திருவள்ளூர் - Tiruvallur

                   திருவள்ளூர் - Tiruvallur is a temple town and Grade I municipality in Tiruvallur district in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is located northwest of Chennai District (Madras), the capital city of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Tiruvallur district.

Places of Interest

It is well known because of the Veera Raghavar temple which is one of the 108 sacred shrines of Vaishnavites. There is a pond nearby this temple, where the tank festival is held. There is a Siva temple near this shrine which is also quite popular among the locals. There is also a 40 feet tall Viswaroopa Panchamukha Hanuman temple, where the murti is made of a single green granite stone. Poondi reservoir from where drinking water is drawn to Chennai city is at about 9 kms from this town. The neighbourhood is served by Tiruvallur railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network.

 

History

In the far past, this region was under a chain of regimes commencing from the Pallavas during the 7th century ending with the Nawab of Arcot during the early part of 19th century when it came under the British rule. In 1687, the Golkonda rulers were defeated and the region came under the Moghul emperors of Delhi. The towns and villages of this region were the scene of Carnatic wars. Battles are said to have been fought in this region during the struggle for supremacy between the English and French. The town of Pulicat was the earliest Dutch possession in India founded in 1609 which was ceded to the British in 1825. With this, the region came under the British rule which ended on the 15th August, 1947 with India becoming independent.

The Name 'Tiruvallur' means..

The word "Tiruvallur" is supposedly derived from the Tamil sentence "tiru evvull?" meaning, "Tiru" - god (a common prefix in South India for temple towns), "evvull" - where do I sleep. So, Tiruvallur means, a place/town where, the god, Veera Raghavar asked a saint for a place to sleep for a night. A Rishi named Saalihothirar came down from Badrinath and settled in this place in order to reach Paramapadam (The abode Of Lord Mahavisnu). He took bath in Hiruthaapanasana Theertham and started the vow of silence(mouna viratham ) for one year. Daily he collected some rice and after a year of fasting, he purified collected rice and cooked. He offered a part of cooked rice to God (Naivedhyam) duly keeping the rest for himself to eat. He waited for some Guest, probably a muni or rishi, so that he could offer him to eat and end his fasting. At that time the God Narayana with the intention to test devotion of the Rishi came there as an old muni. He looked as if he was so hungry and thirsty. On seeing him, Saalihothirar greeted him and made him to sit and offered him a part of rice he already kept for himself. But the Guest (Lord Narayana) wanted the entire quantity of food (Rice).Saalihothirar was very happy to gave all of the food to the Guest starving himself. After eating the entire food,the Lord asked where can he sleep?( Ev-uL-uRangalAm). Saalihothirar asked him to sleep in his hut itself . In Tamil ='Ev' (எவ்)=which/'uL' (உள்)=place/room/uRangalAm(உறங்கலாம்) could sleep. Tiru (திரு) is a prefix before name of any holy place. ur( ஊர்) means a place/village. Therefore திரு+எவ்+உள்+ஊர் transmute as திருவள்ளூர்.

 

Industries

The town attained district headquarters status in 1997. Tiruvallur houses many Industries including few Fortune 100 companies. Tiruvallur is rich in industry, with some of the following industries in that region. Hindustan Motors has Lancer Car plant, Caterpillar Earth moving Equipment Plant from (9th Feb 2001 ), Hanil Lear, Delphi TVS, India Japan Lighting, Kingfisher's brewery division, Style SPA furniture, TI India, TCL etc. Mitsubishi entered India in 1998 as a part of its global expansion programme. It has a manufacturing facility in Tiruvallur near Chennai with technical collaboration with Hindustan Motors.

 

Neighbourhood

Tiruvallur is well surrounded by Industrial hubs in and around Chennai like Ambattur Industrial Estate and Sriperumbudur Industrial Estate. There is good rail connectivity to Ambattur through Suburban train, it takes 40min to travel. Also good road connectivity to Sriperumbudur through buses, it takes 45min to travel. There are many Automobile, Electrical & Electronic, Software MNC's are located around Tiruvallur.

Source: Wikipedia