Four Cauvery Delta Branches
The Peralam Jn. - Karaikal M. G. Branch
Oct., 1967 - from the Karaikal end. [usually 12 posts / km]
The French colonies in India included the small territories around Pondicherry, 150 km S of Madras, Karaikal, another 150 km to S, both on the east coast; Yanam, a tiny enclave a little inland on R. Godavari near Kakinada, Chandranagore (Chandan Nagar), on R. Hooghly, 34 km N of Calcutta (now Kolkotta) and Mahe, also tiny, 60 km N of Calicut (Kozhikode) on the west coast. While Chandranagore was handed over to independent India by the French in 1951, the other four had to wait till 1954 for their merger. These four became the Union Territory of Pondicherry, with Pondicherry its hq.
Karaikal lies in the middle of the base of the Cauvery delta, irrigated by Nandalar in the N, Arasalar in the middle and Tirumalairajan in the S. Cultivation of paddy flourished till mid-1970's, after which the Cauvery dispute with Karnataka has taken its toll. The neatly-laid town is small and rectangular. Karaikal region which is in the delta used to supply rice to the rest of the French territory before merger, but now the other regions of the union territory get their supplies from Andhra Pradesh.
This is the place where, Karaikal Ammaiyar, nee Punithavathy, one of the 64 nayanmars, i.e., Saivite saints, lived in the 6th century. Utterly devoted to Siva, she voluntarily accepted the form of a hag in lieu of that of the young woman which she was, and started walking on her hands towards Kailas, rather than on her feet lest she polluted the abode of Siva. Siva was so moved that He beckoned “Ammaiye (Mother), welcome!” Which mortal could attain that glory, of being called “Mother” by the Lord who had no birth but exists eternally? One may not believe in this tale, but the heart-moving hymns sung by her are there to attest to her devotion.
Tamil is the local language, the population mainly Hindu, with a significant number of Muslims and some Roman Catholics. There are a few families of Indian origin who still hold French nationality, with sons and/or daughters in France. A government college started functioning in 1967-68; then there was no industry to speak of, though ONGC had been drilling in the region for some time.
The railway station was situated on the En side of the town, and the track continued S for a distance, then turned E on the bank of R. Arasalar for a small jetty, though no one could remember having ever seen a loco in its vicinity.
In 1967, the competition from the roadways, with fairly frequent services to Mayavaram (40 km to NW) via Peralam or Tranquebar, Kumbakonam (56 km to W) via Peralam and Nagapattinam (18 km to S) via Nagore, was already telling on the railways, which tried to attract patronage by extending one of the two daily services on the branch up to Mayavaram.
23-1 Karaikal (3'). I reached the station, aligned N/S, with a fairly large, railway-tiled block of BO + SM's office + store room, and a quite large Class III waiting space just outside, and got into a compartment as its sole occupant. There were three carriages, TYLR, T and GT, with a 4-wheeler goods wagon behind. The oldish F class Engine (0-6-0) with a 3' tall chimney had been reversed at the turntable past the loop to the E; there were three short sidings, jutting out of the station to its N, with a small, G.I. goods shed.
d. 07:23. Ran straight N, with young paddy on flat fields to the right (E), beyond which some low sand dunes with palmyrah trees concealing the sea from view. Paddy on fields also to the left (W) for some 250 m., beyond which was the town. 22-0: steady left curve, then a short strech of 250 up, with huts on fields, completed the curve and entered in a Wly. direction
20-11 Karaikkoilpathu (14') a 07:31, d 07:34. Pfm at right (N) with small, brick office and a corrugated GI-roofed waiting hall; no loop or siding. Very quiet. A few passengers boarded. Just past the pfm., to the W., level cross with the Nagapattinam - Poraiyar road, with houses and buildings of the Nn. outskirts of the town. Ran W, L then 1 in 300 up. Young paddy on L fields on both sides. 3 x 25' girder bridge across Vanjiyar at 20-0, more paddy crops on light brown fields, then curved right into WNW, passing clusters of coconut tress on more paddy fields,
16-6 Tirunallar (11') a 07:44, d 07:47. Pfm at left, with a modest, tiled, block of offices and an ample waiting space. No loops or sidings again. The town lay to the left (S).
