Arthur Cotton
General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India, he helped many people by building the Prakasam Barrage, the Dowleswaram Barrage and the Kurnool Cuddappah Canal. His dream was only realised, but he is still honoured in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for his efforts; the Sir Arthur Cotton Museum has been built in his honour in Andhra Pradesh. The museum holds one hundred images and 15 machine tools that Cotton used when constructing the barrage in Andhra Pradesh from 1847 to 1852, he fought in the First Burmese War. He was knighted in 1861. An evangelist, he was the father of fellow evangelist Elizabeth Hope. Arthur Cotton was born on 15 May 1803 at Combermere, the tenth son of Henry Calvely Cotton, uncle of the noted Field Marshal Lord Combermere, one of eleven brothers. In 1818, aged 15, he became a cadet at the East India Company's military seminary at Addiscombe, Surrey.
He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Madras Engineer Group. He started his career with the Ordnance Survey at Bangor, North Wales, in January 1820, where he was praised for his reports. In 1821 he was appointed for service in India, where he was attached to the Chief Engineer to Madras, he was appointed as an Assistant Engineer to Superintending Engineer of the Tank Department. Cotton conducted a marine survey of the Pamban passage between Ceylon, he was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1828, was put in charge of Investigation for the Cauveri Scheme. He started working to remove the soil settling in Kallanai Dam and with the model of the dam he built the Upper Dam in Cauveri in Mukkombu, near Tiruchirapalli, the success of these projects paved the way for further important projects on the Godavari and Krishna Rivers. Cotton once recalled how, after analysing the Kallanai Dam and the basement of the dam, they learned how to build the basement in a place full of bed of sand. In 1844 Cotton recommended the construction of an "anicut" and prepared plans for Visakhapatnam port.
In 1847 the work on the Godavari anicut was started. In 1848 he handed over the charge to Captain Orr. In 1850 he was promoted Colonel, he succeeded in completing the magnificent project on Godavari river at Dowleswaram in 1852. After completing the Godavari anicut Cotton shifted his attention to the construction of the aqueduct on Krishna River; the project was sanctioned in 1851 and completed by 1855. After completing the Krishna and Godavari anicuts, Cotton envisaged the storage of Krishna and Godavari river waters. In 1858 Cotton came up with still more ambitious proposals connecting all major rivers of India and suggested drought-relief measures in Odisha and interlinking of canals and rivers. Arthur Cotton was knighted in 1861 and left India. In 1862 and 1863 he offered advice on some river valley projects, his work in India was so much appreciated and honoured with K. C. S. I in 1877, he became a much-revered figure in the state of Andhra Pradesh for his contribution in irrigating the area of land known as Konaseema.
In recognition of his contributions, the new barrage constructed across River Godavari upstream of the anicut was named after him, dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, in 1982. He is revered in the Godavari District for making it the "rice bowl" of Andhra Pradesh, he is known as the "Delta Architect" of the Godavari District because of his pioneering work in irrigation engineering. Cotton died on 24 July 1899. Cotton was hated by his administrative superiors—thanks to his loving attitudes towards the people of India. At one point impeachment proceedings were initiated by his superiors for his dismissalGoing through the famine and cyclone-ravaged districts of Godavari, Cotton was distressed by the sight of famished people of the Godavari districts, it was that he put in process his ambitious plans to harness the waters of the mighty Godavari for the betterment of the humanity. John Henry Morris in Godavari writes about the work of Cotton: The Godavari anicut is the noblest feat of engineering skill which has yet been accomplished in British India.
It is a gigantic barrier thrown across the river from island to island, in order to arrest the unprofitable progress of its waters to the sea, to spread them over the surface of the country on either side, thus irrigating copiously land which has hitherto been dependent on tanks or on the fitful supply of water from the river. Large tracts of land, which had hitherto been left arid and desolate and waste, were thus reached and fertilised by innumerable streams and channels. In 1878, Cotton had to appear before a House of Commons Committee to justify his proposal to build an anicut across the Godavari. A further hearing in the House of Commons followed by his letter to the Secretary of State for India reveals his ambition to build the anicut across the Godavari, his letter concluded: "My Lord, one day's flow in the Godavari river during high floods is equal to one whole year's flow in the Thames of London". Cotton despaired at the British Government's procrastination in taking along this project.
