Maruthur

Maruthur is a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in India. It is surrounded by wetlands and the major occupation of the people here is agriculture, The village is surrounded by Paddy fields,in summer pulses are grown as a relay crop. There are three tanks to irrigate paddy crop. Palayam channel of thamirabharani irrigation system is the feeding channel for these 3 tanks. Thamirabharani river flows on the eastern side of the village.

HISTORY OF MARUTHUR

Thousand years ago once there was a king named Kulasekara Pandian ruled a small territory called Manapadai veedu in Tirunelveli. He had two daughters named as Maruthavalli and Cholavalli.Uoorkattu mannan who ruled a place near Kallidaikurchi wanted to marry both Maruthavalli and Cholavalli. Therefore, he forced Kulasekara was given two choices either to marry his daughters to him,or else his region would be captured.

On hearing the news the princess were shocked ,but they refused to marry Uoorkattu mannan citing the age factor. So Uoorkattu mannan planned to kidnap both the princess.When the princesses came to know about the plan, they decided to commit suicide,by drowning themselves in the river Thamirabharani. By god’s grace, both of the princesses were changed as lemons and they reached the riverbanks of the then so called Maruthur.

It was night and kavirayar, a poet by profession used to meditate on the riverbanks of maruthur. He used to take bath on the river before he starts his meditation. On that day when he took bath, he took the lemons accidentally; the lemons were changed into Maruthavalli and Cholavalli.Kavirayar was shocked and he enquired the reason why they became as lemons. Both the girls narrated the whole story.

Kavirayar was amazed on seeing beautiful girls like Maruthavalli and Cholavalli.He expressed his desire to marry both of them. On hearing the desire of Kavirayar, they were shocked and to escape from him they told him that if Kavirayar would build a dam across the river Thamiraparani before the sunrise then they would marry him.

He readily accepted the condition, and he began to sing a song. The rocks and stones started rolling from the nearby vallanadu mountain and fell into the river and formed a dam. The whole dam was constructed before the sun rise. On seeing the dam, both maruthavalli cholavalli was astonished and to escape from Kavirayar, Both of them fell onto the dead pot and they commit suicide. Uoorkattu mannan –built a temple in the memory of Maruthavalli and Cholavalli in that place where they were dead and he appointed Kavirayar to take care of the temple.

In the memory of Maruthavalli and since the place consists mainly of Marutham lands, the place came to be known as Maruthur

Adi-Marutheeswar and Navaneetha krishnan termples

At the centre of Maruthur the Adi-Marutheeswar and Vishalakshi temple was built by Uoorkattu pandian.The temple was renovated in 1969 by P.Chithirai pandian fondly called as Chairman by the people,who was the chairman of Palayamkottai Union at that time. In addition to this the Navaneetha krishnan temple is also located in the village and is visited frequently by peoples from the nearby areas.

At present, Maruthur has 4 ponds, 1,007 acres (4.08 km²) agricultural land. The village library is going to be built shortly from the fund given by C.Rama Subramanian who is the panchayat president of Maruthur and also the brother's son of the former Chairman P.Chithirai pandian.Following his uncle's footsteps ,he is helping the people of that locality for the past 10 years.