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Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major
tier II city The ''classification of Indian cities'' is a ranking system used by the Government of India to allocate House Rent Allowance (HRA) to public servants employed in cities in India. HRA is also used by the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to provide in ...
in the
Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...
of
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with being the best livable city and the cleanest city of Tamil Nadu, as well as the fifth safest city for women in India. It is the fourth largest city as well as the fourth largest
urban agglomeration An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
in the state. Located south 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 ...
and north of
Kanyakumari Kanniyakumari (; , referring to Devi Kanya Kumari), also known as Cape Comorin, is a city in Kanniyakumari district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent and the southernmost city in mainland Ind ...
, Tiruchirappalli sits almost at the geographic centre of Tamil Nadu state. The
Cauvery Delta Chola Nadu is a cultural region of the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. It encompasses the lower reaches of the Kaveri River and its delta, and formed the cultural homeland and political base of the Chola Dynasty which ruled large parts of ...
begins west of the city where the
Kaveri river The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dist ...
splits into two, forming the island of
Srirangam Srirangam, is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first amon ...
which is now incorporated into the
Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation which looks after the city administration of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It consists of a legislative and an executive body. The legislative body is headed by ...
. The city occupies an area of and had a population of 916,857 in 2011. Tiruchirappalli's recorded history begins in the 3rd century BC, when it was under the rule of 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 ...
. The city has also been ruled by the
Pallavas The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of South India, the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahanas, Satavahana dynasty, with whom they ...
, Pandyas,
Vijayanagar Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...
,
Nayak Dynasty Nayaka dynasties emerged during the Kakatiya dynasty and the Vijayanagara Empire period. The Nayakas were originally military governors under the Vijayanagara Empire. After the battle of Talikota, several of them declared themselves independent. ...
, the
Carnatic state The Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil ...
and the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
. The most prominent historical monuments in Tiruchirappalli include the Rockfort at
Teppakulam Teppakulam is a locality near the centre of the Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. It consists of a large artificial tank surrounded by bazaars, prominent among which is a flower market. It contains the Thayumanavar Temple and the Sri Naganathar ...
, the Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam dedicated to the reclining form of Hindu God Vishnu, and is also the largest functioning temple in the world, and the Jambukeswarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval, which is also the largest temple for the Hindu God Shiva in the world. The archaeologically important town of
Uraiyur Uraiyur (also spelt Woraiyur) is a posh locality in Tiruchirapalli city in Tamil Nadu, India. Uraiyur was the ancient name of Tiruchirappalli City. Now, it became the one of the busiest area in Trichy City. It was the capital of the early Chola ...
, capital of the
Early Cholas The Early Cholas were a Tamil kingdom of the pre and post Sangam period (600 BCE–300 CE). It was one of the three main kingdoms of South India. Their early capitals were Urayur or Tiruchirapalli and Kaveripattinam. Along with Pandyas and ...
, is now a neighbourhood in Tiruchirappalli. The city played a critical role in the
Carnatic Wars The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763. The conflicts involved n ...
(1746–1763) between the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
and the French East India companies. The city is an important educational centre in the state of Tamil Nadu, and houses nationally recognised institutions such as
National Institutes of Technology The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are the central government-owned-public technical institutes under the ownership of Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the National Institutes of Technology, Science ...
(NIT),
Indian Institutes of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busine ...
(IIM) National Law Universities (NLU), and
Indian Institutes of Information Technology Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) are a group of 26 interdisciplinary technology-based- engineering research institutions in India which are focused on information technology. Five of them are established, funded and managed ...
(IIIT) Srirangam. Industrial units such as
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India' ...
(BHEL),
Golden Rock Railway Workshop The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (officially the Central Workshop, Golden Rock, abbreviated GOC), in Ponmalai (Golden Rock), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is one of three railway workshops serving Indian Railways' Southern Railway zone. The w ...
,
Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli (OFT), also called Ordnance Factory Trichy, is a small arms factory operated by Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited based in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, which was previously part of Ordnance Factory Bo ...
(OFT) and
High Energy Projectile Factory The High Energy Projectile Factory (HEPF) is an artillery ammunition factory operated by Munitions India Limited. It was previously part the erstwhile Ordnance Factories Board of the Government of India the factory is located about 25 kilometre ...
(HEPF) have their factories in the city. The presence of a large number of energy equipment manufacturing units in and around the city has earned it the title of "Energy Equipment and Fabrication Capital of India". Tiruchirappalli is internationally known for a brand of ''
cheroot The cheroot is a filterless cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular. The word 'cheroot' probably comes via Portugu ...
'' known as the
Trichinopoly cigar Trichinopoly cigar, also called Trichies or Tritchies, is a type of cheroot associated with the town of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. The Trichinopoly cigar was actually manufactured from tobacco grown near the town of Dindigul near the pr ...
, which was exported in large quantities to the United Kingdom during the 19th century. A major road and railway hub in the state, the city is served by the
Tiruchirappalli International Airport Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ, ICAO: VOTR) is an international airport serving Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The airport spread over an area of is located on National Highway 336, about south of the ci ...
(TRZ) which operates flights to the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.


Etymology

Historically, Tiruchirappalli was commonly referred to in English as "Trichinopoly". The shortened forms "Trichy" or "Tiruchi" are used in everyday speech and the full name Tiruchirapalli appears in official use by government and quasi-government offices but seldom used by the general public. According to the late scholar C. P. Brown, Tiruchirappalli might be a derivative of the word ''Chiruta-palli'' (lit. "little town").
Orientalists In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
Henry Yule Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Oriental studies, Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican ...
and
Arthur Coke Burnell Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 184012 October 1882) was an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency who was also a scholar in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. He catalogued the Sanskrit manuscripts in southern India, particularl ...
have speculated that the name may derive from a rock inscription carved in the 16th century in which Tiruchirappalli is written as ''Tiru-ssila-palli'', meaning "holy-rock-town" in
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
. Other scholars have suggested that the name Tiruchirappalli is a rewording of ''Tiru-chinna-palli'', meaning "holy little town". The ''Madras Glossary'' gives the root as ''Tiruććināppalli'' or the "holy (''tiru'') village (''palli'') of the ''shina'' (''
Cissampelos pareira ''Cissampelos pareira'' (velvetleaf) is a species of flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae. Morphology It is a slender tomentose climber. The leaves are peltate, 2.5–12 cm long, 2.5–11.5 cm broad, triangularly broad-ovate ...
'') plant". According to
Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and reg ...
, Tiruchirappalli derives its name from the three-headed demon ''Trishira'', who meditated on the Hindu god
Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
near the present-day city to obtain favours from the god. An alternative derivation, albeit not universally accepted, is that the source of the city's name is the
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word "Trishirapuram"—''
Trishira Trishira ( Sanskrit: त्रिशिर, IAST: triśira, lit. ''he who has three heads'') was a Rakshasa (a demon), and reference to him is found in the Ramayana. He was one of the sons of Ravana and Dhanyamalini and his brothers are Atikaya ...
'', meaning "three-headed", and ''palli'' or ''puram'' meaning "city".


