Classic

This is one of the first images of Mamallapuram that one encountered as a school-kid a few decades ago. The state-government-supplied school notebooks had a closer view of the two elephants on its cover; I don't remember that series of notebooks as having anything else of 'Mahabs'. And for many years, this was the closest that one got to Mahabalipuram / Mahabs in school. Roughly 60 km south of Chennai, this seashore town was not easy to access in the 70s and early 80s; a visit there meant the whole day would have to be budgeted for. Mahabs has become closer these days. One can set out early in the morning and be back home for lunch. But with so many more dining options available all the way between Chennai and Mamallapuram, it is not easy to get back home for lunch. Somehow, one gets the feeling that such ease of access has made us rather blasé about this - it was among the first in India to be inscribed in UNESCO's List - World Heritage Site. 

This particular structure was commissioned by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman (Mamallan) to celebrate his victory over Pulakesi of the Chalukyas in the late 7th century CE. (The shore temple, also part of the UNESCO list, was built later, in the 8th century). Strangely though, the popular names for this do not have any reference to Mamallan's victory. A natural cleft in the rock, around which most of the figures have been chiseled, allowed water to gush through during the monsoons (There is supposedly a tank at the top of the cleft, but I believe that to be a more modern addition; I'm willing to be corrected, though!), giving this its international name: the Descent of the Ganges. A hermit-like figure, standing on one leg, arms raised in prayer could then be Bhagirata, whose unflinching austerities convinced Ganga to come down to earth. But then, Siva seems to also have the Pashupatastra with him, so that sage might also depict Arjuna supplicating Siva for that weapon; hence, we know this also as Arjuna's Penance. 

Siva, Bhagirata/Arjuna, Ganga, the elephants; these are just few of the images. With over 100 other individual bas-relief sculptures making up this monument, there are possibly a lot of stories that can be extracted from them. The guides at Mamallapuram will happily tell you a whole lot of them - and with a little bit of imagination, you possibly can, too. The presence of a lot of frolicking monkeys nudges me to think of the Tirukutrala Kuravanji, no matter that it came about a millennium later!

Forgotten five face

A percussion instrument is called an 'Avanaddha Vadyam' in India. It seems logical to assume that such instruments, played by the performer striking on a taut membrane stretched over a hollow space, can have at most two sides, or faces, to them. But before we jump to that conclusion, let us gently stretch through the different categories of avanaddha vadyams; played by hand, by sticks, using both hands and sticks, struck on one side and stroked on the other, and those that are self-struck. (Maybe an additional category, for the 'stringed percussion' instrument - the bhapang is sui generis, I believe). 

Even the bhapang is a two-sided instrument, and is not one seen very often. An even rarer sight is the panchamukha vadyam, literally the five-faced instrument. I haven't seen one played, ever. For that, I am told that one has to go to Tiruvarur, where it is played during the Trinity Music Festival. Legend has it that the panchamukha vadyam has its origins in the kudamuzham, which was played at the wedding of Siva and Parvati. Looking very much like a pot, the kudamuzham has a large central, circular opening with 4 smaller such openings around it. Hoary literature also has it being one of the instruments played when Nataraja performed the celestial dance. Sculptures from the Rashtrakuta (8th-10th century CE) and Chalukya (10th-12th century CE)  periods show the kudamuzham being played by Nandi, or one of the other Bhutaganas. 

Over the next couple of centuries, the kudamuzham seems to have evolved into the panchamukha vadyam; the five faces became more or less the same size (the central one a tad larger, sometimes), they were named after Siva's five aspects (faces): sadyojatam, isanam, tatpurusham, aghoram and vamadevam. There is some way of distinguishing which is which, because the performer is supposed to stand on the side of the vamadevam while playing this instrument. One day, I will get to see it being played; until then, watching this exhibit at the Tol Isai Kalanjiyam will have to do!

Memory remains

In 1718, Arumugam, the son of a Cuddalore merchant, was forced to leave his family and move to Tarangambadi. Arumugam had earlier studied at the Mission School in Cuddalore and had been influenced by books on Christianity; in Tarangambadi, he was baptized by Ziegenbalg, the first Lutheran missionary in India. Arumugam took on the name S. Aaron - the S most likely referencing Savarimuthu, the teacher who introduced him to Christianity. Savarimuthu was also one of the candidates, along with Aaron, who was considered to be ordained as the first native pastor; the teacher withdrew his candidature in favour of his student. Thus, in 1733, Aaron became the first Indian protestant pastor.

