Thanjavur District was one of the districts in the erstwhile

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 ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It covered the area of the present-day districts of

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Mayiladuthurai Mayiladuthurai (formerly known as Mayavaram or Mayuram) is a town and district headquarter of Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located at a distance of from the state capital, Chennai. Mayiladuthurai was ruled by Medie ...

and

Aranthangi taluk Ara(m)nthangi taluk is a taluk of Pudukkottai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The headquarters of the taluk is the town of Aranthangi Aranthangi is a town chola Nadu in Pudukkottai district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. As o ...

, Karambakkudi taluk of

Pudukkottai District Pudukkottai District is one of the 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 is bounded on the northeast and e ...

in Tamil Nadu. Apart from being a bedrock of Hindu orthodoxy, Tanjore was a centre of

Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

cultural heritage and one of the richest and most prosperous districts in Madras Presidency. Tanjore district was constituted in 1799 when the Thanjavur Maratha ruler

Serfoji II Serfoji II Bhonsle ( ta, இரண்டாம் சரபோஜி ராஜா போன்ஸ்லே, mr, शरभोजी राजे भोसले (द्वितीय)) (24 September 1777 – 7 March 1832) also spelt as Sarabho ...

ceded most of his kingdom to 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 South ...

in return for his restitution on the throne. Tanjore district, which is situated on the Cauvery Delta, is one of the richest rice-growing regions in South India. It was scarcely affected by famines such as the Great Famine of 1876–78.

Geography

The Tanjore District was bounded by the districts of South Arcot in the north, Trichinopoly to the west and south and the

Pudukkottai State Pudukkottai was a kingdom and later a princely state in British India, which existed from 1680 until 1948. The Kingdom of Pudukkottai was founded in about 1680 as a feudatory of Ramnad and grew with subsequent additions from Tanjore, Siv ...

and Madura and later, Ramnad districts to the south-east. The Kollidam River formed the long northern boundary with South Arcot. The Bay of Bengal bounded it on the east. The district was made of four well-marked physical tracts - the fertile plains to the north between the Kollidam and the Kaveri known as the "Old Delta" which was naturally irrigated by the rivers through a system of anaicuts and comprising the whole of the taluks of Shiyali, Mayavaram and Kumbakonam, the northern part of Mannargudi and Nannilam and the eastern part of Tanjore taluk; the plains to the south of the Kaveri river covering the southern part of Nannilam and Mannargudi taluks known as the "New Delta" for the reason that these tracts were only recently brought under irrigation by numerous manmade canals from the Kaveri and Kollidam and its tributaries and which were less fertile than the Old Delta; the arid Vallam plateau which covered the western part of Tanjore and Pattukkottai taluks and the Vedaranyam salt pans the largest of its kind in the Madras Presidency that extended for about thirty miles in length and four or five miles in width from Point Calimere to Adiramapatnam covering the southern portion of Thiruthiraipoondi taluk and eastern half of Pattukkottai taluk. There were two inhabited islands situated within the confines of the district - those of Devicottah situated at the mouth of the Kollidam and Vinayagateru near Kumbakonam. Most of the landholdings in Tanjore District were ''inam'' or ''mirasdari'' land, the district had the largest proportion of land under ''mirasdar''s. There were few large ''zamindari''s, like Ukkadai estate, Poondi estate, Kunniyur estate, Poraiyar Nadar's estate, Kabisthalam estate and Vadapadimangalam estate in the Tanjore District. Gandharvakottai estate, Kallakottai estate and Konur estate situated near the Pudukkottai border. But the bulk of land was held by ''mirasdar''s who leased it on regular tenures to ''pannaiyal''s or tenants who in turn cultivated the land with the help of labourers.

History

Tanjore District was inhabited at least since the first millennium B. C. and was the traditional homeland of the

Chola Dynasty 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 BC ...

. 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 an ...

ruled Tanjore from the 3rd century B. C. to the 3rd century A. D. The town of Poompuhar or Kaveripoompattinam served as an important port trading with

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Following the

Kalabhra The Kalabhra dynasty, also called ''Kaḷabrar'', ''Kaḷappirar'', ''Kallupura'' or Kalvar, were rulers of all or parts of Tamil region sometime between the 3rd century and 6th century CE, after the ancient dynasties of the early Cholas, the ...

interregnum, Tanjore recovered its past glory under the

Pallavas The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as f ...

and reached the zenith of its prosperity under 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 influe ...

and Later Cholas. In the 13th century, Tanjore was annexed by the Pandyas who were later defeated 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 ...

. Tanjore was ruled for brief periods by 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).

and the Madurai Sultanate, till the 15th century, when it was conquered by the Vijayanagar kings under whom it recovered much of its glory. Tanjore was a part of the Vijayanagar Empire and its successors, the Madurai Nayaks and the

Thanjavur Nayaks The Thanjavur Nayak kingdom or Thanjavur Nayak dynasty were the rulers of Thanjavur in the 15th and 17th centuries. The Nayaks of the Balija social group, were originally appointed as provincial governors by the Vijayanagara Empire, Vijayanagar ...

