Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-03-07

One recent encounter between
British Indian police and a mob OF
ten thousand I.atives was not play
ed up" IN American newspaper mead
iines. Tine name of the town where
the disturbances occurred was
TiruNannamal'ai.
"This town is one OF the CHIEF pill
grim centers cf South India but Is
little visited BY Europeans" explains
a bulletin from the Washington. u.
G.. Headquarters of the National
Geographic Society. This ostracism
is not because the occidental cannot
pronounce tho name to ask his way
as one wag suggests. Tiruvannamal.
Iai has forty large chuttrams, or rest
houses, while the only provision Tor
tho foreigner is a small bungalow
of two rooms.
Two great festivals every year
am. a fair every Tuesday assure the
gathering OF large numbers of ma
lives" the bulletin continues. DUR
ing the Kartigai festival in Novem-
Der or December, 10000 pilgrims
visit the finely carved temple or
climb the Holy Fire Hill when
gives the town its name. AT sucn
tin es, cholera frequently takes a
heavy toll and for many years at
tempts have heen made to improve
the watCr supply.
A CrcSs.ROads Of Religion and
Trade
s.Forr roads meet at Tiruvanna-
malla;, three OF them crossing the
alluvial plain toward the north.
south and &c ST. The fourth road
carries a heavy traffic over the Chem
gam Pass into the Salem District.
Thus the town is not only a famous
religious center but an important n
trepot OF trade as well.
"South Arcot, the district in which
Tiruvannamallai is found, sweeps up
from the harborless Coromandel
coast fronting IN the Bay of Ben
ga, to the Eastern Chats, the hills
which mark the fail line between
the plain and the plateau which
drives south like a wedge from n
Deccan and splits Madras Presiden-
cy into two widely dissimilar re-
gions. Great eypanses of reserved
forests clothe these hills and the
sanda,wood and teak found there
form some OF the most important as
sets OF the region. Leopards, small
bears, deer and wild hogs abound and
there are several fayorite shooting
grounds near at hand.
although the district is usually
comparatively dry, it is subject to
destructive foods and the severe
storms which sweep the coast have
done great damage. not only to the
HAIRLESS natives but to shipping as
we'll. In 1850 a blockading fleet. OPP
Grating against the French. whose
capital city, Pondicherry, cuts into
tbs Desert, was scattered with con-
siderable loss of life.
When the Sun Went Out
"But the main interest in THRU
vannar.allai is the fire festival,
whose inception recalls one of the
famous legends connected with Hin
du mythology. Many ages ago, the
legend runs, Sive, the destroyer, and
his wife Parvati, were wandering
through Kail4sa, the Hindu para
disc. 1t was the twilight hour and
the flower garden In which they
strolIed was allied with the seductive
tioCs n. oment, Pa,vati playfully COW
cred the eyes OF her lord with her
shapely hands and drew the cody
head to her bosom.
1.-THE time quickly passed for those
two wanderers i'll Elysium. But
what seems but a moment to them
was a period of many years for the
hapless inhabitants of the world,
whose sun and moon had thus been
darkened. Wien silva realized the
hardship which his wife's %coquetry
had caused, he. SEN her forth to do
penance at tie various holy places
with which the southern portion of
India is dotted. When she at last
reached T:ruvannamallai, the FAM
Gus 'Ht ly Fire Hill" of South Arcot
district, silva appeared at the top
of the isolated peak. as a sign that