That Government of India's plans to interlink rivers was long envisioned by Cotton is a fact. Pindaparadhanam was offered as homage to the Arthur Cotton during 2015 Godavari Maha Pushkaram by Palakollu MLA Nimmala ramanaidu
Karaikal
Karaikal is a major port town of east coast of India and a municipality in Karaikal district in the Union Territory of Puducherry, India. This is the birthplace of Karaikal Ammaiyar; the French government acquired Karaikal in 1674 and held control, with occasional interruption from the British and Dutch, until 1954, when it was incorporated into the Indian Union along with the rest of French India. Several explanations are offered for the word'Karaikal'; the imperial Gazetteer gives it the meaning'fish pass'. However, the name Karaikal is no doubt a combination of two words'Karai' and'Kal'. Both the words ‘Karai and'Kal' have several meanings, of which the more acceptable ones are'lime mix' and'canal' respectively. Hence it has been suggested. However, no trace of such a canal is evident now. Before 1739 Karaikal was under the control of Raja Pratap Singh of Tanjore. In 1738, Dumas, a shrewd calculative prudent man and a lover of peace and above all one, anxious to extend the French territory in India by smooth means, negotiated with Sahuji of Thanjavur for possession of Karaikal, the fortress of Karakalcheri and five village for 40,000 chakras.
On 14 February 1739 the French took possession of Karaikal town, the fort of Karakalcheri and eight dependent villages. At this point, the King of Thanjavur raised the price for the town of Karaikal and the fort of Karakalcheri to 50,000 chakras, he demanded a loan of 150,000 chakras without interest repayable in three years against the hypothecation of Mayavaram lands, an annual rent of 4,000 pagodas for five villages. The French agreed to all the terms except for the payment of 150,000 chakras, reduced to 10,000 chakras, while the annual rental was reduced to two or three thousand chakras; the villages so received were Kilaiyur, Puduthurai and Tirumalairayanpattinam. Subsequently, two villages were ceded to the French. Pratap Singh, who succeeded the throne, renewed the demand for a loan of 100,000 chakras, on receipt of the first instalment of 4,000 chakras he assigned eight more villages to the French viz. Codague, Arimullimangalam, Dharmapuram, Uzhiapathu and Polagam. On 12 February 1740, he sold these villages for 60,000 chakras, which he had assigned only the previous year for 40,000 chakras.
The same year he pledged Thirunallar Mahanam for 55,350 chakras and pledged 33 villages for 60,000 chakras. By a treaty signed on 12 January 1750 Pratap Singh ceded to the French 81 villages around Karaikal and cancelled the annual rent of 2,000 pagodas payable for the villages; this was all the territory the French possessed around Thanjavur when they surrendered to the British in 1761. The territory passed twice to British control before it was handed over to the French in 1816/1817 under the Treaty of Paris, 1814; the formation of the Karaikal national congress on 13 June 1947 and the Students Congress on 31 January 1947 symbolised the first concrete expression of popular desire in Karaikal for independence from French rule. The French ruled this district until 31 October 1954, on which date the French flag flying atop the government house at Karaikal was lowered with due military honors before a large gathering of officials and non-officials, thus the de facto transfer of power took place on 1 November 1954 followed by de jure transfer on 16 August 1962.
Though the Territory was handed over to the Republic of India on 1 November 1954, Karikal's municipal administration was continued pursuant to the Arrêté dated 8 March 1880. This was replaced by the promulgation of the Pondicherry Municipality Act, 1973, with effect from 26 January 1974. Mr. Gaudart was the first Mayor of Karaikal in 1884. Karaikal is a small coastal enclave, part of French India. Together with the other former French territories of Pondicherry and Mahé, it forms the Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal is bounded on the North and South by Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu state, on the west by Tiruvarur district, on the East by the Bay of Bengal; the enclave is located 140 kilometres south of the city of Pondicherry, 158 kilometres east of Trichy and is known for its rich cultural heritage. Karaikal town, about 20 kilometres north of Nagappattinam and 12 kilometres south of Tarangambadi, is the regional headquarters; the main branches of Kaveri below Grand Anicut are the Kodamurutti, Arasalar and the Vikramanar.
