Cut from the former Madras State along linguistic lines as a result of the 1956 States Reorganization Act, state emerged as "Tamil Nadu" on January 14, 1969 (Tamil "nadu", or country, in Dravidian).
Inhabitants thought to be descendants of the early Dravidian people driven southward by the Aryans between 2000 to 1500 BC. Members of the Scheduled Castes (aka, 'untouchables') represent a very high one-fifth of the state's population.
A trinity of Tamil-language kingdoms, the Chera, the Padya and the Chola, ran and warred within this region in antiquity. The modern era saw British colonization in the form of the Madras Presidency of British India in 1801, which maintained the Tamil-language character of the region. The Madras Presidency held within it the princely state of Pudhukottai, until its absorption into the Union of India in 1948.