, until 1674, when it was conquered by

Venkoji Vyankojirajah Bhonsle (born 1632) or Ekojirajah I Bhonsle was the younger half-brother of Shivaji and founder of Maratha rule in Thanjavur in modern day Tamil Nadu. He was the progenitor of the junior branch of the Bhonsle family which ruled ...

a brother of Chattrapathi Shivaji, who founded the

Thanjavur Maratha kingdom The Thanjavur Maratha kingdom ruled by the Bhonsle dynasty was a principality of Tamil Nadu between the 17th and 19th centuries. Their native language was Marathi. Venkoji was the founder of the dynasty. Maratha conquest of Thanjavur Follo ...

. The

began to play a major part in the affairs of the region from 1749 onwards. In the 1760s and 1770s, the Thanjavur Maratha ruler, the

Nawab of 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 ...

and other major powers of the region were brought under the British sphere of influence. In 1799, the British East India Company assisted the deposed Thanjavur Maratha king

in regaining his throne. In return for British assistance, Serfoji II retained his hold over

Tanjore 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 ...

city and ceded the rest of his kingdom to the British East India Company. Tanjore city was eventually annexed by the British as per the

Doctrine of Lapse The doctrine of lapse was a policy of annexation initiated by the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent about the princely states, and applied until the year 1858, the year after Company rule was succeeded by the British Raj under the ...

in 1855 on the death of his son

Shivaji Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adil ...

without a surviving male heir. Tanjore District was created in about 1800, its limits almost the same as that of the preceding Thanjavur Maratha kingdom. Maikondan was a chief of the caste of kallans lived in 17 th-century. He was a brave warrior who ruled areas around Nandavanapatti in

. In the year of 1662, Bijapur sultans invaded Thanjavur. During this invasion maikondan fought against sultans and saved all the inhabitants of Thanjavur.

Demographics

Tanjore District covered a total area of . It had a population of 2,245,029 in 1901. The population density was . As per the 1901 census statistics, Tanjore was the fifth most populous district in the Madras Presidency and the second most densely populated after Madras city. It also had the third highest adult literacy rate (10%) in the Presidency after Madras and Nilgiris, second highest male literacy rate (21%) after Madras city and the seventh highest female literacy rate. According to the 1901 census, 91 percent of the population was Hindu, 5 percent Muslim and 4 percent Christian. Among Hindus,

Paraiyars Paraiyar, or Parayar or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah and Paree), is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and Sri Lanka. Etymology Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who ...

(310,391), Vanniyars (235,406),

Vellalars Vellalar is a generic Tamil term used primarily to refer to various castes who traditionally pursued agriculture as a profession in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and northeastern parts of Sri Lanka. The Vellalar are members of several ...

(212,168),

Kallars Kallar (or Kallan, formerly spelled as Colleries) is one of the three related castes of southern India which constitute the Mukkulathor confederacy. The Kallar, along with the Maravar and Agamudayar, constitute a united social caste on the ba ...

(188,463), Devendrakula Velalar (159,855),

Muthuraja Muthuraja or Mutharaiyar is a Tamil and Telugu speaking community prevalent in southern India. Etymology The etymology of the community name is unclear. The names Muthuraja and Muthuraiyar may be derived from two words, the Tamil name ...

s (137,216), and

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

(118,882) were the most numerous. Kallars were mainly found in the western part of Tanjore and Pattukkottai taluks. Kallar served in the armies of the

kings. The Thanjavur kallar today largely engage in agriculture. Tanjore had the third highest Brahmin population in the Madras Presidency (more than 6%) after South Canara and Ganjam and the highest among the Tamil-speaking districts. Most of the Muslims were Rowthers concentrated in Kumbakonam taluk where they formed the majority in the towns of Ayyampettai,

Rajagiri Rajagiri is a part of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), an indigenous Syrian Catholic religious congregation founded in 1831. It is located in Rajagiri Valley, Kakkanad, Kochi. It was acquired after Indian independence and developed b ...

and Pandaravadai apart from Koothanallur in Mannargudi taluk. They were also found in large numbers in the Negapatam and Pattukkottai taluks. More than a third of the total

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

population of the district lived in Tanjore taluk. There were a total of about 600

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 ...

chiefly concentrated in the Tanjore and Mannargudi taluks. The district was known for its Hindu orthodoxy and several historic Chola temples dedicated to Agamic gods and most of the '' Padal Petra Sthalams'', shrines sung about in the devotional hymns of the

Saivite Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangi ...

