Valluvar Kottam ( ta, வள்ளுவர் கோட்டம்) is a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

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 ...

, dedicated to the classical

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 ...

poet philosopher

Valluvar Thiruvalluvar (Tamil language, Tamil: திருவள்ளுவர்), commonly known as Valluvar, was a celebrated Tamil people, Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'', a collection of coup ...

. It is the city’s biggest Tamil cultural centre.

Location

Valluvar Kottam is located at the intersection of the

Kodambakkam Kodambakkam (also known as K-Town or Kollywood) is a business and residential neighbourhood in Central Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The neighbourhood is served by Kodambakkam railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network. Kodambakkam h ...

High road and the Village road in

Nungambakkam Nungambakkam is a locality in downtown Chennai, India. The neighborhood abounds with multi-national commercial establishments, important government offices, foreign consulates, educational institutions, shopping malls, sporting facilities, to ...

neighbourhood of Chennai. The monument now stands at what was once the deepest point of a local lake called the Nungambakkam lake.

History

The construction of the Valluvar Kottam was conceived and executed by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi during the 1970s. It was designed by

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

n traditional architect

V. Ganapati Sthapati Vaidyanatha Ganapati Sthapati (1927 – 5 September 2011) was a '' Sthapati'' (temple architect and builder) and head of the College of Architecture and Sculpture in the Vastu Shastra tradition ascribed to the sage Mamuni Mayan. Biography ...

, who is also the architect of the

Thiruvalluvar Statue The ''Thiruvalluvar Statue'', or the ''Valluvar Statue'', is a stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and philosopher Valluvar, author of the Tirukkural, an ancient Tamil work on Dharma and morality. It is located atop a small island near the tow ...

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 ...

. It was inaugurated in April 1976 by the then President of India

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (13 May 1905 – 11 February 1977) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the fifth president of India from 1974 to 1977. Born in Delhi, Ahmed studied in Delhi and Cambridge and was called to the bar from the I ...

The monument

The monument consists of a decorative arch, an auditorium that can accommodate around 3,500 people, and the Kural Manimandapam, where all the 1,330 couplets from all 133 chapters of the Kural literature are inscribed on bas-relief. The hallmark of the monument is the 39-meter-high (128 feet) stone car, a replica of the famed temple chariot of

Thiruvarur 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 ...

. The chariot is made of around 3000 blocks of granite stone from

Tiruvannamalai Tiruvannamalai (Tamil: ''Tiruvaṇṇāmalai'' IPA: , otherwise spelt ''Thiruvannamalai''; ''Trinomali'' or ''Trinomalee'' on British records) is a city, a spiritual, cultural, economic hub and also the administrative headquarters of Tiruvanna ...

and weighs 2,700 tonnes. The largest of these stones weigh as much as 40 tonnes. The four giant-sized wheels of the chariot measure 11 feet in diameter and 2 feet in thickness. A life-size statue of

has been installed in the chariot. The chariot is adorned with the famed Kalamkari drawings. The bottom portion of the chariot features

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

sculptures depicting all the 133 chapters of the Kural text. The central auditorium measures 220 feet by 100 feet and is said to be Asia’s largest at the time of its construction. The roof of the monument has a terraced garden with two large pools.

Visitors

The monument is visited by an average of about 700 people during weekdays and 1000 people during weekends.

Renovation

The monument is maintained by the memorial section of the information and public relations department of the state government. It was renovated in 2007 at a cost of 6 million. In 2018, the department started renovating the memorial at a cost of 8.5 million.
File:Valluvar Kottam Terrace 2.JPG, Terrace view of Valluvar Kottam File:Valluvar Kottam terrace.jpg, Terrace view of Valluvar Kottam File:Valluvar Kottam Chennai Lion.jpg, Lion on Valluvar Kottam File:Valluvar Kottam terrace reflection.JPG, Terrace view of Valluvar Kottam File:Valluvar kottam chariot.jpg, Valluvar kottam chariot File:Tiruvalluvar.jpg, Tiruvalluvar statue inside valluvar kottam chariot File:Tirukkural.jpg, Tirukkural File:Outside valluvar kottam.jpg, Plants

References

External links

Official site of the Chennai District, maintained by the Tamil Nadu government
{{Tirukkural Tirukkural Memorials to Valluvar Monuments and memorials in Chennai