Though it is impossible
to discover their past journeys, the district still has a few remnants of
history to tell the present generation on how their ancestors walked to distant
places carrying things bundled up on the head and shoulders. And one such
historical remnant is the Sumaithaangi
Kall.
The Sumaithaangi Kall was a platform set up
with two large pieces of stone erected vertically and their tops bridged by a
horizontal bar. It was set up on the shady roadsides to facilitate the tired travelers
rest their burdens
on it and relax for a little time between their journeys. Philanthropists, who
sought happiness in carrying out several charity works in the society, practised
erecting such Sumaithaangi Kalls on the
roadsides of Coimbatore.
Nonetheless, it is
paining to come across a five and a half- foot tall Sumaithaangi Kall at Naduvacheri near Avinashi, erected in memory
of a woman who died in her pregnancy. Ironically, the travelers could have felt
pity for her, who died even before resting her ‘pleasant’ burden on the earth.
The monument, which contains
the bas relief of the pregnant woman, has an inscription, which reads that it
was erected by one Irulappa Nadar from Karukan kattupudur in 1936. It informs
that he had also set up a Thanneer
Panthal (The place where drinking water and buttermilk are given free of
charge to passers-by during the hot seasons). The inscription has recorded that
Irulappa Nadar also dug up a well near the Sumaithaangi
Kall.
While the purpose of
erecting the Sumaithaangi Kall was to
help travelers rest their burden for a little time during their journeys, the
objective behind setting up of a Thanneer
Panthal is to quench the thirst of not only the travelers, but even the dead!
Showing the truth in
the point, another stone inscription says that a Thanneer Panthal was set up at the spot where the Chozha queen
Veeramadhevi bade farewell to her life by jumping into the funeral pyre of her
husband, King Rajendra Chola I. The inscription also notes that the Thanneerpanthal was set up to quench the
thirst of both the dead king and queen.
Learned from such sources,
it seems that the dead, pregnant woman of Naduvacheri could be quenching her
thirst from a Thanneer Panthal, whose
location is known only to her!
Source: Sumaithaanki – Epigraphist D Sundaram
Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/4053631
