Tamil Nadu can be broadly divided into five segments and all human settlements can trace back the origin of their names to their geographical location and features unique to the area. Studying the etymological roots of these names provides a glimpse into the long, rich history of some of the 234 Assembly constituencies that are as old as Tamil society itself.
At present, there are eight ‘kudis’ and eight ‘purams’ while five constituencies each are suffixed with ‘mangalams’, ‘pettais’, ‘palayams’, ‘nagars’ and ‘nalloors’.
The State has four constituencies each whose names end with ‘koil’ ‘kulam’, ‘pakkam’, ‘padis’, ‘patties’ and ‘thurais’. There are 40 constituencies that bear the ‘oor’ tag. For instance, Tiruvarur, from where DMK chief M. Karunanidhi is seeking a second straight mandate.
In his book Tamilagam: OorumPerum, the late Tamil scholar R.P. Sethu Pillai explained that ‘kudi’ was a settlement of people who are related to one another.
Some of the key ‘kudis’ up for grabs this election are Mannargudi, Alangudi, Paramakudi, Karaikudi, Thoothukudi, Lalgudi, and Thittakudi.
One of the key constituencies with the suffix puram — which, like puri, means ‘a good village’ — is Kancheepuram, the capital of the Pallavas that in literature was referred to as Kachi or Kanchi.
Among the other purams are Ramanathapuram, which was ruled by the Sethupathis, and Padmanabapuram that was the capital of the kings of Travancore. Other important constituencies which have names ending with ‘puram’ are Villupuram, Sankarapuram and Rasipuram.
HQs of chieftains
Pillai goes on to explain that some of the important ‘palayams’ — Rajapalayam, Kumarapalayam, Mettupalayam, Gopichettipalayam and Goundanplayam — were the headquarters of local chieftains, while industrial hubs assumed the title ‘pettai’ and villages, particularly in Pandya kingdom, were called ‘pattis’. A well-known example is Andipatti, from where AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa twice contested and won. Coastal villages, the scholar notes, are called ‘kuppams’ and the ones nearby are referred to as ‘paakams’.
Villages situated on the banks of a river and having bathing ghats were suffixed with ‘thurai’, the famous of the lot being Mayiladuthurai while ‘pattinams’, Pillai tells us, are coastal towns and the only constituency that bears that tag is Nagapattinam.
