Four Cauvery Delta Branches

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The Mayavaram Jn. - Tranquebar M.G. Branch

4th Oct., 1967

Mayavaram Jn (now, Mayiladuthurai), situated near the northern corner of the delta, is the gateway to it. Arriving from Madras, 285 km in the north, by the m.g. mainline, one crossed the innocuous-looking R. Cauvery by a 3 x 25' girder bridge just before entering the Jn. The mainline to Tiruchirappalli, via Kumbakonam and Thanjavur, here turned S-WSW, keeping quite close to the river. The erstwhile District Board line to Tiruturaipundi via Tiruvarur runs S, while the branch to Tranquebar, ran first E for about 19 km up to Akkur with R. Cauvery fairly close to the N, then SSE for 9 km up to just short of Poraiyar, veering away from the river, and E for the last 2 km. to reach Tranquebar on the coast. Mayavaram town itself, with the bus stand, lies 4 km out of the junction on this route, another instance of the companies laying rail lines as stright as possible, bypassing major population centres. The fields beyond are a little rougher and less fertile than those in the heart of the delta, yet quite productive of paddy, with clusters of coconut and mango trees; the soil, of course, becomes sandy and saline as one approached the sea.

0 (=285-2 from Madras) Mayavaram Jn. (alt.43'), a large station, aligned N/S, with the main pfm. on the E. side and two large islands to its W, all high, nearly 160 m. long and 10 m. wide, fully concrete-floored and sheltered in the middle half. As of 1967, there was a big RMS office ^[1] in the Nn. end, adjoining the long block of Parcel office, III and upper class waiting rooms, SM's office, room for ticket examiners, bookstall, Veg. and non-veg. refreshment rooms and RPF. The RMS used to be very busy at nights, as many trains, including the Rameswaram Express, carrying mail, arrived and departed between 20 and 06 hours. There was a refreshment stall on the first island as well. There were a number of loops and long sidings beyond the second island to the W, extending way down to the S. An FM class (0-6-0) engine often did shunting duty around, its 2.5' tall chimney slightly shorter than that of the F (also 0-6-0).

I arrd. at the junction from Thanjavur on the mainline by the Madurai-Madras Parcel Pass. at 1726 and hastened by the foot overbridge to pfm. 1, where the Pass. for Tranquebar, with just two carriages, both III class, was waiting with an ST (2-6-4T) engine, tank foremost. There was only a sprinkling of men and women in the two carriages. d 17:43, heading S. First a level cross with the trunk road from Kumbakonam. At 0-8, the mainline took off into SSW and at 0-10, our branch curved smoothly to the left into E-ESE, veering away from the Tiruturaipundi line, which continued S. Flat fields with young paddy on both sides, a screen of trees 500 m to the N. hiding R Cauvery from view. At 3-0, level-crossed the road to Tiruvarur to the S. Curved gently to left to enter.

4-0 Mayavaram Town (36'), a 17:52, d 17:54. A loop before the station with a small G.I. goods shed. Pfm at left with railway-tiled SM's office, B.O. and waiting space, beyond which was the town with country-tiled and thatched houses, leading to a temple, on the bank of R. Cauvery where, as the legend has it, Parvathy did penance in the form of a peahen for Lord Siva who came to marry her in the form of a peacock, giving the place its name (mayur - peacock). There is also a famous Vaishnavite temple with Ranganathar in a reclining posture.

The ST continued to chug E, with level paddy fields, clustered with trees, including plantains on both sides. After an unmanned levelcrossing.

8-6 Mannambandal (34') a 18:03, d 18:04. Modest office on pfm at right, no loops or siding. A village close to the left (S), but there is, to the N, just past the road to Poraiyar, a college the students of which took the lead in staging demonstrations whenever the Railways proposed to close down the branch, for many of them, coming from the direction of Tranquebar, depended on the morning and afternoon trains to commute to the college and back to their homes; the students from Mayavaram, however, travelled on the frequent town buses. But there was no student crowd at that hour and we steamed on to the E, across more fields with light red-brown soil, the terrain getting a bit rougher.

12-3 Sembanar Koil (27') a 18:12, d 18:14. A loop with brief siding before the pfm to left (N), with solid, tiled office, beyond which a small but densely-built town. Continued E, with the land distinctly getting poorer, with small patches of waste here and there.

