QUADRANT 13

Located to the north of the temple complex, this quadrant sees a variety of people living here such as
Hindus, Muslims, Jains, etc. It is believed that all these people live together without causing any
trouble to the people of the other religion. This area also sees a number of shrines along with a
mosque. The house typology here varies such that N street has slum type houses whereas Vageesan
Nagar consists of individual plot houses belonging to well-to-do scholars and educated people.
Majorly the houses here are linear with a common wall connecting two houses together.

- LABBAI STREET
Even though most of the streets here have people belonging to different religions and castes living
together, Labbai street accommodates only Muslims. The houses here are mostly 2-3 storeyed and
well maintained. All the houses are linear and joined to one another by a common wall. It has only
children and old people living here because the working class mostly lived in Gulf countries such as
Saudi Arabia. It was quoted that “all the gold is in Labbai street.” Considering the abundance of
Muslims, there is also a mosque here which is visited by 30-40 people five times a day, everyday. The
mosque has a large prayer room on the ground floor which is also a madrasa for boys. The upper floor
has a madrasa for girls and an open terrace which is used to celebration and prayers during Eid since a
large number of people visit this mosque. On asking the caretaker Bilal if he visited the Nataraja
temple, he said earlier he walked through the temple to commute between the car streets because it
was a shorter route but nowadays footwear isn’t allowed inside the temple complex so he doesn’t. So
it is observed that the temple is only a part of their movement and doesn’t actually hold any other
importance for these people.

- SUBRAMANIAN NAGAR
This area is particularly known for its Statue maker society that has been residing here for years.
Many older residents in the area are natives of Chidambaram however a larger population that stays
here comes from various regions of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh like Bangalore, Mandiya, Hassan,
etc. Their main reason of having migrated to Chidambaram is the large amount of demand for statue
makers in the town and around and also go out to Hyderabad and Bangalore for the work. The area
consists of about 250 people who live here.
The interesting part about them is that they work directly on site and do not generally have any
specific work place. These people are highly skilled in statue making and make statues using
Concrete, water and Rangoli powder mixes. Rainy season is their off-season as most of their work
can't be done while it rains. Thus, is noticed that many people from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
return back to their hometowns during the season.
The area these people live in is just below a possibility reclaimed land known as Vageesan Nagar
occupied mostly by higher income society and has a housing typology completely different from that
of seen in this area. The housing these people stay in consists of mud and brick houses, some use
RCC with thatch roof along with use of timber and Mangalore tiles. The area is settled around a
narrow right-angled street and has an arch at the entrance and at about 75m from the entrance. The
narrow street leads to a Sri Vallabhi Mariyamman Temple for Goddess Amman.(likely Kali- which is
why many Amman temples are seen in the north region as Lord Nataraja faces the south and has his
back facing North). Many People here speak Tamil and Kannada and largely Hindus, caste varies
(few Brahmin).