Maniyachchi is a township in the

Thoothukudi district The Thoothukkudi District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. On 20 October 1986, an M. G. Ramachandran-led government bifurcated the Tirunelveli district to form the district. It is shared by its boundaries w ...

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 ...

situated approximately 40 km west of Thootukudi and some 30 km from

Palayamkottai Palayamkottai (also Palayankottai) is a neighbourhood in Tirunelveli, Tirunelveli City, incorporated within the Tirunelveli Municipal Corporation, Tirunelveli City Municipal Corporation. It is situated on the east bank of the Thamirabarani rive ...

and

Kovilpatti Kovilpatti is an industrial city and special grade municipality in Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located 65 km (40 mi) from Thoothukudi, 102 km (63 mi) from Madurai and 565 km (351 mi) from Chennai. It is the headquarters of t ...

History

From once being a sparsely inhibited village, Maniyachchi was a site of significance during the Anti-Imperialist struggle in 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 ...

and it was here where the tyrannical British Collector of Tirunelveli Robert Ashe was shot by

Vanchinathan Vanchinathan (1886 – 17 June 1911), popularly known as Vanchi, was an Indian independence activist. He assassinated Robert Ashe, then district collector of Tirunelveli district on 17 June 1911 at Maniyachchi railway station. Ashe was consid ...

an Indian Tamil freedom fighter who would later commit suicide after having killed the British Collector. On 17 June 1911, Vanchi assassinated Ashe, the district collector of Tirunelveli, who was also known as Collector Dorai. He shot Ashe at point-blank range when Ashe's train had stopped at the Maniyachi station, en route to Madras. After the shooting, Vanchinathan ran along the platform and briefly took cover in the latrine. Some time later he was found dead, having shot himself in the mouth. His pocket contained the following letter: The

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

where the assassination occurred was named ''Vanchi Maniyachchi'' in the honor of Vanchinathan. Today, the station is one of an important junctions in the

Southern Railway Zone Southern Railway (SR) is one of the eighteen zones of Indian Railways. It is headquartered at Chennai and operates across the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the union territory of Puducherry. The origin of the Southern Rai ...

where south-bound trains to both

Tirunelveli Tirunelveli (), also known as Nellai and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirunelveli District. It is the fourth-largest munici ...

and Thootukudi pass by.

References

{{coord, 8, 51, 47, N, 77, 53, 42, E, display=title, region:IN_type:city Cities and towns in Thoothukudi district