Madhurai Veeran is known as Kollu (Family) Divam , or simply a guardian angel. He is the Watchman of the MariAmman Koil. To many, across South India, Maharastra and the world, he is considered an ancestral deity. He is also known by many other names, for example in Maharastra State he is known as Kandhoba, an avatar of Lord Shiva.

In Tamil Nadu, our ancestral land, Madhurai Veeran is a village god and a Tamil folk deity. His name suggests an association with the city of Madurai and a warrior in the past and was known as the hero of Madhurai.

In ancient Tamilakam, Madurai Veeran was a great warrior who lived during the period when the Nayaks ruled certain parts of Tamil Nadu.
Over the centuries, many stories of his life have been transmitted by oral tradition, creating the myth. People of rural Tamil Nadu admired him and worship him as a deity. His consorts are Bommi and Vellaiyammal.

According to these legends, Madurai Veeran was the son of a King, but was brought up by a poor wood cutter’s family who found him after being abandoned as a bad luck child in forest by the kings’s men. When he grew up, Veeran's bravery and talent earned him a chance to enter the army as a Commander. But his misfortune made him to fall by his own law which he enforced to eradicate the robbers from the country.
His enemies, by their cunning plot, made the king to believe that he was also one of the robbers and must be punished. The king who was already jealous of Madurai Veeran sentenced him to mutilation, by having a hand and a leg removed. Madurai Veeran accepted death after receiving a vision from the Devi to do so. Later the King realized that Madurai Veeran was innocent and regretted his act.

Madhurai Veeran was also an ardent devotee of the Devi, upon his passing, he was granted saint hood in heaven. His primary role there was the guardian of the Minachi’s Amman temple. He was granted a boon by the Devi that he would have the powers to satisfy wishes made by devotees. The Devi said that when doing her puja that a part of any offering made to her must first be given to Madhurai Veera Sami.

Research based on Madhurai Veeran Kathai, and Criminal gods and Demon Devotees
Story adopted from the 1956 Film Madhurai Veeran