Muthukumaran was sent to a Gurukul to learn the arts and graduated as the best in all. However, fate played a different role. According to tradition, girls, who come of age are placed in a secluded location for a period afterwhich shall only see the face of the man who is destined to marry her. In the case of King Bommannan's Daughter, Bommi, the gate keeper's son Muthu Kumaran turned out to be the person. As he was not know to be of royal birth, this was opposed by the royals and Muthukumaran and Bommi flees southwards.

Muthukumaran and Bommi reaches Madurai, ruled at this time by Thirumalai Nayak, who is immediately taken by the charming young man and appoints him to the Royal Army and also retains him as a close confidante and calls him Veeran (The Valient One).Madurai, in those days was troubled by armed robbery by the Kallar tribe of south. The king orders "Veeran" to quell the menace.

Fate again plays its part here. Veeran, meets with the Royal dansuse, "Vellaiyammal" (The Fair one) and being well trained in all forms of arts and his looks, vellaiyammal is attracted to him and requests him to teach her the Natya Shastra (The tenets of dancing).

The King, who was attracted to Vellaiyammal does not appreciate this development and views this as an affair, and in one occasion, some of his generals, who hated the closeness of Veeran to the King, uses the opportunity to inform the King, that the delay in suppressing the robbers was deliberate as Veeran was in connivance with the robbers themselves. Furious, the king orders a traitor's death to Veeran.

Veeran is taken to the gallows and his alternate limps are chopped off. hearing this, Bommi and Vellaiyammal reaches the gallows to see the severed limps and chastises the King for his injustice. As the legend goes, Veeran, is brought back alive by the virtues of both these women and is vindicated by the presence of Gods. Veeran, thereafter retires to a cave beneath the now known Meenakshiamman Temple (The cave exists even now, though the path is closed for people)

A temple had been erected at the south gate of Meenakshiamman Temple later by Thirumalai Nayak. The Ballads of Madurai Veeran has been a folk tale carried out for many generations through village songs, known in Tamil as Gramiya Padalgal and Traditional Street Theater, known as Therukkoothu.in southern Tamilnadu.