Town Profile
- Tharangampadi Town Panchayat Located 34.00 K.M distance from Nagapattinam District.
- Nearest Railway Station Name : Karaikkal , This Railway Station Located 13.00 k.m Distance from tharangampadi
- Nearest Airport Located in : Trichy
- Bus Route Details : : Nagapattinam to chennai Highway Road
- Sri Renugadevi Amman Koil - Ward No : 2 - Street Name - Renugadevi Amman Koil Street
- Masilamani Nathar Koil - Ward No : 5 - Street Name - Thandachapillai Street
- Zion Church - Ward No : 6 - Street Name - Raja Veethi
- Pappaiya Sithar Temple - Ward No : 8 - Street Name - Valiya Street
- Ayyanar Koil - Ward No : 13 - Street Name - Ayyanar Koil Thoppu
- Sri Kuman Koil - Ward No : 14 - Street Name - Kumaran Koil Street
- Throwpathai amman koil - Ward No : 14 - Street Name - Throwpathayamman Koil Street
- Sivan Koil - Ward No : 15 - Street Name - Sivan Koil Street
- Srimath Ozhugaimangalam Mariyamman Koil - Ward No : 16 - Street Name - Mariyamman Koil Veethi
- Ayyanar Koil - Ward No : 17 - Street Name - Southmettu Street
- Kaala Kaala Samy Koil - Ward No : 18 - Street Name - Erukkattanchery
Festival Name | How many Days Celebrated | Which Month Celebrated | No of Peoples Participated | Notified/Non Notified |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sithirai Perunthiruvizha | 28 | APR | 75000 | NON-NOTIFIED |
Mahabaratha Kadhai Thiruviizha | 7 | APR | 15000 | NON-NOTIFIED |
Nearest City Name | Direction | Distance from Town Panchayat |
---|---|---|
Bay of Bengal | East | 1.50 K.m |
Mayiladuthurai | West | 31.00 K.m |
Sirkazhi | North | 31.00 K.m |
Nagapattinam | South | 31.00 K.m |
Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, is a panchayat town in
the Nagapattinam
district of
the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of
the Kaveri River. Tharangambadi is the headquarters of Tharangambadi taluk while
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 byMaravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I.
As of now, this temple is the oldest monument. Until 1620, when the Danescame, 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.
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.
Among the first Protestant
missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutheransfrom
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.
They
were forced to learn the broken Portuguese, that was the lingua francabetween
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. 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. 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
was occupied by the British in February 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars but was
restored to Denmark following the Treaty of
Kiel in 1814 and The Norwegian Declaration of Independence.
Along with the Danish settlement of Seramporein
Bengal, it was sold to the British in 1845.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. 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.
New
Jerusalem Church
Main article: New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar
The New Jerusalem Church [1] was
built in 1718 by the Royal Danish missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in the
coastal town of Tranquebar, India which was at that time a Danish India Colony. The
church is located on King Street, and church services are conducted every
Sunday. The church, along with other buildings of the Tranquebar Mission was damaged during the tsunami of 2004, and were
renovated at a cost of INR 7 million, and re-consecrated in 2006.
Danish
Fort
Construction of Fort Dansborg started
in 1620. Most parts of the fort have been reconstructed several times. Therampart 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, 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.