Madurai district
The district Madurai (Tamil: மதுரை மாவட்டம்; formerly Madura ) is a district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Administrative center is the eponymous Madurai, the third largest city of Tamil Nadu, which can look back on more than two thousand years of history.
Geography
The district Madurai is in the southern inland areas of Tamil Nadu. Neighboring districts are Sivaganga in the east, Virudhunagar in the south, in the west of Theni, Dindigul and Tiruchirappalli in the north to the northeast.
The area of the district of Madurai is 3,695 square kilometers. The landscape in the district area is dominated by plains and isolated mountains. The largest river of the district is the current flowing through Madurai Vaigai. The district Madurai is divided into seven taluks Madurai ( North ), Madurai (South ), Melur, Thirumangalam, Peraiyur, Usilampatti and Vadipatti.
History
The current district area is the heartland of the historic Pandya dynasty, which ruled from Madurai from one of the first early kingdoms of South India in the first centuries BC. The penetration of the Kalabhra in the 4th century AD ended the supremacy of the Pandya, who were only vassals of other rulers from now on. End of the 12th century did the Pandyas again to regain their supremacy. 1310 commanded Malik Kafur, a general Ala ud- Din Khaljis, a campaign of the Sultanate of Delhi to South India, conquered Madurai and established the Sultanate of Madurai. The Islamic rule over the territory remained short-lived: in 1372 the Sultanate was defeated by the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, which swung in the episode the most powerful kingdom in South India.
The Vijayanagar rulers set in different parts of their empire military governor of a ( Nayaks ) who made his own business after the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire in 1565. The Nayaks of Madurai ruled from Madurai and later from Tiruchirappalli ( Trichinopoly ) over the southern parts of present-day Tamil Nadu. After the death of the greatest Nayak ruler Tirumalai Nayak (1623-1659) the rule of the Nayaks of Madurai destabilized visibly before it finally went under in 1736. During the 18th century, Madurai was ruled by the Nawabs of Arcot and the Marathas before it finally came under British influence. 1801 the area of Madurai was finally a part of British India.
The British annexed the area as a district Madura ( Madurai ) in the Province of Madras. The district originally encompassed a much larger area of over 22,000 square kilometers, stretching from the Western Ghats at the border with Kerala to the coast of the Gulf of Bengal. After Indian independence, he came in the wake of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 to the newly formed State of Madras, which now included the Tamil-speaking areas and was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. The area of the district Madurai reduced successively by the creation of new districts: By 1910, was from the southern parts of the district of Madurai and parts of the district of Tirunelveli ( Ramnad ) formed the district Ramanathapuram. To this belonged until 1985, the territory of the present districts of Sivaganga and Virudhunagar. , The district Dindigul split off from Madurai district also in 1985. Finally, the remaining area of the district of Madurai in 1996 divided into the districts of Madurai and Theni.
Population
According to the Indian census of 2011, the district Madurai has 3,041,038 inhabitants. Compared to the last census in 2001 the population had grown by 17.8 percent, which was slightly faster than the average for Tamil Nadu ( 15.6 per cent). The district is densely populated: the population density is 823 inhabitants per square kilometer, well above the average of the State ( 555 inhabitants per square kilometer). 60.6 percent of the residents of the district Madurai live in cities. The urbanization rate is thus higher than the average of Tamil Nadu ( 48.5 per cent). The literacy rate is 81.7 percent slightly higher than the average of Tamil Nadu ( 80.3 per cent) and significantly higher than the all-India average of 74.0 per cent.
The population of the district are the Hindus according to the 2001 census, 91.2 percent of the vast majority. There are also minorities of Muslims ( 5.3 per cent ) and Christians (3.3 percent ).
Attractions
Madurai is one of the culturally and historically important cities of South India. The main attraction of the city is situated in the center of the old town Minakshi Temple, one of the most outstanding examples of Dravidian temple architecture, master whose most visible gopurams ( gateway towers ) of the city skyline. The oldest parts of the Meenakshi temple date from the Pandya period of the 12th - 13th Century, its present shape was the temple but mainly during the Nayak rule in the 16th - 17th Century. On average, the Temple visit around 20,000 people daily.
Other attractions in the city of Madurai are the Built in the 17th century by the eponymous Nayak rulers Tirumalai Nayak Palace, and Mariamman Temple Teppakulam pond. Only eight kilometers south of Madurai is Tirupparankundram, one of six places of pilgrimage ( Arupadaividu ) of the Hindu god Murugan. The god Vishnu is worshiped in Alagar Kovil 21 km northeast of Madurai.