A popular Saivate Pilgrim town, Madurai has a lesser-known Islam episode to its rich history. For a brief period in the 13th Century, the Pandya country was ruled by two brothers – Hazrat Khwaja Syed Sultan Alauddin and Hazrat Khwaja Syed Sultan Shamsuddin – who have been sanctified in the Goripalayam Dargah, one of the landmarks of the city. Along with these great Sultans of Madurai, the history of their journey to the town, their friendship with Medieval Pandya King Koonpandiyan, their services to the people and their story of becoming the rulers was revisited during a heritage walk to the Dargah organised by INTACH.
Madurai; Tamil Nadu; 21/03/2017.A view of the Goripalayam Dargah in Madurai Photo; G. Moorthy.
Crowned with a colossal dome painted in bright white and tall minarets embellished with colourful niches, the Goripalayam Dargah stands out amidst the hotchpotch of shaky old buildings in the neighbourhood. A flight of steps leads to the impressive façade behind which tin-roof tenements with cement flooring provide shelter to people who stay at the dargah for days and months, seeking divine intervention to their problems, mostly ill-health. Bearded babas clad in green roam around with incense and peacock feathers, blessing people, sacred black threads and tabiz are tied around pillars, flocks of pigeons flutter across the minarets and perch on ornate arches, few devotees roll beaded malas between fingers, their lips moving in a murmur of a silent prayer while the louder Qazis call out sacred verses in Arabic from time to time.
A courtyard in the centre with ornamental stone pillars and wooden windows leads into the heart of the dargah where the two Sultans lie in two separate graves next to each other. “The dargah is a fine confluence of Dravidian and Islamic architecture. The multifoil arches are typical of the Islamic buildings while the pillars may resemble the ones in the Pandya period temples,” points out N Sulaiman, Retd, Regional Assistant Director, Department of Art and Culture. A stunted pillar bearing inscriptions elucidates the treaty signed between King Koonpandiyan and the holy brothers. “It is said that Koonpandiyan suffered from an illness which the sultans cured him of. Out of gratitude, the King sold them the place to build a mosque and six villages on the northern bank of the Vaigai in exchange for 14,000 gold coins.”
Later, during the 16th Century Nayak rule when a dispute rose between the villagers and the holy brothers, King Veerappa Nayaka is said to have intervened and recorded the sale deed in the form of an inscription, thus ordering for the treaty to continue, says Sulaiman. “In due course, the brothers with the help of the Delhi Sultanate capture the city of Madurai and become independent Sultans. Acclaimed traveller Ibn Battuta is also said to have visited the court of the Madurai Sultans.”
“The Goripalayam Dargah is a pride of the Temple City. The monument is a symbol of interreligious harmony and reflects the secular nature of Madurai,” says Karthik Manimozhiyan, Co-Conevener, INTACH Madurai.
