Tharangambadi (formerly Tranquebar) is a panchayat town in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 15 km north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of the Kaveri River. Tharangambadi is the headquarters of Tharangambadi taluk. Its name means "place of the singing waves". It was a Danish colony from 1620 to 1845, and in Danish it is still known as Trankebar.