Name origin

One of the reasons why the city got its (earlier) name, Madras, is attributed to Portuguese origins. How true that story is, is anybody's guess; but it is a nice story to spin, and to add to the mystique around this city. In San Thome of the 16th century CE flourished the Madeiros family. At least, they came to be called Madeiros in the late 16th century, for the family name before that seems to have been spelt Madera. They seem to have been very prominent among the Portuguese of San Thome, and continued that eminence into Fort St George, with Cosmo Lourenco Madera holding a militia command for the Fort during the late 1600s. 

The Madeiros themselves trace the origin of their name back to the simple Portuguese phrase "Madre de Dios", or "Mother of God". A church of that name in the area is said to have been built in in the late 1570s. It is said that the Madera family had a hand in its beginnings and were instrumental in the church being a significant shrine. Whether from the family name or from the name of the shrine, the name Madras hauls too close to either for folks to make the connection, even if it is tenuous.

The Church of Madre de Dios was rebuilt in 1928. It doesn't look like an imposing building, but is more a single storey dhyana mandapam. Inside is this panel with the Madonna - probably the only survivor of the riches of the 16th century installation!

Watching factories

There was a time when one was expected to know how many Inspectors of Factories there were in the state, apart from their bosses, the Deputy Chiefs, on to Joint Chiefs, and thence to the Chief himself.  Considering that the Chief wielded the power to dictate how a factory should be run, he (it has always been he, I don't think Tamil Nadu ever had a woman chief so far) was a shoo-in to have his office in what was once a palace.

The Khalsa Mahal is the southern block of the Chepauk Palace, which was the residence of the Nawabs of Arcot. It was built in 1768 and was acquired by the government in 1850. It is likely that the initial designs were drawn up by Paul Benfield, but in the 1870s, they were expanded by Robert Chisholm. Khalsa Mahal survived quite intact through those efforts, but in recent years, the building has been sorely threatened by fires, and parts have actually been consumed by flames, as well.

The Chief Inspector of Factories may have shifted out of here by now. In fact, there is no more a position called Chief Inspector of Factories. The nomenclature has changed and it is now called Director of Industrial Health and Safety - and the (currently) 48 Inspectors have had their titles changed as Deputy Directors. Wonder if the factories are running ship-shape now!

Centre-spot

Here's another middle-of-the-road temple, just a few days after this one. There is one similarity: both were threatened by the road widening that became necessary and both survived it. But the differences are many, and stark.

For starters, the Madhya Kailas temple is of recent origin, maybe about 30 years or so old. The unique half-Ganesha and half-Anjaneya idol in this temple was installed after its founder had a dream of the Aadhi Amdhaprabhu, which is how that representation is termed. It is supposedly the only temple with this deity.

So why Kailas? Isn't that Siva's abode? So why isn't Siva the main deity here? Does Venkata Ananda Vinayakar stay at Kailas? There are so many questions, including what is so 'Madhya' (central) about this place. It is at the northern end of Rajiv Gandhi Salai (earlier known as Old Mahabalipuram Road). The only thing central about it is its positioning in the middle of the road, which is but a very recent occurrence!

Tall steeple

The St Thomas Garrison Church was built sometime in the early 19th century to serve the spiritual needs of the British troops stationed at the Pallavaram and St Thomas Mount garrisons. 

When the airport at Meenambakkam began regular operations, the landing approach was planned over this church. However, the church's steeple and spire were seen as a potential danger, being tall enough to come in the way of descending aircraft. The height had to be brought down, and from the way the church looks like today, it was done reasonably aesthetically. 

Do you wonder what it looked like before it was shortened? We did, too. And the pastor was kind enough to bring out a history scrap-book and show us a photo of how the church used to look. Go ahead, click on the picture and go back in time!

Gateway

Vedashreni - the abode of the Vedas - has two temples that are reputed to be over one thousand years old. The older of the two is the Yoga Narasimha Murthy temple, which goes back to the 8th century CE. 

This is the eastern gateway to the temple; maybe gateway is the wrong word, for it is not used regularly. But then, the deity at this temple faces west, and devotees probably prefer to enter from that side!

Mount Road Mahavishnu

One of the oldest inhabitants of Mount Road, "The Hindu" really deserves a much longer post than this one. But for now, we'll have to be satisfied with this view of its headquarters: Kasturi Buildings, at 860, Anna Salai. 

This was taken a couple of years ago - the view is now blocked by the construction of the Chennai Metro - so, if you are new to the city, here is a glimpse of what it looked like earlier - it was not always the mess you are seeing now, here!

Birdspotting

Even in the middle of the city, there are some places that continue to remain rather rustic. Coconut palms - probably planted at a time when folks still believed in a house-and-ground rather than an apartment and UDS - are quite common. And if there are other trees nearby, it is not too difficult an environment for fauna, especially birds, to get by. 

