304 VF, UORF TAL UK
Vellore Tfluk.-Ta'hak in the south of North Arcot District,
Madras, lying between 12° 39' and r2° 57' N. and 78° 39' and '19°
13' E. The northern portion runs along the right bank of the Palar
and is flat and open, but most of the rest is covered with numerous hill
ranges. Of the total area (oar square miles), nearly half is under forest.
The population in 190r was 200,541, compared with 192,937 in i89r.
It contains 149 villages and two towns: namely, AMRUR (population,
15,903) and VELLORE municipality (43,537), the head-quarters of the
taluk. The demand for land revenue and cesses in 1903-4 amounted
to Rs. 2,53,000.
Vellore Town.-Head-quarters of the taluk of the same name in
North Arcot District, Madras, situated in 12° 55' N. and 79° 9' E., on
the right bank of the Palar, with a station on the Villupuram branch
of the South Indian Railway, 4 miles from the Katpadi junction on the
south-west line of the Madras Railway, and 87 miles from Madras.
Population (1901), 43,537, having decreased somewhat in recent years.
Vellore is the largest town in the District, and was constituted a muni-
cipality in 1866. The municipal receipts and expenditure during
the ten years ending 1902--3 averaged RS, 55,1oo and Rs. 59,200
respectively. The deficit was met by a loan from Government. In
1903-4 the income was Rs. 72,5oo, and the expenditure Rs. 65,6oo.
Of the former, Rs. 17,500 was contributed by Government, and an
almost equal amount was derived from house and land taxes, and
from market fees and tolls. Plans and estimates for a water-supply to
cost 31 lakhs are now under scrutiny.
The town is the head-quarters of the divisional officer, District
Medical and Sanitary officer, Executive and District Board Engineers,
Assistant Commissioner of Salt, Abkari, and Customs, Deputy-Inspec-
tor-General of police, Assistant Superintendent of police, and Govern-
ment Chaplain. It also contains the police training-school, the Arcot
Mission College, and a high school. There is a large trade in grain,
and the cultivation of sweet-scented flowers is one of the industries of
the place, many bales of these being daily sent by rail to Madras.
The chief object of interest in Vellore is the fort and the temple
therein. The former is one of the most perfect specimens of military
architecture in Southern India, and the latter contains sculptures which
by some are thought to rival those of Madura. The fort is declared
by local tradition to have been built about 1274 by Bommi Reddi, a
refugee chief from Bhadrachalam on the banks of the Godavari, and
handed over to the Rajas of Vijayanagar. In reality, however, it appears
to have been constructed riot earlier than: the seventeenth century.
About the middle of that century the Sultan of Bij5pur seized Vellore.
In 1676 the Marathas captured it after four and a half months' siege.
In T 7o8 Daud Khan from Delhi ousted the Marathas. In 1710, when
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