Tranquebar
Tranquebar, 1908
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.
vernacular Tarangampadi, which would mean ' the village of the waves ' ; but Sadanganpddi according to an old inscrip- tion). — Town and port in the Mayavaram idhtk of Tanjore District, Madras, situated in 11° 2' N. and 79° 52' E., 18 miles north of Nega- patam. Population, including the suburb of Poraiyar (1901), 13,142. Tranqu(ihar first rose into importance as a Danish settlement, the Danish East India Company having in 1620 obtained a grant of land from the Raja of Tanjore and built a fort here. In 1624 it passed to the King of Denmark. In the war of 17 80-1 Haidar exacted a fine of Rs. 1,40,000 from the Danes for supplying arms to the Nawab of Arcot. In 180 1 Tranquebar was taken by the British, but was restored in 1814. It was finally purchased by the British in 1845 for \2\ lakhs of rupees.
In 1706 the first Protestant missionaries, Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau, landed at Tranquebar and founded a mission under the auspices of King Frederick IV of Denmark. A church, one of the earliest Protes- tant places of worship in India, was built in 17 18. In the eighteenth century the mission spread its influence over a great part of the Tamil country; but not long after Swartz left Tranquebar in 1762 it began to languish, and by 1820 had practically come to an end. In 1841, however, it was succeeded by the Dresden Society, or, as it was called later, the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission, which now maintains a training school for teachers, an industrial school, and a printing press, besides boarding-schools for boys and girls. There is also an upper secondary school.
Tranquebar was a busy port in Danish times. Under English rule it drew away the trade of Negapatam owing to its better anchorage, and continued to flourish until 1861, when the rail- way restored the trade to Negapatam. It is now of greatly diminished importance, and its trade consists chiefly of the export of rice on a small scale. It was the head-quarters of the Collector of Tanjore from 1845 to i860, and of the District Judge from i860 to 1884, with a short interval. A deputy-tahsildar is now the chief officer. It is one of the healthiest spots in the District and has a quaint beauty of its own. The old citadel, called the Dansborg, for some time served as a jail, but is now in ruins. A small portion is, however, used as a customs office. The European bungalows are mostly within the fort, but the majority of the native population reside in Poraiyar, a mile inland. [Kay Larsen, Traiikebar (Copenhagen, 1907).]