Well, Tirunallar was the place where King Nala was relieved of the severe ordeals of the 19-year long Sani (saturn) dasa (period) after he prayed to Dharbharanyeswara (Lord of the jungle of dharbha grass) here. The temple has in its corridor a shrine for Sani, attired in black and mounted on a crow, who is held in greater reverence than the presiding deity inside. For which Hindu is not afraid of Saturn? To please this malevolent planet, many flock to his shrine on saturdays, offering worship with a mud lamp lit with gingelly (sesame) oil. And once in two-and-a-half years, as saturn migrates from one zodiacal sign to the next, lakhs rush to Tirunallar. Special trains used to be run for a week, opening temporary booking counters and sheds in the space outside the station. But that day in October 1967, it was all very quiet.
Then curved gently to the right into W-NNW; occasional huts on open, flat fields of paddy watered by 10' wide irrigation canals; more palmyras than coconut trees. Left curve to turn into W-WNW and entered
13-4: Pathakudy (15') a 07:55, d 07:58. The name of the station appeared on the board also in French, spelt as Pattecoudy, besides in English, Tamil and Hindi. For, along with English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, French is also an official language of the union territory. No loop or siding. Small, tiled office at the En end of a short pfm at the right, beyond which, to fore-right, a sizeable village; another village, past paddy fields, some 800 m to the S with minarets rising above The train ran at 36 kmph, the ride a bit lilting and bouncy, on wooden-sleepered tracks, ballasted with sand admixed with some porous stones. Past more fields, gradients of 1 in1660 up and 1 in 2000 up. At 9-10, again curved left, the tarred road to Peralam joining up at left (S), beyond which a town with large houses; curved slightly right to W and entered
8-2: Ambagaratur (22') a 08:08, d 08:10. No loop or siding. Unloaded baskets of dried, salted fish; medium size office again close to the lower (E) end of a 50 m long, unpaved pfm. Open paddy fields on both sides (N and S) with coconut and tamarind trees and clusters of bamboos. The town to the S has a famous Bhadra Kali Amman temple. It was to this border town, just inside the French territory, people would come to celebrate weddings of children, a practice restrained in British India from about 1930.
Since none of the four stations between the junction and the terminus had a loop or a siding, no crossings/overtakings would have been feasible.
Continued W, across fields and at 7-6 left the Union Territory of Pondicherry and entered Tamilnadu. More L fields, with some sugar cane as well. Then to the right (N) the single-storeyed houses of Peralam; held up for a while at the outer signal, then curved steadily into N, at 0-7 met the S/N Tiruturaipundi - Mayuram line at its 16-3, and entered.
0 Peralam Jn (34') a 08:36, arriving on the line that terminated on the En side of the semi-island pfm. with a loop and siding with turntable to hind-right. The Mayavaram - Tiruturaipundi trains used the fuller Wn. side of the pfm. There were two loops and a siding for a medium sized, brick and tiled goods shed further to W. Solid block brick offices, tiled and waiting space in line with the dead end of the Karaikal line.
The Sn. half of the pfm still had the large, corrugated GI-roofed shed that, during the French period in Karaikal before 1954, served for the customs check: passengers arriving from Karaikal would be herded into the shed, then having corrugated G.I. sheets for walls, to be physically searched for any contraband they might be trying to smuggle into India - these would be some France-made items such as toilet soaps, talcum powders, a French velvette saree or even a Swiss watch, which were all cheap in the French colony, and, in the case of daring smugglers, a small bottle of an alcoholic beverage, unavailable in Madras Presidency, which was dry. People carrying the former items would be imposed a customs duty if voluntarily declared, and a duty plus fine, if found out. In the case of alcohol, it would be confiscated and the offender booked and detained to be produced before the railway magistrate. The customs check would take some 45 mins. before they were allowed to exit the station or take the next train towards Mayavaram or Tiruvarur. For passengers towards Karaikal, customs check was perfunctory, taking just a few minutes, as there was no cheap item to be smuggled in that direction.
The importance of the junction declined after the French left and the shed, pruned of its walls, was the only reminder of a more bustling past. Peralam Jn. was famous for the masal vadas sold in its VLR stall and by the platform vendors in the 1940's and 50's, tasteful ones costing just half-an-anna (three paise) each. The stall I found in 1967 was a ghost of it, had no vadas, but served a cup of quite good coffee for 15 paise.
After closure in 1987, the tracks were pulled up. Since there is very frequent, quicker bus servive between Peralam and Karaikal, there not much demand for the revival of the line, but a b.g. link to Nagore in the S has been included in the proposed coversion of Tiruvarur - Nagapattinam - Nagore line. However no one is certain whether the 10-km link will really materialize, as thre are many rivers to cross. The striking of oil and natural gas at Narimanam close to the proposed link augers well.
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