BharatSangraha

Tondaimandalam · Eastern Coastal Plains

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical wet and dry, and one of the few Indian climates in which most of the rain falls in October, November and December. Chennai takes roughly 1,400 mm a year and around sixty per cent of it from the north-east monsoon, delivered by depressions and cyclones tracking in off the Bay; the south-west monsoon gives this coast wind and humidity and very little water. April to June is severe — 38–42 °C with high humidity, and a fortnight in May known locally as agni natchathiram, the fire-star. The cool window is short, from mid-December to February, which is exactly when the concert season and the temple festival calendar are scheduled.

Landforms

Coromandel sand ridge with lagoons and backwater behind it — Pulicat, Muttukadu, KaliveliCharnockite and granite outcrops rising through the plain, quarried since the seventh centurySand-bedded seasonal rivers running underground for most of the yearEri tanks in cascades, several thousand of them, forming the historic irrigation system of the plainPallikaranai marsh, a freshwater wetland inside the Chennai conurbation and much reducedThe Javadi and Yelagiri hill blocks on the western rim

Rivers and waters

Palar — the region's defining river, sand-bedded, surface-dry most of the year and irrigating from beneathCheyyar — the Palar's main tributary, joining it below the Kanchipuram countryKosasthalaiyar, Cooum and Adyar — the three Chennai rivers, two of them now largely urban drainsPonnaiyar (South Pennar) — the southern limit, rising far inland on the plateauArani and Kortalaiyar in the northern taluks, feeding the Pulicat lagoonThe Buckingham Canal, a nineteenth-century inland navigation cut parallel to the coast for some 400 km

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
SummerMarch–June28–42 °CHot and humid, with the agni natchathiram fortnight in May at its worst. Life moves to before eight in the morning and after seven at night, and neer mor is given away free outside temples and shops.
South-west monsoonJune–September27–38 °CWind and cloud without much rain — the Ghats have taken it. Kite flying, sea breeze in the evenings, and the beach at its most used.
North-east monsoonOctober–December24–32 °CThe rain, and the cyclones. Depressions off the Bay deliver most of the year's water in a few weeks, the tanks fill or do not, and the city floods in the years the tanks and channels cannot take it.
Margazhi and wintermid-December–February20–30 °CThe cool weeks. Kolams are drawn larger, the Tiruppavai is sung in the streets before dawn, and the concert season runs at full volume across dozens of halls.

Best time to visitMid-December to February, without qualification — the weather is bearable, the Music Season is running, Margazhi is at its most visible, and the coast is at its best. Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram are worth an early start at any time of year, because both are unshaded granite.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Tondaimandalam, and the best time of year to visit. (4)