Aaron's great-grandson seems to have taken after him. In 1863, we see William Thomas Sathianadhan being assigned to the Chintadripet Church. He established himself in this position, and seems to have done much for the people to remember him by.  After his passing, the Chintadripet Church - by now renamed the Zion Church - constructed a meeting hall in his memory.

Going down the Arunachala Mudali Street in Chintadripet today, you will most likely miss this building; it stands way too close to the road and you would rather pay attention to the traffic than let your eyes wander up this facade. But if you choose to pause, and wonder, I am sure it will be worth your time!

Going Dutch

If, as they say, Madharasapatnam was the original name of the city that was once called Madras, what would you imagine Sadurangapattinam was known as? Even though it was not the British who discovered this place, their fellow colonists adapted this town's name, referring to it as Sadras, before settling down to build a fort to protect their factory here.

Even though it was the Dutch who took the lead (after the Portuguese, of course) in building trading settlements along the east coast, they discovered Sadras about a decade after Cogan and Day had set up their factory at Madras. The Sadras Fort was set up in 1648. Compared to Fort St George, this fort at Sadras is a very spartan affair; thin redbricks packed in place with mud seems to have been the default option for the walls of the Sadras Fort and buildings inside it. Very few of those buildings remain standing; those that do seem to have served as warehouses or granaries. There is also a dilapidated elephant mounting (or loading?) station. But for the most part, the space enclosed by the fort's walls is bare and the walls themselves do not look like they could survive a sustained onslaught.

And the fort gate. Unlike Fort St George, with its multiple gates, the Sadras Fort has only one, on the landward side. It is quite easily accessed from the road; the two cannons at the gate remind you it was once a much coveted spot, which moved from Dutch hands to the British in the early 19th century and remained with them until 1947. Today, there are no tourists here. The ASI does a fair job of keeping it the way it is. It is likely that the bulk of the visitors to this fort would be folks who come to the nearby Madras Atomic Power Station, who look up to the two bastions on the seaward side and take the effort to explore the other side!

 

Newness!

Have you been to Chennai recently? If you haven't, then you may not know about the changes around the Chennai Central Station. The Central Square of Chennai, which is supposed to come up around the station, has started showing signs of progress. Some buildings near the station - Victoria Public Hall and Ripon Building - have had space in front of them cleared and you can get a far better sense of the grandeur of these buildings than you could earlier. 

There is still a lot of work going on around the place. The Chennai Metro still has a lot of digging and shaping to do. There is talk of a massive underground car park. The Central Square of Chennai, when it is complete, would have other buildings (the Southern Railway Headquarters, the Moore Market Complex, the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and of course, the Chennai Central Station itself) contained in its 8-acre spread. There will be other heritage buildings - or, as in the case of the Ramaswamy Mudeliar Choultry, just a vestige marking the spot - around this square. 

It would take a few years to be complete, but I hope all of this will not only provide open space for the people to chill (there are quite a few doing so these days anyway) but will also bring back the Victoria Public Hall as a performance space. From the outside, it looks much better than I remember it anytime over the past 15 years; but the inside is still very crumbly. One looks forward to taking in a show, or a lecture, at this hall before... well, 2028? 

 

History house

There is a house next to the Parthasarathy Temple at Triplicane which has, by a rough estimate, about 500,000 people pass through it on an annual basis. Actually, most of them go through the front room of the house during the ther (chariot) festival at the temple, because the idol of the deity is taken through this house in to the chariot. While it was once a thatch roof, the front of the house is now properly covered with a concrete roof, thus protecting the devotees much better than before.

This house has not only been associated with religion, but also with the fervour of the freedom struggle. It pre-dates the formation of the Indian National Congress; the house was built in 1877, 8 years before the Congress was founded. The house was built by Thirumalacharya, a descendant of one of the Pradhans of the Mysore Wodeyars. Thirumalacharya was a vakil and probably in that capacity had become close to the Nawab of the Carnatic. The Nawab gifted a set of six carved pillars that even today frame the main corridor of this house.

