Pudukkottai
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Pudukkottai is a city in Tamil Nadu state of southern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai District.
History
Pudukkottai district was part of the Pandya kingdom, one of the Tamil kingdoms that emerged in southern India in the first millennium BCE. Over the centuries the district was ruled by a succession of Hindu South Indian dynasties, including the Cholas, Pallavas, Hoysalas. The district became part of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century. Vijayanagara fought many wars with the Muslim Deccan sultanates to its north, and in 1565 the allied sultanates decisively defeated Vijayanagara at the Battle of Talikota. The defeat weakened the Vijayanagara Empire, and regional governors, called Nayaks, became de facto local rulers in much of southern India. Pudukkottai was ruled by the Nayaks of Madurai from the mid-16th century to the mid-17th century.
In the mid-17th century the Thondaiman dynasty took control of Pudukkottai. The Thondaimans allied themselves closely with the British in their 18th century wars against France, local Muslim Nawabs, and later the Kingdom of Mysore. Pudukkottai became a princely state of British India under the political authority of Madras Presidency. The state had an area of 1100 sq mi (3000 km²), and a population of 380,000 in 1901. The rajas were entitled to an 11-gun salute. The last Thondaiman raja of Pudukkottai acceded to newly-independent India in 1948, and the state became a division of Tiruchirappalli district of Madras state, renamed Tamil Nadu state in 1968. On 14 January 1974 Pudukkottai district was formed from parts of Tiruchirappalli and Thanjavur districts.
Pudukkottai District
Pudukkottai District is bounded on the northeast and east by Thanjavur District, on the southeast by the Palk Strait, on the southwest by Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga districts, and on the west and northwest by Tiruchirappalli District.
External link
Pudukkottai District web site (http://pudukkottai.nic.in/)
