Kodaikanal (தமிழ்:கொடைக்கானல்)

             Kodaikanal is a city in the hills of the Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.^[2] Its name in the Tamil language means "The Gift of the Forest".^[3] Kodaikanal is referred to as the "Princess of Hill stations" and has a long history as a retreat and popular tourist destination.

Kodaikanal was established in 1845 as a refuge from the high temperatures and tropical diseases of the plains.^[4]Much of the local economy is based on the hospitality industry serving tourism. As of 2011, the town had a population for 36,501.

                It is not known who first used this name or what they intended it to mean.

          The word Kodaikanal is an amalgamation of two words: kodai and kanal. The Tamil language has at least four possible interpretations of the name Kodaikanal.

By pronouncing the first syllable of Kodaikanal with a long Tamil 'O', as in koe-dei, it means "summer", whilst the final two syllables kanal can mean "to see", rendering Kodaikanal as a "place to see in summer". Kodaikanal is a summer forest, and it is a place that the first missionaries used as a refuge to escape the overbearing and mosquito-ridden heat of the plains — a place that they would have counted on seeing in the summer!

Kanal, in Tamil, can mean dense or closed forest. In this case, Kodai can have at least four meanings. By pronouncing Kodai with the long Tamil 'O' and short 'e', Ko-dai means "the end". Kodaikanal could mean "the end of the forest" which makes poetic and geographical sense — Kodaikanal is at the crown of the Palani Hills and is effectively surrounded and protected by thick forests.^[3]

By pronouncing Kodai with the short Tamil 'O' (as in Kodi), it means "creepers" or vines. Kodaikanal could mean "forest of creepers" or the forest of vines. "The forest of creepers" is thought to be the English language meaning given in 1885 during the early western habitation of the place^[5] and is still accepted.^[6]

By pronouncing Kodai with a short Tamil 'O', and a long 'E', it might be interpreted to mean "gift", rendering "Kodaikanal" as "gift of the forest". Keeping the short Tamil 'O' but adding a long 'A', Kodai could be understood as the Tamil word for umbrella, where Kodaikanal is a forest fashioned like a protecting umbrella. Or perhaps 'umbrella' just because of the once pristine shola, it rained so much in Kodai!^[3]

Another Tamil word for creeper or vine is valli, the honey collecting daughter of the chief of the Veddas mountain tribe. The chief and his wife prayed to the Mountain God for a girl and their prayers were answered when the chief found a newborn girl child during a hunting expedition. As she was found among creeper plants, they named her Valli and she grew up as princess of the tribe in Kurinji and became the consort of lord Murugan.^[7] The romantic traditions of Murugan in Sangam literature are thus associated with the name Kodaikanal.