Sidhagiri Murugan hill temple, Aralvaimozhi · Photo: Manukrishnan80 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nagercoil & the Pass · Fort

Aralvaimozhi Pass and Fort

ஆரல்வாய்மொழி கோட்டை

The old gateway into Travancore, where the wind whispers

Move across the photo, or drag it on a phone, to look around.

You arrive

Here the Western Ghats come down almost to nothing, and the road slips through a gap between the hills. It looks peaceful, with fields and small settlements along the way. Yet for centuries this was the most contested gap in the far south, the route by which invaders reached the kingdoms beyond. You step out and the wind is immediate. The name is said to mean whispering wind, and listening to it here, you can believe that.

Mountain near Aralvaimozhi · Photo: Shankaran Murugan · CC BY 3.0

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Reading the pass

Stand at a place with a view and study the landform. Hills close in from the north and the plains fall away to the east, leaving this narrow route between them. You do not need any monument to understand why armies came this way. Imagine a line of defenders watching the eastern horizon from these slopes. Then look down at the road, where trucks now pass through the same gap without pausing.

Sidhagiri Murugan hill temple, Aralvaimozhi · Photo: Manukrishnan80 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Looking for the remains

The fort was once among the most important in Travancore, but what is left is remains rather than a maintained monument, and no visitor facilities are documented. Ask someone locally to point the way, and treat what you find with care. Old stonework is easily damaged and may be unstable, so do not climb on it. The pleasure here is in standing somewhere that mattered, with the wind going past.

Being here

You see

A low gap in the hills with fields and passing traffic.

You hear

The wind, thin and constant, moving through the pass.

You smell

Dry earth and grass.

You feel

A steady wind that rarely lets up.

Look around

The story

The Aralvaimozhi Pass, called Aramboly during the colonial period, was a strategic gap at the southern end of the Western Ghats, linking Venad and Travancore with the Tamil kingdoms to the east. Many invasions came this way. Around 1750, the Travancore general Eustachius De Lannoy built the fort as part of a defensive system with Udayagiri Fort, Vattakottai and the Travancore Lines. English East India Company forces passed through in the campaign against soldiers loyal to Velu Thampi Dalawa, and the fort was captured; sources give the date as 1809 or 1810. The town's name is sometimes explained as whispering wind, after the sound of this pass.

Sources: Wikipedia: Aralvaimozhi · Wikipedia: Udayagiri Fort

Close by

Heritage

Muppandal Wind Farm

Giant turbines turning where the hills let the wind through

Town

Thovalai Flower Market

Jasmine by the sack, sold before the day gets hot

Forest

Suchindram Theroor Wetlands

Winter water for birds at the end of their flyway

Heritage

Nagercoil Paddy Country

Green fields and palm lines at the foot of the Ghats

Photo: Dr. Chinchu C. · CC BY 4.0

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