Madras origins

Madras, the city where I was born is now known as Chennai. Modern Chennai is a vast metropolis today but some 400 years back it was defined by a fort, set up by small time traders from an insignificant island. Fort St George was this fort, established in 1639 by the British East India company. The land of India was then a vast empire not divided into Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka and as one vast empire ruled by the Mughal emperor Shahjahan of the Taj Mahal fame and several powerful sultanates and Rajah’s in areas where Mughal control was inaccessible. This vast empire was the richest in the world by far, cornering more than 25% of the world’s GDP by some accounts.

Imagine a small country, like modern Sri Lanka, establishing early trade relations with US and Canada today and eventually ending up taking over the whole country. That in a nutshell is what happened to this vast country now called India starting with the late 1600s. 1639 was precisely when the English East India company belonging to a small island off Europe, established their early trade by setting up Fort St George. The Dutch and the Portuguese had been in India long before as merchants on the east and west coast of India dating back to the days of Vasco |Da Gama some 150 years before this time.

The strip of land that this East India company bought from the Raja of Chandragiri was just four square miles( miles by 1 mile). Chandragiri was close to what we now know as Tirupati, some 60 miles northwest of modern Chennai. Just south of this strip, the land was in the hands of their rivals, still owned by the Portuguese. The Portugese had established their Church around the presumed tomb of Thomas the Apostle. This town was San Thome. Adjacent to San Thome was land that was known since before common era, when the famous poet Thiruvalluvar was a resident of Mylapore.

Infact the Portuguese poets refer to this “Meliapor ” as being adjacent to San Thome.

So it is with this background that we find the beginnings of modern Madras with Francis Day and Andrew Cogan working with the Indian merchants Thimmappa and Nagabattan to establish and build Fort St George. The Indian merchants were quite powerful in those days and many could speak multiple languages. Such multilinguists were called Dubash(Do Basha – two languages) and that term stuck as Indians who were middlemen between the Europeans and the Mughals/Rajas/Sultans.

The Raja of Chandragiri, who sold the land for Fort St George to the East India Company was soon disposed to Mysore by the Sultan of Golconda. The Indian merchants in those days were as savvy as modern tech titans and aligned with the right powers at the right time. These merchants helped the East India Company secure the land adjacent to Mylapore from the Sultan of Golconda who held sway all over the south at that time. This new land secured near Mylapore was Triplicane. Records indicate that the East India Company proceeded to populate this land with several Muslims initially though the reason is not very clear. While the fort itself was the center for traders, the adjacent areas north and northwest housed the people who took care of the daily needs of the residents of the fort like washing, laundry etc. This area is now known as Washermanpet. 

By this time the distant Mughal empire of Shahjahan had woken up to the need to expand their power further south and with a more belligerent Aurangazeeb, the Sultan of Golconda finally fell to the Mughals around 1687. 

Again the Indian merchants with their Brahmin spies were steps ahead. Chinna Venkatadri who was a leading merchant had rented San Thome from the Golconda Governer just prior to the demise of Golconda.

Late in 1687, Elihu Yale, who would eventually give his name to Yale University, established the Madras corporation, the first city body to setup in India. 

The Marathas, under Sivaji were quite formidable, and to the good fortunes of the Madras merchants and the East India company, had passed by Madras and took over the areas near Thanjavur. The British and the Madras Mechants had worked out ties with the Marathas to establish trading rights on lands in what is now known as Cuddalore and Parangipettai.

Six years later, Yale’s successor would secure authorization by pleading with the court of Aurangazeb to provide a favorable firman to grant the company the villages of Tondiarpet, Purasawalkam and Egmore. 

Thus the beginnings of Madras were being formed between Fort St George, Tondiarpet, Purasawalkam, Egmore, San Thome, Mylapore and Triplicane.