Tranquebar

The Danish East India Company leased Tharangambadi in 1620 and held it until selling to the British in 1845, and the small town keeps that period visibly: Dansborg fort on the beach, a squat yellow structure of 1620 now a museum; a town gate with the Danish royal arms; King's Street running down to the sea with colonial houses; and two eighteenth-century churches. The Tranquebar mission, arriving in 1706, printed the first translation of the New Testament into an Indian language, Tamil, here, and established a printing press and schools. The 2004 tsunami struck the town hard and much of what stands has been restored since.

History

The name means "place of the singing waves", and the oldest monument is the Masilamani Nathar temple to Shiva, built in 1306 on land given by Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I. On 19 November 1620 the town became the first Danish trading post in India, after the admiral Ove Gjedde reached an agreement with Raghunatha Nayak of Thanjavur and built Fort Dansborg; the Lutheran missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg arrived in 1706 and printed the New Testament in Tamil in 1714, and in 1845 the colony was sold to the British East India Company (Wikipedia, Tharangambadi).

What you'll find

• Dansborg fort - the 1620 Danish fort on the beach, now a museum.
• The town gate - the entrance carrying the Danish royal arms.
• King's Street - the colonial street running down to the sea.
• The mission churches - eighteenth-century buildings from the printing mission.

When to go

October to March; the coast is hot and humid the rest of the year, with cyclone risk from October to December. The town is quiet at any time and sees few visitors.

Practical notes

The town is very small and covered in a few hours. Tsunami damage and subsequent restoration mean some buildings are reconstructions. Facilities are limited to a couple of hotels.

Nearby

Karaikal lies south; Chidambaram is northwest.

Key facts