Rajapalayam History

Introduction

          Rajapalayam municipality was constituted on 1-10-1940 with a population of 38641. This municipal town consists of rajapalayam village,inam chettikulam, sambandapuram, north venganallur,pudupalagam, inam thoppupatti, samshipuram, kothathankulam part and kodambankulam villages. Kodanari kanmoi and agricultural areas are found in the western part of this town. Five roads are radiating from rajapalayam on the north of madurai on the south of tenkasi and sankarankovil on the east of chattarapatti and on to the west to mountains and ayyanar falls. The concentration of industrial activities -specially cotton industry, made this town a more significant zone in kamarajar district.

History & Growth

         Name "rajapalayam" is derived from the word "rajas" tamil synonym for raja and palayam in tamil means a "cantonment on fort". Thus rajapalayam means raja's fort. rajapalayam is inhabited by people who came from the old vijayanagaram state. One chinna raja, a lineage decedent of the king of vijayanagar belonged to pasumpatti migrated to the south along with his followers and settled at kilarajakularaman at the first instance and then moved their settlements to palayapalayam in 1483 a.d. When vijayanagaram rule was established in madurai, the descendents of the original emigrants were said to have served under the chokkanatha nayak, king of madurai (1659 -1682) who has recorded his appreciation of the service rendered by chinna raja and his four sons and has granted sasanam. Either after the battle of talaikotta (1565) or on the eve of the same battle more rajas migrated to the south from the vijayanagar empire. They settled in pudupalayam, western portion of rajapalayam municipality and the town was expanded by purchasing lands from vijayarenga chokkanatha nayak (1706 -1732).rajapalayam was constituted as a united board in the year 1885. It became a panchayat board in the year 1930. Railway line was laid in the year 1927 and the town was electrified in 1937.

Geographical Feature

The climate in the rajapalayam town is hot and dry. the average annual rainfall during the year 1991 was 82.88m and the town gets maximum rainfall during the northeast monsoon. Average temperature is 26.65 °c minimum and 38.45 °c maximum. Major wind directions are of east, south and the south east in may and june and of west in october and november.

Source : rajapalayam.com