Palayankottai

Palayankottai பாளையங்கோட்டை
Neighborhood
Speaker Chellapandian Flyover(North Bypass Road near Vannarapettai)
Palayankottai Location in Tamil Nadu, India
Coordinates: 8°43′00″N 77°44′00″E / 8.7166°N 77.7333°E / 8.7166; 77.7333Coordinates: 8°43′00″N 77°44′00″E / 8.7166°N 77.7333°E / 8.7166; 77.7333
Country	India
State	Tamil Nadu
District	Tirunelveli
Government
• Type	Municipal Corporation
• Body	Tirunelveli City Municipal Corporation
Languages
• Official	Tamil
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Pincode	627002
Vehicle registration	TN 72

Palayankottai (Palamcottah Tamil: பாளையங்கோட்டை  pronunciation ) is a prominent neighborhood in Tirunelveli City. It is part of the Tirunelveli City Municipal Corporation. It is on the eastern bank of the Thamirabarani river, while downtown Tirunelveli is on the western bank.

The archaic word Palayankottai in Tamil means a small administrative region or district. A Kottai is a fort. The portmanteau Tamil word Palayankottai was hence derived historically from an ancient fort that was in the centre of the region. Today, the fort lies in ruins and is almost camouflaged by its surrounding old residential edifices. To anyone who reads about Palayankottai for the first time, it may be surprising to see that atlases and other books refer to the city with both, an M or an N (Palayamkottai or Palayankottai). This uncertainty is because the actual Tamil word for the city uses an alphabet that is phonetically between M and N, and sometimes even completely substituted by G (pronounced Palayangkottai in colloquial Tamil). Natively speaking, it is hence correctly pronounced as Palayamnkottai. Historically during the British Raj, the area was referred to as Palancottah and also Palamkottah. The anglicization of the word was dropped by the locals immediately after independence, and the city is now called both Palayankottai and Palayamkottai according to official government documents and records. For disambiguation, the city is referred to as Palayankottai in this article.