History


Early and medieval history

Tiruchirappalli is one of the oldest inhabited cities in
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
; its earliest settlements date back to the Sangam period.
Uraiyur Uraiyur (also spelt Woraiyur) is a posh locality in Tiruchirapalli city in Tamil Nadu, India. Uraiyur was the ancient name of Tiruchirappalli City. Now, it became the one of the busiest area in Trichy City. It was the capital of the early Chola ...
, the capital of the Early Cholas for 600 years from the 3rd century BC onwards, is a neighbourhood in the present-day Tiruchirappalli. The city is referred to as Orthoura by the historian
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
in his 2nd-century work ''
Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
''. The world's oldest surviving dam, the
Kallanai Kallanai (also known as the Grand Anicut) is an ancient dam. It is built (in running water) across the Kaveri river flowing from Tiruchirapalli District to Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. The dam located in Thanjavur district. Locate ...
(Lower Anaicut) about from Uraiyur, was built across the Kaveri River by
Karikala Chola Karikala ( ta, கரிகால சோழன்) was a Tamils, Tamil Chola dynasty, Chola Emperor who ruled southern India. He is credited with the construction of the flood banks of the Kaveri, river Kaveri. He is recognised as the greates ...
in the 2nd century AD. Tiruchirappalli Rock Fort, the rock is said to be one of the oldest formations in the world. It is 3.8 billion years old, as it is older than
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
and
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
. The medieval history of Tiruchirappalli begins with the reign of the Pallava king
Mahendravarman I Mahendravarman I (600–630 CE) was a Pallava emperor who ruled the Southern portion of present-day Andhra region and Northern regions of what forms present-day Tamil Nadu in India in the early 7th century. He was a scholar, painter, architect ...
, who ruled over South India in the 6th century AD and constructed the rock-cut cave-temples within the Rockfort. Following the downfall of the Pallavas in the 8th century, the city was conquered by the
Medieval Cholas Medieval Cholas rose to prominence during the middle of the 9th century CE and established one of the greatest empires of South India. They successfully united South India under their rule and through their naval strength extended their influen ...
, who ruled until the 13th century. After the decline of the Cholas, Tiruchirappalli was conquered by the Pandyas, who ruled from 1216 until their defeat in 1311 by
Malik Kafur Malik Kafur (died 1316), also known as Taj al-Din Izz al-Dawla, was a prominent slave-general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He was captured by Alauddin's general Nusrat Khan during the 1299 invasion of Gujarat, and rose to promi ...
, the commander of
Allauddin Khilji Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrative ...
. The victorious armies of the
Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).
are believed to have plundered and ravaged the region. The statue of the Hindu god
Ranganatha Ranganatha, also known as Ranganathar, Rangan, Aranganathar, Sri Ranga, and Thenarangathan, is a Hindu deity with his origin in South India, serving as the chief deity of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. The deity is a resting form of ...
in the temple of
Srirangam Srirangam, is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first amon ...
vanished at about this time and was not recovered and reinstated for more than fifty years. Tiruchirappalli was ruled by the Delhi and
Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...
sultanates from 1311 to 1378, but by the middle of the 14th century the Madurai Sultanate had begun to fall apart. Gradually, the Vijayanagar Empire established supremacy over the northern parts of the kingdom, and Tiruchirappalli was taken by the Vijayanagar prince Kumara Kampanna Udaiyar in 1371. The Vijayanagar Empire ruled the region from 1378 until the 1530s, and played a prominent role in reviving Hinduism by reconstructing temples and monuments destroyed by the previous Muslim rulers. Following the collapse of the Vijayanagar Empire in the early part of the 16th century, the Madurai Nayak kingdom began to assert its independence. The city flourished during the reign of
Vishwanatha Nayak Viswanatha Nayak was the Vijayanagara viceroy to Madurai in south India during the 16th century. He later became the ruler of Madurai after the fall of the Vijayanagara empire. He is the founder of the Nayak dynasty of Madurai.Saints, Goddesses ...
(c. 1529–1564), who is said to have protected the area by constructing the
Teppakulam Teppakulam is a locality near the centre of the Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. It consists of a large artificial tank surrounded by bazaars, prominent among which is a flower market. It contains the Thayumanavar Temple and the Sri Naganathar ...
and building walls around the Srirangam temple. His successor
Kumara Krishnappa Nayak Kumara Krishnappa Nayak was a ruler of the Madurai Nayak dynasty. He was the successor of King Vishwanatha Nayak. He started ruling the country after his father's death in 1564. He made Tiruchirapalli as his capital. Expansion of the dynasty Und ...
a made Tiruchirappalli his capital, and it served as the capital of the Madurai Nayak kingdom from 1616 to 1634 and from 1665 to 1736. In 1736 the last Madurai Nayak ruler,
Meenakshi Meenakshi (Sanskrit: ; Tamil: ; sometimes spelled as Minakshi; also known as , and ), is a Hindu goddess and tutelary deity of Madurai who is considered an avatar of the Goddess Parvati also referred to as Durga. She is the divine consort of ...
, committed suicide, and Tiruchirappalli was conquered by
Chanda Sahib Chanda Sahib (died 12 June 1752) was a subject of the Mughal Empire and the Nawab of the Carnatic between 1749 and 1752. Initially he was supported by the French during the Carnatic Wars. After his defeat at Arcot in 1751, he was captured by ...
. He ruled the kingdom from 1736 to 1741, when he was captured and imprisoned by the
Marathas The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...
in the siege of Tiruchirappalli (1741) led by general
Raghuji Bhonsle Raghoji Bhonsle or Raghoji I Bhonsale or Raghuji the Great (1695 – February 1755) of the Bhonsale dynasty, was a Maratha general who took control of the Nagpur Kingdom in east-central India during the reign of Shahu I. His successors rule ...
under the orders of
Chhattrapati Shahu Chhatrapati Shahu Bhosale I (Pronunciation: aːɦuː CE) was the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire founded by his grandfather, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Born into the Bhonsle family, he was the son of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj ...
. Chanda Sahib remained prisoner for about eight years before making his escape from the Maratha Empire. Tiruchirappalli was administered by the Maratha general
Murari Rao Murari Rao Ghorpade (1699-1779), known simply as Murari Rao, was an army general in the Maratha Army from Gooty who administered the fort of Tiruchirappalli and surrounding areas from 1741 to 1743. His administration marks the only period of Marat ...
from 1741 to 1743, when it was acquired by the
Nizam of Hyderabad The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...
, who bribed Rao to hand over the city. Nizam appointed Khwaja Abdullah as the ruler and returned to
Golkonda Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparud ...
. When the
Nawab of the Carnatic The Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil N ...
Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, or Muhammed Ali, Wallajah (7 July 1717 – 13 October 1795), was the Nawab of the Carnatic from 1749 until his death in 1795. He declared himself Nawab in 1749. This position was disputed between Wallajah and Ch ...
was dethroned by Chanda Sahib after the
Battle of Ambur The Battle of Ambur (3 August 1749) was the first major battle of the Second Carnatic War. The battle was initiated by Muzaffar Jung and supported by Joseph François Dupleix and led by Chanda Sahib, who sought to overthrow Anwaruddin Muhammed K ...
(1749), the former fled to Tiruchirappalli, where he set up his base. The subsequent siege of Tiruchirappalli (1751–1752) by Chanda Sahib took place during the
Second Carnatic War The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763. The conflicts involved ...
between the
British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
and Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah on one side and Chanda Sahib and the
French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in the ...
on the other. The British were victorious and Wallajah was restored to the throne. During his reign he proposed renaming the city Natharnagar after the Sufi saint
Nathar Vali Sultan Syed Shah Mutaharuddin Suhrawardi (969–1039), also called Dada Hayat Mir Qalandar or Nathar Wali or Nadir Shah, was a Muslim mystic and preacher from the Middle East who migrated to Tamil Nadu in the 11th-century, where he travelled fr ...
, who is thought to have lived there in the 12th century AD. Tiruchirappalli was invaded by
Nanjaraja Wodeyar Nanjaraja Wodeyar (Nanjaraja Wodeyar Bahadur; 1748 – 2 August 1770) was the nineteenth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore for only four years, from 1766 to 1770, as puppet under ''sarvadhikari'' Hyder Ali, like his father was. Life He was eld ...
in 1753 and
Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the att ...
of the
Mysore kingdom The Kingdom of Mysore was a realm in southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. From 1799 until 1950, it was a princely state, until 1947 in a subsidiary alliance with Brit ...
in 1780, both attacks repulsed by the troops of the British East India Company. A third invasion attempt, by
Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...
—son of Hyder Ali—in 1793, was also unsuccessful; he was pursued by British forces led by
William Medows General Sir William Medows KB (31 December 1738 – 14 November 1813) was an Englishman and a general in the British Army. He entered the army in 1756 and saw action in North America, the Cape, and India. In 1788 he was appointed Governor of Bom ...
, who thwarted the attack.


