The Greater Chennai Corporation is currently bringing into its fold several areas of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur, has virtually revived the ancient province of Tondaimandalam that is believed to have existed in the last Sangam period and the Chennai region was a part of Tondaimandalam.
Tondaimandalam had been under the rule of the Kurumbars, Cholas, Kalabhars, Pallavas, Pandyas and the Vijayanagara dynasties for over 2,000 years and the region during the period has came under two divisions Aruvanadu and Aruvavadatalainadu.
Meanwhile the Greco-Egyptian writer Ptolemy has observed that the region was named Aruvarnoi and that the territory roughly extended between South Pennar and North Pennar, which together has come to be called as Tondaimandalam or Tondainadu.
But Epigraphical, archaeological and literary sources have revealed that Buddhism and Jainism once had a hold in this region and the monuments of the Chennai region reveal the contributions of the Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagar dynasties.
