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Maduranthakam மதுராந்தகம்
Town
Maduranthakam Location in Tamil Nadu, India
Coordinates: 12°30′36″N 79°53′06″E / 12.5101°N 79.8849°E / 12.5101; 79.8849Coordinates: 12°30′36″N 79°53′06″E / 12.5101°N 79.8849°E / 12.5101; 79.8849
Country	India
State	Tamil Nadu
District	Kancheepuram
Government
• Type	Second Grade Municipality
• Body	Maduranthakam municipality
Population (2011)
• Total	30,796
Languages
• Official	Tamil
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	603306
Telephone code	+91-44
Vehicle registration	TN-19 Z
Nearest city	Chennai
Website	madurantakam.info

(Tamil: மதுராந்தகம்) Madurantakam is a town and a municipality in Kancheepuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The town is known for the artificial and second largest lake in Tamil Nadu, the Maduranthakam lake and it is located very near to the state capital Chennai. It is believed to be built by the Chola King Uthama Chozha, also called as Maduranthakar, during his reign. It is also home to the Aeri Katha Ramar Temple. As of 2011, the town had a population of 30,796.

History

Madurantakam is one of the holy places visited by Ramanuja though it has not been sung by the alvars. The place is also unique in that Ramanuja's statue is found dressed in white on all days while in almost all temples the saint is dressed in ochre.

In two of his poems, Saint Manavala Mamunigal asks everyone who wants to cast away his past sins to worship the Lord at this place. There are separate shrines for Lakshmi Narasimhar, Periya Nambi and Ramanuja, Andal, Sudarsana and Vedanta Desika. The holy tank is opposite the temple with a separate shrine for Anjaneya on its banks.

Geography

The main town of Madurantakam is situated from its district headquarters Kanchipuram about 59 kilometres and state capital Chennai about 79 kilometres. It serves as the headquarters for madurantakam taluk and Madurantakam revenue district.

The reservoir near Madurantakam irrigates more than 1000 small villages in and around the town.
Kiliyar is a small river that originates from the madurantakam reservoir which will be flooded when the reservoir is full. The kiliyar river joins palar before entering bay of Bengal.

Madurantakam almost lies in Coromandel coast and gets monsoonal rains in north-east monsoon season. In south west monsoon season little showers may occur during evenings.

Small hills found in madurantakam taluk such as vaiyavoor hill, malaipalayam hill, chitravadi hill, perumberkandigai hill etc.

The soil is black in nature. Also red soil is found near coastal areas.

Places of interest

Bird Sanctuary

12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north-west of Maduranthakam lies the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary and Karikili Bird Sanctuary, home to many rare and endangered species of migratory birds.

Temples

Sri Kodanda Rama, also known in this region as Yeri Katha Rama (the one who saved the village from flooding from Madurantakam lake), is enshrined in the Aeri Katha Ramar Temple. The temple is about 1300 years old. Sita resides in the temple as Sri Janaki Valli. The other deities enshrined are Sri Chakrathalwar, Sri Ramanuja, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha and Sri Hanuman.

The Kodandaramaswamy temple has two sets of utsavar idols of the presiding deity and His consort, and Lakshmana. While one deity is named Rama, the other is known as Karunakaran.

There is also a separate shrine for Goddess Sita, known as Janakavalli Thayar, which is claimed to be very rare. This shrine was built by an English Collector, Colonel Lionel Blaze who assured the people that he would build a shrine for Devi if the newly built surplus water weirs withstood the fury of monsoon rains. The huge tank with immense storage capacity would breach every year after the monsoon rains and wash away the rough stone-built outlet of the tank. While camping at Madurantakam during a monsoon night, the tank was full and almost overflowing. The Collector visited the tank bund and is said to have seen Rama and Lakshmana keeping guard at the tank. The construction of the shrine for the Goddess began the very next morning and the Lord is known as Aeri Katha Ramar as he saved the tank bund from collapsing.

Thiru-Venkateswarar Temple near Madurantakam railway station, too a renowned temples in the town. It was built by a king whose skin disease was relieved when he bathed in the tank; then he realized his wonder and built this temple during British Raj;
Similarly other temples includes Renukapara-meswari ( Amman ) temple, Siva temple adjacent to G.S.T Road, Murugar temple's, Chelliyamman temple and Anjaneya temple near to substation Madurantakam.
Northern-thiru-nallar and Sri Ragavendrar temple and a Vishnu cum Anjaneya temple on the Karunguzhi mountain ; then Prasana Venkateswarar temple in Padalam were in the perimeter of Madurantakam.

Pidari Sri Setrukal Chelliamman Temple near bye pass entrance(from Chennai) is an old and famous temple and it is renovated and looking beautiful.

Standup Paddling by group of paddlers led by Kumaran, Bay of Life SURF & SUP school,Chennai

Churches

The Simpson Memorial Church belongs to the Church of South India, located on the GST Road is one of the popular churches in Madurantakam.
There is also one in St. Joseph's School, "St.Mary's church", and another is located near Arugunam Village, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Madurantakam.

Demographics

According to 2011 census, Maduranthakam had a population of 30,796 with a sex-ratio of 1,019 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.^[1] A total of 3,184 were under the age of six, constituting 1,615 males and 1,569 females. The average literacy of the town was 75.4%, compared to the national average of 72.99%.^[1] The town had a total of : 7699 households. There were a total of 12,135 workers, comprising 158 cultivators, 1,040 main agricultural labourers, 283 in house hold industries, 8,066 other workers, 2,588 marginal workers, 21 marginal cultivators, 1,031 marginal agricultural labourers, 106 marginal workers in household industries and 1,430 other marginal workers.^[2] As per the religious census of 2011, Maduranthakam had 89.2% Hindus, 6.69% Muslims, 2.87% Christians, 0.02% Sikhs, 0.07% Buddhists, 0.79% Jains, 0.36% following other religions and 0.0% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.^[3]

Politics

Madurantakam (SC) is a state assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, India newly formed after constituency delimitation.^[4] It is included in the Kancheepuram parliamentary constituency.

Other Attractions

Weekly Market (வாராந்திர சந்தை) - There is a famous weekly market every Monday near Govt Hospital and it is very useful for the local people and near by villagers to buy vegetables, groceries, fruits and fish at low cost.

Recreational centres

RK Theatre, SR Theatre, Alangar Theatre, C3 Cinemas Laurel Mall near Mamandur.

Parks near Abdul kalam nagar and Thiru-Venkateswarar temple.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maduranthakam.