NEGAPATAM, a town and the chief port of Tanjore district, Madras, India, situated in 10° 45' 37" N. lat. and 79° 53' 28" E. long. It forms a single municipality with the adjoining town of Nagιir, the joint population in 1881 being 53,855. The port carries on an active trade with Ceylon, Burmah, and the Straits, the imports consisting chiefly of cotton goods and betel-nuts, and the exports of rice and paddy. Negapatam was one of the earliest settlements of the Portuguese on the Coromandel coast. It was taken by the Dutch in 1660, and by the English in 1781.