Tam: திருச்சிராப்பள்ளி tiruccirāppaḷḷi
‘Holy Rock Town’ [Trichy, Trichinopoly] City/District Tamil Nadu
From Tam: tiru, ‘holy’, ‘sacred’; cilā/cilai, śilā. ‘stone’, ‘rock’; and paḷḷi, ‘village’. A 16thC inscription (1520) records the name as Tiru-śśilla-paḷḷi.
Tiruchirappalli is famous for its Rock Fort, a temple and fort complex built on an 83m high rock.
The rock itself is supposed to be 3.8bn years old but the earliest temple (8thC) and the fort (built successively by Pallava, Madurai Nayak and Vijayanagara rulers in the medieval period) are considerably younger.
The impressive Ranganathaswamy/Srirangam temple, which houses the relics of Ramanuja, the 11thC Vaishnavite guru-philosopher, is situated only 12km away.
Rock Fort, Tiruchirappalli Manu Manjunath
