Devakottai

Devakottai lies in Chettinad, the Tamil country associated with the Nattukottai Chettiar, or Nagarathar, merchant community. Its settlements were linked by kinship and by temples that served as centres of collective religious life. Nagarathar merchants traded in commodities including salt and made gifts to temples, tying their commercial activities to networks of worship and patronage. Their connections reached beyond Chettinad to temples elsewhere in southern India, including the shrine of Murugan at Palani.