The readers of this blog should be familiar with the chain of hotels that the title refers to. When I was a kid, i wondered at the number of hotels that God Muniyandi owned, with a prefix 'Madurai'. The name of the hotel would read 'Madurai Sri Muniyandi Vilas Non-vegetarian Hotel'. There are many such hotels existing all over Tamilnadu today, standing as a symbol of an unorganised sector in the world of restaurants. Each of the hotel is owned by a different person, belonging to different castes and even religions. I happened to read about the origin of the name for these meat-serving hotels. I bought an interesting Tamil book with the title 'Tamil-mannin Samikal' written by a very young and energetic writer 'Mana' (probably the short form of Manavalan).
The book tracks the Gods of the soils of the Tamil world. In it there is an interesting feature on this 'Muniyandi Vilas Muniyandi'. There is a small town near Madurai with a very religious past in its origin; Tirumangalam. Fourteen kilometer journey to further south would take to a small village 'Vadakampatti'. There lived a man there belonging to the community of 'Naidus'. He migrated from there over to a town near the famous 'Pillayarpatti'; Karaikudi and started a hotel. When a name was required for his venture, he remembered the god of his soil, 'Muniyandi' and with that he prefixed the known place of his nativity, 'Madurai'. Another one of the village of 'Vadakampatti', belonging to the community of 'Rayar' had migrated to the nearby village 'Kallikudi and started another eatery and naming it on his God of the soil and remembering to agglutinate the prefix, 'Madurai', with that. The eateries became popular amongst travellers and settlers from Madurai and other parts of the district of Madurai in various mushrooming satellite cities and each individual with an earnest interest to start an eatery found the name of Muniyandi catchy.
As the hotel owners flourished, they began celebrating their success with remembering the God. Every year on a particular auspicious day, they all flock to the village and conduct a big feast with meat and the delicious Mughal dish 'Briyani' to all villagers in honour of the powerful God 'Muniyandi'. A very interesting anecdote on the origin of chain of 'Muniyandi Vilas' hotels and so has made me share.
Itis a nice piece of article, however muniyandi vilas has lost its original value as many hotels by such name are started. The same name is in the case of Thirunelveli Itrutu Kadai Alva.
ReplyDeleteWe go for kumbakonam side, you can find a number of hotel called rayas just because of persons hailing Brahmaraya dynasty who served under chola kingdom
I think that nomadic beggar who gives legacy is your student. His attitude personally as a HR of Malayala Manorama, is marching towards a revolution in this country.Kindly advise him to join in my team as early as possible-Gayathri Nair
ReplyDeleteBala , I like the use of the term 'mughal dish'. A lot of youngsters from Madurai speak of themselves as staunch followers of Tamil culture not realizing that even Idli entered India from Indonesia only in the 1600s. Little do cultural fanatics know of their own culture
ReplyDeletegood article sir.Likewise coffee was introduced in India only in British times and coffee houses have sprung everywhere.R.K Narayan wrote a lot on the history of coffee.
ReplyDeletei have enjoyed reading narayan's description of making coffee the traditional tamil's way to an American.
ReplyDeleteBala, is it the photo of muniyandi/ ayyanar?
ReplyDeleteI just typed 'Muniyandi' in the Google Image Search and i got this photo along with other photos, and this is very appealing, so i have chosen this one. I honestly do not know whether it was Muniyandi or Ayyanar. Ayyanars are not often portrayed with any wielding object.
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