Pondicherry.

Pondicherry.
Capital: Pondicherry.
Population. 1 million.
Area. 200 square miles.
Revenue Districts. 4.

This restored, attractive former French Colony exudes a Mediterranean aura
with its chic streets, elegant houses, ornamental gardens and the Hotel-de-Ville.
Being a small and quiet enclave of Tamil Nadu, it has imbibed Tamil Culture.

Pondicherry is an oval-shaped, with streets aligned at right angles.
The skilfully planned township is distinguished by a two mile long esplanade
which skirts the town and enclose in it, the tourist attractions.

Pondicherry is divided into two parts by a canal, and all the main streets, running parallel to one another, lead to the open roadstead offshore. The port of Pondicherry does not have a harbour, and ships are forced to lie a mile or two offshore; but its road-stead was once considered the best on the Coromandel Coast.

There is a promenade and landing place for cargo, and in the 1960s a new pier was constructed. In and around the town are artesian wells that supply a large quantity of water for irrigation, the chief local crops being paddy, sugarcane, cotton, and peanuts. The main industries are food processing, electrical appliances, textiles, paper, and lumber.

The Pondicherry area has about 300 villages and hamlets. The commune of Karaikal is in the fertile Thanjavur delta, in one of the most important rice-producing areas of India. The exceptional fertility of the region is to some extent reflected in the unusually high density of its rural population. The town is on a branch line, the Mayavaram-Peralam route, of the southern railway.

The Mahe sector consists of two parts: the quaint, picturesque town of Mahe, with all its buildings situated on the left bank of the Mahe River close to its mouth; and the isolated tract known as Naluthrara, on the right bank, comprising the four villages of Chambara, Chalakara, Palour, and Pandaquel.

Rice is the chief crop.Yanam is a small town on the bank of a branch of the Godavari River, about 400 miles north of Madras, near Kakinada.The major languages spoken in the areas are Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu. Tamil is predominant in the southern settlements of Pondicherry and Karaikal; Malayalam is predominant in Mahe, and Telugu in Yanam. Other significant languages include Urdu, French, Kannada, Hindi, Gujarati, English, and Marathi.

Hindus form the majority in all the four regions; Muslims are an important minority in Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam; and Christians are numerous in Pondicherry. There are also a few Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jain.

There are no heavy industries or mining in the union territory; it purchases its entire power requirement from nearby states. Pondicherry is governed by a lieutenant governor who is advised by a chief minister and a Council of Ministers. The jurisdiction of the Madras High Court extends over the union territory.

Pondicherry is famous for Shanti Niketan, as well as Auroville, the international township and study centre that was named after Aurobindo.. The Romain Rolland Public Library houses some rare French volumes. A medical college, a law college, and several other colleges for general education are affiliated with the University of Madras.

Puducherry is one of the most popular tourist destinations in South India. The city has many colonial buildings, churches, temples, and statues, which, combined with the systematic town planning and the well planned French style avenues, still preserve much of the colonial ambience.
Puducherry is also known as La Côte d'Azur de l'East, meaning "The French Riviera of the East".
There are a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century churches in Puducherry as well as a number of heritage buildings and monuments are present around the Promenade beach such as the Children’s Park & Dupleix Statue, Gandhi statue, Nehru Statue, Le Café, French War Memorial, 19th Century Light House, Bharathi Park, Governors Palace, Romain Rolland Library, Legislative Assembly, Puducherry Museum, and the French Institute of Pondicherry at Saint-Louis Street.
Joyful boat rides at Chunnambar boat house Puducherry-Cuddalore Road and at Osutari lake, Botanical Garden for joyful train ride and for unseen natures beauty.
Thirukaameeswarar Temple is one of the ancient, beautiful, and huge temples that is located in a beautiful rural town called "Villianur,” which is located about 6miles away from Puducherry town. This temple is Renowned As "Periya Koil", which means "Big Temple" in Puducherry locality. The prime god is Lord Shiva and the prime goddess is Goddess Kokilambigai. In addition, there are also other Gods such as Murugan, Vinayagar, ThakshanamoorthY, Perumal, Bhramah, Chandikeshwarar, Natarajar, Navagrahah, and 63 Naayanmaars. The pioneers in this temple say that the age of this temple is about 1000+ years. This seemed to be constructed by one of the Chola Kings. There is also a huge "temple pond". One of the famous festival of this temple is "Ther Thiruvizha" (Car Festival). The other important temple is "Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple.”


Aurobindo, who started out as an ardent nationalist and was jailed by the British. After his conversion from activism to introspection, which took place in jail, he established Shanti Niketan in Pondicherry. He left behind a rich oeuvre of verse that has inspired a contemporary school of mystic poets. Other modern poets show the influence of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.
The independence movement gave strong impetus to expository prose. Important contributors to this genre were Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, and T. Prakasam. Mahatma Gandhi, too, wrote widely in English and edited Young India and the Harijan. He also wrote the autobiography My Experiments with Truth (originally published in Gujarati, 1927-29), now an Indian classic. In this he was followed by Jawaharlal Nehru, whose Discovery of India is justly popular.