Tirupathur

Tirupathur[1] or Tirupattur[2] is the headquarters of Tirupathur district in the state of Tamil Nadu in India and is one of the oldest inhabited places in the state, with a history of over 1,600 years. The town is known for an abundance of sandalwood[3] in the surrounding hills. It is located about 89 km (55 mi) from Vellore, 85 km (53 mi) from Hosur, 60 km (37 mi) from Dharmapuri, 50 km (31 mi) from Krishnagiri, 50 km (31 mi) from Thiruvannamalai, 279 km (173 mi) from coimbatore , 210 km (130 mi) from Chennai, and 125 km (78 mi) from Bangalore.[citation needed] History From inscriptions surveyed by the Archaeological Survey of India in Tirupathur, it is estimated that the town is more than 1,600 years old. Under the Chola, Vijayanagara, and Hoysala dynasties, the town was variously called Sri Mathava Chaturvedi Mangalam, Veera Narayana Chaturvedi Mangalam, Tiruperur, Brahmapuram and Brahmeeswaram. Tirupathur means "Ten Towns". It is a Taluk, with villages such as Aathiyur (Beginning) and Kodiyur (Ending). It has many ancient Vishnu and Shiva temples, and water tanks built during the Hoysala Dynasty. It is well connected by road and rail to the other important cities of Tamil Nadu such as Vellore, Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore and Thiruvannamalai and to Bangalore in Karnataka. The town has the resting places of many Islamic saints. As of 2011, the town had a population of 64,125. Tiruppattur is located 137 miles (220 km) from Madras along the south-west line of the Madras Railway. Historically, it has been a favoured administrative station and was the original British capital of then Salem district. Colonel Alexander Read, the first Collector of the district, established his headquarters in Tiruppattur in 1792.[4] The town was a part of the Salem district, and later of Vellore district. The Tirupathur sub-division includes Tirupathur, Nattrampalli, Vaniyambadi and Ambur taluks. Anna Rajam Malhotra, India's first female Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, K P S Menon Jr., former foreign secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Dr. T V Somanathan were sub-collectors of Tirupathur during their initial career. In 1886, the Tirupathur municipality was constituted as a grade three municipality. As per the government order No. 194 dated 10.02.1970, it was reclassified as a second grade municipality. At present, as per the government order No. 654 dated 1.4.1977, it has been reclassified as a first grade municipality. Tirupattur's population and land area are good enough to have political representations in the state legislature of Tamil Nadu (Member of the Legislative Assembly), and part of Thiruvannamalai constituency for the Lok Sabha (Member of Parliament as of 2009 elections). As of 15 August 2019, the trifurcation of Vellore district resulted in the formation of the Tirupathur district, with Tirupathur town as its headquarters.[5