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?Thiruvallur Tamil Nadu • India
Thiruvallur
Coordinates: 13°09′N 79°55′E / 13.15, 79.91
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
District(s)	Thiruvallur
Population	45,517 (2001)

Coordinates: 13°09′N 79°55′E / 13.15, 79.91 Thiruvallur is a city and a municipality in Thiruvallur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Tiruvallur district. It is well known because of the Veera Raghava Swami temple which is one of the 108 sacred shrines of Vaishnavites. There is a pond nearby this temple, where the tank festival is held. There is a Siva temple near this shrine which is also quite popular among the locals. There is also a 40 feet tall Viswaroopa panchamukha Hanuman temple.

The Veera Raghava Swami Temple in Tiruvallur

The word "Tiruvallur" is supposedly derived from the Tamil sentence "thiru evvull?" meaning, "Thiru" - god, "evvull" - Where do I sleep. So Tiruvallur means, a place/town where god Sri VeeraRaghava asked a Saint for a place to sleep that night. Since in Lord Veera raghava temple the prime idol is lying over the same place past 5000 years^{[citation needed]}.

This temple in Tiruvallur is called as Vaidya Veera Raghavar temple. Vaidya Veera Raghavar is a god famous for his curing abilities. In this temple people donate symbols [thin small metal sheets with a specific human organ engraved on them] of humans organs as a request to god to cure the illness or problems with those organs. This is one of the temples in India where Lord Vishnu can be seen in lying down position compared to other temples where the idol is in standing position.

In the far past, this region was under a chain of regimes commencing from the Pallavas during the 7th century ending with the Nawab of Arcot during the early part of 19th century when it came under the British rule. In 1687, the Golkonda rulers were defeated and the region came under the Moghul emperors of Delhi. The towns and villages of this region were the scene of Carnatic wars. Battles are said to have been fought in this region during the struggle for supremacy between the English and French. The town of Pulicat was the earliest Dutch possession in India founded in 1609 which was ceded to the British in 1825. With this, the region came under the British rule which ended on the 15th August, 1947 with India becoming independent.

As of 2001 India census,^[1] Thiruvallur had a population of 45,517. Males constitute 50% of the population and females 50%. Thiruvallur has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 82%, and female literacy is 69%. In Thiruvallur, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.

The town recently attained district headquarters status. Thiruvallur houses many Industries including few Fortune 100 companies.

• Sri Viswaroopa Panchamukha Hanuman Ashram, Tiruvallur