| Activity | Work in South India was run by the Madras Corresponding Committee until 1881 when Travancore and Cochin was set up as an autonomous mission. In 1924 work in the Telegu area and Tinnevelly was separated from Madras and made two independent missions.
Mission work in the villages of Tinnevelly was grouped in districts. The first six, organised in 1841 (with an itinerating European missionary in charge of each) were Palamcotta, Satankullam, Suviseshapuram, Meignanapuram, Dohnavur and the Northern district. In 1844 they added Paneivilei and Nulloor [Nallur] and in 1845 Paneividali, Surandei and Kadatchapuram. Changes continued as missionaries came and went. The Northern District was based on the Tinnevelly Itinerancy Mission and was formed in 1856. The northern parts of the Panikullam (or Paneivadali) district and of the Surandei mission were gradually passed over to the new district while a missionary was stationed at Sivagasi. In 1866 it officially changed its name to Sivagasi.
In 1869 there were ten districts covering more than a thousand villages and a District Church Council was formed for each. These districts were Palamcotta, Dohnavur, Suviseshapuram, Mengnanapuram Paneivilei, Panikullam, Nallur, Surandei and (in North Tinnevelly) Sivagasi and Vageikullam. For a short time in the 1870s there was also a district of Nallammalpuram. |