in 1752 Excavations made by
Robert Bruce Foote indicate that the region was inhabited in the
Stone Age. During the end of first millennium B. C, it was under the Thondaiman kings. The
Pallavas with their capital at
Kanchi came to power in about 500 A. D. When the Pallava kingdom began to decline, the region was conquered by the Western Gangas in about 760 A. D. Chingleput was ruled by the
Rashtrakutas,
Cholas and the
Kakatiyas of
Warangal until the 13th century AD when it fell to the
Delhi Sultanate. Chingleput area was conquered by the
Vijayanagar Empire which ruled the region from 1393 till 1565 and from 1565 till 1640 as the kingdom of
Chandragiri. The area was annexed by the
Mughals in 1687 and was later conquered by the
Nawab of the Carnatic. In 1763, Chingleput was ceded to the
British East India Company by Mohammad Ali, the then Nawab of the Carnatic. It was the site of the
Carnatic Wars and was frequently taken by
Tipu Sultan during the last years of the 18th century. In 1801, the Nawab of the Carnatic, finally, relinquished complete sovereignty over the region to the British East India Company. After the
independence of India, the district became part in 1950 of the newly named
Madras State. As a result of the 1956
States Reorganisation Act, the state's boundaries were re-organised following linguistic lines. Madras State was finally renamed
Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969. == Taluks ==