Madurai

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Madurai

- City -

View of Madurai

Nickname(s): Athens of the East, Thoonga Nagaram

Madurai

Coordinates: 9.919662°N 78.119393°ECoordinates: 9.919662°N 78.119393°E

Country

India

State

Tamil Nadu

District

Madurai district

Government

• Mayor

V. V. Rajan Chellappa

Area

• City

248 km2 (96 sq mi)

Elevation

101 m (331 ft)

Population (2011)

• City

1,561,000

• Density

6,300/km2 (16,000/sq mi)

• Metro

2,062,420

Languages

• Official

Tamil

Time zone

IST (UTC+5:30)

PIN

625 0xx

Telephone code

452

Vehicle registration

TN-58, TN-59 and TN-64

Website

www.maduraicorporation.in

Madurai is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the second largest city and the second largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The capital of the Pandyan kingdom was initially Korkai, around 600 BCE, and was later moved to Koodal (now Madurai) during the reign of Nedunj Cheliyan I. Madurai is famous for its temples, the most prominent of which is Meenakshi Amman Temple, built by Pandyan and Madurai Nayak kings in the Dravidian style of architecture. It is also one of India's most noted Hindu pilgrimage centres.

The city is closely associted with Tamil language as all the 3 primary congregation of Tamil scholars, the Tamil Sangam (3rd century BC to 3rd century CE), were held at Madurai.

Madurai's recorded history goes back to the 3rd century BC and the city is mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India andKautilya, the minister of the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. The city was the principal administrative and cultural centre of the Pandyan dynasty which ruled over the southern parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala till the first half of the 14th century AD. In about 1311, the Pandyan dynasty was overthrown by the Delhi Sultanate which established the province of Ma'bar which later became independent as the Ma'bar Sultanate. When the Ma'bar Sultanate began to decline in the latter years of the 14th century, Madurai was absorbed into the Vijayanagar Empire. The viceroys of the Vijayanagar Empire established the Madurai Nayak kingdom and ruled as independent kings from 1559 to 1736. After a brief period of occupation by Chanda Sahib and the Carnatic kingdom, Madurai was annexed by the British East India Company in 1801.

Madurai is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. The city covers an area of 147.99 km and had a population of 1,561,000 in 2011. Madurai is well-connected by road, rail and air.