Coromandel Coast
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Dictionary: Cor·o·man·del Coast (kôr'ə-măn'dl) |
A region
of southeast India bounded by the Bay of Bengal and
the Eastern Ghats. The coast
is known for its monsoons and
turbulent waters.
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Columbia
Encyclopedia: Coromandel Coast
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Coromandel
Coast (kŏr'əmăn'dəl) , east coast
of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states, SE India,
stretching more than
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Wikipedia: Coromandel Coast
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Districts
along the Coromandel Coast
Map of the coast (French)
This
article is about the
Coromandel Coast of India.
For the similarly named region in New Zealand, see Coromandel
Peninsula.
The Coromandel Coast
is the name
given to the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula.
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The land of the
Chola dynasty was called
Cholamandalam in Tamil, literally translated as The realm of the Cholas, from which Coromandel is derived[1][2][3]. Another research
shows that the coast along the
Chola
country was called Cholamandalam which was later corrupted
to Coromandel by the Europeans[4]. According to The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea
By Wilfred Harvey Schoff,
the Chola coast was derived from
the native Tamil name Chola-mandalam, from which the
Portuguese derived our modern word Coromandel[5].
The coast is generally low,
and punctuated by the deltas of several large rivers, including the Kaveri (Cauvery), Palar, Penner, and Krishna, which rise in the
highlands of the Western Ghats and flow
across the Deccan
Plateau to drain into the Bay of Bengal. The alluvial plains created by these rivers are fertile and favour agriculture. The coast is
also known for its ports and harbours,
Pulicat,Chennai (Madras), Sadras,
Pondicherry, Karaikal,
Cuddalore, Tranquebar, Nagore,
and Nagapattinam, which take advantage
of their close proximity with regions rich
in natural and mineral resources (like the Chhattisgarh belt and the mines of Golconda and Kolar)
and/or good transport
infrastructure. The planar geography of the region also favours
urban growth and agglomerations.
The Coromandel Coast
falls in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, and receives a good deal less rainfall during the summer southwest
monsoon, which contributes heavily to rainfall in the rest of India. The region averages
800 mm/year, most of which falls between
October and December. The topography
of the Bay of Bengal, and the
staggered weather pattern prevalent during the season favours
northeast monsoon, which has a tendency to cause cyclones and hurricanes rather than a steady precipitation.
As a result, the coast is hit by inclement weather almost every year
between October to January. The high
variability of rainfall
patterns are also responsible
for water scarcity and famine in most areas not served by the great
rivers. For example, the
city of Chennai is one of the driest cities
in the country in terms of
potable water availability,
despite high percentage of moisture in the air, due to the unpredictable, seasonal nature of
the monsoon.
The Coromandel Coast
is home to the East Deccan dry evergreen
forests ecoregion,
which runs in a narrow strip along
the coast. Unlike most of the other tropical dry forest regions of India, where the trees
lose their leaves during the
dry season, the East Deccan dry evergreen forests retain their leathery leaves year round. The Coromandel coast is also home to extensive mangrove forests along the
low-lying coast and river deltas, and several important wetlands,
notably Kaliveli Lake and Pulicat Lake,
that provide habitat to thousands of migrating and resident birds.
By late
1530 the Coromandel Coast was home to three Portuguese settlements at Nagapattinam, São Tomé de Meliapore,
and Pulicat. Later,
in the 17th and 18th century, the Coromandel Coast was the
scene of rivalries among European powers in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries
for control of the India trade. The British established themselves at Fort St George (Madras) and Masulipatnam, the Dutch at Pulicat,
Sadras
and Covelong, the
French at Pondicherry, Karaikal
and Nizampatnam, the
Danish in Dansborg at Tharangambadi.
Eventually the
British won out, although France retained
the tiny enclaves of Pondicherry and Karaikal until 1954. Chinese
lacquer goods, including boxes, screens, and chests, became
known as "Coromandel" goods
in the eighteenth century, because many Chinese exports were consolidated at the Coromandel ports.
On December 26, 2004, one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history, the Indian Ocean earthquake,
struck off the western coast of Sumatra (Indonesia). The earthquake and
subsequent tsunami reportedly
killed over 220,000 people around the brim
of the Indian Ocean. The tsunami devastated the Coromandel Coast, killing many and
sweeping away many coastal communities.
- ^ The Land of the Tamulians and Its Missions By Eduard Raimund Baierlein, James Dunning Baker
- ^ South Indian
Coins - Page 61 by T. Desikachari - Coins, Indic
- 1984
- ^ Indian History -
Page 112 by Nonica Datta,
Encyclopaedia Brittanica
(India) Pvt. Ltd
- ^ Annals of Oriental Research
- Page 1 by University of Madras - 1960
- ^ The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea By Wilfred Harvey Schoff
- WorldStatesmen- India