Buckingham canal
Chennai’s landscape is incomplete without the Buckingham canal that covers the length and breadth of the city. This canal was once a salt water navigation channel connecting Pedda Ganjam in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh with Marakkanam in Tamil Nadu. Of this, 163 km falls in the Tamil Nadu limits and in the city, it runs for 48 km. The man-made canal was excavated in 1806 and financed by Basil Cochrane first to Ennore and then Pulicat Lake. After the British government took over in 1837, the canal was gradually extended to what it is now.
Originally known as Cochrane’s canal and later Lord Clive’s canal, the waterway, which was a main source of navigation, was named after the then Governor, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1878.
In one of his poems, Tamil poet Bharathidasan has mentioned about boat ride with friends from the then Madras to Mahabalipuram during 1934.
But, this lifeline of inland transport witnessed its first setback in 1966 as cyclone hit Madras. Boat traffic was stopped as it was difficult to replace damaged boats.
1714 – Mount Road
Mount Road (Anna Salai as we know it today) took off from the Wallajah Gate of Fort St. George and ran through Saidapet, Thousand Lights, Saidapet to reach St. Thomas Mount. Two other important roads –Poonamallee High Road and San Thome Road too lead from the Fort.
The Mount is where the early British had their rest and recreation sanatorium. This was the first macadam road in the city and was built red gravel and hard broken stone and then rolled with stone rollers after profuse watering to give it a uniform hard surface. The winding tree-lined road that presently carries over 2 lakh vehicles a day is where modern commercial Madras began. Simpson and Co, who made Madras’s first cars and buses, The Hindu, Oakes and Co, The Mail , Higginbothams and Addisons are names that come to the mind when one thinks Mount Road. It was here too that the D’ Angelis Hotel came up in 1906. This hotel, opened by Corsican Giacomo D’ Angeli, had a Parisian garden, a running verandah that over looked Mount Road, Madras’ first electrical lift, electric fans, an ice-making plant and imported tile floors.
1812 -- Madras Literary Society
In 1812, the Madras Literary Society was founded as a library for the College of Fort St. George on College Road. Today it houses nearly 80,000 books but is badly in need of funds. The vast campus (presently occupied by the Directorate of Public Instruction) was where the first studies of Indian languages – Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindustani, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam – were taken up. This was where the first Dravidian proofs, that the South Indian languages were classical in their own right, independent of Sanskrit, were first presented. Its members in the past included Annie Besant, Subhas Bose and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. The campus remains a memorial to F.W. Ellis who first translated the Tirukkural to English.
1897: Visit of Swami Vivekananda
This year holds a very special place in the history of Madras as it hosted Swami Vivekananda for nine days in February 1897. Swami Vivekananda, who was given a rousing reception by the people of Madras, visited different places of the city, addressing gatherings, both big and small. He spoke at Presidency College, Victoria Public Hall and Black Town among other locations. He left Madras on February 15. He stayed in one of the city’s iconic landmarks facing the Bay of Bengal, now called Vivekanandar Illam. Originally called Ice House, it later became Kernan Castle – the home of prominent lawyer Bilagiri Iyengar.
Snippets
Though it is not clear when exactly the Armenians came to Madras, their presence was confirmed in the 1660s and the oldest Armenian tombstone was of Coja David Margar found near Little Mount in 1663. The last Armenian in the city Michael Stephan also left the city. The Armenian Church is a monument first built in 1712 and then rebuilt again after sometime.
******
Presidency College was first established as the Madras Preparatory School in 1840, later upgraded to a high school and then finally, graduate college. It is one of the oldest government arts colleges in India.
*******
Organised league cricket began in Madras in 1932. The Indian Cricket Federation organised the first league with a competition for the clubs of Madras. The rival Madras Cricket Club often conducted matches on the same days. In time, the two merged as the Madras Cricket Association.
********
The British rulers had a better control over the people because of their understanding of city’s culture. Joseph Collett, the President of Madras from 1717-20, established Collettpeta (Kaladipetta) where he built Kalyana Vardarajaperumal temple. Francis Whtye Ellis, Madras collector in 1810, supported people to celebrate temple festivals, suspended by earlier government. He appealed to people to celebrate festival in Amman temple in Black Town then to combat Cholera, says historian K.R.A. Narasiah.
********
The photographic studio of Wiele and Klein, one of the earliest to be established in the South, was located on Mount Road. Theodore Klein was a German settler who lived on the first floor of the building with his wife. The studio and shop were below.
*******
In the early 1950s, the Madras Dramatic Society came up, with light-hearted entertainment in English. When this society wound up, it was replaced by the Madras Players, founded in 1960.
********
MADRAS WEEK CALENDAR
August 23 | Highlights of the day
WALK: Linking Science and Society- a walk through the campus of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation by Prof P.C. Kesavan and Dr S. Rajalakshmi. To register, contact pmb@mssrf.res.in, 11 a.m.
TALK: The communities that make Chennai by Anuradha Oberoi, Press Institute of India, Taramani, 5 p.m.
TALK: Chandralekha and the Chennai connect by Sadanand Menon, Chamiers, 6.30 p.m.
PLAY SESSION: Traditional games for special children by Kreeda in partnership with Rasa, Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram, 2 p.m.
PHOTO EXHIBITION: Water science: journeys from Australia to India organised by the Australian Consulate General Chennai, Centre for Water Resources, College of Engineering, Guindy
For additional events, log on to www.themadrasday.in or check out the Madras Week mobile app.