Nayanmars The Nayanars (or Nayanmars; ta, நாயன்மார், translit=Nāyaṉmār, translit-std=ISO, lit=hounds of Siva, and later 'teachers of Shiva ) were a group of 63 Tamil Hindu saints living during the 6th to 8th centuries CE who were de ...

were located here. There was an Advaitic Sankara mutt in Kumbakonam and

mutts in

Thiruvaduthurai Thiruvavaduthurai is a village in Mayiladuthurai district, east-central Tamil Nadu, South India, where the Masilamaniswara Temple is located. Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam is a Saivite mutt based in the town of Thiruv ...

Thiruppanandal Thiruppanandal is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital an ...

and Dharmapuram apart from many

Veda upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

''pathashala''s. The chief Muslim places of worship were located in Tanjore and Muttupet apart from the Nagore dargah. Tamil was spoken as mother tongue by an overwhelming majority of the population while Telugu was spoken by about 3%. Other languages spoken include Marathi (13,651) and Saurashtra.

Taluks

As of 1901, Thanjavur District was made up of nine taluks. *

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headquarters of the ...

(Area: ; Headquarters: Kumbakonam) * Mannargudi (Area: ; Headquarters: Mannargudi) *

(Area: ; Headquarters: Mayavaram) * Nannilam (Area: ; Headquarters: Nannilam) *

(Area: ; Headquarters: Negapatam) * Pattukkottai (Area: ; Headquarters: Pattukkottai) * Sirkazhi (Area: ; Headquarters: Shiyali) *

(Area: ; Headquarters: Tanjore) * Thiruthuraipoondi (Area: ; Headquarters: Thiruthuraipoondi)

Administration

The administration of the district was under a District Collector who was from the Indian Civil Service. The District Collector of Tanjore resided at Vallam. The district was sub-divided into six divisions, some of them administered by British civil servants and the rest by Indian Deputy-Collectors. The following were the sub-divisions of the district * Kumbakonam sub-division: Kumbakonam taluk * Mannargudi sub-division: Mannargudi and Thiruthiraipundi taluks * Mayavaram sub-division: Mayavaram and Shiyali taluks * Negapatam sub-division: Negapatam and Nannilam taluks * Pattukkottai sub-division: Pattukkottai taluk * Tanjore sub-division: Tanjore taluk. As of 1901, there were five municipalities in the district: Kumbakonam, Tanjore, Mannargudi, Mayavaram and Negapatam. From 1800 to 1840, the District Collector of Tanjore was also the agent of

Pudukkottai state Pudukkottai was a kingdom and later a princely state in British India, which existed from 1680 until 1948. The Kingdom of Pudukkottai was founded in about 1680 as a feudatory of Ramnad and grew with subsequent additions from Tanjore, Siv ...

. However, Pudukkottai was later transferred to the jurisdiction of Madura and then Trichinopoly.

Economy

During British times, Tanjore District was famous for its metal work. Brass, copper and silver utensils were manufactured in large quantities. The South Indian Railway Workshops were established at Negapatam in the 1860s. The chief centres of land trade were

, Mannargudi and Mayavaram, while the chief centres of sea trade were

and

Adirampattinam Adirampattinam is a newly established (Dec 2021) Municipality in the Pattukottai taluk of the Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is also short known by Adirai. It is the largest coastal town in the district and fourth larg ...

. The town of Kumbakonam was known for its silk sarees and rice and flour mills. It was also one of the leading producers of betel leaves and nuts. Tanjore city was known for silk-weaving, lace, embroidery, jewellery, pithwork and manufacture of metal work and musical instruments.