British rule

The Carnatic kingdom was annexed by the British in July 1801 as a consequence of the discovery of collusion between Tipu Sultan—an enemy of the British—and Umdat Ul-Umra, son of Wallajah and the
Nawab Nawab (Balochi language, Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi language, Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian language, Persian, Punjabi language, Punjabi , Sindhi language, Sindhi, Urd ...
at the time, during the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99. This was the final conflict of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured ...
. Trichinopoly was incorporated into the
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 the ...
the same year, and the district of
Trichinopoly Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...
was formed, with the city of Trichinopoly (or Tiruchirappalli) as its capital. During the
Company Raj Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...
and later the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, Tiruchirappalli emerged as one of the most important cities in India. According to the 1871 Indian census—the first in British India—Tiruchirappalli had a population of 76,530, making it the second largest city in the presidency after the capital of Madras (now Chennai). It was known throughout the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
for its unique variety of ''cheroot'', known as the
Trichinopoly cigar Trichinopoly cigar, also called Trichies or Tritchies, is a type of cheroot associated with the town of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. The Trichinopoly cigar was actually manufactured from tobacco grown near the town of Dindigul near the pr ...
. Tiruchirappalli was the first headquarters for the newly formed
South Indian Railway Company The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951. History The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company was ...
in 1874 until its relocation to
Madras 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 ...
in the early 20th century. File:Town and Fort of Trichinopoly p.302.jpg, alt=The town and fort of Trichinopoly photographed in 1840, The town and fort of Trichinopoly c. 1840 File:The tank and Rockfort Trichinopoly.jpg, alt=The Teppakulam and Rockfort photographed in 1860, Rockfort and Teppakulam, c. 1860


Contemporary and modern history

Tiruchirappalli played an active role during the pre-independence era; there were a number of strikes and non-violent protests during the
Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...
, notably the South Indian Railway Strike that took place in 1928. The city was the base for the Vedaranyam salt march initiated by
C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...
in parallel with the
Dandi March The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...
in 1930. Tiruchirappalli was an epicentre of the
anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu The anti-Hindi-imposition agitations in Tamil Nadu were a series of agitations that happened in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State and part of Madras Presidency) during both pre- and post-independence periods. The agitations ...
when a team of Tamil language supporters gathered and organised a rally from the city to Madras in
1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...
. Later in 1965, Tiruchirappalli was made the base of the "Madras state Anti-Hindi Conference" convened by C. Rajagopalachari. The population of Tiruchirappalli continued to grow rapidly, achieving a growth rate of 36.9% during the period 1941–51. After independence in 1947, Tiruchirappalli fell behind other cities such as Salem and
Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...
in terms of growth. Tiruchirappalli remained a part of
Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and c ...
, which was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. The city underwent extensive economic development in the 1960s with the commissioning of
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India' ...
. In the early 1980s,
M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...
, then
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu The chief minister of Tamil Nadu is the chief executive of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with th ...
drafted a plan to move the state's administrative headquarters to Tiruchirappalli. A
satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have muni ...
was developed near Navalpattu on the outskirts of the city, but the proposed move was shelved by successive governments. Like much of Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli remains prone to communal tensions based on religion and ethnicity. There have been occasional outbreaks of violence against Sri Lankans. In 2009, the offices of a Sri Lankan airline were attacked in the city. In September 2012, two groups of Sri Lankan pilgrims who had visited the
Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, also known as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Velankanni, is a Marian shrine located at the town of Velankanni in Tamil Nadu, India. The place is also a minor basilica of the Latin Catholic Church dedicated to Ou ...
in
Velankanni Velankanni (''Vēḷāṅkaṇṇi''), is a Special Grade Panchayat Town in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, 350 km south of Chennai (Madras), 12 km south of ...
and the Poondi Madha Basilica had their buses attacked in Tiruchirappalli by a group of Tamil activists. Owing to a series of terrorist attacks in Indian cities since 2000, security has been increased at sites such as Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.


Geography and climate

Tiruchirappalli is situated in central south-eastern India, almost at the geographic centre of the state of Tamil Nadu. The
Cauvery Delta Chola Nadu is a cultural region of the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. It encompasses the lower reaches of the Kaveri River and its delta, and formed the cultural homeland and political base of the Chola Dynasty which ruled large parts of ...
begins to form west of the city where the river divides into two streams—the
Kaveri The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
and the Kollidam—to form the island of Srirangam. By road it is south of
Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
, south-west of Chennai and south-east of
Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
. The topology of Tiruchirappalli is almost flat with an average elevation of . A few isolated hillocks rise above the surface, the highest of which is the Rockfort; its estimated age of 3,800 million years makes it one of the oldest rocks in the world. Other prominent hillocks include the Golden Rock,
Khajamalai Khajamalai ( ta, காஜாமலை) or Kajamalai is a suburb in the city of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Khajamalai gets its name from the rock or hill lock located at the heart of the locality. Muslim Sufi Saint Khwaja Syed Ahmed Sha ...
, and one each at Uyyakondan Thirumalai and
Thiruverumbur Thiruverumbur (also spelt as Tiruverambur) is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirapalli (Trichy or Tiruchi) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was merged with the Tiruchirappalli Corporation in 2011. Demographics India census, Thiruver ...
. Apart from
Kaveri The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
and its tributary Kollidam, the city is also drained by the Uyyakondan Channel, Koraiyar and
Kudamurutti river Kudamurutti River a tributary of the Kaveri, is one of the five sacred rivers flows in Thiruvaiyaru in the Thanjavur District of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Kudamurutti River joins the Cauvery River at Tiruchirapalli. Ancient na ...
channels. The land immediately surrounding the Kaveri River—which crosses Tiruchirappalli from west to east—consists of deposits of fertile alluvial soil on which crops such as
finger millet ''Eleusine coracana'', or finger millet, also known as ragi in India, kodo in Nepal, is an annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and self-pollinating species p ...
and
maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
are cultivated. Further south, the surface is covered by poor-quality black soil. A belt of
Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
rock known as the Trichinopoly Group runs to the north-east of the city, and to the south-east there are layers of archaean rocks,
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
and
gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...
covered by a thin bed of conglomeratic
laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
. The region falls under Seismic Zone III, which is moderately vulnerable to earthquakes.


Urban structure

The city of Tiruchirappalli lies on the plains between the
Shevaroy Hills The Selvarayan hills, with the anglicised name Shevaroy Hills, are a towering mountain range (1620 m) near the city of Salem, in Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is one of the major hill stations in Tamil Nadu and in the Eastern Ghats. The loc ...
to the north and the
Palani Hills The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the hi ...
to the south and south-west. Tiruchirappalli is completely surrounded by agricultural fields. Densely populated industrial and residential areas have recently been built in the northern part of the city, and the southern edge also has residential areas. The older part of Tiruchirappalli, within the Rockfort, is unplanned and congested while the adjoining newer sections are better executed. Many of the old houses in Srirangam were constructed according to the shilpa sastras, the canonical texts of Hindu temple architecture.


Climate

Tiruchirappalli experiences a dry-summer
tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: ''As''), with no major change in temperature between summer and winter. The climate is generally characterised by high temperature and low humidity. With an annual mean temperature of and monthly average temperatures ranging between and , the city is the hottest in the state. The warmest months are from April to June, when the city experiences frequent dust storms. , the highest temperature ever recorded in Tiruchirappalli was , which occurred on 2 May 1896; the lowest was observed on 6 February 1884 at . The high temperatures in the city have been attributed to the presence of two rivers—Kaveri and Kollidam—and the absence of greenery around the city. As Tiruchirappalli is on the
Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...
the days are extremely warm and dry; evenings are cooler because of cold winds that blow from the south-east. From June to September, the city experiences a moderate climate tempered by heavy rain and thundershowers. Rainfall is heaviest between October and December because of the north-east
monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
winds, and from December to February the climate is cool and moist. The average annual rainfall is , slightly lower than the state's average of . Fog and dew are rare and occur only during the winter season.


Demographics

According to the
2011 Indian census The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...
, Tiruchirappalli had a population of 847,387, 9.4% of whom were under the age of six, living in 214,529 families within the municipal corporation limits. The recorded population density was while the
sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...
was 975 males for every 1,000 females. The Tiruchirappalli urban agglomeration had a population of 1,022,518, and was ranked the fourth largest in Tamil Nadu and the 53rd in India as of 2011. The city had an average literacy rate of 91.37%, significantly higher than the national average of 73.00%.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
accounted for 10.48% and 0.27% of the population respectively. There were 228,518 people, roughly constituting about 26.96% of the total population, who lived in slums in the city. The daily
floating population Floating population is a terminology used to describe a group of people who reside in a given population for a certain amount of time and for various reasons, but are not generally considered part of the official census count. A population is usual ...
of the city was estimated at around 250,000. The city's population is predominantly
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
.
Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
constitute about twenty percent, and there is also a considerable Christian population.
Sikhs Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...
and
Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
are present in smaller numbers.
Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in Tiruchirappalli are affiliated to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiruchirapalli The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiruchirapalli/Trichy ( la, Tiruchirapolitan(us)) is a diocese located in the city of Tiruchirapalli in the Ecclesiastical province of Madurai in India. History * 1606: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Ma ...
while
Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
are affiliated to the Trichy–Tanjore Diocese of the
Church of South India The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of mainline Protestant denominations in South India after independence. The Church of South India is the successor of a number of Pr ...
. The most widely spoken language is
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
, but there are significant numbers of
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
,
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
,
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
and
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
speakers. Saurashtra is also spoken by some significant minorities. The standard dialect of Tamil spoken is the
Central Tamil dialect The Central Tamil dialect is a dialect of Tamil spoken in the districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Karur and Tiruchirapalli in central Tamil Nadu, India and to some extent, in the neighbouring Cuddalore and Pudukkottai district P ...
. There is also a substantial population of
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
s, and Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, most of whom are housed in refugee camps on the outskirts of the city.


