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Ayya Vaikundar imprisoned by the Travancore king

· Thiruvananthapuram

Ayya Vaikundar imprisoned by the Travancore king
Vaikunda Raja, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ayya Vaikundar, founder of Ayyavazhi, was arrested on the orders of the Travancore king and held at Singarathoppe jail.

Ayya Vaikundar's preaching in South Travancore, now Kanyakumari district, drew large crowds, and he called the Travancore king and British rule devils. After a complaint, the Travancore king Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma had him arrested in 1838. He was imprisoned at Singarathoppe jail and released after about 110 days in 1839. His followers then began the Thuvayal Thavasu, a practice of collective penance that helped consolidate the movement.

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