MADURA, a city and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The city is situated on the right bank of the river Vaigai, and has a station on the South Indian railway 345 m. S.E. of Madras. Pop. (1931), 182,018. There is a gov ernment industrial school. Muslin weaving is a special industry, and brass work and wood carving are carried on. The city was the capital of the old Pandyan dynasty, which ruled over this part of India from the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 11th century A.D. Its great temple forms a parallelogram and is sur rounded by nine elaborately carved and coloured gopuras, of which the largest is 152 ft. high. The temple, which contains a "hall of a thousand pillars" and some of the finest carving in southern India, is said to have been built in the reign of Vis wanath_ first ruler of the Nayak dynasty. The splendid palace of Tirumala Nayak, which covers a large area, has been restored, and is used for public offices. Also, there are Vasanta, a hall 33 f t. long, and the Tamakam, a pleasure-palace.
The last of the old Pandyan kings is said to have exterminated the Jains and conquered the neighbouring kingdom of Chola; but he was in his turn overthrown by an invader from the north. In 1324 a Muslim army under Malik Kafur occupied Madura, which subsequently became a province of the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar. In the middle of the 16th century the governor Viswanath established the Nayak dynasty, which lasted for a century. The greatest of the line was Tirumala Nayak (reigned
1623-1659), who adorned Madura with many public buildings, and extended his empire over adjoining districts. Later Moham medans again invaded Madura and compelled him to pay them tribute. After his death the kingdom of Madura gradually fell to pieces, being invaded by both Mohammedans and Mahrattas. About 1736 the district fell into the hands of the nawab of the Carnatic, and the line of the Nayaks was extinguished. About 1764 British officers took charge of Madura in trust for the last independent nawab of the Carnatic, whose son finally ceded his rights of sovereignty to the East India Company in 1801.
The DISTRICT OF MADURA has an area of 4,912 square miles. Pop. (1931) It consists of a section of the plain stretching from the mountains east to the sea, coinciding with the basin of the Vaigai river, and gradually sloping to the south east. The plain is broken by the outlying spurs of the Ghats, rising 8,000 feet above sea level. They enclose a plateau of about 1 oo square miles. On it is situated the sanatorium of Kodaikanal, and fruit is grown and coffee-planting carried on. Other crops are millets, rice, other food-grains, oil-seeds and cotton. Tobacco is grown chiefly near Dindigul. The Periyar tunnel through the Travancore hills, conveys the rainfall across the watershed for irri gation.