And that's how this Lesser Flameback landed up on the trunk of the palm. He had been visiting this spot off and on, never staying for more than a minute or so before flying off. On this day, he decided to stick around a little longer and examine the suitability of the palm as a residence. Managed to get a couple of long-distance pictures before he moved over to the other side.

Can you spot him? Come on, it shouldn't be too difficult!

Update, March 13: It has been pointed out that there are more than one of the Flameback in this photo. Of course. That's the reason why they spent more time on that day - which was about 4 years ago, and that's my excuse for a poor memory!

Memories of the roof

Growing up in Madras, it was not uncommon to see such tiled roofs. The 'Mangalore tiles' had become the default option for tiles towards the middle of the 20th century, replacing the fish-scale tiles of an earlier era (seen here and here). Today, it is a rare find; even in the most staunchly 'traditional' quarters of the city, flat terraces have become the norm for the roof; tiles are just the decorative alternative to awnings.

This one, on Thiruvanmiyur's West Bank Street, has the dual-roof that was prevalent during the '40s and '50s (?). A part of the house would be under a 'proper' ceiling; after all, the 'Madras Terrace' was the most modern technique in housebuilding during that time, so how could a Madras house not have one? And yet, the nod to tradition continued with a portion of the house being topped off with a tiled roof.

I don't know about their utility, but a generation or two ago, a tiled roof such as this would have been an invitation for a race between one boy using the stairs and another climbing over the tiles, to see who could get up on to the pucca terrace first!

Open for reading?

As far as I can make out, the first state in independent India to pass 'library legislation' was Madras; today's Tamil Nadu Public Libraries Act is essentially the Madras Public Library Act of 1948. The name had to be changed once the state's name changed from Madras to Tamil Nadu, but that was it. 

It is not as if there were no libraries in the state - or this city - before this legislation. The oldest library, in the current sense of the word, in Chennai would be the Connemara Library, which is one of India's 4 National Repository Libraries (which means that a copy of any publication, anywhere in India, has to be sent to the Connemara Library, as well as the 3 other NRLs). The Department of Public Libraries therefore considers Connemara the jewel in its crown. Three other libraries shine equally: the U Ve Swaminatha Iyer Library and Maraimalai Adigalar Library in Chennai and Thanjavur's Maharaja Serfoji Sarasvati Mahal Library.

There a 32 District Central Libraries and 1664 Branch Libraries spread throughout the state. Chennai has one central library for the district and about 140 branch libraries. Including the biggies, there would be about 150 libraries in the city. Of course, these are only the public libraries; circulating libraries like the Eloor Lending Library are not included in this count. By one study a few years ago, the book use index in Chennai's public libraries was 13.18, which means that each user gets through 13.18 books a year on the average. That doesn't seem like much, but when I can't remember a single day that I have seen this Branch Library at Adyar open, it seems to be quite a feat!

Statue high up

The man in this statue never came to India, but his influence certainly did. That is not surprising, because his work and scholarship is also reputed to have influenced four holders of the Holy See across centuries. Louis-Marie Grignion was born in Brittany on January 31, 1673 and his early upbringing pushed him towards the clergy. Through some difficulties and twists of fate, he found himself appointed as the librarian at Saint-Sulpice, which gave him access to almost all the available books on spirituality. He was drawn to the role played by the Virgin Mary and through his studies and later works, became the originator of what later became recognized as Mariology. 

It was this work that influenced 4 popes across the 20th and 21st centuries: Leo XIII, Pius X, Pius XII and John Paul II. All four of them furthered the position of the Virgin Mary through their encyclicals and it is recognized that all of them were keen students of Mariology. It was during the time of Pope Pius XII that Louis-Marie was canonized, in 1947, and came to be known as Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. 

St Montfort's influence was not just at the levels of the papacy; it worked at other levels as well. He established several organizations in his lifetime and inspired the setting up of several others later. One such was the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel, who have been instrumental in setting up several schools across the world. In Chennai, the Montfort Brothers took over the Anglo-Vernacular school in Santhome from the Archdiocese in 1954. It has since been known as the Santhome Higher Secondary School - and the statue of St Montfort looks over all the students as they enter the gates. On the other side of the pillar, it is his inspiration, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who casts her gaze over the students inside the school!

In the middle

The great epic Ramayana traces several parts of the Indian sub-continent even though its author himself appears to have spent most of his life along the banks of the river Ganga. Ratnakar the robber used to waylay travellers for their belongings and would think nothing of finishing them off. One day, after realizing the error of his ways, Ratnakar began to offer penance, focussing on nothing but the syllables "Mara-maram". Over many years, his body was covered by anthills, but the focus of his penance wavered not a whit. The Gods finally blessed him, for the syllables he uttered were nothing but the name of Rama; as he emerged from his penance, he gained the name Valmiki, the one born of ant-hills. It was then that he began to narrate the story of Rama, in the process earning for himself the title "Aadi Kavi", the pioneer poet.

