Place:Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

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Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headquarters of the Kumbakonam taluk of Thanjavur district. It is the second largest city in the district after Thanjavur. The city is bounded by two rivers, the Kaveri River to the north and Arasalar River to the south. Kumbakonam is known as a "Temple town" due to the prevalence of a number of temples here and is noted for its Mahamaham festival, which happens once in 12 years, attracting people from all over the country.

Kumbakonam dates back to the Sangam period and was ruled by the Early Cholas, Pallavas, Mutharaiyar dynasty, Medieval Cholas, Later Cholas, Pandyas, the Vijayanagara Empire, Madurai Nayaks, Thanjavur Nayaks and the Thanjavur Marathas. It rose to be a prominent town between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, when it served as a capital of the Medieval Cholas. The city reached the zenith of its prosperity during the British Raj when it was a prominent centre of European education and Hindu culture; and it acquired the cultural name, the "Cambridge of South India". In 1866, Kumbakonam was officially constituted as a municipal corporation, which today comprises 48 wards, making it the largest municipal corporation and second largest local civil body in Thanjavur district. It is announced as municipal corporation on 24 August 2021 by the government of Tamil Nadu.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The region around Kumbakonam was inhabited as early as the Sangam Age (third century BC to third century AD). The present-day Kumbakonam is believed to be the site of the ancient town of Kudavayil where the Early Chola king Karikala held his court.^[1] Some scholars identify Kumbakonam as the site of the fabled prison of Kudavayir-kottam where the Chera king Kanaikkal Irumporai was imprisoned by the Early Chola king Kocengannan. Kumbakonam is identified with the town of Malaikūrram which had served as the Chola capital as early as the seventh century and with the town of Solamaligai which had also served as a Chola capital.^[2] According to the Sinnamanur plates, Kumbakonam was the site of a battle between the Pallava king Sri Vallabha and the then Pandya king in 859 and between the Pandya king Srimara Pandya and a confederacy of the Cholas and Gangas.^[2]

Kumbakonam came into the limelight during the rule of the Medieval Cholas who ruled from the ninth century to the twelfth century. The town of Pazhaiyaarai, from Kumbakonam was the capital of the Chola Empire in the ninth century.

Following the decline of the Chola kingdom, Kumbakonam was conquered by the Pandyas in 1290. Following the demise of the Pandya kingdom in the 14th century, Kumbakonam was conquered by the Vijayanagar Empire.^[3] Krishnadevaraya (1509–29), the emperor of Vijayanagara visited the town in 1524 and is believed to have bathed in the famous Mahamaham tank during the Mahamaham festival.^[3] Kumbakonam was ruled by the Madurai Nayaks and the Thanjavur Nayaks from 1535 to 1673 when it fell to the Marathas. Each of these dynasties had a considerable impact on the demographics and culture of the region. When the Vijayanagar Empire fell in 1565, there was a mass influx of poets, musicians and cultural artists from the kingdom.^[4]

According to the chronicles of the Hindu monastic institution, the Kanchi matha, the matha was temporarily transferred to Kumbakonam in the 1780s following an invasion of Kanchipuram by Hyder Ali of Mysore.^[5] When Tipu Sultan invaded the east coast of South India in 1784, Kumbakonam bore the brunt of his invasion.^[6] The produce fell sharply and the economy collapsed.^[6][7] Kumbakonam did not recover from the calamity till the beginning of the 19th century.^[7] Kumbakonam was eventually ceded to the British East India Company in 1799 by the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Serfoji II (1777–1832)^[6] and reached the zenith of its prosperity in the late 19th and early 20th century when it emerged as an important center of Brahminism, Hindu religion and European education in the Madras Presidency.^[6] The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 fostered trade contacts with the United Kingdom.^[6] In 1877, railway lines were completed linking Kumbakonam with the ports of Madras, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam.^[6] The Tanjore district court was established in Kumbakonam in 1806 and functioned from 1806 to 1863.

Kumbakonam continued to grow even after India's independence though it fell behind the nearby town of Thanjavur in terms of population and administrative importance. The population growth rate began to fall sharply after 1981.^[8] This decline has been attributed to limited land area and lack of industrial potential.^[8] However the peripheral areas of Kumbakonam population increased as evident from the successive census data. During the Mahamaham festival of 1992, there was a major stampede in which 48 people were killed and 74 were injured.^[9] On 16 July 2004, a devastating fire accident in the Sri Krishna school killed 94 children.

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