Thirumalacharya's son was a fan of the Buddha and at his insistence, the house was named Gautamashrama. This plaque in the covered front room of the house is a much later addition, dating to 1984. It proudly proclaims that this is a 'hallowed house', having hosted luminaries like Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bipin Chandra Pal, as also many others who lived closer to Madras, such as V.O.Chidambaram Pillai, Subramaniam Siva and Subramania Bharati who lived but a few streets away,  Sadly, this house is emptied of its good folk - the current generation has mostly moved away from Triplicane - and may soon be just a page in the book of history!

Eight elephants

This wall, with bas-reliefs of truncated-tusked elephants, is an enduring image of the Theosophical Society's headquarters at Adyar. The elephant seems to be a recurring theme with the TS, at least of late. In their newsletter of December 2015, the TS takes inspiration from the elephant to be "strong and patient at the same time", for the elephant is thoughtful and relies on its patience to accomplish what it needs. That the elephant is long-lived, and a herd animal is a bonus, probably meant to invoke the legacy of the Theosophists. 

It is interesting that when the TS decided to launch its fund-raising drive, for the renovation of the buildings within the headquarters, they named the main renovation site "The Elephants". If you would like to contribute to the cause, you need to head over here!

Just because

As far as I can make out, this marriage hall was renamed only after 2014; before that, it was called the Hema Malini Kalyana Mantapam. I am not sure if the "dream girl" had anything to do with the property, but chances that she did are pretty high. The original owner of the property was Justice Somayya, who had built his bungalow on Lloyds Road. After his time, the bungalow became the place for conducting dream weddings. 

And this post comes up because we are going to this hall for a wedding reception tomorrow. Even if it has been a few years after the name changed to SVR Mantapam, map locations continue to refer to it as "formerly Hema Malini Mantapam"!

Chariot at rest

We have read of the Parthasarathy Temple earlier, with its tower in the distance, or about its chariot festival. And we also got to see the chariot's wheels up close. 

So here is the chariot itself, decked out with the thombais and the thoranams, the final touches being put in place by the priests.

I've always felt that, much more than for any chariot festival of other temples, the one at the Triplicane must be special. After all, the deity is Himself a chairoteer, right?

Loving life

Once again, it is "Theme Day" for the City Daily Photo gang, and this month's theme is "Loving life". 

Mountains, or beaches? I'm greedy enough to want both, but it is rather difficult to find the former within Chennai. The beaches, on the other hand, are a favourite spot for Chennai's citizens. The only thing that could be more fun than doing cartwheels on the beach is to end those with a dive into the water.

Just that over the past couple of weeks, with the jallikattu protests and the oil spill, the beach has had a jolt; but it will be back, like it always has!

Going down, going up

Subway: It was originally a way for pedestrians to get across to the other side of the road, but is now the term for any passage that goes below another. 

The Americans prefer to use underpass - their 'subway' being either the underground train systems, or the sandwich chain!

Onward

A stride that is familiar around the world. 

It is the 68th anniversary of his passing away, a "Martyrs' Day". I believe India has several of those - honouring the many who gave their lives to the cause of India's freedom. 

Part of the ceremonies on this day was to have the entire country pause for two minutes at 11 am, in memory of this man, and to the cause he served. I am not sure how many even remembered the significance of this date!

Multi-religious

Just outside the gate of the erstwhile Madras Mint - now the Government Press - is this shrine of sorts. The autorickshaw drivers from the stand nearby must be the ones taking care of it. Fresh flowers,  an awning to keep the rain out... and maybe a box for collecting the donations. If you click on the picture you will see that the iconography covers Christian, Muslim and Hindu symbols. 

Such syncretism is much required in these times... maybe the clock under the awning could be synchronised as well!

Palace of sorts

Quick, tell me the name of any royal dynasty that had its seat in Madras? You may find it difficult, and that is all right, because Madras was never a royal capital. But with its importance as the seat of administration during the British era, there were several royals who picked up property in the city and maintained a kind of 'camp-palace' here. There was also the Nawab of Arcot, who had moved entirely to Madras, but by that time, he was tightly controlled by the British, so he could never be counted as having ruled Madras. 

