Aralvaimozhi is a

panchayat town A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,000 ...

Kanniyakumari District Kanniyakumari district is one of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu state and the southernmost district in mainland India. It stands second in terms of population density among the districts of Tamil Nadu. It is also the richest district in Tamil Na ...

in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

, India. It is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

situated in southern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. The town was earlier called as ''Aramboly'' during colonial period.

History

Aralvaimozhi pass was a strategically important gap or mountain pass in the southernmost end of Western Ghats. It connected erstwhile

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...

with

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including th ...

. Many of the invasions faced by the Chera and the successor kingdoms came via this ghat. The name "Aral" was derived from the

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

built and maintained by the rulers of

Venad Venad was a medieval kingdom lying between the Western Ghat mountains and the Arabian Sea on the south-western tip of India with its headquarters at the port city of Kollam/Quilon.Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Is ...

and later by the kingdom of

to defend the kingdom from invasions from the east regions. It is also said that Aralvaimozhi means whispering wind. The whistling sound of wind in the region might have led to such a name. Aralvaimozhi Fort was one of the most important forts of

. It was constructed around 1740 by Eustachius De Lannoy along with Udayagiri Fort, Vattakottai Fort and Travancore lines. The fort was captured by the English East India Company in 1809 from the soldiers loyal to

Velu Thampi Dalawa Velayudhan Chempakaraman Thampi of Thalakulam (1765–1809) was the Dalawa or Prime Minister of the Indian kingdom of Travancore between 1802 and 1809 during the reign of Bala Rama Varma Kulasekhara Perumal. He is best known for being one ...

. The remains of the fort can be seen near railway station, but neglected by both railway and archeology departments.

Culture

During the invasion of Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi in 1311 AD by Malik Kapoor, Meenakshi Amman and Sundareeswarar were brought from Madurai to Venadu and hid in Parakodi Kandan Shasta temple near Aralvaaimozhi. Until 1368, Meenakshi Amman remained in Aralvaimozhi. From there she was taken back to Madurai.

Economy

Its pincode is 629301. Muppandal Wind Farm is located in Aralvaimozhi Town Panchayat. This farm is the largest in Asia and supplies the villagers with electricity for their needs. It is well known for being the greatest source of

wind energy Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

. Poigai Dam, constructed in the year 2000 is serving water for irrigation purposes around the area. For the first time the dam was completely filled with water in 5 nov 2021 making it a wonderful place to visit.

Wind energy

The 1,500 megawatts (MW) Muppandal wind farm is the country's largest onshore wind farm which is the Asia's second largest windfarm. The project features a large number of wind turbines of varying sizes from 200 kilowatts (KW) to 1650KW.

Transportation

Railway station spelled "Aralvaimozhi", with station code AAY is situated here. It is connecting many employees of

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...

_ Mahendragiri campus.

Gallery

Image:Aralvaimozhi-fort-remains1.jpg, Remains of Aralvaimozhi fort found near railway station Image:Aralvaimozhi-fort-remains2.jpg, Remains of Aralvaimozhi fort found near railway station Image:Aralvaimozhy station.jpg, Aralvaimozhi railway station, with the wind-power mills in the background

References

External links

News about heritage grinding stone found at Aralvaimozhi
- reported in '' The Hindu''
Poigai Dam
- In government's Water Resources Information System - Wiki Cities and towns in Kanyakumari district Kanyakumari Tourism in Tamil Nadu {{India-powerstation-stub