Etymology[edit]
According to Hindu scriptures, the word "Tiruchirappalli" is derived from "Tiru" which is to address someone with respect, "Chirapalli" is a compound of siram - head, palli - to sleep. It is a reference to the deity Sriranganathaswamy who is depicted at rest with his head in a slightly elevated position in the Srirangam Temple, Tiruchirappalli. Telugu scholar C. P. Brown has proposed that Tiruchirappalli might be a derivative of the word Chiruta-palli meaning "little town".[8][9] Orientalists Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell have speculated that the name may derive from a rock inscription carved in the 16th century in which Tiruchirappalli is written as Tiru-ssila-palli, meaning "holy-rock-town" in Tamil.[8][9] Other scholars have suggested that the name Tiruchirappalli is a rewording of Tiru-chinna-palli, meaning "holy little town".[8][9] The Madras Glossary gives the root as Tiruććināppalli or the "holy (tiru) village (palli) of the shina (Cissampelos pareira) plant".[9]
Historically, Tiruchirappalli was commonly referred to in English as "Trichinopoly".[10] The shortened forms "Trichy" or "Tiruchi" are used in common parlance and the full name Tiruchirapalli appears in official use by government and quasi-government departments but seldom by the native people.[11][12]
History[edit]
Early and medieval history[edit]
Tiruchirappalli is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Tamil Nadu; its earliest settlements date back to the second millennium BC.[13] Uraiyur, the capital of the Early Cholas for 600 years from the 3rd century BC onwards,[14] is a suburb of present-day Tiruchirappalli.[15][16] The city is referred to as Orthoura by the historian Ptolemy in his 2nd-century work Geography.[17] The world's oldest surviving dam, the Kallanai (Lower Anaicut) about 18 kilometres (11 mi) from Uraiyur,[18] was built across the Kaveri River by Karikala Chola in the 2nd century AD.[19]
The medieval history of Tiruchirappalli begins with the reign of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I, who ruled over South India in the 6th century AD and constructed the rock-cut cave-temples within the Rockfort.[20][21][22] Following the downfall of the Pallavas in the 8th century, the city was conquered by the Medieval Cholas, who ruled until the 13th century.[23]
After the decline of the Cholas, Tiruchirappalli was conquered by the Pandyas,[24] who ruled from 1216 until their defeat in 1311 by Malik Kafur, the commander of Allauddin Khilji.[25][26] The victorious armies of the Delhi Sultanate are believed to have plundered and ravaged the region.[25][26][27] The idol of the Hindu god Ranganatha in the temple of Srirangam vanished at about this time and was not recovered and reinstated for more than fifty years.[26][27] Tiruchirappalli was ruled by the Delhi and Madurai sultanates from 1311 to 1378,[28] but by the middle of the 14th century the Madurai Sultanate had begun to fall apart.[29] Gradually, the Vijayanagar Empire established supremacy over the northern parts of the kingdom, and Tiruchirappalli was taken by the Vijayanagar prince Kumara Kampanna Udaiyar in 1371.[30] The Vijayanagar Empire ruled the region from 1378 until the 1530s, and played a prominent role in reviving Hinduism by reconstructing temples and monuments destroyed by the previous Muslim rulers.[31] Following the collapse of the Vijayanagar Empire in the early part of the 16th century, the Madurai Nayak kingdom began to assert its independence.[32][33][34] The city flourished during the reign of Vishwanatha Nayak (c. 1529–1564), who is said to have protected the area by constructing the Teppakulam and building walls around the Srirangam temple.[35][36] His successor Kumara Krishnappa Nayaka made Tiruchirappalli his capital,[36] and it served as the capital of the Madurai Nayak kingdom from 1616 to 1634 and from 1665 to 1736.[37][38][39]
