THIRUVALLUR, Tamil Nadu

Main Attraction: SRI SUBRAMANYA SWAMY TEMPLE, TIRUTTANI

Sri Subramanya Swamy Temple at Tiruttani is a well-known temple in the State. The Temple is square in shape with four Prakarams. It covers an area of one acre. There are five Gopurams. Devotees have to ascend a flight of 365 steps to reach the temple.

As per legend, Lord Sri Subramanya settled at the top of Tiruttani hill after destroying Surapadma, the Asura. In addition to the Lord in the temple, are installed his consorts Sri Valli and Sri Deivayanai.

The Moolavar 3 1\2 ft. high is known as Murugar. The Uthsavamoorthy 2 1\2 ft. high known as Sri Subramanya Eswarar. Adi Kirthigai is the important annual festival. About three to four lakhs devotees visit the temple for the festival

Brief History

Tiruvallur was originally known as Tiruvallur which specifies the sleeping position of the holy lord "Balaji", in the Veeraragava temple of Tiruvallur. Later, people began to refer it by names such as Trivellore and Tiruvallur. Today, Tiruvallur is well known for one of the reasons being the Veeraragava Temple. The new moon day is very auspicious day for the lord for the people of the town and neigbouring areas.

In the far past, this region was under a chain of regimes commencing from the Pallavas. A rival of the British East India Company was a Dutch East India Company who established a settlement at Pulicat besides a factory at Masulipatam. Pulicat lay at a distance of 160 miles south of Masulipatam in the Hindu Vijayanagar kingdom. In the battle of Talikota near Raichur, the power of Vijayanagar was destroyed in 1565 by the combined effort of five Mohmmedan kings of Deccan. One of the deputies of the king took control of the Chengalpattu district (Thiruvallur was part of this district) with allegiance to the fugitive king of the dynasty who ran to Chandragiri in Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh. In 1639, the English received the site as grant on which the Fort St. George now stands, from Srirangaraya III, a later deputy of the fugitive king. Afterwards, the Sultans of Golconda conquered the whole of South India. The Naiks as deputies to the Sultans of Golconda in Chengalpattu, remained the vasals of the Golconda and dealt with the English.

In the year 1687, the Golconda rulers were defeated and the region came under the Mughal Emperors of Delhi. The towns and villages of this region became the scene of the Carnatic war. Battles were believed to be fought in this region during the struggle for supremacy between the English and French.

In 1763, the district along with certain villages which now form part of Chennai city was given in perpetuity as a Jagir to the East India Company by the Muhammed Ali, the Nawab of Arcot in consideration of the services rendered to him by the English. In turn the English leased the district which was referred to as Jagir in the old records annually to the Nawab himself for the next fifteen years. Haider Ali, the sovereign authority in Mysore, devastated the district twice in 1769 and again in 1780. In 1781, when the Nawab of Arcot assigned the revenue of the carnatic to English it was placed under the charge of Committee called the committee of Assigned Revenues. On the cession of the carnatic in full sovereignty to the company by the Nawab in 1801, it became part of British dominion in India. The town of Pulicat was the earliest Dutch possession in India founded in 1609 which was ceded to the British in the year 1825. The district continued to be under British rule till India became independent.