Ponnani Town
Ponnani Town, 1908
Head-quarters of the taluk of the same name in Malabar District, Madras, situated in 10degree 48' N. and 75degree 56' E., at the mouth of the Ponnani river. Population (1901), 10,562, mostly Mappillas. It is a busy port 1 , at which in 1903-4 the imports were valued at 8 lakhs and the exports at 6 lakhs. Kerosene oil and salt are the chief imports, and coco-nuts, coir, and copra the chief exports. The Ponnani Tangal, or Mappilla priest, is the chief of his sect, and the town is the centre of Muhammadan education on the coast, possessing a religious college. There are 27 mosques, the principal of which, the 1 Some English ships, under Captain Bonner, visited Ponnani (Ponana) in 1619, and unsuccessfully attempted to purchase pepper from the Zamorin, who was then residing there (W. Foster, The English Factories in India,p.71 Jamath Masjid, is supposed to have been built in 1510. Besides the usual taluk offices, the town contains a District Munsif s court.
The Ponnani river, which is the longest in Malabar, rises in the Anaimalais and flows through the Palghat Gap due west, with a total course of about 150 miles. The bed of the stream, unlike that of most of the Malabar rivers, is shallow and usually contains little water; but during the rainy months it is navigable for a considerable distance inland, and is used for floating down timber from the hills near Palghat. At its mouth it is connected by backwater with Tirur station on the north, and by canal with the Viyattil lake and the line of backwater which extends to Trivandrum on the south.
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.