In 1736 the last Madurai Nayak ruler, Meenakshi, committed suicide, and Tiruchirappalli was conquered by Chanda Sahib.[34][40] He ruled the kingdom from 1736 to 1741, when he was captured and imprisoned by the Marathas in the siege of Tiruchirappalli (1741) led by general Raghuji Bhonsle under the orders of Chhattrapati Shahu.[40][41][42] Chanda Sahib remained prisoner for about eight years before making his escape from the Maratha Empire. Tiruchirappalli was administered by the Maratha general Murari Rao from 1741 to 1743, when it was acquired by the Nizam of Hyderabad, who bribed Rao to hand over the city.[40][42] Nizam appointed Khwaja Abdullah as the ruler and returned to Golkonda.[43] When the Nawab of the Carnatic Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah was dethroned by Chanda Sahib after the Battle of Ambur (1749), the former fled to Tiruchirappalli, where he set up his base.[44][45][46] The subsequent siege of Tiruchirappalli (1751–1752) by Chanda Sahib took place during the Second Carnatic War between the British East India Company and Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah on one side and Chanda Sahib and the French East India Company on the other.[47] The British were victorious and Wallajah was restored to the throne. During his reign he proposed renaming the city Natharnagar after the Sufi saint Nathar Vali, who is thought to have lived there in the 12th century AD.[48][49] Tiruchirappalli was invaded by Nanjaraja Wodeyar in 1753 and Hyder Ali of the Mysore kingdom in 1780, both attacks repulsed by the troops of the British East India Company.[50] A third invasion attempt, by Tipu Sultan—son of Hyder Ali—in 1793, was also unsuccessful;[51] he was pursued by British forces led by William Medows, who thwarted the attack.[52]
British rule[edit]
The Carnatic kingdom was annexed by the British in July 1801 as a consequence of the discovery of collusion between Tipu Sultan—an enemy of the British—and Umdat Ul-Umra, son of Wallajah and the Nawab at the time, during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.[53][54] Trichinopoly was incorporated into the Madras Presidency the same year, and the district of Trichinopoly was formed, with the city of Trichinopoly (or Tiruchirappalli) as its capital.[55]
During the Company Raj and later the British Raj, Tiruchirappalli emerged as one of the most important cities in India. According to the 1871 Indian census—the first in British India—Tiruchirappalli had a population of 76,530, making it the second largest city in the presidency after the capital of Madras.[56] It was known throughout the British Empire for its unique variety of cheroot, known as the Trichinopoly cigar.[9] Tiruchirappalli was the first headquarters for the newly formed South Indian Railway Company in 1874 until its relocation to Madras in the early 20th century.[c][58]
- Trichinopoly during the British Raj
Contemporary and modern history[edit]
Tiruchirappalli played an active role during the pre-independence era; there were a number of strikes and non-violent protests during the Quit India Movement,[59] notably the South Indian Railway Strike that took place in 1928.[60] The city was the base for the Vedaranyam salt marchinitiated by C. Rajagopalachari in parallel with the Dandi March in 1930.[61] Tiruchirappalli was an epicentre of the anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu when a team of Tamil language supporters gathered and organised a rally from the city to Madras in 1938.[62] Later in 1965, Tiruchirappalli was made the base of the "Madras state Anti-Hindi Conference" convened by C. Rajagopalachari.[63][64] The population of Tiruchirappalli continued to grow rapidly, achieving a growth rate of 36.9% during the period 1941–51.[65] After independence in 1947, Tiruchirappalli fell behind other cities such as Salem and Coimbatore in terms of growth.[66][67][68] Tiruchirappalli remained a part of Madras State, which was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969.[69] The city underwent extensive economic development in the 1960s with the commissioning of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.[70][71] In the early 1980s, M. G. Ramachandran, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu drafted a plan to move the state's administrative headquarters to Tiruchirappalli.[72] A satellite town was developed near Navalpattu on the outskirts of the city,[72] but the proposed move was shelved by successive governments.[73]
Like much of Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli remains prone to communal tensions based on religion and ethnicity. There have been occasional outbreaks of violence against Sri Lankans. In 2009, the offices of a Sri Lankan airline were attacked in the city.[74][75] In September 2012, two groups of Sri Lankan pilgrims who had visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni and the Poondi Madha Basilica had their buses attacked in Tiruchirappalli by a group of Tamil activists.[76][77][78] Owing to a series of terrorist attacks in Indian cities since 2000, security has been increased at sites such as Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.[79]
