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Please cite this Article as : , : Indian Streams ResearchJournal (Aug. ; 2012)

K.MURUGIAH Historians' Views On The Origin Of Madras

Volume 2, Issue. 7, Aug 2012

Indian Streams Research Journal

Madras- 372 Years Old

Fort St. George was constructed in 1639 at Madras for the purpose of trading settlement on the eastern coast

of Southern part of India by the English East India Company.1 This city has only a little over 372 years oldhistorical background. But the inner parts of the city are as old as civilization itself while other places are asold as the history of Tamil Nadu. It was once a part of the ancient kingdom of Thondaimandalam and afterwhich it was ruled by the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas and the Vijayanagar Empire. Madras originallyconsisted of several small villages and temple towns which slowly united by the administrators. Now itformed as capital of the State of Tamil Nadu. The city has four terminals like railway, airway, and roadwayand sea route. It located 2184 railway kms from North of New Delhi. It is situated on the banks of riverCoovam.

Mysterious Origin

The origin of the name Madras is mystery. The historians narrate their own interpretation. Theremarkable document handed over by Damarala Venkatappa to Francis Day conveying to English EastIndia Company and Government of British a piece of land lying between two rivers Coovam and Egmore.The sea on the east making it a narrow peninsula contains both the names Madaraspatnam andChennapatnam.2 It records when Sriranga Raya, ascended the Vijayanagar throne in 1642, he dismissedDamarala Venkatappa and issued a new grant to the East India Company. This is the first Royal Grant inNovember 1645. That grant refers to Madras as Sriranga Rayapatnam From the time of the first settlementof East India Company (1639 1640), the city named in the official documents mentioned Madras inEnglish and Chennai in Tamil.2 A kuppam called Madarasanpatnam and a fort possibly called

Madraspatnam. The Indian settlement in this area called Chennapatnam and this name being found in therecords as early as 1646.

Two PatnamsThe study of records relating to English settlement in Coromandel Coast reveals that at the time of

Francis Day's arrival in this area there were two patnams like Chennapatnam and Madraspatnam. Pattinamor patnam is a common Tamil suffix to names of towns located on the seashore. This tradition has beenidentified from the Sangam Age. For instance, Kaveripoompattinam was the ancient port and capital city of

Abstract:

The name of India is originated from the river name Indus. India has large number ofcities like Chennai, Kolkatta, Mumbai and Delhi. Madras is the pioneering settlementsof British in India. It was the first city established by the East India Company and capitalof southern part of India. So that Madras may rightly to be called the Athens of India in

Modern time and Tamil nadu is called as 'The Greece of South East Asia'. It is the fourthlargest metropolitan city in India today.

ISSN:-2230-7850

Historians' Views On The Origin Of Madras

K.MURUGIAH

Associate Professor of HistoryManonmaniam Sundaranar University

Tirunelveli-627 012

Available online at www.isrj.net

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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the ancient Cholas.3 Similarly, Sadras, a Dutch settlement, near Madras is a shortened name ofSathurangapatnam.4

Father Name of Chennappa?Besides Damarala brothers requested the English to name the town that they had to develop on the

newly acquired territory to be named after their father Chennappa. This information was generally rejectedamong the scholars due to absence of such matter in the official records of English. The founding fathers ofFort St.George none of ever made a statement substantiating the consideration.

Dr. S. Krishnaswamy AiyangarDr. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar mentions that Aiyappa was brother of Venkatappa, built a town

Chennapatanam in the name of his father. The intention was to prevent wars of the two foreign settlementssuch as Dutch and Portuguese settlements famously known as Pralaya Kaveri and the other settlement in

Mylapore. To prevent these two foreign enclaves from fighting as they were constantly at war,5Chennapattinam was established to the safeguards.6

Bundla Ramaswami Naidu

Bundla Ramaswami Naidu's Memoir on the Internal Revenue System of the Madras Presidencystated that his ancestor Berri Timappa functioned as an intermediary in securing the grant of territory madeto Francis Day. The chosen place for the fort happened to be a banana garden belonging to an imaginaryChristian fisherman Madarasen of fisherman's koopam. Another conjecture is that the name of Madras hasbeen derived from a Portuguese family who lived in San Thome. When the foundations of new chapel of St.Lazarus at Mylapore were laid was they excavated a fine tombstone bearing a Portuguese inscription. Itlighted upon the English rendering of the inscription runs as follows:

This is the grave of Manuel Madra and of his mother, Son of Vincente Madra and of LuckyBrague. They built this Church at their own expense in the year 1637.

