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Highlights: All the places named on the map, below. Madras, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu; Mamallapuram's shore temple; the ashram at Auroville; the French city of Pondicherry; the temples of the five elements; Maduri, South India's most important temple area; Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India, a land's end where three seas meet.
Travelogue:
A little background: India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu is an ancient place with the flavor of original India. Isolated by geography and undiluted by the Aryan invaders from the north, the Dravadian culture is among the oldest in the world. The Tamil language is one of the four oldest in the world (amongst Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit). The 2000-year-old Thirukkural is a Tamil book on philosophy that has - after the Bible - been translated into the most number of languages of any book in the world. Human activity began here over 300,000 years ago. By 1200 BC the Dravidians - descendants of people from the Middle East - were creating huge stone monuments and sculptures, some of which still stand. It wasn't until 1640 that a big foreign power came to influence life here. The British made Chennai their trading post and called it Madras. Pockets of French, Danish, and Dutch domination made their marks on Tamil life, that is, until 1947, when India regained its independence. See the History of India for details on this and other historical events from ancient to modern times. GO BACK TO DESTINATIONS |
Dates: January 2000