The town of Virajpet also spelled as Virajapete is the second town of the district of Kodagu (Coorg), in

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

. It is the main town of the ''Virajpet

taluka A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

'', south of the district, in the

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

border. The name is an abbreviation of Virarajendrapete after the former ruler of Kodagu, Virarajendra.

History

The name "Virajpet" is a shorter version of previous name "Virarajendrapet", named after the Haleri King Dodda Virarajendra who founded the town in 1792. He founded the town to commemorate his meeting with

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

Robert Abercromby, his ally against

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...

, the ruler of the

Kingdom of Mysore The Kingdom of Mysore was a realm in South India, southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. From 1799 until 1950, it was a princely state, until 1947 in a subsidiary allia ...

, in 1791. It was the headquarters of Yedenalknad

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Demographics

Virajpet has a population of 17,246 as per the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Informatio ...

. The number of males was 8,724 and females 8,522, thus a gender ration of 977 females to 1,000 males. Virajpet's

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

is 93.12 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 74.04 per cent. The rate among males was 92.75 per cent and 95.46 per cent in females. 1,641 in number, 9.52 per cent of the population fall in the under-six age group.

Languages

The most widely spoken languages in Virajpet taluk are

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

, Kodava,

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

Tulu Tulu may refer to: People *Derartu Tulu (born 1972), Ethiopian long-distance runner *Walid Yacoubou (born 1997), Togolese footballer nicknamed "Tulu" India *Tulu calendar, traditional solar calendar generally used in the regions of southwest Kar ...

in descending order.

Civic administration

The

Virajpet Town Panchayat The Virajpet Town Panchayat is a town panchayat that is in charge of the civic and infrastructural assets of Virajpet, a town in the district of Kodagu in the Indian State of Karnataka. It administers an area of . The legislative body consists of ...

is the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in charge of the civic and infrastructural assets of the town. Virajpet has a town area of . The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

consists of 18 elected representatives, called

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s, one from each of the 18 wards (localities) of the town. A councillor from the majority party is selected as a President. For elections to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

, Virajpet falls under the Mysore constituency. Prior to revision of the constituencies by the

Delimitation commission The Delimitation commission or Boundary commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act. The main task of the commission is redrawing the boundaries of the vari ...

in 2008, the town came under Mangalore constituency. For elections to the State Legislative Assembly, the town falls under the

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

that, apart from the town, includes the surrounding villages, and sends one member to the assembly.

Transportation

The nearest railway stations are

Thalassery Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (K ...

and

Kannur Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hu ...

, at a distance of 80 km each. K R Nagar , Hassan and

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...

are other nearest Railway stations in

, at a distance of 138 km and 105 km respectively. The nearest airports are Kannur International Airport in Kerala and

Mangalore International Airport Mangalore International Airport , is an international airport serving the coastal city of Mangalore, India. It is one of the only two international airports in Karnataka, the other being Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore. Mangalo ...

. Kannur International Airport is at a distance of 59 km from Virajpet and Mangalore International Airport is at a distance of 172 km from Virajpet. Iritty in Kerala is the nearest town and it is about 41 km away from here. There are frequent bus services operated by KSRTC as well as Kerala RTC.

References

External links

Virajpet Town Panchayat Website
{{Kodagu (Coorg) topics Cities and towns in Kodagu district