So how did the robber-turned-poet know about places that he had never seen before? Was he bestowed with divine visions? Or, as one strand of the legend of Valmiki has it, did he visit the places and then write about them? In this part of Chennai, the second option is favoured.  It is believed that Thiruvanmiyur, lying on the coast towards the southern end of Chennai, is the morphed version of Thiru-Valmiki-oor, (Thiru meaning holy, and 'oor' meaning village, or area) and that the poet, came here to worship at the shrine of Marundeeswarar, and stayed for a few years within a short distance of that shrine.

This one is a temple to Valmiki himself. As you can see, it is plonk in the middle of the East Coast Road, with traffic flowing along its flanks. Over the years, successive bouts of road laying have raised the height of the roads so that the temple (which was anyway accessed by going down 3 or 4 steps) appears to be even lower than what it is. Even though there doesn't seem to be a crowd visiting this temple, every passer by pays automatic obeisance. For the traffic, it seems to be a nuisance; certainly not Valmiki would have wanted!

People on the Street

The first of the month is 'Theme Day', over at the City Daily Photo group and the theme for today is the title of this post. Found it a bit difficult to get a decent picture to reflect the theme. Sounds crazy that in a city of 4.7 million people (2011 census data; The Economist's factbook puts it at 11m), it should be easy to get people into the frame without even trying. But a majority of my pictures have no people in them.

So here is one. And if you click through the picture, you'll see that the red sign reads "York Street". Don't bother looking through your Chennai maps for this one, because York Street, along with St Thomas Street, Middle Gate Street, Charles Street, Choultry Street, Gloucester Street, James Street and Church Street were the names given to the paths between the buildings inside Fort St George. 

In the middle of the 17th century, when it was set up, the Fort was the city for the British. And they did need to identify the means of access to places within the Fort. What better way to do it than to name the streets (mainly) after places back home!

Theme Day features several CDP bloggers from around the world interpreting the theme in their own cities in their own ways. Click here to see some of those!

SYMA, not summa

The Srinivas Young Men's Association (SYMA) was formed in 1977. The Association appears to be careful about not mentioning the founders names anywhere. The belief is that the idea is more important than the individuals. The idea, of course was that the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So a few good men went ahead and created a forum for them to serve their country and fellow-men, starting with their own locality. 

We can imagine there were at least seven of them, since starting such an organization as theirs needs a minimum of seven signatories. They would certainly have been from Triplicane, for that is where SYMA has its office, and also where a majority of their activities are centred around. Also, the addresses for all seventeen of their current office bearers have the PIN code of 600005, which of course is the one for Triplicane.

Triplicane has always been a bustling, ready-to-take-on-anything kind of area, with a fairly high degree of social awareness. Combine that with the several symbols of spirituality around, and you will find a group of people - even youngsters - who carry out socially useful tasks with fervour. Needing to find a name for their organization, the founders looked to the names of God which could used for their venture.  And since the idea was born at Tirumala, they took one of Vishnu's names, thereby making sure the Young Men of the Association were blessed!

Where holy stopped

That's the literal translation of Thiruninravur, about 30 km as the train runs from the Chennai Central station. The legend goes that, after a tiff with Vishnu, the Goddess Lakshmi left their celestial abode in a huff. As she stormed about, she spotted this land; with a large lake and forests around, it seemed to be a good place to rest. The rest grew longer, for she was entirely charmed by the beauty of the place. 

Vishnu, in the meantime, had charged Varuna, the God of the oceans, with bringing Lakshmi back. Finding her at this spot, Varuna desired that rather than take her away from this beautiful spot, it would be better for Vishnu to come over here. The Lord did, and Varuna worshipped them as a couple. Since Lakshmi had stopped here, the place took its name from her act. 

This temple has Vishnu as its main deity, in the form of Bhaktavatsala Perumal. The temple is reputed to be over a thousand years old; Thiruninravur seems to have been continuously inhabited for that long. However, it is today a sleepy moffusil town. Nice to visit, but stopping there? Some other time, maybe!

Crowdless

This is a sight that one might not get to see any more. The stretch of road between Panagal Park and Thanikachalam Road appears to have gained width over the past two or three weeks. And no, there has been no road-widening effort during this time. It is just that a major cause of congestion on this road has been shifted away. 

That's right. Walk along that stretch of Thyagaraya Road today and you will find that the walking is easy. Where even going single file on the pavement was a struggle, folks now walk three or four abreast. Nobody leaps into your face with - pretty much anything under the sun. Clothes, cutlery, lingerie, music, whatever takes your fancy could be found in the pavement shops of Pondy Bazaar. 

