Vangal
Vangal is a village in the Karur district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is situated 80 km (50 mi) from Tiruchirappalli and 7 miles from Karur town.
It is one of the biggest villiages (Town Panchayat) on the bank of Kavery[1] Delta region and the width of the river in Vangal is 2km. Other side of the river is Mohanoor.
Agriculture based farming communities around Vangal Panchayat is using Vangal as a Head Quarters for transporting their agro products such as Rice, Banana, coconut, Ground nut, Vegetables and green. Recently commercial crops such as Mango, vanilla, beetle nuts also grown in the fields of the delta region.
Government Organisations in Vangal:
Primary School, Govt. Higher Secondary School for Boys, Govt. Higher Secondary School for Girls, Primary Health Centre, Private Doctors (general Physicians), Emergency clinic, Panchayat Office, Police Station, Railway Station, Public Bus Services, Taxi service etc.
People from Vangal Village have the culture of keeping 'Vangal' as Surname/Family name. It clearly shows their endearment towards their heritage/culture. It is in practice from all the people (no religious restrictions). It was also very interesting to see the village with number of housing estates for community based groups until 18-19th Century. Later it was changed as the native people started to migrate around the globe for education, business and also settled in various places of India (Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata etc.), Singapore, USA, UK etc.
Another group of agricultural farmers and horse traders from Kadambangurichi (Near Pugalore) have also settled in Vangal during 17th Century onwards. Their horse trading business involved to purchase horses from Madras Pattinam. They were also called as 'Mirasthar', a group of people have their surname/family name with the title 'Pattanathu' were also have hereditary links with Mirasthar. In 17th & 18th Centuries, those Mirasthars had owned large farm lands in and around Vangal and later the farms were sold to small scale agricultural farmers for the plantation of Paddy, Sugarcane, Turmeric, Chilli, Brinjal, Plantain, coconut etc...
People born in Vangal Village or have hereditary links with Vangal:
Known places in the Village:
Kaveri River
Vangal Shree Vangalamman Temple, Karur
Mariamman Temple
Vangal Railway Station
Vangal Mosque
Eeshwaran Temple
Durgai Amman Temple
Pillaiar Temple
Well Known Festivals in the Village:
Pongal Festival (3 days’ / Bike race / Kolam / small stage dramas / kids activities / JALLIKATTU soon!) - No religious restrictions
Ramzan (30 days - evening - Free Rice Porridge served in the mosque for villagers) - No religious restrictions
Recently People from other parts of Tamilnadu have started to move to Vangal for employment, small businesses, etc. Even many parts of Tamilnadu was hit by water scarcity, Vangal village does not meet any drinking water scarcity issues. Whereas agricultural farms and commercial crops are facing some challenges to thrive because water scarcity for irrigation. Sand mining in the Kaveri delta region is one of the main reason as the ground water level has gone below the critical levels. The farming community rely on the well water, where level of water is very low because of the water table has been disrupted by sand mining.
Vangal railway station (Code: VNGL) is a railway station situated in Vangal, Karur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The station is an intermediate station on the newly commissioned Salem Junction-Karur Junction line which became operational in May 2013. The station is operated by the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways and comes under the Salem railway division.
References
- "About Vangal". V. L. Vijayaraghavan.