Ariyankuppam (also known by its former name Ariancoupom) is a Town, Commune, Sub-Taluk, and

Assembly Constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

in the Union Territory of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: Places in India * Puducherry (union territory), formerly known as Pondicherry ** Puducherry (city), capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district The Puducherry District, also know ...

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 streets in Ariyankuppam are straight and in grid form, similar to Puducherry

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

Origin of name

The name Ariyankuppam comes from Aricamedu, an archaeological site in Ariyankuppam. Ariyankuppam is also known as Ariyanagar or Ariankuppam.

History

Ariyankuppam (Arikamedu) was an ancient Indian fishing village which was formerly a major port dedicated to bead making and trading with

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

traders. Now Ariyankuppam is administrated as a town under Puducherry Union Territory of India

Demographics

India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Ariyankuppam had a population of 47,021. Males constitute 50% of the population and females 50%. Ariyankuppam has an average literacy rate of 81.49%, male literacy is 88.89%, and female literacy is 74.13%. In Ariyankuppam, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Geography

Ariyankuppam is located at 11.54° N 79.48°E. Ariyankuppam is 5 km. from Puducherry city. It is in between Puducherry and Cuddalore on NH-45A. One can reach Ariyankuppam by any local bus from Puducherry to Veerapattinam. Also you can catch any bus to Cuddalore, Bahoor or Madukarai from Puducherry running via Ariyankuppam.

Place of interest

Arikamedu Archaeological Excavation

Arikamedu Arikamedu is an archaeological site in Southern India, in Kakkayanthope, Ariyankuppam Commune, Puducherry. It is from the capital, Pondicherry of the Indian territory of Puducherry. Sir Mortimer Wheeler 1945, and Jean-Marie Casal conducted ...

is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

located at a distance of 1 km from Ariyankuppam, where

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, CIE Military Cross, MC Territorial Decoration, TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeolo ...

conducted his best-known excavation in the 1940s. According to Wheeler, Arikamedu was a Tamil fishing village which was formerly a major port dedicated to bead making and trading with

traders. It flourished for centuries until the Romans left. Various Roman artifacts, such as a large number of

amphora An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

e bearing the mark of Roman

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US *Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska *Potters, New Jerse ...

schools VIBII, CAMURI and ITTA, have been found at the site, supporting the view on an ancient trade between

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and the

ancient Tamil country Tamilakam () also known as ancient Tamil country as was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Laks ...

. An Archaeological Museum is also present.

Veerampattinam Temple Car Festival

Sengazhuneer Amman Temple () at Veerampattinam is the abode of Sakti and is the oldest temple in Ariyankuppam. It is located at a distance of 2.5 km from Ariyankuppam. The goddess at the sanctum sanctorum faces the sea while the seven deities face the north. The temple also houses Amman, Ganapathy and Murugan gods. A grand festival is celebrated every year for six continuous Fridays starting from the Tamil month of Aadi. Special importance is given to the fifth Friday of the six Fridays and this day is declared as public holiday by the Government of Puducherry. On this day, thousands of prigrims throng this holy place to celebrate the festival. Right from the days of the French, it was a custom to invite the Lt. Governor of Puducherry to start the

Temple car Temple cars or Temple chariots are used to carry representations of Hindu deities around the streets of the temple on festival days. These chariots are generally manually pulled by the devotees of the deity. As of 2004, the Indian state Tamil ...

procession by pulling its long rope.

Chunnambar Boat House

Chunnambar Boat House () is located in Ariyankuppam. It is one of the major tourist spot in Puducherry and it can be reached at a distance of 7 km from Puducherry. The boat house needs to be renamed either as Ariyankuppam Boat House or Sankaraparani Boat House as it is located in

Sankaraparani river The Sankaraparani River (French: Fleuve Sankaraparani) is a river in Tamil Nadu state of southern India. It originates on the western slope of the Gingee Hills in Viluppuram District, and flows southeastwards to empty into the Bay of Bengal sout ...

bank at Ariyankuppam. Chunnambar is a verbal name given to

. The boat house comes under Ariyankuppam (West) village of Ariyankuppam Commune.

PachaiVazhiAmman Kovil

Arulmigu PachaiVazhiAmman sametha Mannathaswamy Kovil is an ancient Temple of Ariyankuppam. History of this temple goes back to 17th century. It is located between Ariyankuppam and Chunnambar Boat House at a distance of 1.2 km from Ariyankuppam. The presiding deity is Goddess Pachaivazhiamman ()

Church of Our Lady of Good Health

The church founded in 1690 was subsequently rebuilt several times. This is the oldest church still standing in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Puducherry and Cuddalore. The interior has rounded arches carrying a vault over the central aisle. A freestanding Crucifix is displayed upon the altar and brightly painted wooden images are set on shelves in the side walls.

Puducherry New Harbour

Puducherry New Harbour is located at Periya Veerapattinam. From here, one can see the New Light House, and The Notre Dame des Anges located in Puducherry Beach.

References

*R.E. Mortimer Wheeler, ''My Archaeological Mission to India and Pakistan'',

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, London, 1976.

External links

Official website of the Government of the Union Territory of Puducherry
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070312024110/http://www.4to40.com/discoverindia/places/index.asp?article=discoverindia_places_arikamedu Arikamedu Archaeological Site in India - A Brief Note by Discover India Site] {{Puducherry District Ariyankuppam, Cities and towns in Puducherry district