1.
Madurai district
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Madurai district is second largest in population of the 32 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. The city of Madurai serves as the district headquarters and it houses the world-famous Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple and is situated on the banks of the river Vaigai. Thiruparankundram is one of the major tourist place in the district, as of 2011, the district had a population of 3,038,252 with a sex-ratio of 990 females for every 1,000 males. Aside from the city of Madurai, the towns are Melur, Avaniapuram, Thirumangalam. It is an important hub for film shootings. Madurai is called with various nicknames like Athens of the East, Thoonga Nagaram, Naan maada koodal, Malligai Managar, the main kingdoms which ruled Madurai during various times are the Pandyas and the Nayaks. According to 2011 census, Madurai district had a population of 3,038,252 up from 2,578,201 in the 2001 census, for a growth rate of 17. 95%. It had a sex-ratio of 990 females for every 1,000 males, up from 978 in 2001, a total of 313,978 were under the age of six, constituting 162,517 males and 151,461 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 13. 46% and. 37% of the population respectively, the average literacy of the district was 74. 83%, compared to the national average of 72. 99%. The district had a total of 794,887 households, Madurai district comprises 13 talukas and revenue blocks, same names same boundaries. Under the gram panchayat system rural administration or the district is done by panchayat villages, the revenue blocks are further sub-divided by firkas. The last three taluks, Tiruparankundram, Madurai West and Madurai East, were created in February 2014. The thirteen talukas/blocks are, In the 2001 census, Madurai district had only seven talukas, Madurai North, Madurai South, Melur, Peraiyur, Thirumangalam, Vadipatti, the climate is moderate with no extremes
2.
Tamil Nadu
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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 Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu 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 and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. 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. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
3.
Madurai
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Madurai is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Madurai District. Madurai is the third largest city by population in Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. Madurai was the longest continuous capital city until British rule in India, Madurai has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. Madurai is closely associated with the Tamil language, and the third Tamil Sangam, the recorded history of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India, and Kautilya, a minister of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by Archeological Survey of India in Manalur, the city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu, the city is home to various automobile, rubber, chemical and granite manufacturing industries. It has developed as a city for information technology. Madurai has important government educational institutes like the Madurai Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, Madurai Law College, Agricultural College, Madurai city is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. Madurai is the corporation in Tamil Nadu next to Chennai corporation. The city covers an area of 147.97 km2 and had a population of 1,017,865 in 2011, the city is also the seat of a bench of the Madras High Court. The city is referred by various names including Madurai, Koodal, Malligai Maanagar, Naanmadakoodal, the word Madurai may be derived from Madhura arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Shiva from his matted hair. Another theory is that Madurai is the derivative of the word Marutham, a town in the neighbouring Dindigul district is called Vada Madurai and another in Sivagangai district is called Manamadurai. The different names by which the city has referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem Thiruvilayaadal puraanam written by Paranjothi Munivar. Koodal means an assembly or congregation of people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for, tevaram, the 7th- or 8th-century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars, namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar, address the city as Thirualavai. As per Iravatham Mahadevan, a 2nd-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscription refers to the city as matiray, Madurai has been inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE. Megasthenes may have visited Madurai during the 3rd century BCE, with the city referred as Methora in his accounts
4.
Tamil-Brahmi
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Tamil-Brahmi, or Tamili, is a variant of the Brahmi script used to write the Tamil language. These are the earliest documents of a Dravidian language, and the script was established in the Chera and Pandyan states, in what is now Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh. Inscriptions have been found on beds, pot sherds, Jar burials, coins, seals. The language is Archaic Tamil, and led to classical Sangam literature, Tamil Brahmi differs in several ways from Ashokan Brahmi. It adds several letters for sounds not found in Prakrit, ṉ ṟ ṛ ḷ and this is unique to Tamil Brahmi and Bhattiprolu among the early Indian scripts. This appears to be an adaptation to Dravidian phonotactics, where words commonly end in consonants, as opposed to Prakrit, where this never occurs. According to Mahadevan, in the earliest stages of the script the inherent vowel was either abandoned, as above, later stages of Tamil Brahmi returned to the inherent vowel that was the norm in India. The origins of the Brahmi in general and Tamil Brahmi specifically are unclear, there are number of inscriptions whose dates have not been settled yet. Nevertheless, a number of theories has been put forward with literary, epigraphic, the received consensus is a 3rd-century post-Ashokan dispersal, but that since the year 2000, there have been two serious candidates for a pre-Ashokan date. The earliest mention of a script for writing the Tamil language is found in the Jaina work Samavayanga Sutta, in the Buddhist work, Lalitavistara, a script called Dravidalipi is mentioned. According to Kamil Zvelebil, Damilli and Dravidalipi are synonymous for Tamil writing, references to writing are also available in early Tamil literature. Tolkappiyam in stanza 16 and 17 mentions dots added to consonants, the author of Tolkappiyam displays awareness of a writing system and the graphic system as he knew it corresponds with later writing systems. Other works such as Tirukkural mentions writing using the word ezhuttu, cilappatikaram mentions kannezhuttu that was used to mark merchandise imported at the port emporium of Kaveripattinam, it also mentions kannezhuttalar or scribes. A reference to palm leaf manuscript writing is found in Nalatiyar, based on the literature analysis, Kamil Zvelebil believes writing was known to Tamil people at least from the 3rd century BCE. The evidence for pre-Ashokan dispersal comes from Sri Lanka and more recently, the earliest well accepted Brahmi inscriptions in South Asia are found in the citadel of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and are dated to the 4th century BCE. Brahmi developed before the spread of Ashokan missionary activities and spread across South Asia due to trade networks. However, these instances of Brahmi were not considered to be examples of Tamil-Brahmi. In 2013, Rajan and Yatheeskumar published excavations at Porunthal and Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu and their stratigraphic analysis combined with radiocarbon dates of paddy grains and charcoal samples indicated that inscription contexts date to as far back as the 5th and perhaps 6th centuries BCE
5.
