Chidambaram
| Chidambaram சிதம்பரம் |
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| State : |
 India
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| State : | Tamil Nadu | ||
| District : | Cuddalore | ||
| Sub-district : | Chidambaram | ||
| Location : | 11 ° 24 ' N , 79 ° 42' E | ||
| Height : | 11 m | ||
| Residents : | 62,153 (2011) | ||
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Chidambaram ( Tamil : சிதம்பரம் Citamparam [ ˈtʃid̪ʌmbəɾʌm ]; also Tillai ) is a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu with around 62,000 inhabitants. It is of supraregional importance because of the Nataraja Temple , which is considered one of the holiest places in Hinduism . Furthermore, located in the suburb Annamalai Nagar the Annamalai University .
geography
location
Chidambaram is located in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu state about 250 kilometers south of the capital Chennai (Madras). Chidambaram is the capital of the taluk of the same name in the Cuddalore district. The next largest city is Cuddalore about 40 kilometers north, to Puducherry (Pondicherry) it is about 60 kilometers. Chidambaram is located in the middle of a flat landscape on the northern edge of the Kaveri Delta in the hinterland of the Coromandel coast . The Kollidam , the largest estuary of the Kaveri, lies around six kilometers south , and the Vellar River flows five kilometers north . It is around 16 kilometers to the coast of the Bay of Bengal . The mangrove forests of Pichavaram extend between Chidambaram and the sea coast .
topography
The Nataraja Temple forms the center of Chidambaram. It is surrounded by several concentric ring roads, cross roads run axially towards the temple entrances. The innermost of the road rings is formed by the streets East Car Street , South Car Street , West Car Street and North Car Street . The streets are noticeably wide at 18 meters. They are used at the temple festivals for the large processions. The name Car Street comes from the large temple wagons (English: car ) that are pulled around the temple and parked for the rest of the time on East Car Street opposite the east entrance of the temple. With its urban layout based on the Nataraja temple, Chidambaram embodies the type of the classic south Indian temple city, although not with the same regularity as the ideal example of Srirangam .
The residential quarters of Chidambaram are traditionally separated by castes . The higher the position of a caste, the closer its quarter is to the temple: The priests of the Nataraja Temple live in the area directly between the temple wall and Car Street, in the next concentric areas are the traditional quarters of other Brahmin casts followed by other social groups in descending order of precedence.
history
Originally the name was Chidambarams Tillai , after a type of mangrove ( Excoecaria agallocha ) that still grows in the mangrove forests near the city. The name Chidambaram is derived from the Tamil form of the name Chitrambalam ("small hall") and originally referred to the central sanctuary of the Nataraja temple. Later the name was reinterpreted as the Sanskrit word Chidambaram ("sphere of knowledge") and transferred to the entire city.
The early history of Chidambaram is largely identical to that of the Nataraja Temple. The origins of the city and the temple are largely obscure, but Chidambaram seems to have been a religious center from an early age. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the poets Appar , Sambandar and Sundaramurti praised Tillai as a holy place in their devotional hymns. From the 9th century, the Cholas rose to become the dominant power in South India. The Chola kings chose Nataraja as their family deity and sponsored the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram. Some of the late Chola kings appear to have resided in Chidambaram for an extended period in the 12th century. After the fall of the Chola Empire, Chidambaram was controlled by changing ruling dynasties in the 13th century: first by the local ruler Kopperunjinga (1243–1279), who traced his descent to the Pallava dynasty, then by the Pandya kings residing in Madurai . After Muslim troops from northern India defeated the Pandyas at the beginning of the 14th century and founded the short-lived Sultanate of Madurai , Chidambaram, like all of southern India, came under the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire towards the end of the 14th century .
In the 18th century the influence of the European colonial powers in India increased. During the Carnatic Wars , in which Great Britain and France vied for supremacy in South India, Chidambaram was also the scene of several battles: the French and their allied Marathas conquered the city in 1753 and held it until it was conquered by the British in 1760. In the second Mysore war , Hyder Ali , the ruler of Mysore , took Chidambaram in 1780. Four years later the city fell back to the British and was finally annexed to British India .
temple
The towering attraction of Chidambaram is the Nataraja Temple. He is to the god Shiva in his manifestation as Nataraja ("King of the Dance"), who according to the myth performed his cosmic dance here , the Nataraja Temple, next to the temples in Tiruvannamalai , Madurai and Srirangam , is considered one of the holiest places in Hindus Tamil Nadu and all of India. For Shivaites in Tamil Nadu, the Nataraja Temple is the temple; so when the temple is spoken of, that in Chidambaram is meant.
The temple of Chidambaram is mentioned in poetry as early as the 7th and 8th centuries, but in its current form the Nataraja temple essentially dates from the late period of the Chola dynasty (11th-13th centuries) with some additions from the Pandya and Vijayanagar periods (13th-16th centuries). The temple area extends over an area of over 15 hectares. Four gopurams (gate towers) over 40 meters high form the entrances. In the inner temple area, which is divided into five large courtyards, there are several side shrines, the Sivaganga water basin, the “Hall of a Thousand Pillars” and the central sanctuary. In contrast to most of the temples dedicated to him , Nataraja is not represented in the form of a linga , but as a sculpture in the form of a multi-armed dancing god.
population
Ninety percent of Chidambaram's residents are Hindus , 8 percent Muslim and 1 percent Christian . As in all of Tamil Nadu, the main language is Tamil, which is spoken by 98 percent of the population as their mother tongue.
traffic
Chidambaram is located on the national highway NH 45A , which runs from Viluppuram via Puducherry parallel to the coast to Nagapattinam . Places in the immediate and central area are connected by intercity buses. The buses depart from the bus station on the south-eastern edge of the city. Chidambaram is connected to the railway network via the Viluppuram - Mayiladuthurai - Thanjavur - Tiruchirappalli railway line. The train station is located around two kilometers southeast of the center.
literature
- B. Natarajan: The City of the Cosmic Dance. Chidambaram. New Delhi 1974.
- Vivek Nanda (Ed.): Chidambaram. Home of Nataraja. Mumbai 2004.
- The Imperial Gazetteer of India. London 1908. Keyword Chidambaram Town. Volume 10, p. 218 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Census of India 2011.
- ↑ Vivek Nanda: "Chidambaram: A Ritual Topography", in: Vivek Nanda (Ed.): Chidambaram. Home of Nataraja , Mumbai 2004, p. 20.
- ↑ Nanda 2004, p. 10.
- ^ Paul Younger: The home of dancing Śivaṉ. The traditions of the Hindu temple in Citamparam, New York u. a. 1995, p. 40.
- ^ B. Natarajan: The City of the Cosmic Dance. Chidambaram, New Delhi 1974, p. 63.
- ^ Census of India 2011: C-1 Population By Religious Community. Tamil Nadu.
- ↑ Census of India 2001: C-16 City: Population by Mother Tongue (Tamil Nadu), accessed under Tabulations Plan of Census Year - 2001 .