The Nawab's residence was however the one that was called a 'Palace' - the Chepauk Palace, with its Khalsa Mahal and Humayun Mahal. The other royal residences went by more prosaic names, like Cochin House. The Travancore royals stayed at Ramalayam in Adyar - though it was called the Travancore Palace, I don't think that name was ever used formally.

But the only Palace Road that existed in Madras was in Santhome. That was thanks to the camp residence of the Wodeyars of Mysore. In keeping with their allegiance to Chamundi Devi, this residence was known as Chamundeswari Bagh. It wasn't very grand, from what I understand, and yet, the road leading to it came to be called the Palace Road. Today, Chamundeswari Bagh houses the Russian Consulate, having passed through the hands of AMM Murugappa Chettiar, who acquired it from the Wodeyars along the way. Palace Road has subsequently become Papanasam Sivan Salai - and there's a story in its own right there!

Recharged

The rains have been quite patchy this year; cyclone Vardah was an anomaly, one that gave the city more wind than water. The threat of the city going dry within a few weeks, if not days, appears very real. There was a bit of cloud today, and promise of showers over the weekend. If that happens, it would be a Godsend.

You might take a look at the Kapaleeswarar temple tank and wonder what the fuss is all about. If there is so much water here, the ground water levels must be pretty good - that sounds logical. But this tank has been nurtured carefully - in the early 2000s, when rainwater harvesting was made mandatory, the tank was re-done with a little bit of thought. The normally sandy bed of the tank was laid over with a foot-and-a-half of clayey soil, which has helped in retaining the water much better.

If you click on the picture and blow it up, you will notice that the lower steps of the mandapam are bare. We can probably breath a bit easier when they get covered up with water!

Republic day

Sixty-seven years ago, it was on this day that India formally declared itself to be a republic, with the constitution that had been adopted exactly two months before coming into force. The choice of this date is significant; between 1930, when the Indian National Congress 'officially' promulgated India's independence and 1947, when the country was actually granted independence (and Dominion status), January 26 was celebrated as Purna Swaraj Divas. With the Constitution of India coming into effect in 1950, the monarch of Britain ceased to be the Head of State and that power transferred to the President of India. That structure is replicated in each state of the Union of India. Part VI of the Constitution deals with the States, with Article 153 creating the position of Governor and Article 154 invests in him the executive power of the State, with a Council of Ministers to "aid and advise" the Governor. The position is something of an anomaly in that the people of the state have little say in who their Governor should be; a person is appointed to hold that post at the pleasure of the President of India. 

Tamil Nadu has been without a full-time Governor since August 31, 2016; the Governor of Maharashtra holds this position as an additional charge. It is not the first time this has happened, but on both the earlier occasions, it was the Governor of Andhra Pradesh who also played the role of Tamil Nadu's Governor. The first such was when Krishan Kant took charge for 55 days and the next was C. Rangarajan, who had a longer stint of six-and-a-half months. On neither occasion, however, did Tamil Nadu have to deviate from the practice of the Governor taking the salute at the State's Republic Day parade - it came very close to that in 1997, but Krishan Kant handed over charge to Fatima Beevi on January 25, ensuring that protocol was intact. This year has been the first time in Tamil Nadu that the Chief Minister takes the salute. 

What does all this have to do with the picture for the day? Not much, really. Except that I had seen two former Governors of West Bengal at The Hindu's LitForLife a few days ago; that got me thinking about why there has been such tardiness at finding a Governor for Tamil Nadu. Not that I have any answers for it, of course!

One way to enter

Some of the street names in the city sound downright ridiculous. Why would there be a Lake View Road in West Mambalam, or a Tank Bund Road in Nungambakkam, when there is no sight of any waterbody from either of these streets? Ah, you will say, but there was one, once. And you are correct. The Long Tank was filled in during the early years of the 20th century. In fact, some remnants of it existed until the 1960s (if not into the 1970s), so that is somewhat recent memory. 

