Kottar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kottar is a locality and a thriving bazaar area of Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu state, India ; though a part of Nagercoil today, it is the original town around which the city of Nagercoil, near the southernmost tip of Peninsular India, grew.

An important town in ancient times, it finds mention in ancient Tamil literature and history.

The great Roman Catholic missionary, St. Francis Xavier, is said to have had Kottar as his base, while doing his missionary work in the coastal areas of the southernmost part of India, among the fishermen. Today, the church where he celebrated mass is a Cathedral under the Roman catholic Diocese of Kottar.

Like many of the towns that have survived for centuries (and over two millenia) in Tamilnadu, Kottar also is ,today, a congested place with narrow streets with still many old houses and buildings.

Today, Kottar is a thriving bazaar for all consumer goods and other commodities, with supplies even going to nearby Trivandrum city in Kerala.

Kottar has now become the hub for most of the wholesalers and retailers of commodities including rice, etc. Also kottar strategically located near the Nagercoil railway station provides the travellers with the option to buy things in kottar market and carry them to the station