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Madurai is a major city and cultural headquarters in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. Madurai is the second largest corporation city by area and third largest city by population in Tamil Nadu. and the 31st largest urban agglomeration in India.〔(Tamil Nādu (India): State, Major Cities, Towns & Agglomerations - Statistics & Maps on City Population )〕 Located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Madurai is closely associated with the Tamil language, as all three primary congregations of Tamil scholars, the Third Tamil Sangams, were held in the city between 1780 BCE and the 3rd century CE. The recorded history of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India, and Kautilya, a minister of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by Archeological Survey of India in Manalur.The city is believed to be of significant antiquity and has been ruled, at different times, by the Pandyas, Cholas, Madurai Sultanate, Vijayanagar Empire, Madurai Nayaks, Carnatic kingdom, and the British. The city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu. The city is home to various automobile, rubber, chemical and granite manufacturing industries. It has developed as a second-tier city for information technology (IT), and some software companies have opened offices in Madurai.Tamil Nadu government planned satellite town for Madurai near Thoppur. Madurai has important government educational institutes like the Madurai Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, Madurai Law College, Agricultural College and Research Institute. Madurai city is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. Madurai is the second corporation in Tamil Nadu next to Chennai corporation. The city covers an area of 242.97 km2 and had a population of 1,017,865 in 2011. The city is also the seat of a bench of the Madras High Court, one of only a few courts outside the state capitals of India. ==Etymology== The city is referred by various names like "Madurai", "Koodal", "Malligai Maanagar", "Naanmadakoodal" and "Thirualavai". The word ''Madurai'' is derived from Madhura (sweetness) arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Shiva from his matted hair. Another theory is that ''Madurai'' is the derivative of the word ''Marutham'', which refers to the type of landscape of the Sangam age. There is a town in the neighbouring Dindigul district called Vada Madurai (''North Madurai'') and another in Sivagangai district called Manamadurai. The different names by which the city has been referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem ''Thiruvilayaadal puraanam'' written by Paranjothi Munivar. ''Koodal'' means an assembly or congregation of scholarly people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for. ''Tevaram'', the 7th– or 8th-century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars (''Saivites''), namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar, address the city as ''Thirualavai''. As per Iravatham Mahadevan, a 2nd-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscription refers to the city as ''matiray'', an Old Tamil word meaning a "walled city" derived from an older Dravidian source. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Madurai」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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