South Arcot was a former administrative district of the Madras Presidency in British India, and later of Madras State and Tamil Nadu in independent India. It lay along the Coromandel Coast in the eastern part of the Tamil-speaking region, with Cuddalore serving as its district headquarters. The district has since been reorganised, and its territory now corresponds broadly to the present-day districts of Cuddalore and Viluppuram in Tamil Nadu.
| Name | South Arcot District |
|---|---|
| Country | British India; later India |
| Province / State | Madras Presidency; Madras State; Tamil Nadu |
| Headquarters | Cuddalore |
| Region | Coromandel Coast, eastern Tamil Nadu |
| Status | Former district (subsequently bifurcated) |
| Successor districts | Cuddalore and Viluppuram |
South Arcot was bounded on the east by the Bay of Bengal and lay between the districts of Chingleput (later Chengalpattu) to the north and Tanjore (Thanjavur) to the south, with North Arcot and Salem to its west. The district included a long coastal plain drained by rivers such as the Ponnaiyar (South Pennar) and the Vellar, with sandy littoral tracts giving way to fertile alluvial plains and, further inland, drier uplands. The French enclave of Pondicherry formed an enclave within its boundaries, an arrangement that persisted until the de facto transfer of the French Indian territories in 1954.
The name "Arcot" derives from the Nawabdom of Arcot, the Mughal-era successor polity in the Carnatic. Under early Company rule, the territory broadly corresponding to the later Tamil-speaking districts was administered as part of the Carnatic. Following the assumption of the Carnatic by the East India Company in 1801, the region was reorganised into the districts of North Arcot and South Arcot, both placed under the Madras Presidency.
South Arcot was historically significant for several reasons. Cuddalore and the nearby Fort St. David were among the earliest English Company settlements on the Coromandel Coast and figured prominently in the Anglo-French rivalry of the eighteenth century. The town of Gingee (Senji), with its hill fortress, had earlier been a Vijayanagara, Maratha and Mughal stronghold. Chidambaram, with the Thillai Nataraja temple, lay within the district and was a major centre of Saiva pilgrimage and Tamil devotional tradition. Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), a former Danish settlement, also fell within or adjoining the district at various times.
As with other Madras Presidency districts, South Arcot was headed by a District Collector and Magistrate of the Indian Civil Service (later the Indian Administrative Service), assisted by sub-collectors and revenue divisional officers. The district was divided into taluks, including, at various points, Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Kallakurichi, Tirukoilur, Villupuram, Tindivanam, Vriddhachalam and Gingee. Settlement reports and gazetteers compiled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — notably the Madras District Gazetteers: South Arcot by W. Francis — provide detailed records of its revenue, demography and topography.
The district's economy was predominantly agrarian. Paddy cultivation dominated the wetter coastal and riverine tracts, while groundnut, millets, pulses, sugarcane and cotton were grown in drier areas. Cashew cultivation became important along the coastal belt. Neyveli, in the Vriddhachalam region, later emerged as a major centre of lignite mining and thermal power generation following the establishment of Neyveli Lignite Corporation in the 1950s, transforming the district's industrial profile. Cuddalore developed as a port town and, in the post-independence period, as a centre of chemical industry.
South Arcot occupies an important place in the political and cultural history of southern India. It was the theatre of decisive episodes in the Carnatic Wars between the British and the French; the home of major temple towns and pilgrimage centres such as Chidambaram, Tirukoilur and Tiruvennainallur; and the birthplace and working ground of several Tamil literary, devotional and political figures. In the modern era, the district contributed significantly to Tamil Nadu's industrial development through the lignite and power complex at Neyveli.