Madurai Pincodes

Tamil Nadu, an Indian state, is home to the important city of Madura. It serves as both the administrative centre of the Madurai District and the cultural hub of Tamil Nadu. It was the 33rd most populous city in India and the third largest urban agglomeration in Tamil Nadu, behind Chennai and Coimbatore, according to the 2011 census. With a recorded history spanning over 2500 years, Madurai, situated on the banks of the River Vaigai, has been a significant settlement for two millennia. Often called “Thoonga Nagaram,” which translates to “the city that never sleeps,”

History

The Buddhist classic Mahavamsa mentions Madurai, stating that 700 men from Prince Vijaya’s court married 700 Madurai maidens as their wives. Prince Vijaya married the daughter of Madurai’s king, Pandu, in the sixth century BCE. Ships with priceless goods delivered the princess and maidens to Sri Lanka, where they arrived at MahaTittha, or modern-day Mannar.

At the very least, Madurai has been inhabited since the third century BCE. It is possible that Megasthenes travelled to Madurai in the third century BCE; he refers to the city as “Methora” in his writings. Some academics dispute this interpretation, arguing that “Methora” actually refers to Mathura, a major metropolis in the Mauryan Empire in northern India.

Geography

The area of the Corporation of Madurai is 57.13 square miles, or 147.97 square kilometres. The coordinates of Madurai are 9.93°N 78.12°E. It is 134 metres above sea level on average. The city of Madurai is situated on the rich, level plain of the Vaigai River, which divides the city in half approximately equally as it flows through it in a northwest–southeast direction.

To Madurai’s west and north are the Sirumalai and Nagamalai hills. The Periyar Dam encourages agricultural activities, which occupies a considerable portion of the area in and surrounding Madurai. The territory around Madurai, which is southeast of the Western Ghats, consists of many mountain spurs and South India’s plains.

Demography

Based on pre-expansion boundaries, the 2011 census found that the Corporation of Madurai covered 1,017,865 people, with a sex ratio of 999 females for every 1,000 males, significantly higher than the national average of 929. There were a total of 51,485 boys and 48,839 females among the 100,324 children under the age of six. The percentages of the population belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were 6.27% and 0.31%, respectively. In comparison to the national average of 72.99%, the city’s average literacy rate was 81.95%. With 1,465,625 residents, Madurai’s urban agglomeration ranks third in Tamil Nadu and thirty-one in India.

Economy

Traditionally, rice paddies were the primary crop of Madurai’s rural civilization. In order to boost agricultural earnings, cotton crop production was started during the Nayaka rule in the 16th century in the Madurai district’s areas with black soil. “Double-crop paddy belts” are the agricultural areas in Madurai North, Melur, Nilakottai, and Uthamapalayam that are situated inside the Vaigai delta.

Aside from farming, the district’s farmers also work in woodwork, pottery, bricklaying, mat weaving, dairy farming, and chicken husbandry. Madurai is well-known for its “Madurai Malli” jasmine plantations, which are mostly located in the Kodaikanal hills’ foothills and are sold during the city’s morning flower market. At the flower market, 2,000 farmers sell flowers every day on average.