Coromandel Coast [key], east coast of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states, SE India, stretching more than 400 mi (644 km) from Point Calimere, opposite the northern tip of Sri Lanka to the delta of the Krishna River. Its major cities, Nagapattinam, Puducherry (Pondicherry), and Chennai (Madras), are ports. The inland coastal plain is bounded by the Eastern Ghats and includes the debouchments of the Penner, Palar, Ponnaiyar, and Kaveri rivers. The name probably stems from Cholomandalam, i.e., land of the Chola, an empire that ruled the region from the 9th to the 12th cent.
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