Administration and politics

Covering , the municipality of Tiruchirappalli was inaugurated under the Town Improvements Act 1865 on 1 November 1866; it originally consisted of two ex-officers and nine nominated members. Council elections were introduced in 1877 and the first chairman was elected in 1889. The municipality was upgraded to a
municipal corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...
as per the Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation Act 1994 by inclusion of the erstwhile Srirangam and Golden Rock municipalities. Covering , the municipal corporation comprises 65 wards and four administrative zones; these are Srirangam,
Ariyamangalam Ariyamangalam ( ta, ௮ரியமங்கலம்) is one of the four zones of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. One of SIDCO's two Tiruchirappalli-based industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trad ...
, Golden Rock and
Abhishekapuram Abhishekapuram ( ta, அபிஷேகபுரம்) is a suburb of the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It constitutes one of the four zones of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal C ...
. Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation Council, the legislative body, comprises 65 councillors elected from each of the 65 wards and is headed by a mayor assisted by a
Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments. Duties and functions Many elected dep ...
. The executive wing has seven departments—general administration, revenue, town planning, engineering, public health, information technology and personnel—and is headed by a City Commissioner. The Commissioner is assisted by two executive engineers for the east and west sections, and Assistant Commissioners for personnel, accounts and revenue departments, a public relations officer, a city engineer, a city health officer and an Assistant Commissioner for each of the four zones. A Local Planning Authority for Tiruchirappalli was created on 5 April 1974 as per the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act of 1971 with the District Collector of Tiruchirappalli as chairman and the assistant director of Town and Country Planning as its member secretary. The city of Tiruchirappalli is represented in the
Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post voting, First-past-the-post system. The pres ...
by Nine elected members, one each for the Tiruchirappalli East, Tiruchirappalli West,
Srirangam Srirangam, is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first amon ...
,
Thiruverumbur Thiruverumbur (also spelt as Tiruverambur) is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirapalli (Trichy or Tiruchi) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was merged with the Tiruchirappalli Corporation in 2011. Demographics India census, Thiruver ...
, Musiri, Lalgudi, Manapparai, Thuraiyur and Manachanallur constituencies.
J.Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...
, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, represented the Srirangam constituency between 2011 and 2015. Tiruchirappalli is also part of the
Tiruchirappalli Lok Sabha constituency Tiruchirappalli is a Lok Sabha (Parliament of India) constituency in Tamil Nadu. Its Tamil Nadu Parliamentary Constituency number is 24 of 39. Assembly segments The Tiruchirappalli Lok Sabha constituency is composed of the following assembly se ...
and once every five years, elects a member to the
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
the lower house of the
Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...
. The Lok Sabha seat has been held by the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
for four terms (1957–62, 1984–89, 1989–91 and 1991–96), the
Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...
(1962–67, 1971–77 and 1977–80) and the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the  union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...
(2001–04, 2009–14 and 2014–present) for three terms each) and
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
(1998–99 and 1999–2001) for two terms each. Candidates from the
Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...
,
Tamil Maanila Congress The Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (; TMC(M)) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is founded by the former Member of Parliament of the Republic of India G. K. Moopanar on 29 March 1996 as a breakaway fac ...
and the
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( 'Renaissance Dravidian Progressive Federation') is a political party active in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after ...
have won once each. Indian politician
Rangarajan Kumaramangalam Phanindranath Rangarajan Kumaramangalam (12 May 1952 – 23 August 2000) was a prominent politician of the Indian National Congress and later the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from the Salem constituency from 1 ...
, who served as the Minister of Power in the government of
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tiruchirappalli in the 1998 and 1999 elections. Law and order are enforced by the Tamil Nadu police, which for administrative purposes, has constituted Tiruchirappalli city as a separate district, divided into 18 zonal offices and units, with a total of 38 police stations. Click on the "Commissioner Office" tab to get the name and contact details of police commissioner of Tiruchirappalli city district. The Tiruchirappalli city police force is headed by a Commissioner of police assisted by Deputy Commissioners. Law and order in suburban areas is enforced by the Tiruchirappalli district police. It has the lowest proportion of rape and murder cases in the state.


Utility services

Electricity supply to the city is regulated and distributed by the
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (abbreviated as TNEB) is a power generation and distribution company owned by Government of Tamil Nadu, India. It was created as a regulated monopoly under section 131 of the Electricity Act (2003) as a successor o ...
(TNEB). Tiruchirappalli is the headquarters of the Trichy region of TNEB. The city and its suburbs form the Trichy Metro Electricity Distribution Circle, which is subdivided into six divisions. A chief distribution engineer is stationed at the regional headquarters at
Tennur Tennur ( ta, தென்னூர்) is a business locality in the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated close to the Mahatma Gandhi market and forms a part of the Abhishekapuram zone of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Co ...
. Water supply is provided by the Tiruchirappalli City Corporation. The city gets its drinking water supply from the Kaveri River and 1,470 bore wells linked to 60 service reservoirs in and around the city. Four of the six head works from which the city gets its water supply are maintained by the municipal corporation and the rest by other agencies. Pollution has been a major concern in Tiruchirappalli. The
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board is the governing body to monitor and control air, noise, and water pollution in the state of Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area an ...
has set up five stations in the city to check the quality of air. As of 2012, about of solid waste are produced in the city every day. Solid waste management in the city is handled by the corporation; places such as the Gandhi Market, Central Bus terminus and the Chathram bus terminus are being monitored by other agencies. The principal landfill is at Ariyamangalam. Waste water management in the Trichy-Srirangam underground drainage (UGD) areas is handled by the
Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board) is a public agency formed by the Government of Tamil Nadu, under the Ministry of Local Administration and Water Supply, assigned with the task of implementing all water supply and sewerage ...
(TWAD) and in other areas by the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. As of 2013, there were a total of 40,580 UGD connections maintained by the municipal corporation. In 2020, it is estimated that 31% of the city is covered under a networked sewage system, however, as of September 2020 the corporation has fast-tracked its project to cover the entire city, funded jointly by urban local body, Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (Tufidco) and Asian Development Bank. The high toxicity of the waste water released by the Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL) is a major cause of concern for the corporation. The corporation's annual expenditure for the year 2010–11 was estimated to be . In 2013, researchers from Bharathidasan University assessed water quality in the Tiruchirappalli area and concluded that although the quality of the groundwater was suitable for human consumption, the quality of the pond water in the city was "not fit for human usage, agricultural or industrial purposes". Under the National Urban Sanitation Policy, Tiruchirappalli was ranked sixth in India and first in Tamil Nadu on the basis of sanitation for the year 2009–10. In January 2010, Tiruchirappalli became the first city in India where open defecation was prevented in all its slums. In a 2016 survey conducted by the
Ministry of Urban Development The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a ministry of the Government of India with executive authority over the formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in Ind ...
, as a part of the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management. It is a restructured version of ...
campaign, Tiruchirappalli was ranked third in the
list of cleanest cities in India The Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India, annually publish National City Rating under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme. The rating includes around 500 cities, covering 72 p ...
. Under the ease of living index 2018 published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Tiruchirappalli was ranked twelfth in India and first in Tamil Nadu among the 111 cities considered. The ranking framework was categorised into four pillars, namely Institutional, Social, Economic and Physical, which comprised 78 indicators such as urban transport, waste water management, solid waste management and governance. Tiruchirappalli comes under the Tiruchi Telecom District of the
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Bharat, or Bharath, may refer to: * Bharat (term), the name for India in various Indian languages ** Bharata Khanda, the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent (or South Asia) * Bharata, the name of several legendary figures or groups: ** Bha ...
(BSNL), India's state-owned telecom and internet services provider. There are about 20,000 business telephone subscribers in the city. Both Global System for Mobile Communications (
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...
) and
Code division multiple access Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
(CDMA) mobile services are available. BSNL also provides broadband internet services. BSNL began offering wireless internet services with the commencement of
Evolution-Data Optimized Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard which su ...
(EVDO) transmission in 2008. Tiruchirappalli is one of the few cities in India where BSNL's Caller Line Identification (CLI)-based internet service Netone is available. Softnet (STPI), Tata VSNL, Bharti and Reliance are other major broadband internet service providers in the city. Tiruchirappalli has a regional passport office, the second in Tamil Nadu, which commenced its operations on 23 March 1983 bifurcated from Chennai region. After Coimbatore and Madurai regional office were established in late 2000s by bifurcating from Trichy region, currently the office caters to the needs of Trichy and seven adjacent districts namely,
Karur Karur () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Karur is the administrative headquarters of Karur district. It is located on the banks of River Amaravathi, Kaveri and Noyyal. Karur is well known for the export of Home Textile products to ...
, Nagappattinam, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Ariyalur and Tiruvarur.


