Sivagiri is a panchayat town in Tirunelveli district

Tirunelveli District

Tirunelveli District is a district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Tirunelveli is the district headquarters. A unique feature of this district is that it encompasses all five geographical traditions of Tamil Literature; kurinji , mullai , marudham , neithal and palai...

 in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

.It was one of the Palayams in Ancient Madurai.
Sivagiri is traditionally recognized as one of the 72 palayams of Madura.

Location

This one of the leading maravar palayam

Palayam

Palayam is a panchayat town in Dindigul district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Demographics:As of 2001 India census, Palayam had a population of 14,096. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Palayam has an average literacy rate of 45%, lower than the national average of...

 was located in the Sivagiri

Sivagiri

Jawaharlal Nehru"I am happy and privileged to come here and pay my tribute to a great man whose message is as vital and essential today as it was when he gave it"...

 taluk of Tirunelveli, on the slopes of the Western Ghats.

Founder

Sivagiri's polegar, known as the Varaguna, belonged to the maravar(vannikutti) caste. The founder of the family is Jayatunga Varaguna Rama Pandyan Vanniyadi, who held the estate of Tiruppuvanam and Piranmalai under the Pandyan kings of Madura. Putrasampattu Vanniyadi, at a later time, defeated the Chola king and was given kavali rights over 108 villages. Succeeding members of the family added to the estate. They were originally established in Sundankulam, and later at Thenmalai (20 miles to the west), and fin ally, circa 1733-34, in Sivagiri.

Anglo Wars

The polygar of Sivagiri bore a personal animosity to the Puli Thevar

Puli Thevar

Puli Thevar was a poligar who ruled Nerkattumseval situated in the Sankarankoil taluk of Tamil Nadu. Puli Thevar who belongs to the warrior Maravar community was one of the earliest Indian Kings to have fought and defeated the British in India.-History:He is one of the earliest opponents of the...

 of Nerkkatumseval and refrained from joining the coalition he put together to fight the Anglo-Nawabi forces in 1754. *In 1757, he joined forces with Yusuf Khan, the nawab military commander, against the Puli Thevar.

• When Kollamkondan again rebelled in 1764, following the execution of Yusuf Khan for having betrayed the nawab, Sivagiri was quick to join.
• Victories over the Anglo-Nawabi forces helped the revolt spread to other polegars.

Notable Events

• After 1766, General Donald Campbell
  Donald Campbell
  Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a British speed record breaker who broke eight world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s...
  
   began a systematic campaign, taking the forts of the major confederates one by one, including Sivagiri.
• The polygar of Sivagiri and the Nayak polegar of Panchalamkurichi led the opposition to the Nawab, and the stalemate continued until the outbreak of the Second Mysore War in 1780.
• Hyder Ali invaded the Carnatic, took Madura and restored the kingdom of Madura under a Nayak prince.
• Polygar Chinna Thambi Varaguna proclaimed his allegiance to the new Madura king and mobilized the Westen Bloc of polygars. The desperate situation the Nawab found himself in forced him to entrust the collection of revenue to the Company, whose armies then undertook to pacify the country.
• Varaguna put up a stiff resistance to Colonel William Follarton and was defeated (in 1783) only through the treason of the polygar of Chokkampatti (q.v.), who had an old score to settle with him. Sivagiri and Panchalamkurichi submitted to the British, paid tribute, and posted bonds for the restoration of their forts. At the end of the Third Mysore War, and following the withdrawal of British forces from Tirunelveli, Polygar Chinna Thambi Varaguna again sought to reassert himself.
• He annexed neighboring palayams, including Nerkattumseval and Perayur. In 1792 he invaded Sethur, killed the polygar, and replaced him with a cousin, as if Sethur were his own dependency.
• The Company sent in an army and took him prisoner. He was forced to restore his conquests to their former rules. He was allowed to retain his palayam only because the company did not wish to turn it over to the Nawab, who had asked for it.
• In 1797, the son of the ruling polegar rebelled against his father’s government, probably with the support of Kattabomman of Panchalamkurichi.
• Prompt action by the Company quashed the revolt. During the First Polegar War, Sivagiri sided with the British and helped defeat and capture Kattabomman. At the end of the war (1799), the polygar of Sivagiri surrendered six forts and 1,000 armed men to Major J. Bannerman.

Administrative Area during late 1800s

Sivagiri palayam comprised 103 villages, survived into the 19th century as a leading zamindari.
In 1879 it had an area of 122.38 sq. m. and a population of 49,531.

Geography

Sivagiri is located at 9.33°N 77.43°E. It has an average elevation of 165 metre

Metre

The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...

s (541 feet). This was formerly a zamindari town.

Demographics

India census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 by Census Commissioner of India, Sivagiri had a population of 20,160. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%. Sivagiri has an average literacy rate of 57%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 68%, and female literacy is 46%. In Sivagiri, 9% of the population is under 6 years of age. Thevar community live in majority here along with other castes.

Sivagiri Taluk

Sivagiri today has become a Taluk in the Tirunelveli District . Most of the old palayams are under this Taluk. It lies on the National Highway 208 to Tenkasi and is 20 km from Rajapalayam

Rajapalayam

Rajapalayam is a town and a special grade municipality in Virudhunagar district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 85 km southwest of Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Its main attractions are the Ayyanar Falls and the neighbour town of Srivilliputtur...

.