Tamil Nadu, Tamil

An Indian state lying on the east coast and extending from Chennai (Madras), the capital, to the southern tip of the country, Kanyakumari. Nadu is fertile and subtropical. In the Ghats, the steep hills that border Kerala to the west, the climate is more temperate, with cold nights. Tamil cooking is largely vegetarian, because the population is mainly Hindu, though fish is widely eaten. Tamil dishes such as dosa, idli, and hoppers (in Sri Lanka) have become popular all over the Subcontinent and in parts of England and North America. The Tamil population in Sri Lanka has its roots in two migrations from Tamil Nadu: one about 1,000 years ago, the source of the prosperous and highly educated Tamil community; the second in the nineteenth century under the British colonists who brought Tamil laborers to work on the tea plantations.