Remembering Desingu Raja & his horse Neelaveni -

                  Do you know the significance of Neelaveni ? “ Desingu raja desingu raja ” is a hit song from Dum dum dum directed by Alagam Perumal with Richa Ahuja, Jyothika and Madhavan on the cast.

There is a famous folk dance known as ‘Poikal kuthirai attam” (literally translated as dance of false horse legs) – in this dancers have a dummy horse at the waist – instead of 4 legs of animal, there would only two human legs, sometimes on a stilt. Fast would be their movements; though there are more themes, most times they capitulate the story of Raja Desingu – a popular ruler who reigned from Gingee. The warrior was killed in the battlefield on 3rd Oct 1714 by the Arcot rulers. His courage and valour are part of folklore eulogized in many ballads.

There was a tamil film in 1950s eulogizing the hero with MG Ramachandran on lead role – “Raja Desingu”.    In Villupuram district (around 150 km away from Chennai) not far away from the famous temple of Thiruvannamalai, lies Gingee fort (Chenji or Jinji), one of the few surviving forts of Tamilnadu. Once upon a time, it was so well fortified that Chatrapathi Shivaji ranked it as the most impregnable fortress in India and was called Troy of the East by the British.

Legend has it that the actual name of Gingee is 'Sengiri' meaning perhaps the "Red Hill" in Tamil that has got corrupted into Gingee. Some also say that the name Sengiri originated from 'Sanjeevi' the hill mentioned in Ramayana. The name has also been traced to Singavaram the neighbouring Vaishnavaite shrine, whose lord is considered the guardian deity of the place.

History traces the site of a small fort built by Cholas in 9th century AD, later modified by Kurumbars and then by Vijayanagar empire when it became a citadel. It was the headquarters of Gingee Nayaks. The fort was a strategic place for fending off invaders. Marathas captured it in 17th century; then was in possession of Carnatic nawabs and finally fell to British.

Raja Desingu is known as a valiant fighter who ruled from Gingee for a while. He was a worshipper of Sri Rangnathar of nearby Singavaram. This temple is full of rock sculptures.

The Gingee Fort complex is on three hillocks. The three hills together constituted a fort complex. The main fort was housed in Rajagiri (Raja kottai) – this is about 800 feet (240M) height.

At some point in history this place was ruled by Rajputs Raja Swarup Singh and then his son Raja Desingh. Defiant to pay revenue, they resisted the bigger forces of Arcot Nawab which consisted of 8000 horsemen and 10000 soldiers. 22 year old Desingu had a cavalry of 350 horses and 500 soldiers. There are legends about his heroism and his horse “Neelaveni” - the valiant died in the battle at a place known as mavanandal on 3rd Oct 1714 .

                              These hills are devoid of vegetation and have thick thorny shrubs. The three hills form a triangle and have strong granite walls. The character of Raja De Singh is reminiscent of the stories of Maharana Pratap of Chittoor and his horse Chetak. It is quite unfortunate that in these parts history is not well documented and we regularly fail to honour our valiant heroes.

There have been claims from some quarters for erecting the statue of Raja Desingu and a memorial for him at Gingee, at Mavanandal where the valiant warrior was killed on the battlefield. There are reports that the warrior and his horse wer buried on the bunds of mottai chetti tank in Kadali village.

There have not been much of remembrance and there was report in Dinamalar that in the memorial procession, no photo of Desingu was available and that of Chatrapathi Shivaji was taken instead.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.