Although Arasalar and its branches spread through Karaikal, the waters of Kodamurutti and Virasolanar meet the irrigation needs of the region. Forming a part of the fertile Cauvery delta, the region is covered by the distributaries of Cauveri. Covered by a thick mantle of alluvium of variable thickness, the lie of the region is flat having a gentle slope towards the Bay of Bengal in the east, it is limited on the north on the south-east by the Vettar. The group of rocks known as Cuddalore formations is met with in the area contiguous to Karaikal region in Nagappattinam District. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as tropical dry; the District Collector is the official representative to the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Co-ordinator and Liaison Officer to all Government departments of Karaikal district. District Collectorate, Karaikal is the functional headquarters of Karaikal District. Karaikal region is made up of Karaikal municipality and the Communes of Nedungadu Kottucherry Neravy Thirunallar Tirumalarajanpattinam Poovam Varichikudy In 2011, Karaikal had population of 227,589 of which male and female
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian daily newspaper, headquartered in Chennai. It was started as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889, it is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the second most circulated English-language newspaper in India, after The Times of India with average qualifying sales of 1.21 million copies as of Jan–Jun 2017. The newspaper and other publications in The Hindu Group are owned by a family-held company and Sons Ltd; the newspaper employed over 1,600 workers and annual turnover reached $200 million according to data from 2010. Most of the revenue comes from subscription; the Hindu became, in 1995. As of March 2018, The Hindu is published from 21 locations across 11 states: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Noida, Kochi, Tiruchirappalli, Mohali, Kozhikode, Tirupati and Patna; the Hindu was founded in Madras on 20 September 1878 as a weekly newspaper, by what was known as the Triplicane Six consisting of 4 law students and 2 teachers:- T. T. Rangacharya, P. V. Rangacharya, D. Kesava Rao Pantulu and N. Subba Rao Pantulu, led by G. Subramania Iyer and M. Veeraraghavacharyar, a lecturer at Pachaiyappa's College.
Started in order to support the campaign of Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer for a judgeship at the Madras High Court and to counter the propaganda against him carried out by the Anglo-Indian press, The Hindu was one of the many newspapers of the period established to protest the policies of the British Raj. About 100 copies of the inaugural issue were printed at Srinidhi Press, Georgetown on one rupee and twelves annas of borrowed money. Subramania Iyer became the first editor and Veera Raghavacharya, the first managing director of the newspaper; the paper was printed from Srinidhi Press but moved to Scottish Press to The Hindu Press, Mylapore. Started as a weekly newspaper, the paper became a tri-weekly in 1883 and an evening daily in 1889. A single copy of the newspaper was priced at four annas; the offices moved to rented premises at 100 Mount Road on 3 December 1883. The newspaper started printing at its own press there, named "The National Press,", established on borrowed capital as public subscriptions were not forthcoming.
The building itself became The Hindu's in 1892, after the Maharaja of Vizianagaram, Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju, gave The National Press a loan both for the building and to carry out needed expansion. The Hindu was liberal in its outlook and is now considered left leaning, its editorial stances have earned it the nickname, the'Maha Vishnu of Mount Road'. "From the new address, 100 Mount Road, to remain The Hindu's home till 1939, there issued a quarto-size paper with a front-page full of advertisements—a practice that came to an end only in 1958 when it followed the lead of its idol, the pre-Thomson Times —and three back pages at the service of the advertiser. In between, there were more views than news." After 1887, when the annual session of Indian National Congress was held in Madras, the paper's coverage of national news increased and led to the paper becoming an evening daily starting 1 April 1889. The partnership between Veeraraghavachariar and Subramania Iyer was dissolved in October 1898.
Iyer quit the paper and Veeraraghavachariar became the sole owner and appointed C. Karunakara Menon as editor. However, The Hindu's adventurousness began to decline in the 1900s and so did its circulation, down to 800 copies when the sole proprietor decided to sell out; the purchaser was The Hindu's Legal Adviser from 1895, S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, a politically ambitious lawyer who had migrated from a Kumbakonam village to practise in Coimbatore and from thence to Madras. In the late 1985s, when its ownership passed into the hands of the family's younger members, a change in political leaning was observed. Worldpress.org lists The Hindu as a left-leaning independent newspaper. Joint managing director N. Murali said in July 2003, "It is true that our readers have been complaining that some of our reports are partial and lack objectivity, but it depends on reader beliefs." N. Ram was appointed on 27 June 2003 as its editor-in-chief with a mandate to "improve the structures and other mechanisms to uphold and strengthen quality and objectivity in news reports and opinion pieces", authorised to "restructure the editorial framework and functions in line with the competitive environment".
