Aragalur

Vanuvarayan

A Manual of the Salem District in the Presidency of Madras
H. LE FANLU - 1883
Aragalur, south-east of Thalaivasal, has a population of 1920 comprising 830 Kaikalars or weavers, a

large proportion. Common cloths are made in large quantities. Once in ten years the Kaikalars in

numbers flock here for the Padaikalam dfestival. Like all weavers towns it is rather dirty, and of 54

cases of Cholera in 1875, 26 were fatal. The town is so names because in old days a chief named

Vanuvarayan had fort here surrounded by six trenches of which there are no vestiges now except the

name. He must have been a considerable riever, as he is said to have had a lakh of horses of each

color, black, bay etc. There is only one pial school here. THe people are indifferent to education,

as services of children are useful in the early stages of weaving.