Arcot (natively spelt as Ārkāḍu) is a town and urban area of

Ranipet district Ranipet District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu, India, formed by trifurcating Vellore district. The Government of Tamil Nadu announced its proposal on 15 August 2019, together with Tirupattur district, and it was officially declared ...

in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. 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 Indi ...

. Located on the southern banks of

Palar River Palar (Tamil: ''பாலாறு'' pālāṟu �paːlaːɾu literally "milk river") is a river of southern India. It rises in the Nandi Hills in Chikkaballapura district of Karnataka state, and flows in Karnataka, in Andhra Pradesh and i ...

, the city straddles a

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...

between

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

and

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

or Salem, between the Mysore Ghat and the

Javadi Hills The Javadhu Hills (also Jawadhu, Jawadhu Hills) are an extension of the Eastern Ghats spread across parts of Vellore, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai districts in the northern part of the state of Tamil Nadu in south-eastern India. The hills ...

(Javvadhu malai). It is a Tri-City with the adjacent municipalities of Walajapet and

Ranipet Ranipet (lit. Queen's colony) is an industrial town and the administrative headquarters of Ranipet district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the Northern banks of the Palar River. It is a Tri-City with the adjacent municipali ...

Etymology

''Arcot'' is the anglicized form of the Tamil word ''ārkāḍ'', which is commonly believed to have been derived from the Tamil words ''aaru'' (River) + ''kaadu'' (forest). However, ''arkaadu'' meant 'a forest of fig trees'.

Geography

Arcot is located at . It has an average elevation of 164 metres (538 ft).

Government

Arcot Municipality was constituted in 1959. It had Third Grade Municipality and was subsequently upgraded to second Grade Municipality in 1973. In July 1998, it was upgraded to I Grade Municipality. The selected council with 30 members and chairpersons have functioned from 25 October 2006. Arcot Town has a 13.64 km² area with a population of 129,640 as per the census. Arcot (State Assembly Constituency) is part of

Arakkonam (Lok Sabha constituency) Arakkonam () is a railway town in the Ranipet district, state of Tamil Nadu. Included within the Chennai Metropolitan Area since 2022, Arakkonam is a major suburb of the state capital city Chennai, with a population of 78,395 per the census ...

Demographics

According to 2011 census, Arcot had a population of 129,640 including Tajpura and Veppur revenue villages under the municipality control with a sex-ratio of 1,014 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 7,174 were under the age of six, constituting 3,249 males and 3,925 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 10.31% and .15% of the population respectively 75% of the population in this town belongs to Backward peoples. The average literacy of the town was 79.32%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. The town had a total of 16781 households. There were a total of 20,418 workers, comprising 48 cultivators, 166 main agricultural labourers, 1,273 in house hold industries, 17,782 other workers, 1,149 marginal workers, 12 marginal cultivators, 25 marginal agricultural labourers, 142 marginal workers in household industries and 970 other marginal workers. As per the religious census of 2011, Arcot had 70.5%

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 25%

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 0.77%

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, 0.01%

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a 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 ''Sikh'' ...

, 0.%

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

, 0.51%

Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and ...

, 0.16% following other religions and 0.01% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.

References

External links

Vellore portal
* "Arcot." ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' (2005) * "Arcot." ''

The Columbia Encyclopedia The ''Columbia Encyclopedia'' is a one-volume encyclopedia produced by Columbia University Press and, in the last edition, sold by the Gale Group. First published in 1935, and continuing its relationship with Columbia University Columb ...

'' (2004) * "Arcot (S. India)". '' The Companion to British History'', Routledge (2001)
"Arcot". ''The Hobson Jobson Dictionary'' (1902)
{{Municipalities of Tamil Nadu Cities and towns in Ranipet district