Nagapattinam district was an important region of the
Chola kingdom. There are urn burials in and around the city from the Sangam period indicating some level of human habitation. The neighbouring port,
Kaveripoompattinam (modern day Poompuhar), was the capital of the Chola kingdom of the Sangam Age, referred to widely in Tamil scriptures like
Paṭṭiṉappālai. The early works of
Tevaram by the 7th-century poets Appar and Sambandar mention that the town had fortified walls, busy roads, buildings and a busy port. The inscriptions from the Kayarohanswami temple indicate the construction was initiated during the reign of the Pallava king,
Narasimha Pallava II (691 – 729 CE). A Buddhist pagoda was built under Chinese influence by the Pallava king and town was frequented by Buddhist travellers. In the 11th century CE,
Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery was built by Javanese king Sri Vijaya Soolamanivarman with the patronage of
Raja Raja Chola. Nagapattinam was the prominent port of Cholas for trade and conquering gateway to the east. In the early 16th century the Portuguese made commercial contacts with the town and established a commercial centre in 1554 CE. The Portuguese also conducted missionary enterprise in the town. In 1658, the Dutch established an agreement with King Vijaya Nayakkar of Thanjavur on 5 January 1662. Ten villages were transferred from the Portuguese to the Dutch – Nagappattinam Port, Puthur, Muttam, Poruvalancheri, Anthanappettai, Karureppankadu, AzhingiMangalam, Sangamangalam, Thiruthinamangalam, Manjakollai, Nariyankudi. Ten Christian churches and a hospital were built by the Dutch. They also released coins with the name Nagappattinam engraved in Tamil letters. Under an agreement between the first Maratta King Egoji of Thanjavur and the Dutch, Naagappattinam and surrounding villages were handed over to the Dutch on 30 December 1676. In 1690, the capital of
Dutch Coromandel moved from
Pulicat to Nagapattinam. This town fell into the hands of the British in 1781 after the two naval battles between British and French fleets were fought off the coast of Negapatam, as it was then known: the
first in 1758 as part of the
Seven Years' War and the
second in 1782 as part of the
American Revolutionary War. The town was
taken by the British from the Dutch in 1781 (who had been
formally brought into the war in 1780). When the Dutch and British
reached a peace agreement in 1784, Nagapattinam was formally ceded to the British. 277 villages, with Nagore as the headquarters, were handed over to the
East India Company. From 1799 to 1845 CE Nagapttinam was the headquarters of Tanjore district. Nagapattinam and Nagore were incorporated as a single municipality in 1866 CE. The town remained one of the chief ports to the
Madras Presidency. The port suffered decline after the inclusion of
Tranquebar and
Tuticorin. The
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an
undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred on 26 December 2004, with an
epicentre off the west coast of
Sumatra, Indonesia, triggering a series of devastating
tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean. Nagapattinam was one of the regions severely affected in Tamil Nadu, accounting for 6,064 of the 8,009 casualties in the state, predominantly from the fishing community who resided close to the seashore. The damage impacted the fishing industry, as most of the boats were damaged by the inundation. The immediate aftermath created a lull in tourism. ==Geography==