Tamil Jain
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Tamil Jains are Tamils from Tamil Nadu, India, who practice Digambara Jainism. They are a microcommunity of around 85,000, Tamil Jains are predominantly scattered in northern Tamil Nadu, largely in the districts of Madurai, Viluppuram, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Thanjavur. Early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Tamil Nadu date to the 3rd century BCE, camaṇar wrote much Tamil literature, including the important Sangam literature, such as the Nālaṭiyār, the Silappatikaram, the Manimekalai and the Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi. Three of the five epics of Tamil literature are attributed to Jains. Some scholars believe that Jain philosophy must have entered South India some time in the sixth century BCE, even Chandragupta accompanied this constellation of sages. On reaching Shravanabelagola, Bhadrabahu felt his end approaching and decided stay back along with Chandragupta and he instructed the Jain saints to tour over the Chola-, according to other scholars, Jainism must have existed in South India well before the visit of Bhadrabhu and Chandragupta. There are plenty of caves as old as the century found with Jain inscriptions and Jain deities around Madurai, Tiruchirāppaḷḷi, Kanyakumari. A number of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found in Tamil Nadu that date from the second century BCE and they are regarded as associated with Jain monks and lay devotees. The exact origins of Jainism in Tamil Nadu is unclear, however, Jains flourished in Tamil Nadu at least as early as the Sangam period. Tamil Jain tradition places their origins are much earlier, the Ramayana mentions that Rama paid homage to Jaina monks living in South India on his way to Sri Lanka. Some scholars believe that the author of the oldest extant work of literature in Tamil, tirukkural by Thiruvalluvar is considered by many to be the work of a Jain by scholars like V. Kalyanasundarnar, Vaiyapuri Pillai, Swaminatha Iyer, P. S. It emphatically supports vegetarianism and states that giving up animal sacrifice is worth more than thousand burnt offerings (verse, Silappatikaram, the earliest surviving epic in Tamil literature, was written by a Samaṇa, Ilango Adigal. This epic is a work in Tamil literature, describing the historical events of its time and also of then-prevailing religions. The main characters of this work, Kannagi and Kovalan, who have a divine status among Tamils, were Jains, according to George L. D. in Madurai. It seems likely that this assembly was the model upon which tradition fabricated the Sangam legend, Jainism became dominant in Tamil Nadu in the fifth and sixth century CE, during a period known as the Kalabhra interregnum. Jainism began to decline around the 8th century A. D. with many Tamil kings embracing Hindu religions, still, the Chalukya, Pallava and Pandya dynasties embraced Jainism. When India became independent in 1947, Madras Presidency became Madras State, comprising present day Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh, South Canara district Karnataka, the state was subsequently split up along linguistic lines. In 1969, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu, meaning Tamil country, the ruins of Anandamangalam vestiges were discovered in Anandamangalam, a small hamlet near Orathi village in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu
6.
Tamilakam
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Tamiḻakam, refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people. Tamilakam covered today Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh, traditional accounts and Tholkāppiyam referred these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and culture of all people. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms, the best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. Archaeological data from protohistoric Kerala and Tamil Nadu appears to challenge the notion of a culture region. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam, ancient Tamil settlements were also found in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Tamiḻakam is a portmanteau of a word and suffix from the Tamil language, namely Tamiḻ and it can be roughly translated as the homeland of the Tamils. According to Kamil Zvelebil, the term seems to be the most ancient term used to designate Tamil territory in the Indian subcontinent, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea referred it as Damirica. The word Tamilakam is today used as synonym for Tamil Nadu, until recently, the interpretation and understanding of Indias past has largely been based on textual sources. According to the Tholkāppiyam, the limits of Tamiḻakam were between the hills of Venkatam in the north and Kanyakumari in the south, tholkappiar, the writer of the Tholkāppiyam, doesnt mention a Tamil part of Sri Lanka. Approximately during the period between 350 BCE to 200 CE, Tamiḻakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties, the Chola dynasty, the Pandyan dynasty and the Chera dynasty, there were also a few independent chieftains, the Velirs. During the time of the Maurya Empire in North India the Cheras, the Pandyas, the earliest datable references to the Tamil kingdoms are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE during the time of the Maurya Empire. The Pandyan dynasty ruled parts of South India until the early 17th century, the heartland of the Pandyas was the fertile valley of the Vaigai River. They initially ruled their country from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, the Chola dynasty ruled from before the Sangam period until the 13th century in central Tamil Nadu. The heartland of the Cholas was the valley of the Kaveri. The Chera dynasty ruled from before the Sangam period until the 12th century over an area corresponding to modern-day western Tamil Nadu, the Vealirs were minor dynastic kings and aristocratic chieftains in Tamiḻakam in the early historic period of South India. Tamiḻakam was divided into regions called Perunadu or Great country. There were three important political regions which were Chera Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandya Nadu, along these three there were two more political regions of Athiyaman Nadu and Thamirabharani Nadu which were later on absorbed into Chera resp. Pandya Nadu by 3rd century BCE, thondai Nadu which was under Chola Nadu, later emerged as independent Pallava Nadu by 6th century ADE