Geography and climate[edit]
Tiruchirappalli is situated in central south-eastern India, almost at the geographic centre of the state of Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri Delta begins to form 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west of the city where the river divides into two streams—the Kaveri and the Kollidam—to form the island of Srirangam.[65][80][81] By road it is 912 kilometres (567 mi) south of Hyderabad, 322 kilometres (200 mi) south-west of Chennai and 341 kilometres (212 mi) south-east of Bangalore.[82] The topology of Tiruchirappalli is almost flat, with an average elevation of 88 metres (289 ft). A few isolated hillocks rise above the surface,[83] the highest of which is the Rockfort;[84][85] its estimated age of 3,800 million years makes it one of the oldest rocks in the world.[86][87] Other prominent hillocks include the Golden Rock, Khajamalai,[88] and one each at Uyyakondan Thirumalai and Thiruverumbur.[89]
The two major rivers draining Tiruchirappalli are the Kaveri and its tributary the Kollidam,[90] but the city is also drained by the Uyyakondan Channel, Koraiyar and Kudamuritti river channels.[91] The land immediately surrounding the Kaveri River—which crosses Tiruchirappalli from west to east—consists of deposits of fertile alluvial soil[92] on which crops such as finger millet and maize are cultivated.[93] Further south, the surface is covered by poor-quality black soil.[92] A belt of Cretaceous rock known as the Trichinopoly Group runs to the north-east of the city,[94] and to the south-east there are layers of archaean rocks, granite and gneiss covered by a thin bed of conglomeratic laterite.[84] The region falls under Seismic Zone III, which is moderately vulnerable to earthquakes.[95]
Urban structure[edit]
The city of Tiruchirappalli lies on the plains between the Shevaroy Hills to the north and the Palni Hills to the south and south-west.[96] Tiruchirappalli is completely surrounded by agricultural fields.[67] Densely populated industrial and residential areas have recently been built in the northern part of the city, and the southern edge also has residential areas.[67]The older part of Tiruchirappalli, within the Rockfort, is unplanned and congested while the adjoining newer sections are better executed.[97] Many of the old houses in Srirangam were constructed according to the shilpa sastras, the canonical texts of Hindu temple architecture.[98]
Climate[edit]
Tiruchirappalli experiences a tropical savanna climate—designated "Aw" under the Köppen climate classification—with no major change in temperature between summer and winter.[99][100] The climate is generally characterised by high temperature and low humidity.[101] With an annual mean temperature of 28.9 °C (84.0 °F) and monthly average temperatures ranging between 25 °C (77 °F) and 32 °C (90 °F),[99] the city is the hottest in the state.[102] The warmest months are from April to June,[103] when the city experiences frequent dust storms.[103] As of November 2013, the highest temperature ever recorded in Tiruchirappalli was 43.9 °C (111.0 °F), which occurred on 2 May 1896;[104] the lowest was observed on 6 February 1884 at 13.9 °C (57.0 °F).[105][106] The high temperatures in the city have been attributed to the presence of two rivers—Kaveri and Kollidam—[d]and the absence of greenery around the city.[102] As Tiruchirappalli is on the Deccan Plateau the days are extremely warm and dry; evenings are cooler because of cold winds that blow from the south-east.[99] From June to September, the city experiences a moderate climate tempered by heavy rain and thundershowers. Rainfall is heaviest between October and December because of the north-east monsoon winds, and from December to February the climate is cool and moist.[99] The average annual rainfall is 841.9 mm (33.15 in),[107]slightly lower than the state's average of 945 mm (37.2 in).[108] Fog and dew are rare and occur only during the winter season.[103]
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