The taluk was part of the Princely stateTravancore Kingdom; the latter which subsequently became part of the then Travancore-Cochin State. Part of The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 aligned state boundaries on linguistic affiliations. Thovalai, Kalkulam, Vilavancode, and Agastheeswaram taluks were transferred from Thiruvananthapuram District of the Travancore-Cochin State to Kanyakumari district, Madras State. Madras was later renamed as Tamil Nadu).
Demographics
According to the 2011 census, the taluk had a population of 550,283 with 271,936 males and 278,347 females. There were 1024 women for every 1000 men. The taluk had a literacy rate of 85.63%. Child population in the age group below 6 was 24,950 males and 24,164 females.[1]