Vaniyambadi in Tirupathur district is known as ‘Aligarh of the south’.
This is because of its affinity to the Urdu language and the many educational institutions thriving here since the 19th Century.
The National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) held the 25th All India Urdu Book Fair at the Islamiah College in Vaniyambadi.
Urdu-speaking Muslims here trace their roots to two historical periods.
First were the Deccan sultanates, notably Bijapur and Golconda in the 15th and 16th Centuries, who popularised ‘Dakhni’, an early form of Urdu of the region written in adapted Arabic script.
Secondwas a sub-division of Tamil speaking migrants (Tamil Dakhni) who had reached Vaniyambadi from Thanjavur, Madurai and elsewhere in the present-day Tamil Nadu in the late 19th Century.
The following Tamil Muslims of the Arcot region were to make a major contribution to Urdu literature.
Kaka Abdul Azeez Faheem (1898-1943),
Lappai Khateeb Mohamed Azam ‘Maqbool’ (1898-1958) and