Vellore district General information
Vellore district is one of the 31 districts in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Vellore City is the headquarters of this district. It had a population of 3,477,317 as of 2001. It is 37.62% urbanised.The district has a literacy of 73.06%, slightly below the state average.
History
Vellore District was formerly part of North Arcot District, which was established by the British in the 19th century. On 30 September 1989 the district was split into Tiruvannamalai-Sambuvarayar (present-day Tiruvannamalai) and North Arcot Ambedkar districts. North Arcot Ambedkar District was renamed Vellore District in 1996.
In the 18th Century Vellore District was the scene of some of the decisive battles fought in Ambur (1749) Arcot (1751) and Vandavasi (1760) as a result of the long-drawn struggle between the English and the French for supremacy.
Geography
Vellore district has an area of 6077 km². Vellore district lies between 12° 15’ to 13° 15’ North latitudes and 78° 20’ to 79° 50’ East longitudes in Tamilnadu State. The district is bound on the northeast by Tiruvallur District, on the southeast by Kanchipuram District, on the south by Tiruvannamalai District, on the southwest by Krishnagiri District, and on the northwest and north by Andhra Pradesh state. Major towns in the district include Ambur, Arakkonam, Arcot, Yellagiri Hills, Gudiyattam, Karigiri, Melvisharam, Ranipet, Sholinghur, Tiruppattur, Vaniyambadi, Vellore, and Walajapet. Kaveripakkam is a panchayat town in Vellore with the second largest lake in Tamil Nadu.
Tourist Place
VELLORE FORT
The fortification of the fort c onsists of a main rampart broken at irregular intervals by round towers and rectangular projections. The walls are constructed with hewn Kangaroo stones of rectangular shape. The walls of the fortress are connected so that the outer wall which is lower than the other, which is extended to the inner wall, from a curtain of enormous thickness which cannot be affected by gun, spears and arrows. The upper parapets are built lined with brick work in which embrasures are cut. This is evidently the work of European engineers at a later period of fort's history.
The narrow wall running round the fort can be reached by a flight of steps at the entrance of the fort. The main walls are built so strong with stones cut and filled together without mortar. In some places, wide ramps, raised within the fort the wall walk has been constructed on the outer wall. On the southern side there is a raised bastion on which the flag staff stands and there are two small round towers raised on the main works at the south-east and north-east angles. The old entrance was by a wading roadway with massive gates and protected by a drawbridge, which was altered in the eighteenth century and adopted for defense by artillery. On the southern side there is also a postern which crosses the ditch at a low level provided with steps on its end. The Vellore fort is perhaps the most beautiful specimen of military architecture in South India and it is still in a good state of preseration.
The broad moat which surrounds the fort receives water from Suryagunta tank, a large reservoir near the railway station. The most of yore, which boasted of more than 10,000 crocodiles, according to a local legend is no longer there. The moat is dry today on the southern side while parts of the eastern and western sides also face the same predicament. On its construction it was constructed for greater defensive purposes and it was built and made fairly wide and deep. The circumference of the the moat is about 8000 feet at a length and depth of 190 feet and 20 feet respectively.
The fort and the temple were selected for conservation by the A.S.I. Perhaps the moat served as the inner boundary and river Palar served as the northern boundary and on the eastern side, a fosse in the Madras, Bangalore hsighway at Sathuvachari along with the adjoining hills must have served as the boundary and the remnants of which are still found on the roadside. The temple and the fort were brought under the control of A.S.I. in 1921. The outer length of the fort is about 2500 feet and 1500 feet in breadth. The height of the outer wall is about 30 feet and the breadth is about 25 feet. The approximate circumstance of the fort is 2600 meters.
JALAKANDESWARAR TEMPLE – VELLORE FORT
The temple which had been built in the late Vijayanagar style, comprised of the main shrine and closed ambulatory passage around, and the integral Mahamantapa, with a northward projecting shub-shrine for Nataraja, containing also several other sub-shrines. The temple has two court yard, one is inner prakara and the other is outer prakara . The structures in the court yard on the outer prakara include the lofty Gopuram on the southern side which is the entry to the temple. One the South-West corner of outer court yard is the Kalyanamantapa which is the gem of architecture of Late Vijayanagar style in embellishments and the art motifs of its pillars, ceilings and plinth mouldings. It stands as testimony for the architectural workmanship of that period.
VAINU BAPPU OBSERVATORY - KAVALUR
The Vainu Bappu Observatory of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics traces its origin back to the year 1786 when William Petrie set up his private observatory at his garden house at Egmore, Madras, which eventually came to be known as the Madras Observatory. Later it was moved over to Kodaikanal and functioned there as the Kodaikanal Observatory since 1899.
M.K. Vainu Bappu who took over as the Director of the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1960, found a sleepy little hamlet called Kavalur in the Javadu Hills as a suitable site for establishing optical telescopes for observing the celestial objects. This came to be known as Kavalur Observatory. Later on, autonomy was obtained and the Head Quarters moved over to Bangalore with the new name as the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
Elagiri - Lake
Palar Anaicut Dam
Tippu mahal - Arcot
Delhi Gate - Arcot
Mordhana - Dam
Jalagamparai
Jalagamparai - Water Falls