Etymology
It is not known who first used this name or what they intended it to mean.
However the following explanation makes some sense. By pronouncing with long Tamil 'O' as ko...dai means the summer and kanal means to see, which means a place to see in Summer. Kodaikanal is actually a summer forest.
The other interesting explanations are, the Tamil language, has four versions are defined to the name "Kodaikanal". It is interesting but it is not known who invented this name. The word Kodaikanal is classified into two words as Kodai and Kanal. Here "Kanal" means in Tamil that the dense forest or the closed forest. Then "Kodai" has four different meanings. With its meanings Kodaikanal meant in four ways. By pronouncing with long Tamil 'O' and KO....DI means "the end". So that KO...DI KANAL means "The End of the Forest" in the bygone days, Kodaikanal is situated at the end part of the thick forest. Nowadays it is developed but the beauty is still kept.
By pronouncing with short Tamil 'O' as KODI means "The Creepers". So that Kodaikanal means "The Forest of Creepers". "The Forest of Creepers" is also thought to be the English language meaning given in 1885 during the early western habitation of the place, and is still accepted. They called like this with its beauty.
By pronouncing with long Tamil 'O' as KO....DAI means "The Summer". So KO...DAI KANAL means "The Forest of the Summer". Kodaikanal is actually a summer forest. By pronouncing with short Tamil 'O' as KODAI means that "The Gift". So that "Kodaikanal" means "The Gift of the Forest" Kodaikanal was created by the forest and it surroundings. So it may be called as the gift of forest.
Another Tamil word for creepers is Valli, the honey collecting daughter of the chief of the Veddas mountain tribe. The chief and his wife prayed to the Mountain God for a girl-child and their prayers were answered when the chief found a new-born girl child during a hunting expedition. As she was found among creeper plants, they named the child Valli and she grew up as princess of the tribe in Kurinji and became the consort of lord Murugan. The romantic traditions of Murugan in Sangam literature are thus associated with the name Kodaikanal.
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