Kodaikanal Town
Kodaikanal Town, 1908
('Forest of creepers'). — Head-quarters ot the taluk of the same name in Madura District, Madras, situated in 10° 14' N. and 77 degree 29' E., on the Palni Hills. Formerly an insig- nificant hamlet of Vilpatti village, it is now one of the largest sanitaria in the Presidency. The population according to the Census of 1901 was only 1,912 ; but this enumeration was made in the cold season, before the influx of the numerous hot-season visitors and their following had begun. Kodaikanal was constituted a municipality in 1899. The municipal receipts and expenditure in 1903-4 were Rs. 10,700 and Rs. 9,900 respectively, most of the former being derived from the taxes on land and houses. A scheme for supplying the place with water, at a cost of Rs. 63,000, is under consideration. The station contains three churches, a school for European boys and girls managed by the American Mission, and a municipal hospital.
The sanitarium stands about 7,000 feet above sea-level. The houses of the European residents are picturesquely grouped about a natural theatre of hills surrounding an artificial lake which has been constructed at the bottom of a beautiful little valley, or on the cliff which overhangs the ghat road leading up from the low country from Periyakulam. The temperature of the station is similar to that of Ootacamund, but somewhat milder ; and, as the rainfall is lighter and the atmospheric conditions more equable than those of the Nilgiris, the climate of the place may be said to be one of the best in India. Round about Kodaikanal are grassy rolling downs, with beautiful little woods nestling in their hollows and perennial streams flowing through them, very similar to, though somewhat steeper than, those about Ootacamund. The place is thus capable of considerable extension, and its develop- ment is at present mainly retarded by the lack of easy means of communication with the low country and the railway. The journey from the nearest railway station, Ammayanayakkanur on the South Indian line, to the foot of the hill where the bridle-path up the ghat begins, a distance of 33 miles, is made in bullock-carts. The bridle- path makes an ascent of about 6,000 feet in n miles, and is quite impracticable for any wheeled vehicles. Visitors have either to ride or be carried up in chairs. The want of a cart-road also occasions difficulties in bringing up articles from the low country. A driving road through the lower Palnis and a light railway through the Periyakulam valley have been suggested as means of improving these communications, and a trace for a ghat road from the Palni side has been made out. Want of funds has prevented its execution.
Near the station is the Kodaikanal Observatory, which is placed 7,700 feet above sea-level. Under the scheme for the reorganization of Indian observatories which came into operation in 1889, the chief part of the Madras Observatory was transferred to Kodaikanal, the place being preferred to Ootacamund on account of its greater freedom from mist and cloud, and the former Government Astronomer became Director of the Kodaikanal and Madras Observatories. The appliances and powers of this observatory are now directed to the prosecution of inquiry in the sciences of terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and seismology, and to astronomical observations for the purpose of time- keeping, but chiefly to the important subject of solar physics.
About 1,000 feet below Kodaikanal, at Shembaganiir, is a Jesuit college containing 65 students, who undergo a course of training for seven years in preparation for the priesthood.
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
