Palayamkottai - Etymology

Etymology

The archaic word Palayam in Tamil means a small administrative region or district. A Kottai is a fort. The portmanteau Tamil word Palayamkottai 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 Palayamkottai 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 Palancottahand 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 Palayamkottai in this article.