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Royapuram is a locality in the northern part of the city of
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for its beach, and for Royapuram Railway Station. The station is the first railway station of
south India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...
, opening in 1856, and is today the oldest surviving railway station of the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...


History

The region existed as a well known settlement during the
Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...
times, but the name Royapuram is derived from a Tamil appellation for St. Peter, Royappa, in connection with St. Peter's Church in the area. The region was originally called Rayarapuram named after the Rayar Kings who rules down South. It is also believed that the British / Anglo Indias settled in this locality were called Rayars which lent the name Rayarpuram From the 14th century, the erstwhile Vijayanagara Rulers controlled this region till the Madras land grant to
Francis Day Francis Talbot Day (2 March 1829 – 10 July 1889) was an army surgeon and naturalist in the Madras Presidency who later became the Inspector-General of Fisheries in India and Burma. A pioneer ichthyologist, he described more than three hundre ...
. Royapuram Railway Station was the first railway station constructed in
South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...
and second railway line in
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...
. The first train service commenced in 1856 from here to
Arcot Arcot (natively spelt as Ārkāḍu) is a town and urban area of Ranipet district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Located on the southern banks of Palar River, the city straddles a trade route between Chennai and Bangalore or Salem, betw ...
, the then capital of the
Carnatic region The Carnatic region is the peninsular South Indian region between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, in the erstwhile Madras Presidency and in the modern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh. During the British era ...
.


Politics


State assembly politics


Lok Sabha politics

Royapuram assembly constituency is part of
Chennai North (Lok Sabha constituency) Chennai North is one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Its Tamil Nadu Parliamentary Constituency number is 2 of 39. Formerly it was known as ''Madras North''. Assembly segments After 2009 After delimitation, Chennai ...
.


References

{{Chennai Topics Neighbourhoods in Chennai Coastal neighbourhoods of Chennai