Arimalam / Arimazham Village in Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu, India by Dr.V.Ct.Solaiyappan

Arimalam, also spelt as ‘Arimazham’ is a fairly big village about 18 k.m away from Pudukkottai  on the Thenipatti-Eambal route. It spreads over an area of more than 6 square kilo metres with a population of more than 10000 people. Once It was a town panchayat. Some ten years ago, it was downgraded to a panchayat as part of a move undertaken by the Tamilnadu government to reorganize local bodies for some reason.

The village is situated on the banks of the river ‘Vellaru’ which has its origin from the ‘Kavinattuk kanmaai’ near Pudukkottai and flows into the Bay of Bengal near Manalmelkudi.  Its dry bed is overgrown with weeds now. The bore wells dug in it is the only source of water supply to Arimazham now. ’Vellaaru’ formed the natural boundary between the ancient Chola and Paandiya kingdoms of Tamilnadu.

On the western outskirts is a dry forest of thorny bushes and thickets which spreads over an area of more than eight square kilo meters.The forest was once home for a wide variety of wild plants, rare herbs, birds and animals like parrots, peacocks, ground dwelling birds, deer, hares wild boar, monkeys, wild cats etc. But the government put an end to this bio-diversity  by  planting eucalyptus trees all over the forest some 40 years ago, destroying all the animals and plants at one stroke and thereby played havoc with our water reservoirs which were fed by the copious rains in the forests during the rainy season. All the tanks and wells in the village are now dry throughout the year. The ‘Theppakkulam’ on the eastern most part of the village where  the ‘theppath thiruvizha’ (Float Festival) was celebrated on the tenth day of the Shiva temple festival remains dry throughout the year and so is the adjoining ‘Sinnaporkudan’ which used to quench the thirst of the entire village. If only the government realizes its folly, and get the better of its greed and restores it to its old glory by cutting down the eucalyptus trees and by allowing the forest to restore itself.

The village is known for its numerous temples. Siva Temple,which is more than 100 years old, forms the nucleus of the village. There is a Perumal Temple which is now under renovation and a Mariamman koil near the market.(‘Maariamman’ and   ‘maha(a)maayi refer to the same deity. ‘Mahaamaayi is the name of Buddha’s mother, So it is actually a Buddhist Temple dedicated to Buddha’s mother). Very close to them is the ‘Saathappaiah Temple’ which, most probably, is another Buddhist  temple dedicated to Buddha who is called ‘saathappan’ in Tamil. The Saathappaiah Temple is surrounded by a small tank named ‘Muththaandi Kanmai’ which could be a corruptiion of Buddha Aandi kanmai.Then there are numerous other temples like Ayyanaar temple, subramaniyar temple, vinayakar temple. As a result there are numerous temple festivals celebrated throughout the year.

The village has a Higher Secondary School (co-educational) which was established even during the British Raj, a high school for girls which has been upgraded as Higher Secondary School a few years ago and two elementary schools. Its literacy rate is higher than the national average.

Arimazham is the headquarters of Arimazham Panchayat union. It has a few other government offices and a branch of Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Pudukkottai Central Co-operative Bank. There is also a government hospital.

Arimazham has been a part of the Thirumayam Assembly Constituency and Sivaganga Parliamentary Constituency. Both these constituencies had been ministerial constituencies for the most part of their existence. Arimazham has the most number of voters in the Thirumayam Constituency, apart from Ponnamaravathy. Then again, Ponnamaravathy  comprises three villages-ponnamaravathy, Puduppatti and valaiyapatti.

History of Arimalam:

Arimazham has a place in the history of Tamilnadu. In his book ‘Chera Mannar Varalaaru’, Avvai Duraisaami Pillai, a Tamil historian, records that there was a battle fought between a Chera king and a chieftain at Uraththoor and Arumanavaayil which is now called ‘Arimazham.’(The book is available in the public library at Arimazham). 


In my view , 'Arimalam is a corruption of'Aramalam' (Aram+alam -'aram' refers to the (Buddhist) Dharmam and 'Alam' means  'place'.Ex:uppu  alam) Arimalam must have once been a flourishing Buddhist village.Apart from the MaariammanTemple, Saaththappaiah Temple,and Ayyanaar Temples in and around Arimalam there are two more temples which are testimony to its Buddhist past: Vilanki Amman Temple which has a Bhodhi Tree (Arasa Maram)and a statue of Muththaiyan(Bhuddhaiyan) and Muthu Karuppar in the praharam and the other one is Muthu Bala Udaiyaar koil opposite the Panchayat Union Office.which is popularly known as 'Baladaiyaar Paththai'

Another interesting piece of historical information culled from the book is about a small temple called ‘Siramuttaa kali temple’ near the market. It is not actually a kali temple. There is no female deity there. It is actually a ‘pallippadai’. ‘Siramutta’ is a corruption of ‘Siraimeettaan’, a title bestowed upon a war hero who fought bravely for his king in ancient Tamilnadu. It is an ancient custom in Tamilnadu to erect a ‘nadukal’ (hero stone) in honour of war heroes who laid down their lives defending their king and their country and such places very often turn into places of worship in the course of time. (Another such title is ‘Maram adakki’,bestowed by kings on someone who was a great and fearless fighter and 'Aranthaangi' a righteous man and a great benefactor of mankind.There is a village by name ‘Maram adakki’ near Arimalam and there is a town named 'Aranthaangi' near the village.).

There is another interesting historical fact about Arimazham. There is  ‘Sundaraswami Koil’ near the market.The shrine is actually the ‘samaathi’ of Kodaka Nallur Sundara Swamikal who lived at Arimazham towards the end of his life and attained ’samaathi’ here. Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai (the author of ‘Manonmaniam’ and the ‘Thamizhth Thaai Vaazhththu’) was Sundara Swamigal’s disciple.

Arimazham was once a flourishing village. It, being a Chettinadu village, has many big  houses built with the money earned by Chettiars from their businesses in Burma, Malaysia, Saigon etc But it fell on evil days after the British left the region. Some very magnificent buildings were sold off for their timber value and laid down in the 50’s and 60’s which is no doubt a great loss. But there is a revival of sort now. New modern houses are springing up of late. They are built by all communities which is a welcome change but there is also a negative aspect to this development: all the open grounds where the children used to play have been laid out as housing plots. But then, children don’t play in the open anymore as the parents of today look upon games as a wasteful activity. So no one feels the loss.(But the real loss, in my view, is this: The whole village used to celebrate Pongal together in the past. The function was organized by the ‘Naattaars’ of the village and all the communities participated. There was ‘Manchi virattu’ and a kind of community feeding in which bags of rice were cooked in the open on the open ground adjoining the ‘Paaladaiyar Paththai’ (perhaps another shrine dedicated to Buddha) and mixed with banana fruit and sugarcane and made into a big ball and people used to make obeisance to the deity and receive the ball of rice from the poojaari and eat it with relish. As far as I know, the festival, which, in my view, is an opportunity for the members of the otherwise fragmented society to socialize, is not held any more).

I know that the changes are inevitable though they are not always for the better. I cannot help getting nostalgic about my native village which offered me so much scope for enjoyment as a boy.  Gone is the pristine forest where we, as village boys, used to roam about and collect the forest delicacies like ‘palaippazham’. ‘Soorappazham’ and ‘kilampzham’ during the holidays  and the number of farm wells, lakes and tanks where we used to splash about for hours during the hot summer days, unmindful of all the scolding from our parents for coming late for lunch. I am sure many of my contemporaries from the village feel the same way as I do and share my nostalgic memories.

Written by 

Dr.V.CT.Solaiyappan

Arimalam