On 3 and 23 September 2003, the reader's letters column carried responses from readers saying the editorial was biased. An editorial in August 2003 observed that the newspaper was affected by the'editorialising as news reporting' virus, expressed a determination to buck the trend, restore the professionally sound lines of demarcation, strengthen objectivity and factuality in its coverage. In 1987–88, The Hindu's coverage of the Bofors arms deal scandal, a series of document-backed exclusives, set the terms of the national political discourse on this subject; the Bofors scandal broke in April 1987 with Swedish Radio alleging that bribes had been paid to top Indian political leaders and Army officers in return for the Swedish arms manufacturing company winning a hefty contract with the Government of India for the purchase of 155 mm howitzers. During a six-month period, the newspaper published scores of copies of original papers that documented the secret payments, amounting to $50 million, into Swiss bank accounts, the agreements behind the payments, communications relating to the payments and the crisis response, other material.
The investigation was led by a part-time correspondent of The Hindu, Ch
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India on the north by Bangladesh, on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman Islands of India and Myanmar and the Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is the northwesternmost point of Sumatra, it is the largest water region called a bay in the world. There are Countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia; the Bay of Bengal was called the Chola Lake. The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 square kilometres. A number of large rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal: the Ganges-Hooghly, the Padma, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Barak-Surma-Meghna, the Irrawaddy, the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani, the Krishna and the Kaveri. Among the important ports are Chennai-Ennore, Colombo, Kolkata-Haldia, Paradip, Port Blair, Tuticorin and Dhamra. Among the smaller ports are Gopalpur Port and Payra; the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bay of Bengal as follows: On the east: A line running from Cape Negrais in Burma through the larger islands of the Andaman group, in such a way that all the narrow waters between the islands lie eastward of the line and are excluded from the Bay of Bengal, as far as a point in Little Andaman Island in latitude 10°48'N, longitude 92°24'E and thence along the southwest limit of the Andaman Sea.
On the south: Ram Sethu and from the southern extreme of Dondra Head to the north point of Poeloe Bras. The bay gets its name from the historical Bengal region. In ancient scriptures, this water body may have been referred to as'Mahodadhi' while it appears as Sinus Gangeticus or Gangeticus Sinus, meaning "Gulf of the Ganges", in ancient maps; the other Sanskrit names for Bay of Bengal are'Vangopasagara' simply called as'Vangasagara' and'Purvapayodhi'. Today in Bengali and Odia it is known as "Bongoposagor". Many major Rivers of India and Bangladesh flow west to east before draining into the Bay of Bengal; the Ganga is the northernmost of these. Its main channel enters and flows through Bangladesh, where it is known as the Padma River, before joining the Meghna River. However, the Brahmaputra River flows from east to west in Assam before turning south and entering Bangladesh where it is called the Jamuna River; this joins the Padma where upon the Padma joins the Meghna River that drains into Bay of Bengal.
The Sundarbans mangrove of forest of Bangladesh is a forest at the delta of the Padma and Meghna rivers lies in West Bengal and in Bangladesh. The Brahmaputra at 2,948 km is the 28th longest River in the world, it originates in Tibet. The Hooghly River, another channel of the Ganga that flows through Calcutta drains into Bay of Bengal; the Padma–Meghna-Jamuna rivers deposit nearly 1000 million tons of sediment every year. The sediment from these three rivers form the Bengal Delta and the submarine fan, a vast structure that extends from Bangladesh to south of the Equator, is up to 16.5 kilometres thick, contains at least 1,130 trillion tonnes of sediment, which has accumulated over the last 17 million years at an average rate of 665 million tons per annum. The fan has buried organic carbon at a rate of nearly 1.1 trillion mol/yr since the early Miocene period. The three rivers contribute nearly 8% of the total organic carbon deposited in the world's oceans. Due to high TOC accumulation in the deep sea bed of the Bay of Bengal, the area is rich in oil and natural gas and gas hydrate reserves.
Bangladesh can reclaim land and economically gain from the sea area by constructing sea dikes, causeways and by trapping the sediment from its rivers. Further southwest of Bangladesh, the Mahanadi, Godavari and Kaveri Rivers flow from west to east in South Asia and drain into the Bay of Bengal. Many small rivers drain directly into the Bay of Bengal; the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar flows into the Andaman Sea of the Bay of Bengal and once had thick mangrove forests of its own. Indian ports on the bay include Paradip Port, Kolkata Port, Haldia Port, Visakhapatnam, Pondicherry, Dhamra and Bangladeshi ports on the Bay are Chittagong, Payra Port; the islands in the bay are numerous, including the Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands and Mergui Archipelago of India and Myanmar. The Cheduba group of islands, in the north-east, off the Burmese coast, are remarkable for a chain of mud volcanoes, which are active. Great Andaman is the main archipelago or island group of the Andaman Islands, whereas Ritchie's Archipelago consists of smaller islands.