Passed a defunct Halt, Kalahasthinathapuram, with a small corrugated, G.I. shed that had once served as the office for an agent who sold tickets on commission basis. Further E, fewer trees on the paddy fields. Doing a steady 48 kmph. A sudden right curve to turn SSE and entered.

(19) Akkur (18'), a 18:23, d 18:25. Pfm at left with office, past the En end of which a loop with a small goods shed, beyond which a sizeable town partly hidden by trees. Further on, crossed Ammanar by 4 x 30' girder bridge, then more paddy fields on slightly rougher land. Curved further to right, then.

(22) Tirukkadaiyur (15') a 18:32, d 18:41. A loop with a brief siding ahead of the pfm. with the usual type of building at left. The engine collected water here from a 1400 gallons overhead tank just past the upper end of the pfm. Dusk was descending and one could see the light atop the tower of the famous temple in the town at some distance. This is the place where, in the epic past, Lord Siva intervened to protect his devotee, young Markandeya, from the mortal coils cast around his body by Yama, the God of Death. Well-to-do Hindus from distant places come here to offer worship and perform Mritunjaya homam for further longevity on the occasions of their 60th and 81st birthdays.

Across more treed fields, crossed an irrigation canal by a 30' girder bridge, then a slight left curve to do E-SSE.

(26) Thillaiyadi (10') a 1847, d 1849. No loop or siding. Modest office on pfm. at right, with a small electrified town beyond to S, but the pfm. had only a few blinking kerosene lanterns on posts. This place had contributed to the freedom movement Valliyammai, a brave woman, who worked with Gandhi in South Africa as he was perfecting his non-violent methods before World War I. It was she who gave him the concept of Indian tricolour, but she died when she was just 16.

Terrain got rougher, more shrubs on the fields; then turned E, and past a level cross.

(29) Poraiyar (7') a 1855, d 1901. no loop or siding again; modest office building at Wn. end of the pfm. Unloaded some parcels. The ticket checker who boarded my compartment found one among a small group of fisherwomen travelling without a ticket. She offered him a 50 paise coin, but he refused it with disdain, scolded her and went away. Most of the few passengers in the train got down here. It was getting dark.

The Tranquebar - Mayuram road ran some 500 m N of the station, past some fields. But Poraiyar, a large town of some antiquity, lay to the S. of the station. It had always been bustling with commercial activity and, till late 70's, was the hq. of a large, private road transport company (subsequently taken over by the state), which operated scores of buses all over the En. part of the delta. Buses of this company, as well of some lesser ones and state-owned, ran WNW to Mayavaram, NW to Sirkazhi, S to Karaikal, Nagore and Nagapattinam, and W to Poonthottam. These ultimately spelt doom to the branch which operated four pairs of trains a day. ^[2]

Ran further E on some semi-open land, parts of which passed off as fields, on whiter, sandier and more saline soil.

(30) Tranquebar (Tharangambadi; alt. 5') a 19:05 The oldish terminus looked ungainly in the night, with a firly large office block at the lower (W) end of the pfm. at right. There was a loop at left which was used by the ST to attach itself the other other end of the train for the return trip. There were just a few of us getting off here, including the four fisherwomen and exited to the S. for the road from Poraiyar which joined in the E the N/S Tranquebar - Nagapattinam road. I took a bus for Nagapattinam.The terrain, though level, was brackish and open towards the Bay of Bengal beyond the road to Nagapattinam. Tranquebar town itself lay to the NE of the railway stn. and could be reached along the Nagapattinam road, past Uppanar, a backwater.

Tranquebar was a Danish settlement from 1616, ante-dating the British one in Madras, and circulated Danish India coins. It was ceded in 1845 to the British, who had, by then, established their dominance over much of India. The Dutch built a fort, which now houses a museum, but there was no vestige of the anchorage which those days would have received many a Dutch ship on its way to the East Indies. There is a Siva temple at the shore, at some distance from the waves in 1967, but sea has intruded since. The first girls' school in the whole of India was founded here in 1707 under the aegis of the the Lutheran mission, which spread its activities into the Delta and now runs a college in Poraiyar. There exists a church in Tranquebar with a two-century old bell.

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