ABSTRACT
South Arcot is a district in the Tamil-speaking area of what was formerly the Madras Presidency. By 1871, when the first Census of India was taken, South Arcot covered approximately 4,800 square miles and had a little over 1.7 million inhabitants. From 1860 it was divided into eight taluqs or sub-districts (see below). In the west the Kalrayan Hills separate South Arcot from Salem; in the east the district faces the Bay of Bengal. The small area of Pondicherry, which lies within the South Arcot district and faces the Bay of Bengal, had been under French dominion since 1686. 1 To the north, South Arcot borders the North Arcot district and is separated from Tanjore and Trichinopoly by the Coleroon river to the south. Except for the Kalrayan hills and the small rocky hills 14in the north-west, the entire district consists of flat alluvial plains. The main rivers, which are an important source of irrigation, all run east and empty into the Bay of Bengal (see Map 4 overleaf). South Arcot is not one of the hottest and most arid of the South Indian districts, nor does it have the assured and plentiful supply of rain which characterizes the districts on the Malabar coast – the western coast of South India (see Map 3). South Arcot <italic>Taluqs</italic> c. 1870 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003071914/675c1c0d-112b-4d92-a010-bcb4a2f2d845/content/map_2.tif"/> Average Annual Rainfall in South Arcot https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003071914/675c1c0d-112b-4d92-a010-bcb4a2f2d845/content/map_3.tif"/> Source: Rainfall Statistics 1870–1903. Main Rivers of South Arcot https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003071914/675c1c0d-112b-4d92-a010-bcb4a2f2d845/content/map_4.tif"/>
