Manamadurai

Manamadurai is a Municipality Town in Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Situated 58 kilometres away from the heart of Madurai on the Cochin - Dhanushkodi National Highway. It is the 4th Largest Town in the Sivaganga district followed by Karaikudi, Sivaganga and Devakottai. Manamadurai represents its seat in Manamadurai Legislative assembly constituency. It is a river-based settlement town developed on banks of river Vaigai around 2 BCE. The River flows through the core of town dividing the town into Upper Western banks and lower eastern banks.

==Etymology== thumb|Inscription dating to 1700 A.D. The Name Manamadurai is said to be derived from Vanara Veera Madurai. As mentioned in the epic Ramayana, Lord Rama, Hanuman and "Vaanara Sena" - the Monkey Force which embarked on a search for Sita, ended in the banks of the river Vaigai, hence all of them took a bath, slept a night here, and left. Hence the name was applied to this place, with the Sanskrit word Vaanaram, meaning "monkey" and veera, meaning "powerful". As centuries rolled, it became Vaana Vīra Madurai, then Vaana Madurai, and finally became Manamadurai. An inscription with a low relief was found at a site near the Thulukkanendhal village of Manamadurai Panchayat Union. It was inspected by the research personnels of The Pandiya Naadu Culture society and they carbon dated it to 1700 A.D. The sculpture in Tamil read as /ʋaːn̪a ʋiːɾa maðɯɾaɪ̯ aɻaɡaɾ t̪iɾuʋiɖaɪ̯jaːʈʈam/ which literally discusses about the land donation of someone to the Azhagar Temple in Manamadurai. Thiruvidaiyattam refers to a stone which sculpted on resemblance of Land donation. And the wheel like structure below the text is actually present in the coin of the Madurai Nayaks who ruled Madurai from 1529 to 1815.