This article is about the city in Tamil Nadu, India. For the administrative district of Madurai, see. Madurai is one of the major cities in the of. It is the administrative headquarters of , the third largest city in and in India. Located on the banks of , Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. The of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by , the Greek ambassador to the , and , a minister of the Mauryan emperor. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by in Manalur. The city is believed to be of significant antiquity and has been ruled, at different times, by the , , , , , , and the. The city has a number of historical monuments, with the and being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu. The city is home to various automobile, , chemical and manufacturing industries. Madurai has important government educational institutes such as the , Homeopathic Medical College, , Agricultural College and Research Institute. Madurai city is administered by established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. The city covers an area of 147. The city is also the seat of a bench of the. The Madurai Bench has been functioning since 2004. Madurai is one of the many temple towns in the state which is named after the grooves, clusters or forests dominated by a particular variety of a tree or shrub and the same variety of tree or shrub sheltering the presiding deity. The region is believed to have been covered with Kadamba forest and hence called Kadambavanam. The word Madurai may be derived from Madhura sweetness arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god from his matted hair. Another theory is that Madurai is the derivative of the word Marutham, which refers to the type of landscape of the. A town in the neighbouring is called Vada Madurai North Madurai and another in is called. The different names by which the city has been referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem Thiruvilayaadal puraanam written by Paranjothi Munivar. Koodal means an assembly or congregation of scholarly people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for. Hand coloured antique wood engraving drawn by W. Purser 1858 shows Madurai city as seen from the north bank of the Madurai has been inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE. Madurai is also mentioned in 's 370—283 BCE. Madurai is mentioned in the works of historians 61 — c. Coin of , first ruler of the , 1335—1339 CE After the Sangam age, most of present-day Tamil Nadu, including Madurai, came under the rule of the , which was ousted by the around 590 CE. The Pandyas were outsted from Madurai by the during the early 9th century. The city remained under the control of the Cholas until the early 13th century, when the second Pandyan empire was established with Madurai as its capital. After the death of 1268—1308 CE , Madurai came under the rule of the. The then seceded from Delhi and functioned as an independent kingdom until its gradual annexation by the in 1378 CE. Madurai became independent from Vijayanagar in 1559 CE under the. Nayak rule ended in 1736 CE and Madurai was repeatedly captured several times by 1740 — 1754 CE , and 1725 — 1764 CE in the middle of 18th century. In 1801, Madurai came under the direct control of the and was annexed to the. The British government made donations to the and participated in the Hindu festivals during the early part of their rule. The city evolved as a political and industrial complex through the 19th and 20th centuries to become a district headquarters of a larger Madurai district. In 1837, the fortifications around the temple were demolished by the British. The moat was drained and the debris was used to construct new streets — Veli, Marat and Perumaal Mesthiri streets. The city was constituted as a municipality in 1866 CE. The British government faced initial hiccups during the earlier period of the establishment of municipality in land ceiling and tax collection in Madurai and Dindigul districts under the direct administration of the officers of the government. The city, along with the district, was resurveyed between 1880 and 1885 CE and subsequently, five municipalities were constituted in the two districts and six taluk boards were set up for local administration. Police stations were established in Madurai city, housing the headquarters of the District Superintendent. Under the British Madurai prospered. It was in Madurai, in 1921, that , pre-eminent leader of in British-ruled India, first adopted the loin cloth as his mode of dress after seeing agricultural labourers wearing it. Leaders of the independence movement in Madurai included , Mohammad Ismail Sahib. The Temple Entry Authorization and Indemnity Act passed by the government of under in 1939 removed restrictions prohibiting and from entering Hindu temples. The temple entry movement was first led in Madurai Meenakshi temple by independence activist in 1939. Map of Madurai showing centre of the city and some important landmarks Madurai is built around the Meenakshi Amman Temple, which acted as the geographic and ritual centre of the ancient city of Madurai. The city is divided into a number of concentric quadrangular streets around the temple. These squares retain their traditional names of Aadi, Chittirai, Avani-moola and Masi streets, corresponding to the Tamil month names and also to the festivals associated. The temple outer precincts of a temple and streets accommodate an elaborate festival calendar in which dramatic processions circumambulate the shrines at varying distances from the centre. The temple chariots used in processions are progressively larger in size based on the size of the concentric streets. Ancient Tamil classics record the temple as the centre of the city and the surrounding streets appearing liken a lotus and its petals. The city's axes were aligned with the four quarters of the compass, and the four gateways of the temple provided access to it. The wealthy and higher echelons of the society were placed in streets close to the temple, while the poorest were placed in the fringe streets. With the advent of British rule during the 19th century, Madurai became the headquarters of a large colonial political complex and an industrial town; with urbanisation, the social hierarchical classes became unified. It has an average elevation of 101 metres. The city of Madurai lies on the flat and fertile plain of the river , which runs in the northwest-southeast direction through the city, dividing it into two almost equal halves. The Sirumalai and Nagamalai hills lie to the north and west of Madurai. The land in and around Madurai is utilised largely for agricultural activity, which is fostered by the. Madurai lies southeast of the western ghats, and the surrounding region occupies the plains of South India and contains several mountain spurs. The soil type in central Madurai is predominantly clay loam, while red loam and black cotton types are widely prevalent in the outer fringes of the city. Paddy is the major crop, followed by pulses, millet, oil seed, cotton and sugarcane. The municipal corporation of Madurai has an area of 147. Madurai is hot and dry for eight months of the year. Cold winds are experienced during February and March as in the neighbouring. The hottest months are from March to July. The city experiences a moderate climate from August to October, tempered by heavy rain and thundershowers, and a slightly cooler climate from November to February. Fog and dew are rare, occurring only during the winter season. Being equidistant from mountains and the sea, it experiences similar monsoon pattern with and , with the former providing more rain during October to December. The average annual rainfall for the Madurai district is about 85. Temperatures during summer generally reach a maximum of 40 °C and a minimum of 26. Winter temperatures range between 29. A study based on the data available with the Indian Meteorological Department on Madurai over a period of 62 years indicate rising trend in atmospheric temperature over Madurai city, attributed to urbanisation, growth of vehicles and industrial activity. The maximum temperature of 42 °C for the decade of 2001 — 2010 was recorded in 2004 and in 2010. Climate data for Madurai, India 1971—2000 Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C °F 39. ±% 1951 361,781 — 1961 424,810 +17. A total of 100,324 were under the age of six, constituting 51,485 males and 48,839 females. The average literacy of the city was 81. The urban agglomeration of Madurai had a population of 1,465,625, and is the third largest in Tamil Nadu and the 31st in India. Tamil is spoken by most, and the standard dialect is the Madurai Tamil dialect. Roman Catholics in Madurai are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madurai, while Protestants are affiliated with the Madurai-Ramnad Diocese of the. In 2001, Slum-dwellers comprise 32. The increase in growth rate to 50 per cent from 1971 to 1981 is due to the city's upgrade to a municipal corporation in 1974 and the subsequent inclusion of 13 into the corporation limits. The decline in the population growth rate between 1981 and 2001 is due to the bifurcation of i
