Maruthur
Maruthur is a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in India. It is surrounded by wetlands and the major occupation of the people here is agriculture. The village is surrounded by paddy fields. In the summer pulses are grown as a relay crop. There are three tanks to irrigate the paddy crop. Palayam channel of Thamirabharani irrigation system is the feeding channel for these tanks. Thamirabharani river flows on the eastern side of the village.
History
A thousand years agothere was a king named Kulasekara Pandian, who ruled a small territory called Manapadai veedu in Tirunelveli. He had two daughters named Maruthavalli and Cholavalli. Uoorkattu mannan, who ruled a place near Kallidaikurchi, wanted to marry both Maruthavalli and Cholavalli. Therefore, he forced Kulasekara to choose either to allow Uoorkattu to marry his daughters or his region would be captured.
On hearing the news, the princess were shocked, but they refused to marry Uoorkattu mannan, citing the age factor. So Uoorkattu mannan planned to kidnap both of the princesses. When the princesses came to know about the plan, they decided to commit suicide by drowning themselves in the river Thamirabharani. By god’s grace, both of the princesses were changed to lemons and they reached the riverbanks of the then so called Maruthur.
It was night and Kavirayar, a poet by profession, used to meditate on the riverbanks of Maruthur. He used to take a bath in the river before he started his meditation. On that day when he took a bath, he took the lemons accidentally; the lemons were changed into Maruthavalli and Cholavalli. Kavirayar was shocked and he asked why they had become lemons. Both girls narrated the story.
Kavirayar was amazed byseeing beautiful girls like Maruthavalli and Cholavalli. He expressed his desire to marry both of them. On hearing the desire of Kavirayar, they were shocked. To escape from him they told him that if Kavirayar would build a dam across the river Thamiraparani before the sunrise then they would marry him.
He readily accepted the condition, and began to sing a song. The rocks and stones started rolling from the nearby Vallanadu mountain and fell into the river and formed a dam. The whole dam was constructed before the sun rise. On seeing the dam, both Maruthavalli Cholavalli was astonished and to escape from Kavirayar, both of them fell onto the dead pot and they committed suicide. Uoorkattu Mannan built a temple in the memory of Maruthavalli and Cholavalli in that place where they were dead and he appointed Kavirayar to take care of the temple.
In the memory of Maruthavalli and since the place consists mainly of Marutham lands, the place came to be known as Maruthur.
Adi-Marutheeswar and Navaneetha krishnan temples
At the centre of Maruthur the Adi-Marutheeswar and Vishalakshi temple were built by Uoorkattu pandian. The temple was renovated in 1969 by P. Chithirai pandian fondly called as "Chairman" by the people, who was the chairman of Palayamkottai Union at that time. In addition to this the Navaneetha krishnan temple is also located in the village and is visited frequently by peoples from the nearby areas.
At present, Maruthur has four ponds, and 1,007 acres (4.08 km2) of agricultural land.