Madurai vaigai river
The Vaigai is a river in Madurai, Tamil Nadu state of southern India. It originate in the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range, and flows northeast through the Kambam Valley, which lies between the Palni Hills to the north and the Varushanad Hills to the south. The Vattaparai Falls are located on this river. As it rounds the eastern corner of the Varushanad Hills, the river turns southeast, running through the district of Pandya Nadu. Madurai, the largest city in the Pandya Nadu region and its ancient capital, lies on the Vaigai. The river empties into the Palk Strait in Ramanathapuram District.
The Vaigai is 258 kilometres (160 mi) long, with a drainage basin 7,031 square kilometres (2,715 sq mi) large.
History of Vaigai River
The following story is told about the birth of the river Vaigai. Meenakshi, the daughter of a Pandyan king, was a personification of Parvati. From a very young age, she made up her mind to marry Lord Shiva and none else. Her family was at first against this but finally consented to her wish and arranged the wedding. Sundareswara (Siva), being an austere, came to the wedding without any family or relatives accompanying him. Disappointed at this, the Pandyan king angrily showed Siva the huge amount of food prepared for the bridegroom’s relatives. Siva pointed to a friend he had brought with him saying ‘He will eat all the food that you’ve made’. This friend was a Rakshasa named Kundodhara. After Kundodhara finished all the food that was prepared, He became very thirsty and started asking for water. All the wells and canals in Madurai were not sufficient to quench his thirst. Then, Siva asked Kundodhara to put his hand out and opened a small part of his hair lock and Ganga began to flow into his hand. After quench his thirst, the rest of the waters began flowing in Madurai as the Vaigai river. Vaigai means ‘put your hand out’ in Tamil.
Madurai has seen many ups and downs for centuries, with change of rulers. So also Vaigai River, which was once upon a time flowing full, when the people of Madurai establish the river very useful for various purposes irrigation; bathing; drinking and so on. But as of today, what you see is only a frame of a river with sands and patch of stagnated water, used by washer-men to wash clothes. Tamilnadu built the Vaigai Dam, across the Vaigai River to feed irrigation waters to many areas like Theni, Kambam etc., which are on the upper portion of the River than Madurai City. This is also one more reason why Vaigai River, which flows in the centre of present Madurai City, has gone dry.
