Talk:Vaigai River
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[edit] A few questions
Being from Madurai, I feel guilty for not having initiated this article. I've a few questions.
- I've always heard that a "unique" feature about Vaigai is that it doesn't drain into the sea but into a tank built by some ruler of Ramanathapuram (which is the shore town near Palk Strait). In fact, there is an interesting legend around this. Vaigai, being dear to Madurai -the seat of third Sangam and hence important for Tamil, was angered that the sea "swallowed" Lemuria - the mythical continent where the first two Tamil Sangams happened. Hence it "chose" not to drain into the sea!
I don't have the following book, but have heard that it talks about this subject. (Ramaswamy, Sumathi (2004). The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24032-4.)
- With due respect to Ayyavazhi as a religion, I should say that I've never heard of it until now inspite of me being resident in Tamil Nadu nearly all of my 25 years. In this light, should that be mentioned at all in the article. In case we should have it, we can have a few other legends around Vaigai given below.
- Manickavasagar wrote a verse in praise of Lord Shiva and left it in the river Vaigai and it moved against the flow to reach a place now called Thiruvedagam (close to the place my parents live). There is a big temple there. (I should take some photographs when I buy a digital camera) He did this on a challenge posed by Samanars or Tamil Jains to prove Saivism's superiority.
- KaLLazhagar, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and brother of Parvati, was angered that Lord Shiva married her (she was born on earth as Meenakshi) in Madurai even before he could arrive there. So, in anger, he entered the River Vaigai (I don't know the reason). This day is still celeberated around August-September every year by taking an idol of him on a silver (?) horse to the river. This is one of the biggest events in Madurai. There's another atheistic twist to this event. That says that Madurai suffered a severe economic slump during some Pandya King's reign and he introduced this festival to induce activity (a number of people from many neighbouring districts attend this festival till date).
-- Sundar \talk \contribs 04:38, August 19, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] not NPOV
"Vaigai gets major feed from the Periyar dam in Kumuli in Kerala. As the Keral government is refusing to increase the storage level, Vaigai river ends up dry very often. The water never reaches Madurai, let alone flowing into places past Madurai."
It is true that at present vagai gets major feed from Periyar Dam but the stateement that vagai is dry because the of Kerala's objection to the increase dam height is unfounded.First of all periyar River(and hence the dam) not part of Vagai river system(hydrological sense).There is a dam in Athoor(vagai Dam) whoch give water supply to madurai and Dindigul). Vaigai used to flow(atleast seasonally) before the construction of these dams. I am not sure even if the storage level at Mullaperiyar is increased there would be flow in Vagai(as the demand for water supply and Irigation would have increased that many fold)...Hence i think the above statement has to be removed or rewitten as it it does not have a NPOV. thanks activevoid (talk) 07:51, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
