Tranqubar (Tharangambadi)

Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar is a town in the Nagapattinam district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of the Kaveri River. Tranquebar was the first Danish trading post in India established in 1620. King Christian IV had sent his envoy Ove Gjedde who established contact with Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore. The Danish government sold the colony of Tranquebar to the British East India Company in 1845. Until then an annual tribute had been paid by the Danes to the Rajah of Tanjore. Tharangambadi is the headquarters of Tharangambadi taluk, while its name means “place of the singing waves”. The name Trankebar remains current in modern Danish.