Economy

During British rule, Tiruchirappalli was known for its tanneries, cigar-manufacturing units and oil presses. At its peak, more than 12 million cigars were manufactured and exported annually. Tanned hides and skins from Tiruchirappalli were exported to the United Kingdom. The city has a number of retail and wholesale markets, the most prominent among them being the Gandhi Market, which also serves people from other parts of the district. Other notable markets in the city are the flower bazaar in Srirangam and the mango market at Mambazha Salai. The suburb of
Manachanallur Mannachanallur is a Taluk and Town in Tiruchirappalli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Mannachanallur is famous for rice mills Demographics India census, Mannachanallur had a population of 25,931. Males constitute 49% of the popula ...
is known for its rice mills, where polished '' Ponni'' rice is produced. Tiruchirappalli is a major engineering equipment manufacturing and fabrication hub in India. The
Golden Rock Railway Workshop The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (officially the Central Workshop, Golden Rock, abbreviated GOC), in Ponmalai (Golden Rock), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is one of three railway workshops serving Indian Railways' Southern Railway zone. The w ...
, which moved to Tiruchirappalli from
Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...
in 1928, is one of the three railway
workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...
–cum–production units in Tamil Nadu. The workshops produced 650 conventional and low-container flat wagons during 2007–2008. A high-pressure boiler manufacturing plant was set up by
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India' ...
(BHEL), India's largest public sector engineering company, in May 1965. This was followed by a
seamless Seamless may refer to: * Seamless (company), an online food ordering company * "Seamless", a 2015 song by Sabrina Carpenter from '' Eyes Wide Open'' * "Seamless", a song by American Head Charge from the 1999 album ''Trepanation'' and the 2001 alb ...
steel plant and a boiler auxiliaries plant. In 2010, the Tiruchirappalli unit of the company contributed to nearly 30 per cent of its total sales, making it the largest of all units. As of 2011, the Tiruchirappalli division employed about 10,000 people, and is supported by a number of ancillary industries producing almost of fabricated materials. These ancillary units together with BHEL contribute nearly 60 per cent of India's steel fabrication, earning the city the title, "Energy equipment and fabrication capital of India". Other important industries in Tiruchirappalli include Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL), which was established at
Senthaneerpuram Senthaneerpuram is an industrial neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It forms a part of the Golden Rock zone of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. The Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL) was ...
in the former Golden Rock municipality in 1966. and the Trichy Steel Rolling Mills, which was started as a private limited company on 27 June 1961. The Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited manufactures
rectified spirit Rectified spirit, also known as neutral spirits, rectified alcohol or ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, is highly concentrated ethanol that has been purified by means of repeated distillation in a process called rectification. In some countr ...
,
acetaldehyde Acetaldehyde (IUPAC systematic name ethanal) is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH3 CHO, sometimes abbreviated by chemists as MeCHO (Me = methyl). It is a colorless liquid or gas, boiling near room temperature. It is one of the mos ...
,
acetic acid Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main component ...
,
acetic anhydride Acetic anhydride, or ethanoic anhydride, is the chemical compound with the formula (CH3CO)2O. Commonly abbreviated Ac2O, it is the simplest isolable anhydride of a carboxylic acid and is widely used as a reagent in organic synthesis. It is a col ...
and
ethyl acetate Ethyl acetate ( systematically ethyl ethanoate, commonly abbreviated EtOAc, ETAC or EA) is the organic compound with the formula , simplified to . This colorless liquid has a characteristic sweet smell (similar to pear drops) and is used in glues ...
. It is one of the biggest private sector distilleries in Tamil Nadu and produced of spirit alcohol between December 2005 and November 2006. The
Ordnance Factories Board Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, now known as Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services) was an organisation, under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Gove ...
runs a weapons manufacturing unit and a
Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project The High Energy Projectile Factory (HEPF) is an artillery ammunition factory operated by Munitions India Limited. It was previously part the erstwhile Ordnance Factories Board of the Government of India the factory is located about 25 kilometr ...
(HAPP) facility; the latter was set up in the late 1980s and consists of a
flexible manufacturing system A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is some amount of flexibility that allows the system to react in case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. This flexibility is generally considered to fall i ...
(FMS)—the first of its kind in India. From the late 1980s, a synthetic gem industry was developed in the city; the gemstones are cut and polished in Tiruchirappalli district and in
Pudukottai district Pudukkottai District is one of the List of districts of Tamil Nadu, 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Pudukkottai is the district headquarters. It is also known colloquially as ''Pudhugai.'' Pudukkottai district i ...
. In 1990, the Indian government launched a scheme to increase employment by boosting the production of American diamonds and training local artisans in semi-automated machinery and technology. The local gem industry was reportedly generating annual revenues of by the mid-1990s. Concerns have been raised over the employment of children aged 9–14 in the gem cutting and polishing industry. As a result, in 1996, Tiruchirappalli district was selected to be involved in the
National Child Labour Project National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
and in the running of special schools to educate working children. As of December 2010, the Tiruchirappalli region annually exports around of software. The
ELCOT IT Park Trichy ELCOT IT Park Trichy is an information technology (IT) park in the city of Tiruchirappalli, India. It was set up in 2010 as part of an effort to foster the growth of information technology in various cities of Tamil Nadu by Electronics Corpor ...
—the city's first IT park—commissioned at a cost of was inaugurated in December 2010. Set up by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, the park occupies an area of and constitutes a
Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...
. Employing a workforce of over 1,500, more than six companies including
Vuram WNS (Holdings) Limited () is a global business process management company headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company has its expansion with 60 delivery centers worldwide. History WNS was founded in 1996 by British Airways as Speedwing World ...
, iLink Systems Pvt. Ltd., Scientific Publishing Company, Vdart Technologies, GI Tech Gaming Co. India Pvt. Ltd., VR Della IT Services Pvt. Ltd., and the Tamil Nadu Disaster Recovery Centre function out of the existing building, occupying the entire built-up space. The
ELCOT IT Park Trichy ELCOT IT Park Trichy is an information technology (IT) park in the city of Tiruchirappalli, India. It was set up in 2010 as part of an effort to foster the growth of information technology in various cities of Tamil Nadu by Electronics Corpor ...
is in close proximity to the Tiruchi International Airport. The facility was highlighted through the two editions of Global Investors Meet and became a key factor for the demand for the built-up space.