The essence of reading of the inscription by monsignor Teixeire is given here under 7 a forcefulrich Portuguese family by name Madra lived in San Thome ,the present Assumption Church and they built aCathedral at their own cost. It is deduced that the locality must have taken their name as per the Indiancustom.8

N.S. Ramaswami

According to N.S. Ramaswami, it is unlikely that a Portuguese family living four miles away fromMadraspatnam could have bestowed its name on the village. The link is based on similarity of names in avery unsound basis.9

S. MuthaiahS. Muthaiah describes that there was an information at San Thome. It was Cosmo Lourenco who is

restricted militia in Fort St. George in 1681. He clearly explained the view that the name Madras might havebeen derived from that of his distinguished family of the time.10

C.S. SrinivasachariC.S. Srinivasachari believes that it is more probable that it had its origin from the name

Makhraskuppam. The name had been differently spelt in old correspondences as Madras Patnam, MadraPatnam and Madraza Patnam.11

Research Scholars

Some research scholars mentioned that the name Madras originated from the Persian Madrasawhich means a college. Since there was a Muslim settlement in the neighbourhood of Fort St. George like inparticular at Triplicane and Royapettah zone. The capability of a Muslim educational institution beingestablished near the land where Francis Day set his foot is not ruled out. Charles Lockyer in his book,

Account of the Trade in India mentioned about the existence of a College of a Fort St.George in theEighteenth Century which was situated in the Governor's house. The salient feature of which was a domedMuslim style of Architecture. A book written in the beginning of the Eighteenth Century cannot beconsidered as authentic evidence to prove that the name Madras was derived from Madarasa. This text canbe discarded totally since it lacked historical credibility.

The study of records exposes that the Madresa was not the Governor's residence but a residencefor the company's junior civil servants. Finally N.S. Ramaswami concluded that Madrasa, a Christian Fortin Vijayanagar times is a chronological impossibility.12

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Anandaranaga Vijaya Champu- A Sanskrit WorkThe Anandaranaga Vijaya Champu, a Sanskrit biography of both Anandaranga Pillai and his

father, Thiruvenkadam Pillai celebrated life profile of French-India advocates that the original name ofChennapatnam was Chennakasavapura. It derived from the name of that the presiding deity of the Templeof Chennakesava Perumal.

To conclude, the English merchants sought the consent and permission of Damarala family toform their establishment under their protection. The Poligar gave four villages to them. The first village wasMadraskoopam, when they built a fort. The other three villages were Chennaikooppam, Arkooppam andMaleput.13 The documentary evidence of Chennapatnam and Madraspatnam were already in existenceeven before Francis Day arrived on the area of activity cannot be proved wrong. The cowl that the Nayakoffered to Francis Day in 1639 makes specific mention of the Port of Madraspatnam. From the aboveevidences, it could be concluded that so many epistolary are proved the Madraspatam came into being priorto the landing of the English on the East Coastal region.

End Notes1. H.C., The Brief Survey of Indian History, Madras, 1933, p. 232.2. N.S.Ramaswami, The Founding of Madras, Madras, 1977, p. 46.3. S. Muthaiah, Madras Rediscovered, Chennai, 2008, p. 4.4. K.Rajayyan, Tamilnadu A Real History, Trivandrum, 2005, p.47.5. H.D.Love, Vestiges of Old Madras 1600 -1800, Vol. I, New Delhi, 1996, p.2786. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History, Madras, 1924, p. 21.7. P.Rajaraman, Chennai Through the Ages, Chennai, 1997, p. 51.8. R. Krishna Rao Bhonsle, Origin of the Word, Madras, The Madras TercentenaryCommemoration Volume, Madras, 1939, pp. 35 36.9. N.S. Ramaswami, op.ci t. , p . 52.10. S. Muthaiah, Madrs Rediscovered, Madras, 2008, p.4.11. C.S.Srinvasachari, History of the City of Madras, Madras, 1939, p.44.12. N.S.Ramaswami, op.cit., pp. 40- 41.13. Ibid., pp. 49- 50.

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Indian Streams Researc h Journal Volume 2 Issue 7 Aug 2012

Historians' Views On The Origin Of Madras