Connecting the Lord's relationship with Kongunadu, Arthanareeswarar Kuravanji, another literary work penned by the 17th-century Kongu woman poet Poongothai, mentions Shiva and Parvathi of Thiruchengode as 'Kongar Desar' and 'Mohanangi' respectively.
Named as Arthanareeswara, Lord Shiva reflects His left part of the body as His consort Parvathi - a symbol for the deity's deep love for His wife and vice versa. As learned from the devotional pieces of literature like Thevaram and Thiruchengottu Puranam, Goddess Parvathi had performed penance in popular holy places like Kedarnath, Kasi, Kanchi, and Thiruvannamalai to obtain a boon to become permanently a part of Her husband. And the people of the Kongu region can take pride that the 'holiest' place, where Parvathi could, at last, obtain the boon was Thiruchengode in the Namakkal district.
Mentioned as' Thirukodimaada Chengundrur' in various pieces of ancient Tamil literature, the town is popular for its Arthanareeswarar Temple, a hill shrine, which inspired many devotional poets to sing paeans on it. Observing an incident from the great Tamil epic Silapathikaram, Arumpatha Urayasiriar, a well-known commentator on the epic, pointed out that its heroine Kannagi came to the hill Neduvel Kundram, which is none other than Thiruchengode, after setting Madurai on fire.
Connecting the Lord's relationship with Kongunadu, Arthanareeswarar Kuravanji, another literary work penned by the 17th-century Kongu woman poet Poongothai, mentions Shiva and Parvathi of Thiruchengode as 'Kongar Desar' and 'Mohanangi' respectively.
Thiruchengode, which means 'a holy, red, mountain peak' looks like a snake when viewed from the plains. Therefore, it got its other names as 'Nagasalam', 'Nagagiri' and 'Uragagiri'.
Celebrated Tamil Bhakti poet Arunagirinathar, known for his devotional poem Thirupugazh, calls Thiruchengode 'Nagasalam' in his literary works Kanthar Anuboothi and Kandhar Alangaram.
However, archaeologists and historians opine that Thiruchengode was a tribal hill shrine once, since the Naga Vazhipadu or worshipping snakes had been a culture with ancient tribes. They contend that even the carving of the sixty-foot 'Aadhisedan' (chief of the serpents) on the hill shrine is nothing but the remnant of the tribal culture.
Besides its popularity in such pieces of literature, the temple at Thiruchengode, turned into a spot of cultural politics after noted Tamil writer Perumal Murugan was hounded by Hindutva and other caste outfits, as he had said in his novel Madhorubhagan that childless women of Thiruchengode once indulged in consensual sex at the Arthanareeswarar Temple to get conceived.
And for the second time, the shrine's name hit the headlines of newspapers after Gokulraj, a Dalit engineering student, was abducted when he was with his collegemate Swathi, a caste Hindu girl, at Sri Arthanareeswarar temple and later allegedly murdered by the gang.
On June 24, 2015, Gokulraj was found dead with his head severed on a railway track near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district.
It is said that popular Shaivite Tamil poet Thirugnana Sambanthar while staying in Thiruchengode during the winter season, witnessed all his apostles fall ill, and sang a hymn in praise of Lord Arthanareeshwara that drove the malady from the entire town.
But seeking justice to destroy a malady called 'caste' in a case has not been as easy as singing hymns. The courts have taken around seven years to render justice to Gokulraj, the deceased victim from a scheduled caste. The court, on March 5, 2022, convicted ten persons including the key accused Yuvaraj, founder of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including Criminal conspiracy, Abduction, and Murder, and Section 3(2)(V) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
It may be noted that Vishnupriya, the Deputy Superintendent of Police from a Dalit community who probed this sensational murder case in Tiruchengode division of Namakkal district, allegedly committed suicide on September 18, 2015 after immense pressure from her higher officials. She was also reportedly under pressure from her high-ups to implicate innocent people in the case.
Senior lawyer Bhavani B. Mohan, who was appointed as a special public prosecutor after a direction sought by Gokulraj's mother Chitra, has got the guilty convicted in the Special Court constituted under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in Madurai.
“Though Swathi, the key witness of the case, confessed to the court under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code and earlier recognized Arun (Accused 2) in the identification parade, later, in the hearing, denied having known him and turned hostile. “Witnesses lie, but the evidence does not” - with this principle, we provided the CCTV footage and other circumstantial pieces of evidence and proved the accused guilty of the crime”, the lawyer explained.
Underlining an order of the Supreme Court in its judgment of a case in 2021, Mohan added:
“The Apex Court felt that investigations are not properly done in similar cases of honour killing. With witnesses turning hostile out of fear, such crimes of heinous nature persist in the society. Hence the Court ordered the legal fraternity to research the cases and discern the truth through the law of evidence” said Mohan.
Despite commending the verdict as historical, the learned lawyer informed that he would go for an appeal against the acquittal of five others in the case.
The malady called ‘caste’ seems to exist in its remnants in this case.