Mylapore

Mylapore (Tamil: மயிலப்பூர் Mayilappūr [ majiləp ː u ː r] ), formerly also Mailapur, Meliapor, short Mylae ( மயிலை Mayilai [ majilɛi̯ ] ), also Thirumylai ( திருமயிலை Tirumayilai [ ˌ t̪iɾɯmajilɛi̯ ] ), is a district of Chennai (Madras ), the capital of the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Mylapore is one of the oldest districts of Chennai and has a history that goes far back into antiquity. The district is known for Kapaliswarar Temple and the St. Thomas Basilica.

Location and extent

Mylapore is located in the south of Chennai. The boundaries of the neighborhood are not exactly defined, Mylapore can, however, against the districts in the north Triplicane, Royapettah in the northwest, delimit Teynampet in the west and in the south of Adyar. To the east lies the coast of the Bay of Bengal to the city beach Marina Beach. In the south of the mouth of the Adyar River marks the border with the district of the same name.

Administratively, there is no district called Mylapore, but the area is in Zone Teynampet. However, there is a constituency Mylapore ( Mylapore constituency ) in the election for Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly ( the Parliament of the State ). To this belong the neighborhoods ( wards ) 121 to 126

History

The story goes much further back than Mylapores the Chennai, founded in the 17th century as a British colony. Located at the mouth of the Adyar Mylapore seems to already have been an important port in ancient times. Sometimes it is identified with the mentioned in the Geographia of the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century port city Manarpha or Maliarpha. From the 6th to the 9th century, the Pallava kings ruled from Kanchipuram from over the northern part of present-day Tamil Nadu. During this time, Mylapore was the port of the Pallava kingdom. The Pallava ruler Nandivarman III. ( 844-866 ) is mentioned with the epithet Mayilaikavalan ( " Protector of Mylapore "). The Kapaliswarar Temple of Mylapore is sung in the 7th century in the devotional hymns of the poet Sambandar. But the temple in its present form is not older than 300-400 years.

The Christian tradition according to the Apostle Thomas to be drawn after the death of Jesus to India. After he had evangelized on the Malabar Coast, the Thomas Christians, he should have come to Mylapore and settled in a cave on the Little Mount. He was martyred in the year 72 at the nearby St. Thomas Mount and was then buried in Mylapore. The greatest part of his relics to have been later transferred to Edessa, his original burial site was further worshiped in India but. In Mylapore seems to have existed early in a Nestorian colony. Persian and Arab reports mention Mylapore in the 9th century as Betumah ( Aramaic for "house of Thomas" ). The Christian community is also mentioned in 1293 by Marco Polo, as later in the travel accounts of Odoric of Pordenone and Niccolo di Conti, who reported from over 1000 Nestorians in the city. The Nestorian church seems, however, to have dissolved: After the Portuguese Duarte Barbosa the church had been lying in the early 16th century in ruins.

Beginning of the 16th century summarized the Portuguese, who had begun to colonize the Coromandel coast, walking in Mylapore. 1522-23, they built a church on the site of the tomb of St. Thomas and founded the colony of São Tomé de Meliapore. 1545 settled there already 600-700 Portuguese colonists. 1548/59 could be Jesuits settled in Mylapore. From 1606 was Mylapore seat of the Diocese of São Tomé de Meliapore, 1614, the town was fortified. With an interruption in 1662-1687, when the Mylapore was alternately held by the Sultanate of Golconda, France and the Netherlands, the city remained under Portuguese rule until 1749. Meanwhile, the British had founded in 1639, starting from the Fort St. George in just five kilometers north of Madras located risen to the greatest colonial power in South India. 1749 was also Mylapore in the possession of the British East India Company. Through the expansion of Madras during British colonial period Mylapore a suburb of Madras, which was renamed in 1996 in Chennai was.

Attractions

In Mylapore there are two of the most important religious buildings of Chennai: The Kapaliswarar Temple and the St. Thomas Basilica. The Kapaliswarar temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva in his form as consecrated Kapaliswarar ( Kapalishwara ). The approximately 85 × 90 -foot rectangular temple complex with its 37 meters high, equipped with rich figural decoration gopuram ( gate-tower ) in the east and a smaller Westgopuram can be considered a typical example of the South Indian Dravidian style. To the west of the temple is a large temple pond. Among several temple festivals that are celebrated every year, is the ten-day festival in March / April, in which the idols are taken in a grand procession to a temple chariots around the temple, the most important.

The St. Thomas Basilica is located on the site of the alleged tomb of the Apostle Thomas. The Neo-Gothic church was built in 1893 during the British colonial period in place of a built in the 16th century by the Portuguese earlier building. The St. Thomas Basilica is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras Mylapore. In 1956, she was elevated to the rank of minor Basilica. A second Catholic church in Mylapore is the Luz Church in the west of the district. Built in 1516 by the Portuguese, this little Baroque is the oldest church of Chennai.

According to legend, Mylapore is the birthplace of the Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar Saints ( author of the Tirukkural ). There is a Tiruvalluvar consecrated Hindu temple at his alleged birthplace. Furthermore, located in Mylapore, a center of Hindu reform movement Ramakrishna Mission with a " universal temple ."

Traffic

Mylapore is connected by numerous city bus lines with the other parts of the city of Chennai. Next to it is far from the Kapaliswarar Temple of the elevated train station Thirumylai Mass Rapid Transit System ( MRTS ).