ERODE, a town of British India, in the Coimbatore district of Madras, on the right bank of the river Cauvery, here crossed by a railway girder bridge. Pop. (1931) 33,672. Here the South Indian railway joins the South-Western line of the Madras railway, 243 m. from Madras. The town is a centre of trade and industry, dealing in rice, cotton, saffron, chillies, etc. There is an industrial school.