But what about taxes on walls or gates for elephants? The story of the wall is quite easily told. Madras - which in the latter half of the 18th century meant the expanse to the north and a bit to the west of Fort St George - was coveted by forces who actively hassled the British, chief of who were the French, and Tipu Sultan of Mysore. To provide a measure of protection to the city, the British decided to build a wall around the city. The northern sector went off well enough, but the Company's plan to levy a tax on the citizens to pay for the western stretch ran into opposition and so the wall remained unfinished on that side. 

It is all very well to build a wall to try and keep people out, but there will always be a need to get in, too. Madras had such needs at seven places; one such, along the western wall, was called Elephant Gate. It is tempting to assume that this was a grand entrance through which caparisoned pachyderms lumbered in procession into the city, walking down the Elephant Gate Road; and that was what I had done. But Love's "Vestiges of Old Madras" indicates that this gate led to an Elephant Garden - now, what could that have been for?

Royal college

Imagine it is sometime in the first decade of the 20th century. You are in your newly acquired motor-car (let us say it is registered as MC-2), driving eastward on the Edward Elliot's Road, taking the left turn at the Marina (the name Kamarajar Salai is a few decades away) on your way to the Fort St George. On your right, the lovely Bay of Bengal bringing back memories of Palermo; on the left - well, there is not much to see on the left. On the turn is the house that was built many years ago by Col. Francis Capper - and now a hotel owned by a native, who calls it Capper's House; after that, a few more houses - Beach House, belonging to Justice S. Subramania Iyer, Pentland House, Stone House and Jeypore House - before you catch sight of the Chepauk Palace.

Fast forward to the mid-1920s. You can still catch glimpses of those houses, but you are surprised to learn they are no longer residences. You are told that in 1914, the Government had taken over Capper's House to establish the city's first college for ladies - the Women's College - guided by the Founder-Principal Miss Dorothy de la Hey, admitting 37 ladies in its first batch which began in July 1914. Miss de la Hey, in the early days of her tenure (which lasted until 1936) ensured the college would have enough space for expansion by acquiring all the neighbouring houses - it would have helped that the college had taken on the name of Queen Mary in 1917.

Fast forward to the first years of the 21st century. The State Government has declared that the Queen Mary's College is to be relocated, the buildings demolished, and a new Secretariat complex is to be built there. Mass protests from Chennai's citizens and alumni of the QMC ensure that the Government backtracks. Much later, the buildings are accorded heritage status - but not before most of them have been degraded so badly that they are unsafe for occupation. Capper's House had actually crumbled. The new building that came up to replace it was named Kalaingar Maligai, now shortened as Kalai Maligai. There was some attempt to have elements of the colonial bungalow replicated in the design of the new building, but I am sure the dome on that building was inspired by a Buddhist stupa rather than Queen Mary's tiara!

Room for worship

When the British - Andrew Cogan and Francis Day - set up the 'factory' on the site where Fort St George stands today, catechisms and prayer books were very far from their thoughts. The Portuguese merchants, further south near Mylapore, already had their San Thome. When some of those merchants moved to the new settlement, they needed a place for their worship. The British allowed them to build their own church, St Andrew's, which has disappeared over the decades. 

Later, the British built their own church, St. Mary's, which continues to be in use today as the 'oldest Anglican church east of the Suez'. There are records of a Church Street, which is supposed to run from just outside St. Mary's to the fort's southern glacis. Maybe that was the road taken by the residents in the fort - the merchants and their families - to access the church. 

Most of the buildings on Church Street are in disrepair today. But among the ones that still stand, is this one with a sign over the door saying "St Marys Church Room"!

Bird unseen

I have this old chestnut for the day of the Chennai Bird Race, when I go back to give in my log sheet to the volunteers manning the desks. I tell them that my team saw a few ostriches, and they start, because they haven't heard of the Post Graduate Research Institute in Animal Sciences at Kattupakkam, about 17 km from Tambaram. 

This year, I did not use that, mainly because my team did not see any of these ostriches. We did go to the PGRIAS, but we were intent on improving our bird count and so did not spend any time going over to watch the ostriches at their research area. Of course, the Bird Races do not accept any sighting of captive birds, so the ostriches were never going to add any heft to the count.

So, the picture here is from a few weeks ago. Without spending time on the ostriches, our team managed to top the 100-species mark for the first time this year!