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Tanjore District (Madras Presidency)

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Tanjore district was constituted in 1799 when the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Serfoji II ceded most of his kingdom to the British East India Company in return for his restitution on the throne. Tanjore district, which is situated on the Cauvery Delta, is one of the richest rice-growing regions in South India. It was scarcely affected by famines such as the Great Famine of 1876–78.

Geography

The Tanjore District was bounded by the districts of South Arcot in the north, Trichinopoly to the west and south and the Pudukkottai State and Madura and later, Ramnad districts to the south-east. The Kollidam River formed the long northern boundary with South Arcot. The Bay of Bengal bounded it on the east.

The district was made of four well-marked physical tracts - the fertile plains to the north between the Kollidam and the Kaveri known as the "Old Delta" which was naturally irrigated by the rivers through a system of anaicuts and comprising the whole of the taluks of Shiyali, Mayavaram and Kumbakonam, the northern part of Mannargudi and Nannilam and the eastern part of Tanjore taluk; the plains to the south of the Kaveri river covering the southern part of Nannilam and Mannargudi taluks known as the "New Delta" for the reason that these tracts were only recently brought under irrigation by numerous manmade canals from the Kaveri and Kollidam and its tributaries and which were less fertile than the Old Delta; the arid Vallam plateau which covered the western part of Tanjore and Pattukkottai taluks and the Vedaranyam salt pans the largest of its kind in the Madras Presidency that extended for about thirty miles in length and four or five miles in width from Point Calimere to Adiramapatnam covering the southern portion of Thiruthiraipoondi taluk and eastern half of Pattukkottai taluk. There were two inhabited islands situated within the confines of the district - those of Devicottah situated at the mouth of the Kollidam and Vinayagateru near Kumbakonam.

Most of the landholdings in Tanjore District were inam or mirasdari land, the district had the largest proportion of land under mirasdars. There were few large zamindaris, like Ukkadai estate, Poondi estate, Kunniyur estate, Poraiyar Nadar's estate, Kabisthalam estate and Vadapadimangalam estate in the Tanjore District. Gandharvakottai estate, Kallakottai estate and Konur estate situated near the Pudukkottai border. But the bulk of land was held by mirasdars who leased it on regular tenures to pannaiyals or tenants who in turn cultivated the land with the help of labourers.

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