namma mejura

Ever heard of ‘nose cut‘?   It’s an English phrase that was not known to English!  (I checked, it drew a blank).

Well, it’s actually a Tamil phrase with no Tamil words!!  Sounds even more bizzare isn’t it?   It actually refers to giving back an insult (or retort) to a high sounding person.  Well used in Madurai & most parts of Tamilnadu.

Found a reference on ‘nose cut‘ in an unofficial ‘Dictionary of Indian English‘ http://snipurl.com/nosecut [www_vsubhash_com].

So how come such a unique phrase came into use?   It was attributed to the ‘Mysore – Madurai war‘ at the fag end of ‘Thirumalai Naick‘ period, which was finally won by Madurai with vital support from Sethu Nadu (Ramanathapuram).

In this war, the Mysore King ordered to cut the noses of enemies as they advance.  And the Madurai army retaliated in the same way!!   But it certainly was not funny as it sounds.  Read about the full history of the war here http://snipurl.com/nosewar [www_visvacomplex_com] .  It also has an interesting map of south India during 17th Century. (The article was written by Dr.S.Jayabarathi, a renowned scholar on Archeology & Tamil Literature)

The article had interesting points such as Mysore rulers ‘exhort southern rulers by holding back Kaveri waters‘ in 14th – 17th century period.  So River Cauvery’s part in politics have a long history.

Thirumalai Nayak Palace, originally uploaded by carola_vanlimborgh.

There used to be a sound and light show at Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal. But it was degraded (a few non-working lights, noise in speakers etc.) and gradually went out of operation. Efforts are on to revive it again.

Hope it doesn’t turn out as dumb as the earlier one. I’ve hosted an international traveller for a show of previous version (4 years back) and he was thoroughly disappointed.

The remaining one-fourth of Thirumalai Nayakkar’s Palace itself is a magnificent reminder of previous era. It is worth visiting there in the day time. It has also become a preferred cinema shooting location for song sequences.

But if you plan for an evening of Sound & Light show at Mahal, don’t set your hopes high.