Panchalankurichi is a village, 3 km from
Ottapidaram
Ottapidaram is a small town in Thoothukudi district and headquarters of Ottapidaram taluk. Ottapidaram is a tourism centre with accessibility to many places in Tamil Nadu. Thoothukudi or Tirunelveli can be easily accessed from anywhere and ...
and 21 km from
Thoothukudi
Thoothukudi (formerly Tuticorin) is a port city, a municipal corporation and an industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The city lies in the Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal. Thoothukudi is the capital and he ...
in
Thoothukudi district
Thoothukudi District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The district was formed by bifurcation of Tirunelveli district on 20 October 1986. Thoothukudi is the district headquarters and largest city of the distr ...
,
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
, India. Panchalankurichi was once a Palayam and is best known as the birthplace of
Veerapandiya Kattabomman
Veerapandiya Kattabomman was an 18th-century Tamil Palayakarrar and king of Panchalankurichi in Tamil Nadu, India. He refused to accept the sovereignty of the British East India Company and waged a war against them. He was captured by the Briti ...
, an 18th-century
Palayakarrar
Palaiyakkarars, or Poligar, (as the British referred to them) in Tamil Nadu refers to the holder of a small kingdom as a feudatory to a greater sovereign. Under this system, ''palayam'' was given for valuable military services rendered by any in ...
('Polygar'), who opposed the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
governance in the area and its revenue-raising methods.
History
Panchalamkurichi (often spelled Panjalamkurichi), in the Kovilpatti taluk of Tuticorin, is traditionally recognized as one of the 72 palayams of Madura. The name is a reference to the stand taken against the Nayaks of Madura by the Pancha (or Panchala, meaning the doab) Pandyas, local chieftains tributary to the Pandyas, at a nearby kurichi or valley in the central area of Tirunelveli.
In 2006, the
Tirunelveli district administration organised a festival at Panchalankurichi to celebrate the birth anniversary of Veerapandiya Kattabomman.
References
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
Thoothukudi
Villages in Thoothukudi district
Madurai Nayak dynasty
Palayam