Those shops have now moved to a single building, a little closer to Anna Salai. Maybe the aisles in that building mimic the footpath the shops have been used to. However, the casual passers-by have no real reason to walk into that building; it will only become one more of the stores on the street. The charm of walking along and ending up buying a couple of those thingamajigs on impulse will no longer be felt along this shopping street, robbing it of most of its character!

Old car

The first motor car was seen on Madras' roads in 1894 - so the story goes. But that is an unverified statement and the more verifiable date of a motor car being used in Madras is placed as 1901. That car was used by A.J. Yorke, who was a Director of Parry & Co. The motor car must have got him to work before anyone else, even though he lived in Adyar and his office was in 'Town'. By all accounts, Yorke's car was un-numbered, probably pre-dating the need for such registration of vehicles. 

The first registered car in Madras belonged to (later Sir) Francis Spring, who was then with the Madras Railway Board. It was registered with the very original MC-1 number. Of MC-2, there is little information to be found, but the first car registered by a 'native' came in as MC-3. That belonged to the master builder of Madras, Namberumal Chetty. 

This one - MSC 3738 - was seen at another Chettiar's property. This one parked inside AVM Studios and is probably taken out twice a year, during vintage car shows. It is a Vauxhall 14, dating back to 1938. The registration number, however, must have been made later; the MS series of numbers were in use in Madras even in the late '60s, before giving over to the TM series; and I can remember the schoolboy challenge - if the car 'TMS xxxx' sings, it is only because 'MSV xxxx' is making the music!

East tower

For all its presence through this blog (in fact, it had featured in the very first post), the Kapaleeswarar temple at Mylapore has not been written about at all. The main reason for this is quite simple; it is difficult to pack all of the information about this temple into a single post. So here is one about the eastern gopuram (tower) of the temple - one of the two grand gopurams over the entrance to this temple, the other one being over the western entrance. This is the taller one, rising up to a height of about 125 feet, with seven distinct 'floors' above the entryway. Topping off these seven floors is the set of 9 kalasams (pots), gleaming golden in the light of the morning sun. 

Legend is that the kalasams are a combination of lightning conductors and seed vaults. Ancient manuals of temple construction apparently decree the nature of the metals to be used, and the size of the kalasams. It is believed that the kalasams should be filled with grains, sufficient enough to be used as seed-stock should the town / village suffer a severe crop loss. That the grains are non-conductors of electricity kind of negates the whole lightning conductor theory (unless the earthing happens right at the point of contact?), but that could also be the reason why townspeople were exhorted to not build any structure taller than the temple's gopuram. 

And yet, lightning might sometimes bypass the conductor / arrestor that is intended to attract it. It was on the eve of Madras Day (Aug 22) in 2007 that this gopuram was struck by lightning, the first time since its renovation in 1906. The nasi thalai developed a crack, and a chunk of stone dropped off. One of the idols was also partially damaged. Luckily, nobody was injured in this incident. Special pujas were performed within a day, but the reinforcing of the gopuram took a couple of months - and there have not been any further lightning strikes since!

Multipurpose building

It was intended to be the integrated complex housing the state's legislative assembly, the secretariat and maybe some government department offices as well. But with petty rivalries overtaking any kind of reasonable thinking, the entire building has been 're-purposed' to be inaugurated as a multi-super-speciality hospital.

As somebody mentioned, the architect must have been a super-duper thinker. It doesn't matter what you want to use it for, the building will be able to accommodate it!

First in co-operation

Frederick Nicholson, Collector of Madras in the late 19th century, had proposed setting up agricultural credit banks to alleviate the problems faced by the farmers. That experiment was successful, and a few years later, the government was attempting to see how that model could be extended to non-agricultural sectors as well. Both these attempts - the agricultural credit banks as well as the extension of such credit facilities to other sectors - were spearheaded by the Madras Presidency, but their impact was across the subcontinent. 

Based on the recommendations of the committee that considered extension of credit societies, The Co-operative Credit Societies Act 1904 was passed in March 1904. Almost as soon as the Act was passed, a group of people in Triplicane registered the first society under that Act. The Triplicane Urban Co-operative Society (TUCS) thus became India's first registered co-operative body. The founders included V.R. Singaravelar and Ambat Sivarama Menon, with VS Srinivasa Sastri taking charge as the first President. 

TUCS continues to be extremely active today. It is run by a Special Officer deputed by the state government, and has over 100,000 individual members. It also has close to 300 institutional members - not including the state government, which is the largest shareholder - and over 50 other co-operative societies as members. Its turnover during the current financial year is expected to cross Rs.200 crores, making it a very decently run organization. The building in the picture is the headquarters of TUCS, inaugurated in 1952. Being the first in the country, TUCS has had a huge role in shaping the progress of the co-operative movement across India - even if that is hidden from many of the citizens!

Eat it up!

I agree, the city is good enough to eat, at times. This one - will it need a lot of preservatives?

Just asking!