Cholamandalam

The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an area of about 22,800 square kilometres.Encyclopædia Britannica entry on Coromandel Coast
/ref> The coast has an average elevation of 80 metres and is backed by the Eastern Ghats, a chain of low lying and flat-topped hills.

In historical Muslim sources from the 12th century onward, the Coromandel Coast was called Maʿbar.

Etymology

The land of the Chola dynasty was called ''Cholamandalam'' (சோழ மண்டலம்) in Tamil, translated as ''The realm of the Cholas'', from which the Portuguese derived the name ''Coromandel''.''The Land of the Tamulians and Its Missions'', by Eduard Raimund Baierlein, James Dunning BakerSouth Indian Coins – Page 61 by T. Desikachari – Coins, Indic – 1984Indian History – Page 112''Annals of Oriental Research'' – Page 1 by University of Madras – 1960''The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea'' by Wilfred Harvey Schoff The name could also be derived from ''Karai mandalam'', meaning ''The realm of the Shores''.

Coromondel is the Dutch pronunciation of the word "Karimandalam", a village in the Sriharikota island in the north of Pazhavercadu (Pulecat Lake). An Italian explorer, Ludovico di Varthema, perhaps first gave the name Coromandel in 1510, which was then used on maps by the Portuguese, but it was the Dutch who took up serious trading there.

Flora

The Coromandel Coast is home to the East Deccan dry evergreen forests ecoregion, which runs in a narrow strip along the coast. Unlike most of the other tropical dry forest Biome regions of India, where the trees lose their leaves during the dry season, the East Deccan dry evergreen forests retain their leathery leaves year round.

The Coromandel Coast is also home to extensive mangrove forests along the low-lying coast and river deltas, and several important wetlands, notably Kaliveli Lake and Pulicat Lake, that provide habitat to thousands of migrating and resident birds.

History

By late 1530 the Coromandel Coast was home to three Portuguese settlements at Nagapattinam, São Tomé de Meliapore, and Pulicat . In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Coromandel Coast was the scene of rivalries among European powers for control of the India trade. The British established themselves at Fort St George (Madras) and Masulipatnam, the Dutch at Pulicat, Sadras and Covelong, the French at Pondicherry, Karaikal and Nizampatnam, the Danish in Dansborg at Tharangambadi.

The Coromandel Coast supplied Indian Muslim eunuchs to the Thai palace and court of Siam (modern Thailand). The Thai at times asked eunuchs from China to visit the court in Thailand and advise them on court ritual since they held them in high regard.

Eventually the British won out, although France retained the tiny enclaves of Pondichéry and Karaikal until 1954. Chinese lacquer goods, including boxes, screens, and chests, became known as "Coromandel" goods in the 18th century, because many Chinese exports were consolidated at the Coromandel ports.

Two of the famous books on the economic history of the Coromandel Coast are ''Merchants, companies, and commerce on the Coromandel Coast, 1650–1740'' (Arasaratnam, Oxford University Press, 1986) and ''The World of the Weaver in Northern Coromandel, c.1750-c.1850'' (P. Swarnalatha, Orient Longman, 2005).

On 26 December 2004, one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history, the Indian Ocean earthquake, struck off the western coast of Sumatra (Indonesia). The earthquake and subsequent tsunami reportedly killed over 220,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The tsunami devastated the Coromandel Coast, killing many and sweeping away many coastal communities.

Applications of the name

Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name after the Indian coast. The Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand was named after one of these ships, and the town of Coromandel, New Zealand was named after the peninsula.
Coromandel Valley, South Australia, and its neighbouring suburb, Coromandel East, gained their names from the ship '' Coromandel'', which arrived in Holdfast Bay from London in 1837 with 156 English settlers. After the ship reached the shore, some of its sailors deserted, intending to remain behind in South Australia, and took refuge in the hills in the Coromandel Valley region.

In Slovene, the idiom ''Indija Koromandija'' (India Coromandel) means a land of plenty, a promised land, a utopia where "Houses are bleached with cheese and covered with cake".

Edward Lear situates his nonsense poem ''The Yonghy Bonghy Bo'' by citing Coromandel on the first line: ''On the Coast of Coromandel''.

See also

*Malabar Coast
* Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements

References

Further reading

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica: Coromandel Coast (region, India)

{{Authority control

Coasts of India
South India
Regions of India
Regions of Andhra Pradesh
Regions of Tamil Nadu
Landforms of Puducherry
Landforms of Tamil Nadu
Eastern Ghats
Natural regions
Colonial India
Danish India
Dutch India
French India
Former Dutch colonies
Former French colonies