Which came first — Madras or Chennai?

Like most others within the metropolis, I had a really obscure concept of the chronology of the names Madras and Chennai, and this yr, throughout August decided that I might get a transparent grip on the sequence during which they had been first talked about. On the finish of it, I need to say I’m older, and wiser. And so, right here goes.

Madraspatnam is the title that first seems. That is in Venkatadri Nayak’s land grant of 1639. The English translation of this doc, reproduced in H.D. Love’s Vestiges of Previous Madras, information the arrival of the British at “our port of Medraspatam,” thereby indicating that there was a village/settlement of that title predating 1639 and what was extra, it was a port. Patnam itself is a suffix used just for seaside cities anyway.

In 1645, the grant for a similar land was obtained from the ruler – Raja Sriranga Raya who had his capital at Chandragiri and whose consultant the Nayak actually was. This claims the British have arrived at “Zera Renga Rayapatam, my towne” and there constructed a fort. This appears to suggest that alongside Madraspatnam, a brand new fort was constructed (Fort St. George), which the poor deluded Raja appears to have imagined was named after him. As well as, the grant assigns to the British the rents of the bottom concerning the village of Madraspatam and as well as a spot known as the Jackal’s Floor which has been later translated as Narimedu and which title has been assigned to land the place the Normal Hospital and the previous MMC campus stand.

To this point, there isn’t any point out of Chennapatnam. H.D. Love surmises that this was the title of the land on which Fort St. George got here to be constructed. We do know that Madras was to the north of this, and it was in 1673 outlined as “the Indian city with flat homes,” which means the Previous Black City that stood to the north of the Fort. To this point so good – Chennapatnam was the fort, and Madraspatnam the village to its north.

The confusion begins with 1646 when the gunpowder maker Nagabattan makes a donation to the Chennakesava Perumal Temple, which he says is in Chennapattanam. The temple was in Previous Black City, north of the Fort, the place the Excessive Court docket now stands. A subsequent donation, in 1648, by Beri Thimmappa, the Dubash additionally has it that the temple was in Chennapattanam. He ought to have recognized, for it was he who constructed it.

By 1672, a contemporary grant was wanted, this time from the brand new energy, specifically Golconda.

Neknam Khan’s grant was on condition that yr and it clearly demarcated the “Fort and City of Chinapatam” and distinguished it from the “Place known as Madrassapatam”. We are able to see that even right here, the Fort was thought of to be in Chennapatnam, with now Black City added to it.

In 1802 C.V. Boria, the epigraphist to Col. Colin Mackenzie unearthed a Maratha manuscript that stood most of the early theories on their head. As per this, the city had 4 distinct components – Madras Coopom on which the British constructed their fort, Chennaik Coopom on which stand the villages of Muthialpet and Pagdalpet (New Black or George City), Arkoopom, mentioned to be the place the Cooum meets the ocean and Maleput, later surmised to be close to Salt Cotaurs.

Briefly, by 1802, a Marathi manuscript reversed historical past. The fort grew to become Madras and the city Chennai. And that is nonetheless faithfully trotted out — Madras was English whereas Chennai grew to become Tamil (it might have effectively been Telugu) and it grew to become a handy purpose to rename town.

V. Sriram is a author and historian