Fiction: When Allauddin Khilji conquers Madurai, the city’s goddess Meenakshi flees to Kumari

The big fort that surrounded the city of Thiruvazhumkodu was built in the time of the late king Maharaja Ravivarma Kulasekharan Priyadarsanan. The fort walls slanted downwards, measuring eight-feet thick at the base and six-feet thick at the top, and were as tall as two men stacked one above the other. There was a thatched roof on top. All along the length of the fort, at every hundred feet, great teak trees rose up into the air, with watchtowers built into them. Rope ladders swung down from their sides. Guardsmen dozed on the towers, spear and bow in hand. On the other side there were platforms with steps leading up to them for archers to perch on and take aim.

It was a bright morning. From a distance I could see smoke rising up in the air from the home kitchens inside the fort and dissolving into the sky above. The slow turn and fade of the smoke made it seem like the whole town was in a slumber. The tall fronds of the coconut trees raising their heads above the fort walls made the fort appear like a basket filled to the brim with grass. All the houses there were...

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