Pazhaverkadu

Pazhaverkadu, known to Europeans as Pulicat, stands on the Coromandel coast at the southern end of a long, shallow lagoon. Its port drew merchants to the textile-producing country of southern India and to the sea routes of the Bay of Bengal. The Portuguese established a trading post here in 1502 with the help of the local Vijayanagara rulers and built a fort to defend it.

The Dutch took the fort in 1609 and made Pulicat the capital of their Coromandel possessions until 1690. Their trade included the forced export of people from the coast to slavery in Batavia, as well as the exchange of textiles. The town changed hands repeatedly in the contests between European powers; it was occupied by the British in 1825.