Culture

A resident of Tiruchirappalli is generally referred to as a ''Tiruchiite''. Situated at the edge of the Kaveri Delta, the culture of Tiruchirappalli is predominantly
Brahminical The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...
, prevalent elsewhere in the delta. With a substantial population of students and migrant industrial workers from different parts of India, Tiruchirappalli has a more cosmopolitan outlook than the surrounding countryside. The main festival celebrated in Tiruchirappalli is
Pongal Pongal may refer to: * Pongal (festival), an annual Tamil festival * Pongal (dish) Pongal, also known as pongali or huggi, is an Indian rice dish. In Tamil, "pongal" means "boil" or "bubbling up". The two varieties of pongal are ''chakarai pong ...
, a regional harvest festival celebrated during January. As part of the Pongal celebrations,
Jallikattu (or ), also known as and , is a traditional event in which a bull ('' Bos indicus''), such as the Pulikulam or Kangayam breeds, is released into a crowd of people, and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump on the bull's b ...
, a bull-taming village sport played on the last day of the festival, is occasionally held on the outskirts of the city. Aadi Perukku, Samayapuram flower festival,
Vaikunta Ekadasi Vaikuntha Ekadashi () is a Hindu occasion and festival. It is primarily observed by Vaishnavas, who regard it to be a special Ekādaśī. It coincides with '' Mokṣadā Ekādaśī'' or Putrada Ekādaśī. It is observed on the 11th lunar da ...
, Srirangam car festival, and the Teppakulam float festival are some of the prominent festivals that are held locally.
Bakrid ''Bakrid'' is a 2019 Indian Tamil language drama film written and directed by Jagadeesan Subu. The film stars Vikranth and a camel called Sarah. The film is the first Indian and Tamil film in Kollywood history to portray a camel in the pivotal ...
and
Eid al-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...
are also widely celebrated, owing to the substantial number of Muslims in the city. Nationwide festivals such as the Gregorian New Year, Christmas,
Deepavali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali (IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is on ...
and
Holi Holi (), also known as the Festival of Colours, the Festival of Spring, and the Festival of Love,The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...". is an ancient Hindu religious festival ...
are also celebrated in Tiruchirappalli. The 12th century Tamil epic ''
Kambaramayanam ''Ramavataram'', popularly referred to as ''Kamba Ramayanam'', is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's ''Ramayana'' (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the life of King ...
'' was first recited at the
Ranganathaswamy temple Ranganatha Temple or Ranganathaswamy Temple may refer to any of several temples dedicated to the Hindu God Ranganatha, including: ;Ranganatha *Ranganatha Temple, Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh * Ranganatha Temple, Thiruneermalai, in Tamil Nadu * Rang ...
in Srirangam. In 1771, ''Rama Natakam'', a musical drama written
Arunachala Kavi Arunachala Kavi ( ta, அருணாசல கவி) (1711–1779) was a Tamil poet and a composer of Carnatic music. He was born in Tillaiyadi in Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu. The three Tamil composers Arunachala Kavi, Muthu Thandavar a ...
and based on the ''
Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
'', was also performed there. Tiruchirappalli was home to some of the prominent
Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...
ians—including
Lalgudi Jayaraman Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman (17 September 1930 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin-trinity of Carnatic Mu ...
,
Srirangam Kannan Srirangam Kannan (born 5 May 1952) is an Indian musician and artist, known for playing the morsing. He has a degree in mathematics. Profile Vidwan Srirangam S. Kannan was born on 5 May 1952 in Srirangam to K Sathyamurthy and Kamalam. Growing up ...
and A. K. C. Natarajan—and scholars such as
T. S. Murugesan Pillai T. S. Murugesan Pillai (1870-1930) was a Telugu writer, poet and translator who is known for translating Tamil classical works into Telugu. Personal life Murugesan Pillai was born in Tiruchirappalli in 1870 but spent most of his life in Etta ...
, Kundalam Rangachariar and
K. A. P. Viswanatham K. A. P. Viswanatham Pillai (10 November 1899 – 19 December 1994) was a Tamil scholar, orator and social activist. Despite having no formal education he developed an interest towards the Tamil literature and Siddha medicine and learned them by ...
. Composers, poets and vocalists such as G. Ramanathan, T. K. Ramamoorthy, Vaali and
P. Madhuri Shivagnanam, known by the stage name P. Madhuri, is a South Indian playback singer. She has sung songs in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. She has twice won Kerala State Film Award for best playback singer. Early life Shivagnanam was born in Tiru ...
, who have made significant contributions to
Tamil film music Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...
hail from the city. Textile weaving, leather-work and gem cutting are some of the important crafts practised in Tiruchirappalli. Wooden idols of Hindu gods and goddesses are sold at ''Poompuhar'', the crafts emporium run by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The Trichy Travel Federation (TTF) was formed on 5 May 2009 to promote Tiruchirappalli as a favourable tourist destination. The federation organises an annual food festival called ''Suvai''. Lack of infrastructure has been a major deterrent to the city's tourism industry.


Landmarks

Once a part of the
Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, 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 ...
kingdom, Tiruchirappalli has a number of exquisitely sculpted temples and fortresses. Most of the temples, including the Rockfort temples, the
Ranganathaswamy Temple Ranganatha Temple or Ranganathaswamy Temple may refer to any of several temples dedicated to the Hindu God Ranganatha, including: ;Ranganatha *Ranganatha Temple, Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh * Ranganatha Temple, Thiruneermalai, in Tamil Nadu * Rang ...
at
Srirangam Srirangam, is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A river island, Srirangam is bounded by the Kaveri River on one side and its distributary Kollidam on the other side. Considered as the first amon ...
, the Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikkaval, the
Samayapuram Mariamman Temple Arulmigu Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is an ancient Hindu temple in Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. The main deity, ''Samayapurathal'' or '' Mariamman'', a form of supreme mother goddess Durga or Maha Kali or Aadi Shakthi, is made of san ...
, the
Erumbeeswarar Temple Erumbeeswarar Temple in Thiruverumbur, Tamil Nadu, India, is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Shiva. Built on a tall hill, it is accessible via a flight of steps. The temple's main shrines and its two ''prakarams'' (outer courtyards) are o ...
, Gneeliwaneswarar Temple at Thiruppaingneeli and the temples in
Urayur Uraiyur (also spelt Woraiyur) is a posh locality in Tiruchirapalli city in Tamil Nadu, India. Uraiyur was the ancient name of Tiruchirappalli City. Now, it became the one of the busiest area in Trichy City. It was the capital of the early Chola ...
, are built in the Dravidian style of architecture; the Ranganathaswamy Temple and Jambukeswarar Temple are often counted among the best examples of this style. The rock-cut cave temples of the Rockfort, along with the gateway and the Erumbeeswarar Temple, are listed as
monuments of national importance This article contains lists of Monuments of National Importance in India. An Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 defines an "Ancient Monument" as follows: A "Monument of National Importance" is designated by the Archaeological Survey o ...
by the
Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...
. Considered one of the symbols of Tiruchirappalli, the Rockfort is a fortress which stands atop a 273-foot-high rock. It consists of a set of monolithic rocks accommodating many rock-cut cave temples. Originally built by the Pallavas, it was later reconstructed by the Madurai Nayaks and
Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellary ...
rulers. The temple complex has three shrines, two of which are dedicated to
Lord Ganesha Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu de ...
, one at the foot and the
Ucchi Pillayar Temple Ucchi Pillayar Temple is a 7th-century Hindu temple, one dedicated to Lord Ganesha located a top of '' Rockfort'', Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. According to legend, this rock is the place where Lord Ganesha ran from King Vibishana, after establi ...
at the top, and the Thayumanavar Temple between them. The Thayumanavar temple, the largest of the three, houses a shrine for ''
Pārvatī Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi in ...
'' as well as the main deity. As per a legend, Vayu Bhaghvan and Adiseshan had a dispute to find out who is superior, to prove the superiority adiseshan encircled the Kailasam, Vayu tried to remove this encircle by creating santamarutham (Twister). Because of the santamarutham, eight kodumudigal (parts) fell from kailasam into eight different places which are Thirugonamalai ( Trincomalee, Sri Lanka), Thirukalahasti, Thiruchiramalai (Rock fort), Thiruenkoimalai, Rajathagiri, Neerthagiri,
Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for ...
, and Swethagiri Thirupangeeli. The Rockfort is visible from almost every part of the city's north. The Teppakulam at the foot of the Rockfort is surrounded by bazaars. It has a
mandapa A mandapa or mantapa () is a pillared hall or pavilion for public rituals in Indian architecture, especially featured in Hindu temple architecture. Mandapas are described as "open" or "closed" depending on whether they have walls. In temples, ...
at its centre. The Ranganathaswamy Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god
Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
, is located on the island of Srirangam. Often cited as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world, it has a perimeter of and occupies . Considered to be among the 108
Divya Desams A Divya Desam or Vaishnava Divya Desam is one of the 108 Vishnu and Lakshmi temples that is mentioned in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, works of the Alvars, the poet-saints of the Sri Vaishnavism, Sri Vaishnava tradition. Of the 108 temples, 10 ...
(Holy shrines of Lord Vishnu), the temple is believed to house the mortal remains of the
Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
saint and philosopher
Ramanujacharya Ramanuja (Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmanuja; 1017 CE – 1137 CE; ; ), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and a social reformer. He is noted to be one of the most important exponents o ...
. Originally built by the Cholas, the temple was later renovated by the Pandyas, the
Hoysalas The Hoysala Empire was a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur, but was later moved ...
, the Madurai Nayaks and the Vijayanagar empire between the 9th and 16th centuries AD. There are 21
gopurams A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Malayalam: ഗോപുരം, Kannada: ಗೋಪುರ, Telugu: గోపురం) is a monumental entrance tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of a Hindu temple, in the South I ...
(towers), of which the ''Rajagopuram'' is . According to the ''
Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...
'', it was the tallest temple tower in the world until 1999. The Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikkaval and the Erumbeeswarar Temple at Thiruverumbur were built in the rule of the Medieval Cholas. The Jambukeswarar Temple is one of the
Pancha Bhoota Stalam Pancha Bhoota Sthalam refers to five temples dedicated to Shiva,Ramaswamy 2007, pp. 301-302 each representing a manifestation of the five prime elements of nature: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. ''Pancha'' indicates "five," ''Bhoota'' means ...
s dedicated to Lord Shiva; it is the fifth largest temple complex in Tamil Nadu. The city's best known mosque is the Nadir Shah Mosque. The Christ Church constructed by the German Protestant missionary
Christian Friedrich Schwarz Christian Frederick Schwarz (with spellings including Friedrich and Schwartz or Swartz) (8 October 1726 – 13 February 1798) was a German Lutheran missionary to India. He was known for his linguistic skills, with knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebre ...
in 1766 and the Our Lady of Lourdes Church are noted examples of
Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
in the city. The
Chokkanatha Nayak Palace The Chokkanatha Nayak Palace, now officially known as Rani Mangammal Mahal is a mid seventeenth century Palace, built by the Madurai Nayak rulers. It located in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. at the base of the Tiruchirapalli Rock Fort. The palac ...
, which houses the
Rani Mangammal Mahal The Chokkanatha Nayak Palace, now officially known as Rani Mangammal Mahal is a mid seventeenth century Palace, built by the Madurai Nayak rulers. It located in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. at the base of the Tiruchirapalli Rock Fort. The palace ...
, was built by the Madurai Nayaks in the 17th century; it has now been converted into a museum. The
Nawab Nawab (Balochi language, Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi language, Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian language, Persian, Punjabi language, Punjabi , Sindhi language, Sindhi, Urd ...
's palace, the Railway Heritage Centre, the Upper Anaicut constructed by
Sir Arthur Cotton General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 – 24 July 1899) was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by b ...
, and the world's oldest functional dam, the
Grand Anaicut Kallanai (also known as the Grand Anicut) is an ancient dam. It is built (in running water) across the Kaveri river flowing from Tiruchirapalli District to Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. The dam located in Thanjavur district. Locate ...
, are some of the other important structures in Tiruchirappalli.


