Royapuram is a locality in the northern part of the city of

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for its beach, and for Royapuram Railway Station. The station is the first railway station of

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

, opening in 1856, and is today the oldest surviving railway station of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

History

The region existed as a well known settlement during the

Chola The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

times, but the name Royapuram is derived from a Tamil appellation for St. Peter, Royappa, in connection with St. Peter's Church in the area. The region was originally called Rayarapuram named after the Rayar Kings who rules down South. It is also believed that the British / Anglo Indians settled in this locality were called Rayars, which lent the name Rayarpuram. From the 14th century, the erstwhile Vijayanagara Rulers controlled this region till the Madras land grant to

Francis Day Francis Talbot Day (2 March 1829 – 10 July 1889) was an army surgeon and naturalist in the Madras Presidency who later became the Inspector-General of Fisheries in British Raj, India and British rule in Burma, Burma. A pioneer ichthyologist, ...

Royapuram Railway Station was the first railway station constructed in

and second railway line in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. The first train service commenced in 1856 from here to Arcot, the then capital of the Carnatic region.

Politics

State assembly politics

Lok Sabha politics

Royapuram assembly constituency is part of

Chennai North (Lok Sabha constituency) Chennai North is one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Its Tamil Nadu Parliamentary Constituency number is 2 of 39. Formerly it was known as ''Madras North''. Assembly segments After 2009 After delimitation, Chennai ...

References

{{Chennai Topics Coastal neighbourhoods of Chennai