KALAPADARI SATTANUR NANGAI

Sattanur Nagai is the Goddess of Nangavaram, at present known in the name Sattayi Amman. Nangavaram is a hamlet in Karur district lying adjacent to Thiruchirappalli district, enroute of Thiruchirappalli-Karur and about twenty five kilometers from Thiruchirappalli city. The village is credited with three temples, dedicated to Siva, Vishnu, Kali and the inscriptions in these temples bring to forefront their existence in the Early Chola period. Three inscriptions (SII Vol.VIII 654, 655, 656) are copied from Sattayi Amman temple, gleans its ancientness and also endowment during the Chola period. Besides, it also brings to forefront the existence of a karrali to Pidari (Kali) in the Early Chola period. Among the three inscriptions, one belongs to Parakesari and two are Rajakesari inscriptions, in that twelfth regnal year Rajakesari inscription is damaged and incomplete. The Parakesari inscription carries the epithet Maduraikonda Koparakesari, denoting Parantaka I and confirms the existence of a karrali for Pidari in the Early Chola period.

Both the inscriptions speak about gift of paddy to Sattanur Nangai. The inscription of Mathuraikonda koparakesari speaks about the stipulated yearly interest of twelve kalam of paddy out of the fifty kalam from certain Ulagan. The fourth regnal year inscription of Rajakesari speaks about daily food offerings to Pidariyar. Padasivan, the priest of the temple accepted to offer daily thiruvamuthu prepared out of two nazhi and a ulakku of rice, for the same paddy to be procured from the lands of this village and its neighbourhood. The endowment was under the responsibility of Kali ganattar.

The inscriptions mention the village as a devadana, brahmadeya and a chathurvedimangalam in the Thenkarai. It might be declared as a chathurvedimangalam in honour of the Chola Prince Arinjaya, son of Parantaka I who married the Irukkuvel princess Pudi Aditya Pidari, daughter of Maravan Pudi alias Thennavan Ilango Velar. Being a brahmadeya, it was under the administration of Sabha, while the two inscriptions simply mention as Sabha, the fourth regnal year inscription of Rajakesari mention it as Perunguri Sabha. Perunguri Sabha was one of the administrative body of the brahmadeya villages. Perunguri Sabha is also mentioned in the inscriptions at Maravaneeswaram temple in the same village, Vishamangaleswara temple at Tudaiyur in Thiruchirappalli district, Thiruvagniswara temple at Chittur in Pudukkottai district.

The deity Kala Padari known in the name Sattanur Nangai, fondly referred as ‘எங்கள் பிடாரியார்’ in the inscriptions, besides, eulogized as, the one who destroys all the impediments and gives peace, protection and prosperity to all the living beings in the village. The inscriptions mention the village as Arinjigai chathurvedimangalam but in course of time probably came to be named after the Goddess Sattanur Nangai as Nangaivaram or Nangavaram.