Madurantakam Town, 1908
Madurantakam Town
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. Head-quarters of the taluk of the same name in Chingleput District, Madras, situated in 12° 31' N. and 79° 53' E., 50 miles south-west of Madras city on the southern trunk road. With its hamlet Kadapperi it contains 6,320 inhabitants (1901), almost all of whom are connected with the cultivation of the land irrigated from the great tank which takes its name from the village. A large number of the landholders are Vaishnavite Brahmans. This tank is the only noteworthy feature in the place. It is formed by damming up a small river called the Kiliyar, which rises in the hill at Wandiwash, and is one of the most important irrigation works in the District. It owes its existence in its present form to Mr. Place, who was Collector at the end of the eighteenth century. He connected and strengthened the banks of two smaller tanks which he found here, and converted them into one large tank with a surplus weir at the northern end. This weir is one of the finest works of its kind in the country, and is built in the form of a waved line, the height from the crest to the bed of the river below being 30 feet. The southern portion especially is a very curious and beautiful speci- men of masonry. Instead of being built in steps, the descent is formed to imitate the curve which the flood-water takes in a fresh, and huge blocks of granite have been hewn into this curve and are bound into their places with lead. An inscription on the pillar at the northern end records that the tank was completed by Mr. Place in 1798, after having been twice carried away, and gives details as to the cost, &c. As originally designed by Mr. Place, the tank was constructed to irrigate five villages, besides Madurantakam, through the four sluices in its bank, and to supply the tank of Karunguli by a channel, about one-fourth of a mile in length, mostly cut through rock. The surplus weir was subsequently raised 2 ft. 3 in., and this channel was carried 2 miles farther on from the weir of the Karunguli tank as far as Sanur.
