Chunnakam

Chunnakam (; ) is a town, located north of Jaffna. It is one of the important commercial centres in Jaffna. The original name of the town was Mayilani. In northern Sri Lanka, Chunnakam is only second to Jaffna in terms of population density and commercial activities in and around its neighbourhoods.

==Etymology== According to Tamil scholars, Chunnakam derived from two Tamil words, "Chunnam+Gramam", "Chunnam" means limestone and "Gramam" means village, limestone is widely found in the nearby areas. One of the great Sri Lankan Tamil poets, Muthukumara Kavirayar gave a new definition to its name in his poem beginning as முடிவிலாதுறை சுன்னாகத்தான் வழி ... , from which, scholars believe that the rising Sun from the East reflecting on the temple of Shiva located on the present day station road, has the impression of seeing a shiny mountain, which is presumably the Heaven, the home of Shiva made him to inspire for the poem mentioned above here, சுன்னாகம் can be divided into two parts of nouns as சுல் + நாகம் = சுன்னாகம், where சுல் means silver and நாகம் means mountain giving the compound noun the meaning as "Shiny Mountain"