Aralvaimozhi is a

panchayat town A nagar panchayat () or town panchayat or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,00 ...

in Kanniyakumari District in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India. It is a small

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

situated in southern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The town was earlier called as ''Aramboly'' during the colonial period.

History

Aralvaimozhi Pass was a strategically important gap or

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the southernmost end of the Western Ghats. It connected erstwhile

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

with the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. Many of the invasions faced by the

Chera The Chera dynasty ( or Cēra, ), also known as Keralaputra, from the early historic or the Sangam period in Tamil-speaking southern India, ruled over parts of present-day states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Cheras, known as one of the mu-ventar ...

and the successor kingdoms came via this ghat. The name "Aral" was derived from the

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

built and maintained by the rulers of

Venad Venad was a medieval kingdom between the Western Ghat mountains of India with its capital at city of Quilon.Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 143 ...

and later by the kingdom of

to defend the kingdom from invasions from the eastern regions. It is also said that Aralvaimozhi means whispering wind. The whistling sound of wind in the region might have led to such a name. Aralvaimozhi Fort was one of the most important forts of

. It was constructed around 1740 by

Eustachius De Lannoy Eustachius Benedictus de Lannoy (also sometimes called 'Captain De Lannoy') (30 December 1715 – 1 June 1777, Udayagiri Fort) was a skilled military strategist and commander of the Travancore army, under Maharaja Marthanda Varma. De Lannoy ...

along with Udayagiri Fort,

Vattakottai Fort Vattakottai Fort (or 'Circular Fort') is a seaside fort near Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, at the southern tip of India. It was built in the 18th century as a coastal defence fortification and barracks in the former Travancore kingdom. It was const ...

and Travancore lines. The fort was captured by the English East India Company in 1809 from the soldiers loyal to

Velu Thampi Dalawa Velayudhan Chempakaraman Thampi of Thalakulam (1765–1809) was the Dewan, Dalawa or Prime Minister of the Indian kingdom of Travancore between 1802 and 1809 during the reign of Balarama Varma, Bala Rama Varma Kulasekhara Perumal. He is best ...

. The remains of the fort can be seen near railway station, but neglected by both railway and archeology departments.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Aralvaimozhi had an estimated population of 22,846, of which 11,373 were males and 11,473 were females, meaning a female-male ratio of 1.01, above the

state average of 0.996 and well above the national average of 0.929 females/male. The child sex ratio of Aralvaimozhi is 1.012, higher than the state average of 9.43. Aralvaimozhi has a literacy rate of 89.26%. In Aralvaimozhi, Male literacy is around 92.34% while female literacy rate is 86.20%. Aralvaimozhi Town Panchayat has total administration over 6,206 houses to which it supplies basic amenities like water and sewage. 71.24% of people in Aralvaimozhi are

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 28.08% are

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, and 0.42% are

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Culture

During the invasion of Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi in 1311 AD by Malik Kapoor, Meenakshi Amman and Sundareeswarar were brought from Madurai to Venadu and hid in Parakodi Kandan Shasta temple near Aralvaaimozhi. Until 1368, Meenakshi Amman remained in Aralvaimozhi. From there she was taken back to Madurai.

Economy

Muppandal Wind Farm is located in Aralvaimozhi Town Panchayat. This farm is the largest in Asia and supplies the villagers with electricity for their needs. It is well known for being the greatest source of

wind energy Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. Poigai Dam, constructed in the year 2000 is serving water for irrigation purposes around the area. For the first time the dam was completely filled with water in 5 nov 2021 making it a wonderful place to visit.

Wind energy

The 1,500 megawatts (MW) Muppandal wind farm is the country's largest onshore wind farm which is the Asia's second largest windfarm. The project features a large number of wind turbines of varying sizes from 200 kilowatts (KW) to 1650KW.

Transportation

A railway station spelled "Aralvaimozhi", with station code AAY is situated here, and is served by

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. It is connecting many employees of

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

_ Mahendragiri campus.

Gallery

Image:Aralvaimozhi-fort-remains1.jpg, Remains of Aralvaimozhi fort found near railway station Image:Aralvaimozhi-fort-remains2.jpg, Remains of Aralvaimozhi fort found near railway station Image:Aralvaimozhy station.jpg, Aralvaimozhi railway station, with the wind-power mills in the background

References

External links

News about heritage grinding stone found at Aralvaimozhi
- reported in ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''
Poigai Dam
- In government's Water Resources Information System - Wiki Cities and towns in Kanyakumari district Kanyakumari Tourism in Tamil Nadu {{India-powerstation-stub