Sethiathoppu () 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 ...

Bhuvanagiri, Tamil Nadu Bhuvanagiri is a Taluka in the Cuddalore district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the birthplace of a South Indian saint, Sri Raghavendra Swami and is close to Maruthur, the birthplace of Saint Ramalinga Adigalar. The word Bhuvanagiri ...

. It is situated on a crossroads of the

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 ...

–

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

(

National Highway 24 Route 24, or Highway 24, can refer to: International * European route E24 Australia * Lyell Highway (Tasmania) * Central Arnhem Road, NT Austria * Verbindungsspange Rothneusiedel Canada * Alberta Highway 24 * British Columbia Highway 24 * ...

) highway. The town was established as a civilian town by the

Cholas 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 ...

in the 11th century C.E. According to Tamil scholars, Sethiathoppu was formed as a settlement when Chola king

Rajendra I Rajendra Chola I (; Middle Tamil: Rājēntira Cōḻaṉ; Classical Sanskrit: Rājēndradēva Cōla; Old Malay: ''Raja Suran''; c. 971 CE – 1044 CE), often referred to as Rajendra the Great, and also known as Gangaikonda Chola (Middle Tamil ...

moved his capital from Thanjavur to

Gangaikonda Cholapuram Gaṅgaikoṇḍa Chōḻapuram is a village located near to Jayankondam, Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu, India. It became the capital of the Chola dynasty in c. 1025 by Chola emperor Rajendra I, and served as the capital for around 250 years. ...

, which lies 20 km south. The town is named after Sethiyaar, a landlord, who used to own land in Thoppu, on the banks of the

Vellar River The Vellar River is a river in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It originates in the Kalrayan Hills, and flows generally eastward through Salem, Perambalur, and Cuddalore districts, before flowing into the Bay of Bengal near Parangipettai. The r ...

Demographics

According to the

2001 Census of India The 2001 Census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871. The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females. Total population increased by 18 ...

, Sethiyathoppu had a population of 7,962. Males constituted 52% of the population and females 48%. The town had an average literacy rate of 72%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; male literacy was 80% and female literacy was 64%. 10% of the population was under six years of age.

References

{{Cuddalore District Cities and towns in Cuddalore district