Education

Tiruchirappalli has been recognised in India as an important educational centre since the time of British rule. St. Joseph's College, which opened in Nagapattinam in 1846 and transferred to Tiruchirappalli in 1883, is one of the oldest educational institutions in South India. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) college, established in 1883, is a premium missionary institution in the city. As of 2013, Tiruchirappalli has 45 arts and science colleges, 40 polytechnic colleges and 13 colleges that offer management education. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli is located in a area of 800 acres. National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked this NIT the first among other others in India. The St. Joseph's College, National College,
Bishop Heber College Bishop Heber College is a religious minority educational institution in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1966, although the school has historical roots extending through various earlier local religious schools to about the m ...
,
Jamal Mohamed College Jamal Mohamed College is a Government-aided and self-financed institution founded in 1951 by M. Jamal Mohamed Sahib and N.M. Khajamian Rowther. The college campus is located in Tiruchirappalli, India and is affiliated to Bharathidasan Universi ...
and the Government Law College are prominent colleges providing higher education in the arts and sciences. There are approximately 35 engineering colleges in and around the city. The
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli (NIT Tiruchirappalli or NIT Trichy) is a Public university, public Technical university, technical and research university near the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded as ...
established by the government in 1964 as the Regional Engineering College, has a campus at Thuvakudi on the outskirts of Tiruchirappalli. The
Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute is an agricultural college at Navalur Kuttappattu village near Tiruchirappalli. It is part of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. It offers undergraduate degree in agriculture. ...
was established as a constituent college of
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) is the state agricultural university of Tamil Nadu located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. History The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University had its genesis from establishment of an agricultural sch ...
in 1989, and th
National Research Centre for Banana
offer higher education and research in agriculture. The Tiruchirappalli branch of Anna University was established after the bifurcation of Anna University in 2007. 64 self-financing colleges which offer courses in engineering, architecture, management and computer applications in the districts of
Ariyalur Ariyalur () is a town and district headquarters of Ariyalur district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is rich in limestone, surrounded with seven cement factories and two sugar factories. The town is located at a distance of from th ...
,
Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...
,
Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...
,
Perambalur Perambalur is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Perambalur district and Perambalur ''taluk'' (sub-district). census, the town had a population of 49,648. There are a set of 11th century Buddha statues aroun ...
,
Pudukkottai Pudukkottai is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a large city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different times, by the mutharaiyar dynasty , Cholas, ...
,
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 ...
and
Tiruvarur Thiruvarur () also spelt as Tiruvarur is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Thiruvarur district and Thiruvarur taluk. The temple chariot of the Thyagaraja temple, weighing and mea ...
are affiliated to Anna University. The SRM Group of Colleges established the
SRM Institute of Science and Technology SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), formerly SRM University, is a private higher education institute deemed to be university, located in Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu (near Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1985 as SRM Engin ...
at Irungalur near Tiruchirappalli; this was followed by Chennai Medical College and Hospital in 2007. A proposal by the group to include the institutions in SRM University is under review by the Ministry of Human Resources Development of the Government of India. The
Bharathidasan University Bharathidasan University (BDU) is a university in the city of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located on Tiruchirappalli-Pudukkottai National Highway 336. It has affiliated colleges in the districts of Ariyalur district, Karur, Nag ...
was established in Tiruchirappalli in 1982 and controls 104 colleges in Tiruchirappalli district and seven neighbouring districts. The university also runs a management school, the
Bharathidasan Institute of Management Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli (known by its abbreviation BIM-Trichy) is an Indian business school established in 1984 in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. The school offers AICTE approved full-time MBA program, doctoral programs ...
in the city in collaboration with BHEL. The
Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli The Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli (also known as IIM Trichy) is an autonomous public business school located in Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu in India. The eleventh IIM, it was instituted on 4 January 2011. It has been ranked 15th ...
was set up during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, along with five other IIMs opened during the 2011–12 academic season. In 2013, the
Ministry of Human Resource Development The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...
(MHRD) approved
Indian Institute of Information Technology Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) are a group of 26 interdisciplinary technology-based- engineering research institutions in India which are focused on information technology. Five of them are established, funded and managed ...
(IIIT), and the
Tamil Nadu National Law School Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU), formerly Tamil Nadu National Law School (TNNLS), is a National Law University . Admissions to the university are done on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test. It was established in 2012 by the Gov ...
, modelled on the
National Law School of India University The National Law School of India University (NLSIU or simply NLS) is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was the first National Law University to be established in India as well as one of the f ...
, both started their operations in the city. The city is also the regional headquarters of the
Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha is an organisation whose main goal is to improve Hindi language, Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South India. The headquarters are located at Thanikachalam Road, T. Nagar, Chennai. The ...
for the state of Tamil Nadu. There are 200 higher secondary schools in Tiruchirappalli; notable ones are the
St. Johns Vestry Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School St. John's Vestry Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School is a school located in Tiruchirappalli (also known as Trichy), Tamil Nadu, India. It is missioned by the Church of South India The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant C ...
,
Campion Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School , motto_translation = Why stand ye here? , location = , region = 11, Cantonment , city = Tiruchirapalli , zipcode = 620001 Tamil Nadu , country = India , coordi ...
, St Joseph's Anglo Indian Girls Higher Secondary School, Railway Mixed Higher Secondary School,
Higher Secondary School for Boys, Srirangam The Higher Secondary School for Boys, Srirangam is a secondary school located in, Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India. History The school was founded by V. Veeraraghavachari in 1896. The headmasters of the school were M. C. Rajagopla ...
and RSK Higher Secondary School. Notable people who were either born or educated at Tiruchirappalli include
C. V. Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when ...
,
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...
, Sujatha, Vaali, G. N. Ramachandran, and former President of India
R. Venkataraman Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009) was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union Minister and as the eighth president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Ta ...
.


