Islamisation of Agraharams in Tamil Nadu

Agraharams in Tamil Nadu are increasingly turning Islamic at an alarming pace.  Agraharams are centuries-old ancient traditional Brahmin settlements in villages. It consists of row houses flanking both sides of a road with its own Temple and all activities of the residents based on the Temple ecosystem. The Agraharam row houses, also known as Chaturvedimangalams are very well planned, spacious, and uniquely built structures to suit the Dharmic lifestyle of the Brahmanas.

Agraharams incorporated a way of life centred around temples and religion and was spread all over South India. When we toured Tanjore, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Karaikal districts, we were shocked by the scenes we saw in the Agraharams.

The temples in Agraharam now look like dilapidated halls. There are women wearing burqas and bearded men wearing skullcaps and Lungi populating the Agraharams today.

Agraharams in important cities like Sirkazhi, Mayiladuthurai, Kumbakonam, Nagore and Thiruvarur have become Islamic. In the Tanjore region, Agraharam at Chakrapalli near Ayyampettai on the Tanjore-Kumbakonam Highway has now been converted into Hajiyar Street and Qaide Millat Street.

Only the 1500 year old Chakravakeswarar Temple remains in the Agraharam. Non-Muslims are not be able to walk in these areas after 5 pm due to harassment and fear.

There are signs of huge agraharams in Rajagiri near the Chakra school. In other towns only temples remain in Agraharam. But here even the Temple has vanished. The signboards of Jinnah Street, Qaid e Millat Street and Hajiyar Street are shining brightly in the Agraharam streets.

Hindus had left Agraharam many years ago as informed by some of the locals whom we spoke to. It is said that the Muslims demolished the Shiva temple here and built a mosque.

Agraharams have changed drastically at Kodikkalpalaiyam and Adiyakkamangalam near Thiruvarur. The mosques here have the largest ponds of all. These ponds are a testimony to the fact that there was once a Temple here. Atiyakkamangalam has a huge mosque next to the pond known as the Papara Pond. The place was an Agraharam earlier. A construction worker in Adiyakkamangalam told us that the pond used by the Agrahara Hindus was the Paparak pond.

The situation is dire in Nidur near Mayiladuthurai. The Muslims have bought all the houses here in Agraharam. The Perumal Temple in front of Agraharam is in ruins. The Perumal Temple Pond is now called as the Madrasa Pond by the Muslims.

There is a huge pond directly opposite the Perumal Temple. The pond belongs to the Viswanathar Temple in the Isaniya corner of Agraharam. The large Peepal tree was located in the heart of the Viswanathar temple. The Temple was demolished and turned into a huge rubble of stones. The roots of the peepal tree now stand like pillars on either side of the sanctum sanctorum. It is not known where the precious idols in this temple went. Now the temple is in the custody of a Muslim.

How did Agraharams become Muslim dominated? We asked this question to some surviving elders in Agraharam. We were told that first, Muslims buy a house in Agraharam at a high price. Then the goat is slaughtered at the door of the house. Then fish is washed and poured into the house next door. Agrahara women naturally panic with this behaviour being strict vegetarians forcing the Brahmin families to move out.

During this transition period, the Dravidian party was influential in the delta districts and the Muslims joined hands with the anti-Brahmin Dravidianists and committed many atrocities on the community.The Hindus, who could not bear this combined torture, lamented that they were pressurised to sell their houses to the Muslims due to inhospitable conditions in the Agraharam and settled in other parts of the country.

“Is anyone coming now to see the house where their ancestors lived?”, we asked someone in Nidur. We were told that many new generation of Brahmins do come back to visit the place but are unable to find the house where their ancestors lived. Some of them who did manage to locate their ancestral home are left with the anguish of seeing Muslims living there.

Recently someone from Mumbai was sitting in this pond and crying when he saw that the character of the Agraharamin Nidur has turned entirely Islamic. His eyes swelled with tears. It is very painful to see Agraharams becoming mini Arabia and once a place reverbrating with the chant of vedas and mantras is now filled with the sound of blaring Azan from loudspeakers.

Hindus lost huge chunks of land in partition for exclusive Muslim country in 1947, but the unsatiable Islamic jihad footprint is growing and devouring all our traditional spaces, be it in Kashmir or Tamil Nadu or Kerala or West Bengal. Agraharams- the abode of Brahmins, in Tamil Nadu is the latest victim of Land Jihad which no mainstream media will write about nor would any leftist historian bother to record it, but they will fill up reems about mythical “Brahminical Oppression”.

Edited by Gayatri N.

Courtesy: BharatVoice