Cholamandalam

The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coast region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an area of about 22,800 square kilometres. Its definition can also include the northwestern coast of the island of Sri Lanka.. The coast has an average elevation of 80 metres and is backed by the Eastern Ghats, a chain of low, flat-topped hills.

Coromondel is the Dutch pronunciation of "Karimanal", a village in the Sriharikota island in the north of Pazhavercadu (Pulecat Lake) . Pazhavercadu (Pulecat) was an early Dutch settlement along with Masoolipatnam in present day Andhra Pradesh. There is a Dutch Cemetery belonging to the seventeenth Century at Pulecat. It is said that the first Dutch ship stopped here for fresh drinking water, and upon asking the name of the place Karimanal was spelled as Corimondal (K replaced with C and d inserted).

The land of the Chola dynasty was called Cholamandalam (சோழ மண்டலம்) in Tamil, literally translated as The realm of the Cholas, from which the Portuguese derived the name Coromandel. The name could also be derived from Kurumandalam, meaning The realm of the Kurus.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the coastal economy. Rice, pulses (legumes), sugarcane, cotton, and peanuts (groundnuts) are grown. Bananas and betel nuts are grown together with rice in the low-rainfall region of the interior. There are casuarina and coconut plantations along the coast.

Large-scale industries produce fertilizers, chemicals, film projectors, amplifiers, trucks, and automobiles. There is a heavy vehicle and armoured car factory at Avadi and a nuclear power station at Kalpakkam.

Roads and railways linking Chennai, Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Chengalpattu, and Puducherry run parallel to the coast.

The coast is generally low, and punctuated by the deltas of several large rivers, including the Kaveri, Palar, Penner, and Krishna River, which rise in the highlands of the Western Ghats and flow across the Deccan Plateau to drain into the Bay of Bengal. The alluvial plains created by these rivers are fertile and favour agriculture. The rivers remain dry during most of the year. There is little forest cover, but marshes, swamps, scrub woodlands, and thorny thickets are common.

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