List of Collectors

The list of district collectors of Tanjore from its formation in December 1799 till the abolition of Madras Province and its conversion to a state on 26 January 1950 is given below: * Charles Harris (December 1799 - May 1804) * John Cotton (May 1804-October 1804) * J. Wallace (Oct 1804-April 1811) * J. Cotton (May 1811-February 1814) * James Hapbrew (February 1814-December 1816) * J. Thackeray (December 1816-September 1817) * James Hapbrew (September 1817-September 1819) * G. M. Ogilive (September 1819-February 1820) * J. Cotton (February 1820-October 1826) * A. S. Chair (October 1826-February 1827) * A. D. Campbell (February 1827-January 1828) * R. Nelson (January - February 1828) * N. W. Kindersley (February 1828 - July 1839) * S. Scott (July - August 1839) * H. C. Montgomery (August 1839-August 1841) * S. Scott (August 1841) * J. F. Bishop (January 1842-January 1843) * S. Scott (January 1843) * J. F. Bishop (February 1843-May 1844) * J. J. Cotton (May 1844- September 1844) * H. C. Montgomery (September 1844-October 1846) * J. J. Cotton (October 1846-February 1847) * G. Ellis (July–August 1847) * J. Bird(November 1847-January 1850) * I. W. Goodwyr (July 1851-May 1852) * P. G. Rant (November–December 1852) * W. M. Cadell (March–April 1853) * Henry Forbes (April 1853-May 1856) * W. M. Cadell (May–June 1856) * J. W. Cherry (June 1856-January 1857) * H. D. Phillips (January 1857-January 1859) * G. A. Ballard (February 1859-April 1862) * G. L. Morris (April 1862-May 1863) * G. Barbery (May 1863-September 1866) * W. L. Hathway (February 1870-May 1870) * H. D. Arbuthnot (April 1873-October 1874) * H. S. Thomas (October 1874-March 1877) * F. R. H. Sharp (March 1877-June 1877) * E. F. Webster (April 1878-June 1881) * C. S. Crob (June–October 1881) * F. E. Gibson (October 1881-November 1881) * D. Brick (November 1881-March 1882) * F. E. Gibson (April–June 1882) * W. S. Whiteside (June–August 1882) * H. E. Stokes (August 1882-June 1883) * J. B. Penning (June 1883-August 1886) * E. Gibson (September 1886-September 1889) * V. A. Happel (September 1889-January 1890) * E. Gibson (January–May 1890) * D. Murdack (May 1890) * J. Thomson (May 1890-July 1891) * R. N. Campbell (July 1891) * L. M. Winter (July 1891-August 1893) * R. B. Clegg (August 1893) * J. Strooch (August–October 1893) * L. M. Winter (October 1893-September 1894) * J. Thomson (September 1894-January 1895) * R. B. Clegg (January–July 1895) * E. C. Rovson (July–November 1895) * Gabriel Stokes (November 1895-May 1896) * H. Moberly (May–July 1896) * Gabriel Stokes (July–October 1896) * J. Andrew (October 1896-June 1897) * W. B. Agling (June–July 1897) * J. Andrew (July 1897-March 1898) * W. B. Agling (April–June 1898) * J. Twigg (June 1898-April 1900) * J. Andrew (April 1900-June 1902) * F. D. P. Oldfield (June–December 1902) * J. Andrew (December 1902-February 1903) * H. D. Taylor (February 1903-February 1904) * R. F. Grimby (March 1904-February 1905) * E. B. Ellwin (February -December 1905) *

Lionel Davidson Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 192221 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers. Life and career Lionel Davidson was born in 1922 in Hull in Yorkshire, one of nine children of an immigrant Jewish tailor. He left school ea ...

(December 1905-November 1906) * T. P. Bedford (November 1906-June 1910) * R. F. Austin (June 1910-June 1911) * N. R. Brodie (November 1911-March 1912) * J. N. Roy (March–June 1912) * R. B. Wood (June 1912-August 1916) * J. R. Huggins (September 1916-April 1920) * P. C. Dutt (April 1920-July 1921) * C. E. Jones (July 1921-April 1923) * H. S. Shield (April 1923-March 1924) * H. M. Hood (March 1924-December 1925) * H. S. Shield (December 1925-September 1927) * S. V. Ramamurthy (September 1927-January 1928) * Charles Hilton Brown (January–March 1928) * J. Gray (March 1928-January 1929) * D. H. Boulton (January–July 1929) * J. A. Throne (July 1929-June 1931) * W. Scott Brown (June 1931-March 1932) * Charles Hilton Brown (April 1932-June 1933) * A. G. Leach (June–July 1933) * M. V. Vellodi (July 1933) * E. R. Wood (July 1933-April 1935) * M. V. Vellodi (4 April 1935 – 1 June 1936) * Zinda Sahib Mohazir (2 June 1936 – 8 August 1936) * Subbiah Naidu (9 August 1936 – 1 April 1937) * D. D. Warren (1 April 1937 – 25 February 1938) * H. R. Uzielli (26 February – 1 April 1938) * Zinda Sahib Mohazir (2 April – 29 August 1938) * Diwan Bahadur V. N. Viswanatha Rao (30 August 1938 – 25 February 1939) * R. M. Sundaram (25 February – 7 October 1939) * C. K. Vijayaraghavan (9 October 1939 – 22 April 1942) * S. Venkateswaran (23 April 1942 – 10 August 1942) * M. S. Sivaraman (11 August 1942 – 15 February 1943) * J. W. Pritchard (16 February 1943 – 22 April 1944) * Rao Sahib R. D. Paul (24 April 1944 – 31 July 1944) * Khan Bahadur Mohammad Ismail Saheb Bahadur (1 August 1944 – 20 January 1947) * J. R. Bett (27 January 1947 – 2 March 1947) * H. C. McLanghlin (3 March 1947 – 9 April 1949) * T. K. Sankaravadivelu (10 April 1949 – 26 January 1950)

References

Sources

* {{Historical districts of India Districts of the Madras Presidency History of Thanjavur