Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli stands on the Tamraparni River in the southern Tamil country. Its great Nellaiappar temple honours Shiva and his consort Kanthimathi in adjoining shrines, joined by a hall of pillars. The temple is celebrated in Tamil devotional poetry, and its copper hall is associated with the sacred dance of Shiva. The river descending from the Western Ghats sustains cultivation on the surrounding plain.

Pandya kings and later patrons contributed to the temple over many centuries. Under the Nayaks of Madurai, halls and other additions enlarged the complex, giving it the form of a major centre of worship. In the eighteenth century Tirunelveli and the surrounding palayams became entangled in contests involving local chiefs, the nawab of Arcot and the East India Company. The Company’s efforts to collect tribute brought resistance from several chiefs, and its authority became more direct at the beginning of the nineteenth century.