Tharangambadi

Tharangambadi
town

Tharangambadi
Coordinates: 11°1′45″N 79°50′58″E / 11.02917°N 79.84944°ECoordinates: 11°1′45″N 79°50′58″E / 11.02917°N 79.84944°E
Country India
State Tamil Nadu
District Nagapattinam
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 23,191
Languages
 • Official Tamil
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)

Tharangambadi (formerly Tranquebar) is a panchayat town in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 15 km north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of the Kaveri River. Tharangambadi is the headquarters of Tharangambadi taluk. Its name means "place of the singing waves". It was a Danish colony from 1620 to 1845, and in Danish it is still known as Trankebar.

History

The place dates back to 14th century. Masilamani nathar (Shiva) temple was built in 1306, in a land given by Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I. As of now, this temple is the oldest monument.[2] Until 1620, when Danish people came, the place was under Thanjavur Nayak kingdom. Danish admiral Ove Gjedde felt the place would be a potential trading centre, made a deal with Raghunatha Nayak and built a fort, which is known as Fort Dansborg.[3] Nevertheless, a jesuit Catholic church was already in place before that, catering for the Indo-Portuguese community. The Catholic church was probably demolished to build the fort. This fort was the residence and headquarters of the governor and other officials for about 150 years. It is now a museum hosting a collection of artifacts from the colonial era.

Fort Dansborg at Tharangambadi, built by Danish Admiral, Ove Gjedde.
A restored colonial house in Tranquebar

Among the first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. Ziegenbalg translated the Old and New Testaments into Tamil, imported a printing press, and printed the New Testament in Tamil in 1714.[4]

They were forced to learn the broken Portuguese, that was the lingua franca between Indians and Europeans at the time, and later on translated the Bible into the local Tamil language. They also established a printing press, which within a hundred years of its establishment in 1712 had printed 300 books in Tamil.[5] At first they only made little progress in their religious efforts, but gradually the mission spread to Madras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. Today bishop of Tranquebar is the official title of a bishop in the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) in South India which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission. The seat of the Bishop, the Cathedral and its Church House ("Tranquebar House") is in Tiruchirappalli.

The Zion church was sanctified in 1701, which is the oldest Protestant church in India. In 1718, The New Jerusalem Church was constructed.[3] Moravian Brethren missionaries from Herrnhut, Saxony established the Brethren's Garden at Porayar near Tranquebar and operated it as a missionary centre for a number of years. An Italian Catholic Father Constanzo Beschi, who worked in the colony from 1711 to 1740, found himself in conflict with the Lutheran pioneers at Tranquebar, against whom he wrote several polemical works.

Tranquebar came under the control of the British in February 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, but was restored to Denmark following the Treaty of Kiel in 1814. Along with the other Danish settlements in India (Serampore and the Nicobars), it was sold to the British in 1845.[6] Tranquebar was then still a busy port, but it later lost its importance after a railway was opened to Nagapattinam.

Danish Museum

Antique items on display at the museum inside Fort Dansborg

The antiquities connected with the colonial period and Danish settlement at Tharangampadi are exhibited.[6] The museum contains porcelain ware, Danish manuscripts, glass objects, Chinese tea jars, steatitle lamps, decorated terracotta objects, figurines, lamps, stones, sculptures, swords, daggers, spears, sudai (stucco) figurines and wooden objects. There is also part of a whale skeleton and small cannonballs.[4]

Danish Fort

Danish Church, Tharangampadi

Construction of Fort Dansborg started in 1620. Most parts of the fort have been reconstructed several times. The rampart wall is a fairly large four sided structure, with bastions at each cardinal point. A single storied building was constructed along three inner sides of the rampart, with barracks, warehouse, kitchen and jail. The rooms on the southern side remain in good condition, but the rooms on the western and northern sides have been substantially damaged. On the eastern side of the fort, there was a two storied building facing the sea. It was the main building of the fort. The vaulted lower storey served as a magazine and a warehouse, while the vaulted upper storey contained the church and the lodging of the governor, the Senior merchants and the chaplain. The sea on the eastern and western side protected the fort. The fort was surrounded by a moat, access to the fort being over a drawbridge. The moat has completely disappeared.

Demographics

As of 2001 India census,[7] Tharangambadi had a population of 20,841. Males constitute 48% of the population and females 52%. Tharangambadi has an average literacy rate of 74%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 79%, and female literacy is 69%. In Tharangambadi, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.


Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.censusindia.gov.in/pca/SearchDetails.aspx?Id=693549
  2. ↑ Lakshmi Sharath (2 February 2013). "Tryst with the coast". Deccan Herald (India).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Danish flavour". Frontline (India). 6 November 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Madhulika Liddle (8 August 2010). "The Missionary's footprints". Indian Express (India).
  5. ↑ Galathea 3 - Research projects - The Indo-Danish Cultural Encounter with Special Reference to Print in the Eigteenth Century
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Tharangampadi - Introdcution". Nagapattinam district administration, State government of Tamilnadu. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved 2008-11-01.

External links

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