Sports

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
and
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
are the most popular sports in Tiruchirappalli. Former Indian hockey goalkeepers Charles Cornelius and
Leslie Fernandez Captain Leslie Percival Fernandez OBE, MM, C de G, (22 March 1918 – 16 July 2009) was an English army officer in Special Forces during the Second World War who had risen from the ranks. He was notable for having trained Violette Szabó, ...
;
Rajagopal Sathish Rajagopal Sathish (born 14 January 1981) is an Indian former first-class cricketer who played as an all-rounder. He was captain of the India XI in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 competition. He played for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy a ...
who represents the
Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglo ...
in the
Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...
; and
Dharmaraj Ravanan Dharmaraj Ravanan (born 27 July 1987) is an Indian professional football player who plays as a defender. He most recently appeared with I-League club Real Kashmir. Career Ravanan started his professional career at Dempo S.C., coach Armando ...
who represents Chennai City F.C. in the
I League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...
; all hail from the city. The Anna Stadium complex is the main venue for sports in the city; it hosts an indoor stadium and an
astro turf Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band * Astro (Japanese band), a ...
hockey ground. The stadium complex also includes a football ground, an athletic track, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a badminton court and a hostel for the athletes. The Tiruchirappalli District Cricket Association (TDCA) is one of the constituents of the
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) is the governing body of cricket activities in the India state of Tamil Nadu. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and governs the Tamil Nadu cricket team. Rupa Gurunath is the form ...
, and regulates school, college and club cricket in the district.
First class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
matches were held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadiumformerly the Khajamalai Stadium. At the association's golden jubilee celebrations in 2008–09, plans for the establishment of another cricket stadium and an academy in the outskirts of Tiruchirappalli city were mooted. The Mannarpuram Cricket Academy is one of the noted cricket coaching academies in Tiruchirappalli. Domestic association football, tennis and volleyball tournaments are held in and around the city. Tiruchirappalli hosted the
Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...
, a knockout-style club football tournament in 1984 and an open chess tournament organised by
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
in 2006.


Media

According to the Registrar of Newspapers in India, more than 100 newspapers have been registered in Tiruchirappalli as of November 2013. On this page, enter "Trichy", "Tiruchirapalli", "Tiruchirappalli" and "Tiruchi" in the tab to get the name and other details of the newspapers. The weekly newspaper ''Wednesday Review'', founded in 1905, is the first prominent journal to be published in Tiruchirappalli. Among the major English-language newspapers being published in Tiruchirappalli are ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' which launched a Tiruchirappalli edition in 2004, and ''
The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
'', which was publishing in Tiruchirappalli before ''The Hindu''. Some of the important Tamil-language newspapers that publish a Tiruchirappalli edition are ''
Dina Thanthi ''Dina Thanthi'' ( en, Daily Mail; known as Daily Thanthi in English) is a Tamil language daily newspaper. It was founded by S. P. Adithanar in Madurai in 1942. ''Dina Thanthi'' is India's largest daily printed in the Tamil language and the nin ...
'' ''
Dina Mani ''Dinamani'' is a Tamil daily newspaper. The newspaper was established in 1933 and is owned by The New Indian Express Group. The first edition was published on 11 September. It is printed and published from Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dharm ...
'', ''
Dina Malar ''Dinamalar'' is an Indian Tamil daily newspaper. It was founded in 1951 by T. V. Ramasubba Iyer. ''Dinamalar'' has an average circulation of 942,812 (ABC Jan-June 2016) History Dinamalar was founded by T. V. Ramasubbaiyer on 6 September 19 ...
'', '' Malai Malar'', ''
Dinakaran Dinakaran is a Tamil daily newspaper distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's- Sun Network.''Dinakaran'' is the second largest circulated Tamil daily ...
'', ''
Tamil Murasu ''Tamil Murasu'' ( ta, தமிழ் முரசு) is a Singapore-based Tamil-language newspaper. Launched in 1935 by Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani, Tamil Murasu is Singapore's only Tamil-language newspaper. It is one of the sixteen newspap ...
'' and '' Tamil Sudar''. The popular Tamil weekly ''
Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...
'' launched a local supplement for Tiruchirappalli in 2011. The first radio transmission station in Tiruchirappalli was opened by
All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...
(AIR) on 16 May 1939. AIR started providing direct-to-home enabled radio broadcasting service from 2006. In 2007, the AIR launched ''Ragam'', a separate Carnatic music station, from the city. Apart from the
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
-owned AIR, private FM radio stations such as
Hello ''Hello'' is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the ''Norwich C ...
and
Suryan FM Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء '), also spelled San'a or Sana, is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Sanaa, which is also the national capital. However, the city of Sanaa is not part of the governorate but instead forms the separate governorate ...
and Mirchi 95.0 from Tiruchirappalli.
Indira Gandhi National Open University Indira Gandhi National Open University, known as IGNOU, is a Central University located at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. Named after former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of 20& ...
's ''Gyan Vani'' started broadcasting from the city in 2008. Tiruchirappalli's first campus community radio station was started by Holy Cross College on 22 December 2006. Television broadcasting from Chennai was started on 15 August 1975. Satellite television channels have been available since 1991. Direct-to-home cable television services are provided by
DD Direct Plus DD Free Dish (previously known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian free-to-air satellite television provider. DD Free Dish DTH service is owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2 ...
and various other operators.


Transport

The most commonly used modes of local transport in Tiruchirappalli are the state government-owned
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ltd. - (TNSTC) is a Government owned public transport bus operator in Tamil Nadu, India. It operates Intercity bus services to cities within Tamil Nadu, and from Tamil Nadu to its neighbouring states. It al ...
(TNSTC) buses, and
auto rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...
s. Tiruchirappalli forms a part of the Kumbakonam division of the TNSTC. The city has two major bus termini; Chatram Bus Stand and
Central Bus Stand Central Bus Station, popularly known as Central Bus Stand, is one of the bus termini of Trichy, located near Cantonment, the other being the Chatram Bus Stand. The terminus spread over an area of is managed by the Department of Transport ...
, both of which operate intercity services and local transport to suburban areas. Tiruchirappalli sits at the junction of two major National Highways NH 45 and
NH 67 National Highway 67 (NH 67, previously National Highway 63) is a major National Highway in India. It starts at Ramnagar on NH 748, Belagavi - Panjim Road of Karnataka and ends at Krishnapatnam Port road in Andhra Pradesh. Currently four lan ...
. NH 45 is one of the most congested highways in south India and carries almost 10,000 lorries on the Tiruchirappalli–Chennai stretch every night. Other National Highways originating in the city are NH 45B, NH 210 and NH 227. State highways that start from the city include SH 25 and SH 62. Tiruchirappalli has of road maintained by the municipal corporation. A semi-ring road connecting all the National Highways is being constructed to ease traffic congestion in the city. As of 2013, approximately 328,000 two-wheelers, 93,500 cars and 10,000 public transport vehicles operate within the city limits, apart from the 1,500 inter-city buses that pass through Tiruchirappalli daily. Tiruchirappalli suffers from traffic congestion mainly because of its narrow roads and absence of an integrated bus station. Passenger trains also carry a significant number of passengers from nearby towns. The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established in 1853 with its headquarters at England. In 1859, the company constructed its first railway line connecting Tiruchirappalli and Nagapattinam. The company merged with the Carnatic Railway Company in 1874 to form the
South Indian Railway Company The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951. History The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company was ...
with Tiruchirappalli as its headquarters. The city retained the position until 1908 when the company's headquarters was transferred to Madras. is one of the busiest in India. It constitutes a separate division of the Southern Railway. Tiruchirappalli has rail connectivity with most important cities and towns in India. Other railway stations in the city include , , , and . Tiruchirappalli is served by
Tiruchirappalli International Airport Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ, ICAO: VOTR) is an international airport serving Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The airport spread over an area of is located on National Highway 336, about south of the ci ...
, from the city centre. The airport handles fivefold more international air traffic than domestic services, making it the only airport in India with this huge variation. It serves as a gateway to immigrants from South-east Asian countries There are regular flights to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
,
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
,
Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...
, and
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. The airport handled more than 1 million passengers and 2012 tonnes of cargo during the fiscal year 2013–14.


See also

*
Tiruchirappalli metropolitan area The Tiruchirappalli Metropolitan Area, or Tiruchirappalli Urban Agglomeration, is the 51st largest urban agglomeration in India and is the fourth largest metropolitan city in the state of Tamil Nadu next to Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. The ...
*
List of people from Tiruchirappalli The following people were born or based their life in Tiruchirappalli, earlier known as Trichinopoly. Arts Actor *Alex (actor), Alex, Tamil film actor and magician *S. A. Ashokan, Tamil film actor *M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, Tamil film ...
*
Classification of Indian cities The ''classification of Indian cities'' is a ranking system used by the Government of India to allocate House Rent Allowance (HRA) to public servants employed in cities in India. HRA is also used by the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to provide inc ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * *


External links


Trichy District

Trichy Corporation


{{Authority control Tiruchirappalli Metropolitan cities in India Ancient Indian cities Cities and towns in Tiruchirappalli district Former capital cities in India