I visited Thiruvellarai,about fifteen kilometres from Srirangam,Tamil Nadu.
Srirangam is the second Divya Kshetram,Sacred Dwelling Place of Lord Vishnu,the first being Vaikuntam,the Celestial Abode of Vishnu.
I was informed by the Archaka of Srirangam that there is a older temple of Vishnu at Thiruvellarai.
On visiting the temple I found three unique features.
I wrote an article on this and on Indhumathi, Lord Rama’s grandmother,a Pandyan Princess.
This temple is reported to have been built by Chola King Sibi.
Sibi is the ancestor of Lord Rama.
He built this temple after vanquishing Asuras,meaning powerful(Asuras are different from Rakshasas)in Dravida Desa.
Sibi ruled from the what is now the North West Province of Pakistan.
The founder of Ikshvaku Dynasty,Ikshvaku,to which Sibi and Rama beling belongs to Dravida Desa,that is South of Vindhya Mountains in India.
Manu,after whom the term ,’Man’ is coined is the first Human and he was from the Dravida Desa.
After a Tsunami,Ikshvaku left for Ayodhya in North India,founded Ikshvaku Dynasty from Ayodhya.
The Kings of South India,Chera,Chola belong to Surya Vamsa,the Solar Dynasty of Ikshvaku.
Some of these Kings belong to Lunar Dynasty,Chandra Vamsa.
Now,after visiting Thiruvellarai, I had some questions.
1.If Ikshvaku founded the Dynasty from Ayodhya,
how is it that Tamil Kings declare that they are from Solar Dynasty?
2.If these Kings ruled from South ,how come that Sibi ruled from the North of India,where his second capital was?
Answer lies with Ila, daughter of Manu and sister of Ikshvaku.
Ila,after whom the term Ezham,the Tamil word denoting Tamil land is derived from,is the founder of the Lunar dynasty.
She was married to Budha,son of Chandra.
Hence her offsprings belong to Lunar Dynasty.
The Ailas of the world descended from Ila.
Ila was given a portion of Dravida Desa,Lanka.
Lanka is from Ila.
There is controversy over the fact whether the present Lanka is the Lanka mentioned in the Ramayana.
Please refer my post on Lanka is not Ramayana Lanka.
Ila was birn a woman,became a Man,then again woman to be finally Man for a month and woman the next month.
Those who question this transformation may note people today change genders after Surgical Procedure.
During the period when Ila was a Man,he married and had children.
Children through this lineage belong to Lunar Dynasty and they ruled the Matsya Kingdom from North India.
Matsya in Sanskrit means Fish.
Manu the first Man was advised by A Fish of the impending Tsunami.
Hence Manu moved out , meditated in Madagascar, while his son Ikshvaku moved to Ayodhya.
His daughter Ila moved to South after the Tsunami
It is curious to note that the Pandya Kings’ Emblem is Fish.
Another reference to Manu and Matsya.
Either the offspring of Ila moved to Matsya desa at the same time when Ikshvaku moved to North,while Ila moved to South or
Ila’s children moved to north later,but before Lird Rama.
This cound account for Sibi having had a second capital in North India.
Matsya Kingdom.
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Matsya Kingdom was probably founded by fishermen community who later attained kingship. The Sanskrit word Matsya means fish. Satyavati, the wife of Kuru king Santanu was from this community. King Virata, a Matsya king, founded the kingdom of Virata. He was the father-in-law of Abhimanyu the son of Arjuna. The epic Mahabharata relates the founder of Matsya kingdom to the ruler of Chedi, viz Uparichara Vasu.An interesting fact is that fishing was the main occupation of the people who lived near river Saraswati. After the Saraswati River dried up, they migrated to river Charmanwati now known as Chambal meaning fish in Dravidian languages. Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, was son of Satyavati who belogned to this fishermen community and yet was a Vedic scholar, thus attesting the origin of Vedas from the Saraswati basin.