Only 37, or 6.5%, of the 572 islands and islets of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are inhabited. The lithosphere of the earth is broken up into. Underneath the Bay of Bengal, part of the great Indo-Australian Plate and is moving north east; this plate meets the Burma Microplate at the Sunda Trench. The Nicobar Islands and the Andaman Islands are part of the Burma Microplate; the India Plate sub
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian subcontinent and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, it is bounded by the Eastern Ghats on the north, by the Nilgiri Mountains, the Meghamalai Hills, Kerala on the west, by the Bay of Bengal in the east, by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait on the southeast, by the Indian Ocean on the south. The state shares a maritime border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the sixth largest by population, it has a high HDI ranking among Indian states as of 2017. The economy of Tamil Nadu is the second-largest state economy in India with ₹17.25 lakh crore in gross domestic product after Maharashtra and a per capita GDP of ₹167,000. It was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a "Multidimensional Development Index" in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India.
Its official language is Tamil, one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. The region was ruled by several empires, including the three great empires – Chola and Pandyan empires, which shape the region's cuisine and architecture; the British Colonial rule during the modern period led to the emergence of Chennai known as Madras, as a world-class city. Modern-day Tamil Nadu was formed in 1956 after the reorganization of states on linguistic lines; the state is home to a number of historic buildings, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, hill stations and three World Heritage sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula. In Attirampakkam, archaeologists from the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education excavated ancient stone tools which suggests that a humanlike population existed in the Tamil Nadu region somewhere around 300,000 years before homo sapiens arrived from Africa. In Adichanallur, 24 km from Tirunelveli, archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India unearthed 169 clay urns containing human skulls, bones, grains of rice, charred rice and celts of the Neolithic period, 3,800 years ago.
The ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is "very rudimentary" Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as an archaeological site for further excavation and studies. About 60 per cent of the total epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu, most of these are in the Tamil language. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu. According to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. According to Mahadevan, the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, therefore that the "Neolithic people of the Tamil country spoke a Harappan language"; the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. Though this finding remains contested,like the claim of historian Michel Danino who rubbishes the theory of the latter’s southward migration in a paper he presented at the International Symposium on Indus Civilisation and Tamil Language in 2007.
He wrote: ‘There is no archaeological evidence of a southward migration through the Deccan after the end of the urban phase of the Indus- Sarasvati civilization… The only actual evidence of movements at that period is of Late Harappans migrating towards the Ganges plains and towards Gujarat... Migration apart, there is a complete absence of Harappan artefacts and features south of the Vindhyas: no Harappan designs on pottery, no Harappan seals and ornaments, no trace of Harappan urbanism… Cultural continuity from Harappan to historical times has been documented in North India, but not in the South… This means, in effect, that the south-bound Late Harappans would have reverted from an advanced urban bronze-age culture to a Neolithic one! Their migration to South would thus constitute a double “archaeological miracle”: apart from being undetectable on the ground, it implies that the migrants experienced a total break with all their traditions; such a phenomenon is unheard of.’ The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature.
Numismatic and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about eight centuries, from 500 BC to AD 300. The recent excavations in Alagankulam archaeological site suggests that Alagankulam is one of the important trade centre or port city in Sangam Era; the Bhakti movement originated in Tamil speaking region of South India and spread northwards through India. The Bhakti Movement was a rapid growth of bhakti beginning in this region with the Saiva Nayanars and the Vaisnava Alvars who spread bhakti poetry and devotion; the Alwars and Nayanmars were instrumental in propagating the Bhakti tradition. During the 4th to 8th centuries, Tamil Nadu saw the rise of the Pallava dynasty under Mahendravarman I and his son Mamalla Narasimhavarman I; the Pallavas ruled parts of South India with Kanchipuram as their capital. Tamil architecture reached its peak during Pallava rule. Narasimhavarman II built the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Much the Pallavas were replaced by the Chola dynasty as the dominant kingdom in the 9th century and they in turn were replaced by the Pandyan Dynasty in the 13th century.
The Pandyan capital Madurai was in the deep s
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