Maduranthakam
| Maduranthakam | |
|---|---|
| town | |
  Maduranthakam | |
| Coordinates: 12°30′36″N 79°53′06″E / 12.5101°N 79.8849°ECoordinates: 12°30′36″N 79°53′06″E / 12.5101°N 79.8849°E | |
| Country |
 India |
| State | Tamil Nadu |
| District | Kancheepuram |
| Population (2001) | |
| • Total | 29,100 |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Tamil |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| PIN | 603306 |
| Telephone code | +91-44 |
| Vehicle registration | TN-19 |
| Nearest city | Chengalpattu |
| Website | madurantakam.info |
Maduranthakam is a town and a municipality in Kancheepuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The town is known for the man-made and second largest lake in Tamil Nadu, the Maduranthakam Lake. It is believed to be built by the Chola King Uthama Choza, also called as Maduranthakar, during his reign. It is also home to the Aeri Katha Ramar Temple.
History
Madurantakam is one of the holy places visited by Ramanuja though it has not been sung by the alvars. The place is also unique in that Ramanuja's statue is found dressed in white on all days while in almost all temples the saint is dressed in ochre.
In two of his poems, Saint Manavala Mamunigal asks everyone who wants to cast away his past sins to worship the Lord at this place. There are separate shrines for Lakshmi Narasimhar, Periya Nambi and Ramanuja, Andal, Sudarsana and Vedanta Desika. The holy tank is opposite the temple with a separate shrine for Anjaneya on its banks.
Geography
The reservoir near Madurantakam irrigates more than 1000 small villages in and around the town.
Places of interest
Bird Sanctuary
12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north-west of Maduranthakam lies the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, home to many rare and endangered species of migratory birds.
Temples
Sri Kodanda Rama, also known in this region as Yeri Katha Rama (the one who saved the village from flooding from Madurantakam lake), is enshrined in the Aeri Katha Ramar Temple. The temple is about 1300 years old. Sita resides in the temple as Sri Janaki Valli. The other deities enshrined are Sri Chakrathalwar, Sri Ramanuja, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha and Sri Hanuman.
The Kodandaramaswamy temple has two sets of utsavar idols of the presiding deity and His consort, and Lakshmana. While one deity is named Rama, the other is known as Karunakaran.
There is also a separate shrine for Goddess Sita, known as Janakavalli Thayar, which is claimed to be very rare. This shrine was built by an English Collector, Colonel Lionel Place who assured the people that he would build a shrine for Devi if the newly built surplus water weirs withstood the fury of monsoon rains. The huge tank with immense storage capacity would breach every year after the monsoon rains and wash away the rough stone-built outlet of the tank. While camping at Madurantakam during a monsoon night, the tank was full and almost overflowing. The Collector visited the tank bund and is said to have seen Rama and Lakshmana keeping guard at the tank. The construction of the shrine for the Goddess began the very next morning and the Lord is known as Aeri Katha Ramar as he saved the tank bund from collapsing.
Thiru-Venkateswarar Temple near Madurantakam railway station, too a renowned temples in the town. It is built by king who suffered form skin disease and then relived when he had bath in the tank; then he realized his wonder and built this temple during British Raj; Similarly other temples includes Renukapara-meswari ( Amman ) temple, Siva temple adjacent to G.S.T Road, Murugar temple's, Chelliyamman temple and Anjaneya temple near to substation Madurantakam. Northern-thiru-nallar and Sri Ragavendrar temple and a Vishnu cum Anjaneya temple on the Karunguzhi mountain ; then Prasana Venkateswarar temple in Padalam were in the perimeter of Madurantakam.
Churches
The Simpson Memorial Church belongs to the Church of South India, located on the GST Road is one of the popular churches in Madurantakam. There is also one in St. Joseph's School, "St.Mary's church", and another is located near Arugunam Village, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Madurantakam.
Demographics
As of the census of India 2001, Mathuranthagam had a population of 29,059 comprising 14,610 males and 14,449 females, making the sex ratio (number of females per thousand males) of the town to 989. A total of 3,433 people were under six years of age and the child sex ratio (number of females per thousand males under six years of age) stood at 951. The town had an average literacy of 79.81%, higher than the national average of 59.5%. A total of 4,067 comprising 15.87% of the population belonged to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 311 comprising 1.21% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST). There were are total of 6,401 households in the town. As of 2001, Mathuranthagam had a total of 8,601 main workers: 486 cultivators, 1,867 agricultural labourers, 214 in house hold industries and 6,034 other workers. There was a total of 2,450 marginal workers: 47 marginal cultivators, 1,501 marginal agricultural labourers, 65 marginal workers in household industries and 837 other marginal workers.[1]
Politics
Maduranthakam assembly constituency is part of Chengalpattu (Lok Sabha constituency).[2]
References
- ↑ "Primary census abstract 2001". Directorate of Census Operations – Tamil Nadu. 2001. Retrieved 2012-12-29.
- ↑ "List of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies". Tamil Nadu. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