Other than the Matsya kingdom to the south of Kuru Kingdom, which falls in the Alwar, Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan, the epic refers to many other (as many as, six other) Matsya kingdoms. The Pandya Kingdom in the extreme south, also bears the icon of a fish on its official banner showing some connection with the Matsya kings. The main Matsyas under Virata had its capital named Viratanagari which is now known as Bairat in Jaipurdistrict of Rajasthan. Upaplavya was another famous city in this kingdom.
References in Mahabharata
Matsya is mentioned in the list of kingdoms of Bharata Varsha (ancient India) at (6,9).
Origin of Matsya Kings
The first Matsya king was mentioned to be the son of a Chediking named Uparichara Vasu. He was a Paurava, meaning a king beloning to the Puru dynasty (1,63). Apart from the five royal sons of this king, he had a son and a daughter born of a women of fisherman community. The male child, in due cource established the Matsya Kingdom and founded the royal dynasty called Matsya Dynasti. The female child lived as a member of fishermen community. Her descendants established as fishermen on the banks of river Yamuna, in the kingdom of Kurus. The famous Kuru king Santanu’s wife Satyavati was from this fishermen community. The author of Mahabharata, vis Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa and the Kuru kings viz Chitrangada and Vichitravirya were the sons of Satyavati. Pandavas and Kauravaswhere the grandsons of Vichitravirya.(1,63).A king named Sahaja ruled the united Chedis and Matsyas. As per Bhima he became cause for the destruction of his own race (5,74).
Source.
http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/matsya
Ila ,Sudhyumna.
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While many versions of the tale exist, Ila is usually described as a daughter or son of Vaivasvata Manu and thus the sibling of Ikshvaku, the founder of the Solar Dynasty. In versions in which Ila is born female, she changes into a male form by divine grace soon after her birth. After mistakenly entering a sacred grove as an adult, Ila is either cursed to change his/her gender every month or cursed to become a woman. As a woman, Ilā married Budha, the god of the planet Mercury and the son of the lunar deity Chandra (Soma), and bore him a son called Pururavas, the father of the Lunar dynasty. After the birth of Pururavas, Ilā is transformed into a man again and fathered three sons.
In the Vedas, Ilā is praised as Idā (Sanskrit: इडा), goddess of speech, and described as mother of Pururavas.
The tale of Ila’s transformations is told in the Puranas as well as the Indian epic poems, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Source.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_(Hinduism)
Ilā married Budha and spent an entire month with him and consummated the marriage. However, Ilā woke one morning as Sudyumna and remembered nothing about the past month. Budha told Ila that his retinue had been killed in a rain of stones and convinced Ila to stay with him for a year. During each month she spent as a woman, Ilā had good time with Budha. During each month as a man, Ila turned to pious ways and performed austerities under the guidance of Budha. In the ninth month, Ilā gave birth to Pururavas, who grew to become the first king of the Lunar dynasty. Then, as per the advice of Budha and Ila’s father Kardama, Ila pleased Shiva with a horse sacrifice and Shiva restored Ila’s masculinity permanently.
Another legend from the Vishnu Purana credits Vishnu of restoring Ilā’s manhood as Sudyumma.The Bhagavata Purana et al. texts tell that after Pururavas’s birth, the nine brothers of Ila – by horse sacrifice – or the sage Vasistha – the family priest of Ila – pleased Shiva to compel him to give the boon of alternate month manhood to Ila, turning him into a Kimpurusha. The Linga Purana and the Mahabharatarecord the birth of Pururavas, but do not narrate the end of Ila’s alternating gender condition. In fact, the Mahabharata describes Ilā to be the mother as well as the father of Pururavas.According to another account found in the Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana, Ilā was born female, married Budha, then was transformed into a male called Sudyumna. Sudyumna was then cursed by Parvati and transformed once again into a female, but became a man once again through Shiva’s boon.
Source.
Ramanisblog 